Chapter 105: Stranded, Part 2

Håkon jolted awake, stared out across sand and darkness. He drew a sharp breath that turned into a coughing fit, groaning in agony when the coughing jarred his ribs. Why weren't they healed? For that matter, why did his entire body feel as though he'd gone twenty rounds with a Titan?

He groaned as a hand landed heavy on his shoulder but was too weak and disoriented to protest when someone rolled him over so he lay on his back. "He's awake." The man talking was thin, scraggly, and smelled faintly of hellish magic, as if he spent a lot of time around someone who used it. The air smelled like the sea, made him ache, tears pricking at his eyes.

"Anything useful on him?" another voice asked, rough from too much smoking.

"Nah. Surprised the poor bastard made it, never mind actually managed to keep anything on him. Handsome fella, though, looks like a piskie."

Annoyance flared. Everyone called him that. Piskie. He wasn't a damned piskie, he was—