No Escape from Fate

10 Stone-Made Miracle

“And now what?” I ask, my heart about to punch a hole through my ribcage from the whole situation—and from having this man so unbearably close to me. “Can you kill them?”

“I can,” Kays replies, “but I won’t, for many reasons.”

I stare at the brunette without understanding.

“Well, first of all, there are too many of them. And while I’m dealing with one, there’s a decent chance another might reach us. I can’t defeat them all at once,” the mage explains, studying my face. “Second, killing them would release an enormous amount of free mountain energy and force. I can’t absorb that much, and it could be destructive for everything alive nearby—including you. Third, I simply don’t kill living or magical creatures without extremely dire necessity.”

“And right now isn’t that dire necessity?” I breathe, unable to tear my gaze away from his lips, which curl into a mocking smirk.

“No. We’re hidden. It’s not their fault we ended up in the path of their migration. Natural processes of this land. They’ll rage for a while, realize we’re not here, and move on.”

If only I had his calmness and cold logic. Outside our little refuge, a true stone apocalypse is unfolding—and he’s completely unfazed! Just stands there smirking at me while I’m on the verge of embarrassing myself from fear.

We stayed like that for about half an hour while those enormous creatures unleashed their fury outside.

I’ll admit it: having him this close began to affect me. His scent, his energy, that powerful aura and presence—they stirred every cell of my body. At first, I blamed everything on adrenaline and fear, but now something else was happening, something unexplained. I realized that he does affect me. Especially those light gray, mesmerizing eyes—like mirrors of a soul, like magnets. And the sensation of his trained, strong body pressed so close to mine added even more fluster.

Trying to hide at least a fraction of my awkwardness, I attempt to start a conversation.

“And who is this Laverna, the one who almost got us killed?”

At my question, the mage’s face instantly hardened, twisting into a mask of furious contempt.

“An old hag,” Kays spits angrily. “A powerful witch I have long-standing scores with. We can’t stand each other, and we try to finish one another off at any possible chance. I haven’t heard anything about her for years. I even hoped she’d croaked somewhere in her swamp— but no, the b***h is alive.”

“Is she… stronger than you?” I lift my eyes to the brunette, waiting for his answer.

“Under the conditions we were in—yes. She’s equal in power to our king.”

“And can Karadeylis kill her?”

“In theory, yes. It’s… extremely complicated,” the mage sighs. “Sending that witch to the afterlife isn’t exactly easy,” he adds with an ambiguous tone.

Suddenly, the rumble outside began to subside, and we heard only the heavy shifting of the giants—no more furious smashing or enraged stomping.

Scooting just a little and peeking out from our hiding place, we saw the gorts gathering together in one spot. There were three of them. They stood facing one another, motionless, as if waiting for something. I even thought they might have fallen asleep like that, but Kays didn’t share my opinion and kept me inside our rocky shelter.

“If this is what I think it is, we’re about to witness a very interesting process,” the brunette whispers hoarsely into my ear, sending shivers racing down my spine.

Suddenly, a loud rumble reached us—deep, echoing, and growing stronger by the second. When I leaned out again, my jaw nearly dropped all the way to the ground.

Another one was approaching the frozen gathering of gorts. And it wasn’t just a giant—it was an enormous colossus, easily the size of a nine-story building!

Each step it took made the earth quake violently, shaking everything on it. Pure terror crawled into my knees, making them tremble.

This true titan reached the smaller gorts, and they stirred, moving aside in different directions. Casting a brief glance around, the monster approached a tall, bare rock wall of the mountain and struck it with an earth-shattering blow. Then another. And blow after blow…

The rumble was unreal, and I silently thanked every god of this world and my own that the giant had chosen the opposite side of the mountain to pulverize— not the one we were hiding behind.

The blows didn’t stop. Stones, massive boulders, clouds of dust, and gravel kept breaking off the mountain face. This went on for about fifteen minutes, and I simply couldn’t understand what had enraged the gort so much that he decided to wage war on solid rock.

When he finally finished abusing the mountain, the titan stepped back, and the smaller gorts began gathering the scattered stones and boulders into one enormous pile.

“Now watch,” Kays’s voice slithered into my ear like a tempting serpent, making my heart flutter again. “Seeing what we’re about to see is incredibly rare— and considered a sign of good luck.”

Once most of the stones had been collected, the smaller gorts moved aside, while the colossal giant stepped closer. Pressing his enormous hands against the pile, he let out a strange grinding sound, and we saw a red, fiery glow.

From the titan’s head and body, through his arms, molten streams flowed—lava-like energy pouring directly into the gathered stones. It seeped into them, filling them, and within a few minutes, the shapeless mound… started to move.

The giant stepped back. And then something unbelievable began to happen with the stones he’d infused! They twitched, clattered, scraped, shifting and rearranging themselves until… they formed another gort.

This one was slightly smaller than the others, but still enormous— and I simply couldn’t believe my eyes.

“Incredible, isn’t it, Prepedollie?” the brunette murmured thoughtfully with a grin, watching me try to lift my jaw off the floor.

“It’s… something else entirely,” I breathed in astonishment— and for some reason, a warmth blossomed in my chest, a bright, joyful feeling, as if this wasn’t another stone monster coming into existence but a long-awaited child being born.

I smiled from ear to ear, unable to look away from the so-called newborn, surrounded by the other gorts. After standing together for a moment, all the giants turned and set off in the same direction, heading deeper into the mountains, climbing over cliffs and ridges as they went.

Waiting until they disappeared from sight, we left our shelter. Emotions were simply overflowing in me, not to mention that we were almost crushed into mince by those creatures.

“Kays, that was unforgettable!” I look enthusiastically at the smiling man. “It’s just some kind of miracle! I can’t believe it!”

“Yes, very few are given the chance to witness this process… and survive it,” the mage notes with a crooked smirk.

Whistling sharply and loudly, the mage turned around, and a few minutes later we saw Kays’s horse running toward him. Skillfully mounting, the guy reached out his hand to me.

The moment I placed my hand into the brunette’s hand, he pulled me up with one strong jerk and easily seated me in front of him on the horse. I didn’t even have time to understand anything, but in shock I acknowledged the sheer strength of this man. To do something like that with one hand and not even strain… you know… impressive!

We rode in silence. Kays was thinking hard about something, and I still couldn’t recover from the recent shocks.

“And where are the others? Did they abandon us?” I became curious, because we had already been going for more than an hour, and our group was nowhere in sight.

“They have instructions from me — in case of danger, to lead the unit far away and not wait for me, continuing along our planned route,” the mage answered calmly. “We’ll meet at the place of our overnight stay today.”

“And what if you needed help?” I’m surprised by such a decision, glancing back at the brunette — and burn myself on his intense gaze on me.

“If I can’t handle the problem that arises, then no one can,” the man smiles slightly. “There’s no point in the rest risking themselves.”

“And… aren’t you ever scared? Wasn’t there ever a moment when you felt desperately helpless at something?”

Kays suddenly lost his mockery and became serious and distant. He shifted his gaze from me to the monotonous road.

“There was one such case, a very, very long time ago,” he replies flatly, pressing his lips together from anger and swelling emotions. “Since then, I’m hardly afraid of anything. I used up all my fear. And it’s not that easy to kill me anyway, so you don’t need to worry about me so much,” he adds with his usual mockery, looking into my eyes again.

“You’re annoying,” I snort.

“Likewise.”