“Bria, be honest,” I said, “do you suspect anyone on your list is going to be easier to get to than this guy?”
“I have absolutely no idea,” she said.
“Educated guess,” I pushed.
She blew out a breath. “There is a reason the people we’ve discussed haven’t been snatched up. Danger is definitely one of those reasons, but I’m not sure any of the others would be this…calculated. I pictured some pretty intense scenarios, even for a giant, but I have to be honest, this guy has cemented himself as the king of this mountain, without question. Maybe Thane is right. The giant has the upper hand and he knows it. Everyone seems to agree that he’ll use it. This doesn’t look good for us. It’s a risk that we probably shouldn’t take without Kieran’s say-so.”
“Fat lot of good logic does you now,” Jack said, obviously pissed. “The guy likes to play with his food, and you’ve already climbed up onto his plate. He’s not just going to let you wander away now—you’re on his bloody doorstep.”
“Yeah.” I chewed my lip, stepped into the mouth of Death Alley, and squatted down, thinking. On the other side, the giant’s soul glowed and sparked, vibrant and alive. He hadn’t killed us yet, so that probably meant my crew had gotten one thing right. He liked to meet his prey. Maybe he even wanted a little sport—a momentary distraction from what had to be a boring existence.
I turned, looking at the view stretching out beyond Bria. It sure was beautiful up here. Breathtaking, really. The crystalline sky dusted a sparkling river far below. Green stretched out in a natural haven, lush and gorgeous. In the winter it would be blanketed in white, I knew. Cold and crisp. Silent as the grave.
But there had to be more to him than sitting up here, all alone, watching the world turn. Like Kieran, this giant had gotten revenge for past wrongs, but unlike Kieran, he didn’t have the loyalty and support of the Six. He didn’t have anyone to lean on. He’d been cut off, set adrift, with nothing but pain and sorrow to keep him company. Revenge was a shallow victory, I knew. I still felt it through Kieran.
This giant was hurting, he had to be. He was hurting, and he was misunderstood. My mother had taught me to help people who were suffering. Usually that translated into helping spirits, but now (hopefully) it would mean I helped a giant at the top of the world.
Otherwise, I was about to get a rock facial.
“Whelp. Let’s see if he’s ready for a chat. Bring up Chad and John, please,” I said to Thane, straightening up.
“Wait, wait, wait.” Thane reached in and grabbed my arm.
Normally I would punch him in the spirit box to make him let go, but he was still close to the entrance. I didn’t want him to startle backward and pitch off the mountain.
“Best let go, Thane,” I said softly, my tone holding a warning.
“Thane is just reacting to a situation none of us expected,” Bria said. “None of the survivors got close enough for a look inside, and I haven’t heard of any other non-Demigod giant with a setup like this. It’s…startling.”
Annoyance flared through me. “Bring up the zombies. You wanted me here, and I’m here. I might as well try to help somehow. There’s clearly no chance of us just wandering back, although it might’ve been wise to mention the bit about none of the survivors making it this far before we made the trek, huh? A little less faith in me would be wise going forward.”
Bria shrugged and signaled for Thane to pass the message along.
Shoes scraped against rock behind her. A strange sort of shuffle reverberated through the short tunnel. A scream tore through the air.
“Oops. There goes one of the cadavers,” Donovan called up. “Wasn’t one of the ones you wanted, though—”
Bria spun around. “Catch it with your magic! That’s a good body.”
“Oh.” Donovan paused. “Should I have? Too late now. Its head popped off on the landing. I’ll catch the next one.”
“Don’t worry about the cadavers,” Thane said, peering in at me with a frustrated expression. “Donovan, save your energy for those rocks. Lexi is going to need backup.”
Harding appeared by my side, standing in the open below the shelves of rocks lining both sides.
“Must be nice not to be corporeal at this moment,” I muttered as John and then Chad jerked and shuffled in, moving past Thane and Bria. Donovan had probably ignored Thane and lifted them around the others on the treacherous path.
“Let me take a look at the setup.” Chad shoved in around John, my being able to hear his spirit through the cadaver even though the body had no vocal cords. The space was a little larger in the short tunnel than it had been along that ledge.
I flattened against the wall to let Chad pass. An advisor to Valens in life, he was extremely adept at strategy and warfare. He stared up at the rock shelves, analyzing the setup.
“Get the Necromancer to use a rat on that mountain pass to see what lies ahead,” Chad said. “Let’s not engage here unless we have to. This is a death trap.”
“Death Alley, actually,” I mumbled before passing that along.
“Good idea,” Bria said, shaking her head. She unslung her backpack to grab the rats. “I’m off my game.”
“Do you know where he is?” John asked.
I watched Harding float up along the right side, looking at the first shelf of rocks. I pointed at the dark end of the alley.
“They’re all just sitting here,” Harding said, bending down to look at a rock’s base. “Nothing is holding them here.”
“Gravity is holding them there,” I said, and my voice ricocheted around the walls before spilling out of the open top and fading.
“Let me out of here, and I’ll go check it out,” John said, wiggling in his body.
I nodded, bent back the casings I’d fastened on his soul to keep him in the body, and ripped him out. He tumbled across the ground.
“Sorry,” I said before staring at that pool of darkness, wondering if the giant was lurking within, watching my every move. To him, it would look like I was talking to myself. Or the teetering corpses.
“What a strange life I lead,” I mused as John made his way across Death Alley, the perfect spy because he couldn’t be seen or heard by anyone but me.
“It could be stranger,” Bria said. “You could be a giant who sections himself off from society at the top of a mountain and eats his visitors.”
“Bria!” Thane hissed, his voice echoing around the walls. “He might be able to hear you.”
“He can definitely hear you,” John called from the darkness. “He’s got a cave back here, and he’s sitting in a Barcalounger watching and listening to all of you. You don’t have any secrets from this guy. Nice little setup, though. Homey. If you like that sorta thing. You’re sitting on his front stoop.”
The situation solidified in my mind. I cut off the murmuring behind me with a violent hand gesture and edged forward as Harding touched back down onto the ground. His smile had left his face and he stood in my way.
“Think this through, Alexis,” he said softly, his tone sending shivers of warning through me. “I cannot help you here. The man in that cave has been here a long time. He has killed many. You mean nothing to him, and while you can surely kill him, he’ll easily take you and all your friends with him. You’re the best of us. Don’t let today be the day you return to spirit.”