The valley shuddered under Liora's strides.
Kairo clung to her hand, the world lurching with every step. He tried not to look down—her palm alone was broad enough to cradle him like a child, and below that, jagged cliffs dropped into blackness.
Behind them, the horns blared again. Closer.
"Who are they?" Kairo shouted above the wind.
"Priests," Liora growled. "Hounds of the Time God. They can smell the mark on you."
Kairo's skin crawled. He glanced at his arm, where the sigil still burned faintly. "You mean this?!"
"Yes," she said, her teeth flashing as she ran. "That fire in your blood calls to them. To everything."
As if to prove her words, a burst of light exploded from the cliffs. Figures emerged—men in black and silver armor, faces hidden behind masks carved like hourglasses. Their spears glowed with runes, tips dripping sparks of blue flame.
The Hunters of Kronas.
One raised his weapon. The air screamed as a spear of light shot toward them.
Liora twisted, shielding Kairo with her massive arm. The spear struck her shoulder, and the valley lit up with a blinding flash. She roared, stumbling but not falling. Smoke curled from her stone-like skin, glowing cracks spreading across her arm.
"Are you—" Kairo started.
"Quiet!" she snapped. Her other hand reached to her back, pulling free a blade larger than Kairo's body—a fragment of black iron carved with runes. She swung it once, and the ground shook as boulders split apart.
The hunters didn't flinch. More spears of light flew, raining down like a storm.
"Hold tight!" Liora thundered.
She leapt.
For a heartbeat, Kairo felt weightless. The valley fell away beneath them, and the wind screamed in his ears. Then Liora landed on a ledge below, shattering stone, and sprinted into a tunnel carved into the cliffs.
Darkness swallowed them.
The hunters' light spears slammed into the tunnel entrance, sealing it with fire and rubble. But the echoes of their horns carried into the deep, a promise that they were not far behind.
Kairo's chest heaved. His hands shook as he clutched Liora's fingers for balance.
"That—" he gasped, "that was—"
"Only the beginning," Liora said grimly. She set him down at last, her glowing eyes fixed on the depths ahead.
Kairo's knees wobbled as he stood. "Where are we going?"
Liora's expression hardened. "Somewhere they cannot follow. The Grave of Giants."
Kairo swallowed. Somehow, he knew he wasn't going to like what he found there.
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⚡ End of Chapter 6.