The Path of Giants

a second part to Endell’s plan.”
“Valinox’s plan,” I corrected her.
“He was here?” Hadley asked, seemingly unsurprised to hear us speak of a demigod.
“What do you know about him?” Kataleya asked.
But I interrupted, “We should be leaving if we hope to make it to the castle before nightfall.”
Kataleya nodded. “That’s true. We can speak when our horses need to rest. Wait upstairs, witch. I want to talk to Jon alone.”
“Lady?” asked one of the guards.
“The three of us will be leaving,” she informed them. “The witch will be in our custody. You all will stay here and protect my mother.”
They nodded and started off. One took Hadley by her arm rather roughly. “Come on.” He still seemed upset about what she had done. I figured Kataleya was as well, even if she had accepted it for now.
Hell, even I was still angry. I had invited her here. There had to have been a better way for her to obtain the essence without betraying my trust.
As soon as they were up the stairs, Kataleya groaned as if in pain. She nursed her right hand as she offered it to me.
“Can you heal it?” she asked. “I struck her hard. She must be hurting worse than I am, but god above does it ache.”
I hadn’t noticed until then that her hand was red and swollen. She clearly didn’t know how to throw a proper strike.
I let my mana course through her to look for damage. She would probably heal in a couple of days on her own, as it was nothing major, but I was still surprised how much damage she had managed to do to her hands and wrists when Hadley hadn’t even attacked back. It made me nervous to think about Kataleya fighting beside me in the future.
“Why the face?” Kataleya asked.
“You are strong…mentally, but we are going to have to toughen you up physically.”
She rolled her eyes. “Forgive me if I’ve never had to strike someone before.”
“I can’t imagine what would’ve happened to you if you were really trying to hurt her.”
“I was trying to hurt her!”
I clicked my tongue and shook my head.
“Just heal me and get it over with. It’s going to be bad enough traveling with the witch without you teasing me.”
I healed her hand in a matter of seconds.
She winced a bit, then massaged her hand when it was done, though I was sure only phantom pain remained.
“Right?” she asked. “You do agree with me, don’t you? She is a nightmare that you have brought upon us! This proves it.”
“I’m still pretty sure she can help us.”
Kataleya sighed in frustration. “Jon, I have never known you to be so superficial. You have to look past her appearance.”
“I am,” I said defensively.
“At least admit that what she did was a terrible thing.”
Time would tell. It depended on how useful the essence proved to be, but Kataleya was hurting right now.
“It was terrible,” I said.
She shot me a mean look. “I know you’re trying to make me feel better by lying, but I am too pissed off at you to care. Why are you so protective of someone you just met? You know what, never mind.”
“Kat.”
She started to walk away. “I can’t even listen to you anymore!” she called without looking back.
“Because we need all the help we can get!” I said. “We’ve already lost our best enchanter, and I’ve seen how powerful curses can be. We need her!”
Kataleya ignored me as she left.
I had no choice but to take a breath and follow after her, though at a distance behind.

CHAPTER TEN
Hadley was to use one of Kataleya’s horses. I found out that she also had on clothing that belonged to Kataleya when Kataleya had snidely remarked that the horse she wanted back eventually, while the clothing she never wanted to see again.
“What happened to the horse you stole?” I asked Hadley as we were riding out of Livea.
“I had to sell it to eat.”
As soon as we left the walls of Livea, Kataleya pushed her horse to a quick pace. I followed suit, but Hadley’s didn’t keep up.
Eventually, her horse fell behind by quite a distance. I checked on her many times over my shoulder, slowing, while Kataleya just rode farther ahead.
Hadley was not a skilled rider. She seemed nervous, her horse veering off away from ours. Eventually she lost control completely and must’ve done something to startle the horse, because it started galloping at full speed.
Hadley zoomed past me with a shriek.
“What are you doing?” Kataleya yelled as she looked back.
But that’s when Hadley slipped off and fell to the ground.
“God above.” Kataleya took off after Hadley’s frightened horse, whistling to the animal. It wasn’t long before she got it under control.
I, meanwhile, went to check on Hadley. She appeared more embarrassed than anything else, her face red, though there was fresh blood coming from her nose. She touched it gingerly.
“Are you all right?” I asked.
“Yeah, I’m lucky.”
I figured I could heal her nose and any other part of her body she might’ve hurt just now, but I thought she deserved a little punishment for her actions earlier. It was just a bit of pain. I was sure she could handle it.
Kataleya was walking back toward us with both horses in tow. “Are you just pretending not to know how to ride a horse?”
“I wouldn’t do that.” Hadley didn’t bother dusting herself off as she walked over to accept her horse again.
“Didn’t you ride here all the way from Rohaer?” Kataleya asked.
“Yes, slowly. It was a long trip.”
“I’m not sure I believe you,” Kataleya said with a skeptical look.
“What don’t you believe?”
“How is it that you made it from Rohaer all the way to Lycast, but you show up at my home with your clothes barely held together and not a penny on you?”
“Because the purpose of each journey was very different. I wasn’t just trying to survive out here. I was looking for a new home, but it turns out that there isn’t