Chapter 9

9

“ A castle in the sky,” Tenebris murmured, looking up at the storm clouds swirling above. The three of us crowded together on the last branch still visible beneath the multi-colored mist. “I wonder what it's like.”

I followed his gaze, narrowing my eyes while I attempted to see through the barrier. It was hard to believe an entire castle floated overhead. Built by giants, no less. “If I had to guess? I'd say big.”

“We'll never know if we don't break through this thing,” Calum stated, his casual tone undermined by the subtle twitch of his jaw. He was nervous, and—looking at the insignificant little bean resting in my palm—he had a right to be.

Was I truly going to risk not only my life, but the lives of my friends, on some supposedly magic bean? Would rescuing a stranger truly bring atonement if one of them could die? That wasn’t heroic, it was foolhardy.

My doubts must have shown on my face, because before I knew it, Tenebris was plucking the bean from my hand and chucking it into the crackling mass overhead.

“The fuck are you?—?”

The admonishment died on my lips when a bright light cut through the mist above us. I lifted a hand to shade my eyes, squinting against the blinding rays. “Is that…?”

“The sun,” Calum breathed, craning his neck to stare up through the sudden gap in the clouds. The curling tip of the beanstalk towered above us, the green of its leaves brilliant against the deep blue sky.

My jaw dropped. “It worked.”

“It worked,” Calum repeated, sounding as stunned as I felt.

“Now that you’ve both acknowledged that it did, in fact, work, do you think we can get moving?” Tenebris prompted. “’Cause we’re really freaking high, and I think the wind is starting to pick up.”

He made a good point. Grabbing onto the branch above us, I wordlessly hefted myself up into the gap. The air was thick and damp, with a fine mist from the surrounding clouds settling on my arms and dampening my cloak, but the bursts of colored lightning bouncing around me remained safely out of reach.

I ventured up another branch, then another. Magic hummed beneath my skin while tiny white lights floated free of the clouds and danced about my person. The farther I climbed, the brighter they glowed, and I would swear I heard someone whispering, although the words were too faint for me to make out. Shivering, I forced myself to keep climbing, until at last I breached the surface and saw it—the giant's castle.

Stone the color of sand rose up from the clouds, simple in design and yet awe-inspiring with its sheer size. The castle spiraled upward into a single, cylindrical tower, the entire thing wrapped in pale green vines and clumps of blue-and-white flowers.

I drew my daggers while I scanned the cloud-dusted landscape for signs of danger, but as far as I could see the castle was surrounded by open space. “Looks clear,” I called down to the boys, but I remained alert while I waited for them to climb up and join me. Calum drew his sword, his watchful eyes taking everything in. Tenebris, on the other hand, merely gaped, slack-jawed, at the castle. Clearing my throat, I looked pointedly from Calum’s sword to my daggers, and he flushed, fumbling to draw his borrowed knife from his belt.

“You know I’m more of a negotiations guy, right?” he said. “Physical combat isn’t my strong suit.”

I rolled my eyes. “I’m well aware. Just… stick close and pay attention. Hopefully you won’t need to use it.”

“Fingers crossed,” he muttered, following Calum and me as we made our way toward the looming castle. Marble steps rose up from the puffy clouds, framed on either side by twin pillars. Huge double doors made of thick, dark walnut waited at the top.

I glanced at Tenebris and Calum, feeling entirely too unsettled for my liking. While there was nothing overtly insidious about the place, my gut screamed to turn and run back the way we came.

“Should we knock?” Tenebris looked warily at the brass handles. “Or just… go right in?” He hesitated. “And is it just me, or did you guys expect the front doors to be, I don’t know, taller?”

I stretched up on my tiptoes and grabbed the handle nearest me before I could change my mind. “The giants weren’t actually giant ,” I explained, shoving my growing nerves down as far as I could manage. “They were just larger than your average forest dweller. The last known queen—Queen Alba—was supposedly one of the tallest giants on record with a height of almost fifteen feet.”

“Fifteen feet sounds pretty fucking giant to me,” Tenebris muttered, inching back from the door.

“Yeah well, the time for cold feet has passed, Ten-Ten”—I pulled the handle down—“’cause we’re going in.”

The door swung inward with surprising ease, opening into a marble foyer as wide as Redcap’s entire castle. Our footsteps echoed through the empty space, bouncing off the winding stairwell that wrapped around the edge of the circular room and spiraled higher and higher until it was too high to make out the actual end. Sunlight poured through the glass-domed ceiling, hundreds of feet above our heads, and dust motes drifted lazily in the bright beams. It was almost eerily quiet, with a chill in the air that smelled faintly of winter.

“Mari?” Tenebris’s voice hissed behind my ear.

“Hmm?” I traced the stairs with my gaze, noting the landings evenly spaced and each bearing a tall, arched door. Were the giants hidden away in one of those rooms, still alive after all these years? I frowned. We’d need to check them all, either way, until we found our mystery person. Figures they wouldn’t simply be here to greet us. Gods, there are a lot of rooms.

Tenebris tugged at my arm, his hushed voice growing insistent. “Mari, I don’t think we’re alone.” He pointed toward the mass of shadows obscuring the underside of the stairwell. My pulse stuttered. The moving shadows.

Wisps of black molded together, solidifying as they moved toward us, stretching up, up, up…

Oh, shit.

Not shadows. A giant.

A really fucking big giant.

Every inch of the monstrous creature was pitch black except for its eyes, which glowed bright green from deep within sunken sockets. Black shards rose from the creature’s forehead like stalagmites, forming a crown around its head, which tilted to the side while it studied us. My heart slammed against my ribcage, muscles tensing painfully as I stared up at it, immobile.

Maybe it’s friendly. If we take it slow…

The door slammed shut behind us, and the creature’s eyes widened before narrowing into menacing slits. The room shook as the creature took a heavy step forward, mouth twisting into a snarl that glinted with the threat of sharp white teeth.

“Change of plans,” I gasped, stumbling backward. “Run.”

The three of us rushed the front door, tripping over each other in our haste to wrench it open.

It didn’t budge.

Calum swore as the creature took another, thundering step closer. “Now what?”

“Now we—” I froze, a shout drawing my attention toward the staircase. Four levels up, a bearded man wearing brown pants rolled up to his knees and a loose, once-white tunic stood in the opening of one of the arched doorways, waving his arms as he called down to us, a mess of shaggy, blond hair falling around his face.

“In here! Quick!”

The creature roared, swiveling to face the new intruder. Tenebris and Calum looked my way, and I swallowed, forcing my voice not to shake. “I don’t really see any better options. I say we go for it.”

Tenebris blanched, eyeing the creature as it lumbered toward the man. “How are we going to get past it, though? It’s heading straight toward him.”

But no sooner had the words left his mouth, than the man began sprinting up the steps, leading the creature away from the door. I cringed when a blackened fist swung over the man’s head, but he dodged the boulder-like appendage with ease. Is this who Abuela sent us to rescue? This… mountain man? I tucked the thought away for later, bolting toward the staircase with Tenebris and Calum falling into place behind me. The creature whipped its head around at our approach, but turned back to the man when a rock-shaped projectile bounced off its cheek.

The resulting shriek rang in my ears while I skidded to a stop on the fourth-floor landing. Grabbing the doorknob, I breathed a sigh of relief when it turned, the door pushing inward. Holding it open, I waved Calum and Tenebris inside without looking—my gaze locked on the mountain man.

“You coming?” I shouted.

The noise distracted the giant, who seemed torn between swatting at the man and changing directions to go for me. In that brief moment of indecision, the man swung up onto the banister, leaped over the giant’s hand, and slid the rest of the way down until he came flying off onto the landing not even two feet in front of me.

His chest heaved with exertion, sweat trickling down his face into his beard, but it felt like I was the one struggling to breathe. Those eyes—I knew those eyes, with their pale green irises that darkened around the edges. And that tiny white scar just above his brow? I could tell an hour-long tale about its origins. As impossible as it seemed, up here in the clouds in a castle no one had set foot in for decades, I had come face-to-face with the man who tore my heart to shreds all those years ago…

Not his younger brother.

Not a distant, look-alike cousin.

Jack.

My Jack.