Stoneheart

by Cate Corvin

  I tried to stop, but the force of Gio and Sawyer’s arms around me propelled me forward. “We have to stop,” I said, a note of panic rising. “Her cover is gone, Kreslin knows she lied for me.”

  They slowed the tiniest bit, but not nearly enough to stop. We turned several corners, passing more guards who had been reduced to so much dust.

  “Angelique can handle herself,” Gio said in a hard voice, but consternation and unsureness crossed Damien’s face as he glanced back.

  “No, you don’t understand.” I almost jumped over one guard who’d been smeared down at least fifteen feet of the tunnel. My stomach flipped, knowing I was treading in gargoyle. “These aren’t regular gargoyles. Kreslin’s been hybridizing them.”

  This time, they did slow. It wasn’t a dead stop, but at least they were listening.

  “That’s what he was going to do with me.” A silent tear escaped my eye and ran down my cheek. “Not all Kyrillian Rubies are dead, Damien. There’s at least one more out there. And those elite guards he has? They have their original stonehearts meshed with another.”

  “That explains a whole fuckin’ lot,” Gio muttered. “It seemed unnatural the way everything just bounced off them. I thought it might’ve been some other tech.”

  “It’s not a technology any of us have seen before.” I dug my fingers into Sawyer’s waist, going tense when I saw the light of actual freedom at the end of the tunnel. Pipes were sticking out of the walls now, and I realized they’d taken a service access tunnel to find me. “He said it was the future, having gargoyles with multiple magical abilities. He thinks he’s the father of what’s basically a new race of gargoyles, and he’s a true believer.”

  “The most dangerous kind.” Sawyer’s lips were set in a flat line, and it was obvious he wanted to make a break for the exit and never look back, but I knew that in his heart he agreed. We couldn’t leave an innocent behind.

  “The point is, he knows Angelique is an informant now, and he’s got her in a room full of hybrids,” I said desperately. “I know you think she can handle herself, but against these guys… she’s going to die, Damien. We can’t leave her, or you’ll never see her again.”

  It seemed like a thousand years ago that I’d been jealous of Damien’s friendship with the beautiful Diamond, and yet here I was giving up my clean escape to ensure she made it out alive.

  “What sort of hybrids?” Damien asked, clearly weighing the options.

  “I think they’re mostly Topaz and Onyx,” I said, knowing I’d won. “But they also have secondary powers. You’re gonna need my help since I’m immune to them.”

  “You can’t go, Zar,” Sawyer interjected. “Your skin hasn’t solidified all the way yet.”

  I dug my heels into the ground and felt no pain. I was hard enough now. The tunnel had taken us nearly ten minutes to get through, even though they’d practically been running. “By the time we get back, I will be. I’m not leaving Angelique. She put her life on the line to save me, and I’m going to do the same damn thing for her.”

  I didn’t quite break away from Gio, the fear that a bullet could take me out still very alive in my gut. After having been powerless for days, I had a feeling that sensation wouldn’t go away anytime soon.

  Damien looked torn, agony on his face as he glanced at the open door. “We need to get you to safety, Zara. I couldn’t live with myself if anything happened to you on my watch.”

  “But Angelique is on your watch, too,” I said quietly. “You sent her in here, and she’s going to die because of that if we don’t go back for her. I can’t let that happen. Not after what she did for me.”

  Gio squared his shoulders, clearly willing to put up a fight, but Damien ran a hand through his hair and blew out a breath. “Okay. I’ll go back in. Gio, get her out of here. Sawyer… if I’m not back in an hour—”

  At that precise moment, a crackling sound echoed down the tunnel. Gio immediately ducked over me, wings spread, but then a voice cut through the static, and I realized it was an intercom system.

  The soft sound of weeping came through, followed by the last voice I wanted to hear.

  “Damien Viridios, thank you for joining us,” Kreslin said, sounding almost pleasant, but a thin thread of anger betrayed him. “I’ve got a lovely Diamond here. I believe she belongs to you?” Damien said nothing, straightening up as he glared at the intercom box above us. “You’ve really put a wrench in my plans, Emerald. Here’s the deal: you bring back my Ruby, and I won’t rip through this bitch’s chest and crumble her stoneheart into dust. Sound like a fair trade to you?”

  My own stoneheart pulsed in sympathy and I met Damien’s eye. I had no doubt in my mind that Kreslin wouldn’t just harvest her stoneheart to hybridize into another gargoyle. He’d crumble it into pieces, destroying Angelique and any memory of her out of sheer fury and retaliation.

  “Return her to me, you get your Diamond, and everyone walks free.” With that, the intercom clicked off, and we all looked at each other.

  One way or another, we weren’t leaving without Angelique. I may not be a cop anymore, but everything I’d learned and devoted myself to still existed in me. Never stand idly by. I’d promised that the day I was given my badge.

  I wasn’t about to break that promise now.

  The Night of the Incident

  I didn’t like Dad’s girlfriend. She was nice enough, but she was scary. I’d never seen a gargoyle up close before her, and she was so… perfect. Mom had been pretty, but Ms. Sharon was like a statue without a single wrinkle or flaw.

  She’d told me to call her Sharon, or Sherry, but I was sticking with Ms. Sharon. If I called her a nickname, she’d think we were friends. We were not. And we weren’t going to be, no matter how much Dad tried to make it happen. I was old enough now at sixteen to know that I didn’t have to like everyone, no matter what my father said.

  I was normally respectful, but after the conversation at dinner, I hadn’t been able to bite my tongue.

  “She can’t move in here, Dad!”

  “Zara! Lower your voice, young lady, you don’t yell at your father.”

  “I do when he’s being an idiot! You can’t let her move in here, Dad, this is our home. Mom would roll over in her grave.”

  “Allen, it’s fine, she’s clearly not ready for us to take that step.”

  “No, Sharon, her disrespect of you is not something that I’m going to tolerate. You’ve been nothing but kind to her and you don’t deserve her attitude.”

  “She’s a teenage girl, Allen—”

  “My age has nothing to do with it. I don’t know how you convinced my dad that you’re some saint, but you can’t just come in here and take my mom’s place.”

  “I would never try to do that, Zara, I just want to be a part of your lives on my own terms. No one can replace your mother.”

  “You’re right, especially not some damn pebble my dad is infatuated with.”

  “Zara Michelle Sterling, go to your room, now!”

  “Allen, please—”

  “No, Dad! This is my house, too, and I—”

  “Get out of my sight before I say something I’ll regret.”

  “But, Dad!”

  “I’ve never been more ashamed of you, and I won’t have that kind of talk in my house. Go, and don’t come back down here until you know what it means not to be a bigot.”

  Full of impotent teenage rage, I ran upstairs and slammed my door hard enough to rattle the photos lining the walls. I hurled myself across my bed and let the angry tears pour. I regretted what I’d called Sharon the moment it left my lips, but the idea of Dad moving on after losing Mom was too much for me to handle. I’d lashed out more to hurt him than Sharon.

  When enough time had passed for me to calm down, I could make out their voices downstairs. Their discussion had escalated into a full-fledged argument, and guilt punched me in the gut. I hated that I’d hurt and disappointed my dad, and hearing the tears in Sharon’s voice was the icing on t
he “I’m such an asshole” cake.

  I eased my door open and their words became clear.

  “I don’t care about him, Sharon, you’re a grown woman and can do what you want.”

  “You don’t know him, he’ll come here. Zara was right, if for the wrong reasons. Me being here puts you both at risk.”

  “You left him, he needs to get the fuck over it!” Hearing Dad curse like that was so foreign, I actually paused in my slow creep toward the stairs. “I love you and I want you here, and I’ll keep you safe.”

  “I love you, too, Allen, and I love Zara even if she hates me. That’s why I have to go. We need to end this before I bring this danger to your doorstep.”

  “Why now? We’ve been together for nearly a year, why is it suddenly such a risk to be together?”

  “He saw me earlier and approached me. He talked like we were great friends instead of abuser and victim. He’s not stable, Allen, and if he finds out about you, about Zara, he’d kill you both in a heartbeat if you stood between him and what he wants.”

  “We’ll go away then, all of us. We don’t have to stay here, we can start over somewhere you’ll be safe from him. I won’t let him hurt you again.”

  I wanted to rage at the declaration. This had been my home since birth, we couldn’t just abandon it for some woman. Completely unaware of my distress, they continued their fight.

  “Don’t you get it, Allen? There’s nothing you can do to stop him! You’re a weak and breakable human, he’d crush you in a second.”

  Dad was silent, and I knew her words had cut him deeply. No matter how much she loved him, she’d just shown her hand. Dad would always be the “weak human” who wasn’t strong enough to protect her. They were over. He’d kick her out now, and we’d be able to move on with our lives.

  “I know you think that, Sharon, but I’d do anything to keep him from ever touching you again. You deserve happiness, and I want to give it to you. You just have to trust me.”

  What the hell? What the hell? How could he be so stupid?

  Sharon let out a sob and it was muffled quickly, so Dad must have buried her face in his chest. I couldn’t believe this shit, and I was about to give them another piece of my mind, when my whole world went to shit.

  The front door blasted open, but from my position in the middle of the staircase, I couldn’t see anyone in the empty doorway.

  “Honey, it’s time to go home,” called a voice from just out of sight. It was deep and melodic, so pleasant that it was hard to believe he’d just busted down the front door of my home.

  Sharon gasped in the dining room, which I couldn’t see from my vantage point, but I could hear the fear in that indrawn breath as loudly as if she’d screamed at the top of her lungs.

  “What’s wrong, sweetheart? Did you think I wouldn’t come to bring you back once I knew where you were? You’ve been so good at hiding your tracks, but you got comfortable. You got lazy.” He stepped forward into view and my heart stopped in my chest. Topaz horns gleamed in the light from the foyer, and his dark wings shifted behind him.

  Topaz gargoyles wield offensive magic that can kill a human with a single blow.

  The line from my textbook echoed through my mind. Gargoyles were all stronger than us, but Sharon hadn’t been exaggerating. If my father went up against this particular gargoyle, it would be the last thing he would ever do.

  “Get the fuck out of my house.” Dad’s growl was more menacing than anything I’d ever heard, but the gargoyle just grinned like my father was no more than an entertaining puppy.

  “You must be Allen Sterling. I did a little research and learned all about you. Thank you for watching out for Sharon while she was finding herself, and I’ll forgive you for putting your disgusting human hands on her. But now, it’s time to step aside so she can come home.”

  “Diedrich, please don’t. I’ll come with you, just leave them alone.”

  “Oh, you mean the girl? I have no interest in his pathetic offspring. Though she’s awfully pretty.” He turned his gaze to where I stood on the stairs and terror gripped me. I let out a tiny squeak, and I was pretty sure I peed a little. He’d known I was there the whole time, but I was so far beneath his notice, he hadn’t even spared me a glance.

  “Don’t you fucking look at her, you piece of shit. This is between you and me.” My dad drew Diedrich’s attention back to him, and I exhaled as the physical sensation of Diedrich’s stare shifted away.

  Outside, I heard the sound of sirens and hope filled my chest as they got louder with each passing second. Help was on the way, Dad just had to stall long enough for the police to show up and take care of the gargoyle.

  “Sharon, I’m getting tired of playing this game with you. You’ve had your fun, it’s time to go. If you don’t want your pet humans to be hurt, you’ll come with me now.”

  “She’s not going anywhere. She’s where she wants to be, and you need to leave. The cops will be here any second, if you’re smart, you’ll be gone when they arrive. Go, and we won’t press charges.” Dad was lying out of his ass, but I realized what he was doing. The longer he could stall, the better, but if he could make Diedrich think there was a way out, we could avoid all the craziness that was about to go down.

  “Allen, Allen, Allen. Do you really think the cops will help you? They don’t stand a chance against me, and not one of them is going to commit suicide by trying. So, let me give you a chance to make the smart choice. Move out of the way. Let my wife come home with me without a fight, and you and your daughter will live long, happy lives.”

  The sirens stopped as the cop cars screeched to a halt in front of our house. I watched the feet of officers as they moved into position, my spot on the stairs cutting off my view at their knees.

  “This is the police department, exit the home with your hands above your head and your wings against your back.”

  Instead, Diedrich stepped further into the house and walked to the dining room. Sharon was hyperventilating, and my dad was saying something, but I saw it. The opportunity to get out.

  Rather than hesitate and overthink things, I sprinted for the door and out into the yard.

  “Freeze! Stop right there and put your hands up!”

  I skidded to a halt so hard I probably ripped up some of the grass, my hands as high as I could get them. “Please,” I begged, screaming now over the noise of my neighbors all coming out to see what was happening, “please, you have to help my dad!”

  The gathered crowd, some faces I knew, started shouting incoherently, but I heard snippets like “daughter,” and “name is Zara” before a cop came and dragged me off the lawn and to their cruiser.

  “What’s going on in there?” I was having a hard time focusing, craning my neck to see inside the house. “Hey, I need you to tell me what’s happening, honey.”

  “My dad’s in there, you have to go get him! That gargoyle will kill him.”

  “Is there only one? One gargoyle in the house?”

  “No, there are two. My dad’s girlfriend. She’s there, too.”

  “Do you know why the gargoyle broke in?”

  “Her ex, he’s her ex, he’s going to kill my dad, why are you just standing here asking me questions?”

  The cop kept talking, trying to ask me more questions, but I searched wildly for anyone who was willing to help. But not a single officer of the six on the scene were making any move to go inside.

  A scream came from inside the house and all the officers went on high alert. The following crash was so loud, I was worried about the structural integrity of the house. Was the gargoyle about to bring it down around my father’s head?

  I didn’t think before I dashed back up the walkway and into the house. I have heard the officers shouting, but I was quick and determined and I was back at the threshold of the dining room before they could stop me.

  Diedrich held my father up by the throat, high enough that all six-foot-two of Dad’s frame hung above the ground. Dad clawed at Di
edrich’s wrist, struggling to breathe.

  “No! Diedrich, let him go!” Sharon was frantic, but she didn’t rush at her husband. “Please, I’ll come home, I swear. I’m so sorry I left, I promise I’ll make it up to you, just let him go.”

  Diedrich looked over at Sharon, his expression contemplative. Then his face split into a slow, devilish smile. “Alright, sweetheart. I can do that.”

  And then, with a tiny flick of his wrist, he let Dad go. The bare effort on the part of the gargoyle resulted in my father flipping end over end and hitting the china cabinet with a sickening crack of bone that was even louder than the splintering wood and shattering glass.

  I screamed. Everything happened in a flash that my eyes could barely track. Sharon’s scream matched my own as her husband flew at her, snatched her by the waist, and launched the both of them out the back door into the darkness.

  Dad was a crumpled pile of bones atop the ruined cabinet, and from the blood on the brick wall behind it, he’d gone straight through the sturdy piece of furniture. The back door stood open and I heard the rustle of wings as Diedrich flew off with Sharon. I didn’t care. All that mattered was my dad, and he was so still. I wiped the tears from my eyes and stared hard at his chest.

  It was moving.

  He was alive!

  But when I took him in as a whole, I knew something was terribly wrong. His body was just… wrong. The angles of his limbs were unnatural, and he was completely unconscious.

  I screamed for help.

  “We’re so sorry for your loss, Zara. Allen was an amazing man.”

  “Thank you.” I’d listened to every condolence and well wish, smiled as much as I could, but my heart was leaden in my chest.

  “He’s not hurting anymore, sweetheart. He’s with your mother now.”

  I’d heard that one a lot. I hoped it was true. I hoped he was with Mom and they were finally happy together again.

  Eight years. That’s how long my dad had been confined to that chair, unable to speak, unable to do anything for himself. Because of some woman who claimed to love him, and yet we never saw her again after Diedrich had flown off with her. Maybe she was dead, maybe she was trapped in the house with her horrible husband.