Ascension (The Gryphon Series)

by Rourke, Stacey

  “You sent me here to tempt me?” the Gryphon growled. The hair along his spine rose.

  “Tempt you?” She chewed on her lower lip before answering, as if trying the word on for size. “Indeed. However, we needed to go deeper than that. You had to long for it. Every fiber of your being had to ache for their blood until you gave in to your desires. Only then could you understand how a spirit can be corrupted and the forgiveness that must be granted for that inevitable weakness.”

  The Gryphon sprang up on his hind legs. His massive head thrashed from side to side as he bellowed his anguish to the heavens in a ground shuddering roar that echoed around me in a haunting melody of raw truth.

  The Grand Councilwoman soothed her makeshift feather bun before folding her hands behind her back. “In time you will understand our ways and appreciate our methods, I assure you.” To her henchmen she added, “Subdue him.”

  They closed in, their glowing wings curling in around Gryphon as he lashed out with swipes, snaps and even lunges toward the sky. Despite his attempts, he was no match for their impenetrable wings. They inched closer until he was completely encapsulated in their unbreachable cocoon.

  The Countess’s hand grasped the Councilwoman’s bony wrist. For a moment, her venomous rage faltered and the pitiful girl beneath broke through. “My family … I … I have no one. We were the last of our kind. Please, take me with you?”

  The Councilwoman placed her palm on the Countess’s cheek in a maternal gesture that seemed an awkward fit on her. “He will be a great warrior. Take solace in knowing you helped to elevate him to his destiny. I’m sorry, my dear.”

  Lightning struck, illuminating the grieving centaur. Her arms rose to shield her face. When the glow faded, she was alone.

  As Audrina crumbled to the ground and poured her tears into the earth, I let the discus slip from my fingers. It fell to the carpet with a soft thump.

  I sat down hard on the edge of my bed, my fists clenching the comforter in a white knuckled grasp. I couldn’t focus … couldn’t wrap my brain around what I had just witnessed. Only one thought managed to blast its way through the tumultuous upheaval that swirled in my mind. Its message resonating with a powerful insistence that refused to be ignored …

  Who have I been fighting for?

  Chapter 10

  Down to my bones, I yearned for a few hours of hard sleep. I knew I needed to process … everything, but currently lacked the mental capabilities to do so. Instead, I hid the discus in my nightstand and retreated to the sanctuary of my bed. The oppressive silence of our misery shrouded house enveloped me. For about sixty seconds. Then my closet door burst open and a mysterious cloaked figure came bolting out. Because crap like that is to be expected when you’re the Chosen One—exhaustion be damned.

  Grinding my teeth to the point of pain, I sprang up off the bed. My mind wandered to the Louisville Slugger Grams kept beside her bed. I didn’t need a weapon like that to take out some random bonehead demon, but the idea of using one seemed therapeutic.

  “Either you don’t know whose house this is or you’re just a special kind of stupid.” My finger nails dug into my palms as I clenched my hands into tight fists. “Either way, I say we see if you can wear your ass for a hat to set an example to others.”

  “Fun as the asshat experiment sounds,” strong hands, the pale luminescent shade of a fresh water pearl, rose to draw back the hood of the intruder’s crimson cloak, “we don’t really have time fer that right now, lovey.”

  I sucked in a shocked gasp that lodged itself in my throat. “Ca—Caleb?”

  His mouth tugged back in a half-grin that made the divot of a dimple appear. “In the flesh.”

  So many times I’d dreamt of seeing him again. In my mind, I had played and replayed what sweet whisperings of love, longing, fate and future I would utter. Yet, when my mouth opened what tumbled out was, “Have you been in the closet this whole time?”

  “No.” Laughter trilled through his tone. “Actually … I’ve been in the Spirit Plane.”

  “Spirit Plane?”

  “Aye. That’s where I’ve been since the day we cast out my demon.” He took a tentative step forward. Emerald eyes searched my face for … something. Acceptance? Encouragement? A sign that I still understood the English language—?

  “Cast out your demon,” I mimicked, my voice sounding oddly vacant even to me.

  “A simple incantation allowed me passage.” For a moment, his head jerked back toward the closet as if checking to see if anyone was emerging behind him. “We don’t have much time. I can’t risk ‘em catchin’ me here.”

  “Me here.”

  “Okay.” Caleb crossed the invisible barrier that had held him back and placed his arm around my shoulders. I breathed his scent in deeply as he led me over to the bed. “This would be a monumentally bad time fer ya tah go into shock. Let’s have a seat and hope we can snap ya out of it right quick.”

  He eased me down on the edge of the bed. The box spring squeaked under his weight as he settled beside me and clasped my hand in both of his. With the tip of his finger, he traced my veins. His touch—soft, seductive satin—felt so familiar … so right. Fantasy and fact melded together in a twisted, unfathomable combination as I stared at our intertwined hands.

  “Every minute of every day I’ve thought of nothing but …” My breathy declaration trailed off. A shiver danced down my spine. I shook my hand free to catch the hem of his cloak sleeve. “I’ve … I’ve seen this cloak before, disappearing into my closet.” My head snapped up as the truth to this riddle could be found scribbled somewhere across his handsome face. “You’re the one that’s been leaving me the scrolls.”

  A storm of anxious need churned his emerald eyes a deep sea green. “I had tah help ya any way I could. It killed me tah think somethin’ might happen to ya. Time moves differently there. It’s easier tah bend and manipulate. I was able tah hop around and play a small part in guidin’ ya. All it took was an enchanted charm stuffed un’er ya’r mattress tah allow ya tah read the Gaelic print.” A hint of a smile returned to his delectable lips. “It’s amazin’ what ya can find in the Spirit Plane when ya poke ya’r nose where it doesn’t belong.”

  My mouth hung open as I tried to recall the first scroll I’d received. “It was … before we even met. Right after I was called. You’ve … you’ve been with me the whole time?”

  Hair fell across his forehead as he cast his gaze to the floor and nodded.

  A flood of tears filled my eyes and streaked down my cheeks as my trembling hand covered my mouth. “Caleb … you pushed me to let you go.”

  His knuckle whispered over my cheek as he brushed away a tear. “I had tah let ya know I understood why you were doin’ it. When I said I’d love ya fore’er, Celeste, I meant it. Even if it doesn’t look like I thought it would right now.”

  Words, with their strict rules and paltry definitions, couldn’t begin to articulate what I was feeling. Instead, I cradled his beautiful face in my hands and allowed myself a taste of the salty-sweet heaven of his lips. Something deep within me whimpered at the blissful agony of his long awaited touch.

  His hand slid over my waist, to the small of my back. With a gentle tug, he pulled my body to his. What started sweet and timid quickly built in passionate intensity. His other hand freed the tie from my hair and weaved into the fallen strands. I wanted to dive in and lose myself in this moment more than I’d ever wanted anything. Unfortunately, with a pained groan, Caleb pulled back.

  “Ya have no idea how much I want this …” His forehead pressed to mine as he fought to steady his breathing.

  “Oh, I think I do,” I murmured, hooking the tips of my fingers around the back of his neck to pull him to me.

  He dotted a quick kiss to my lower lip then forced distance between us by scooting to the foot of the bed. “Ya don’t un’erstand, lovey. We don’t have much time. Tha’s what I came tah tell ya. Af’er I dropped that scroll on ya’r pillow …”

 
“And turned that song on to haunt me with your memory.” I raised my eyebrows, daring him to deny it.

  “As if I would do something so contrite.” His argument may have held more weight if he had managed to keep his guilty smirk at bay. “Point is, I didn’t intend tah take the risk of comin’ back so quick. But, when I returned tah the Spirit Plane there was a mess a trouble goin’ down.”

  My heart lurched in a panicked stutter beat. “What kind of trouble?”

  Caleb’s gaze fixated on my hand resting on the mattress. He instinctively reached for it, as if the distance between us tormented him. “I think The Council took ya’r sis and mine into custody.”

  My pulse pounded in my temples, drowning out coherent thought with its incessant thump. “And the Council Master? Where did he stand in all this?”

  Ebony brows drew sharply together. “The Council Master? He seemed tah be the only bloke tryin’ tah prevent it.”

  Before I could process that information or react in any way, a brilliant flash brightened my room to high noon on a cloudless day. It faded to reveal the Grand Councilwoman and two of her flunkies.

  “Clever boy, using old magicks to sneak off,” the Councilwoman snapped in place of a greeting. “Rest assured that won’t happen again. Seize him!”

  The guards wasted no time obeying their barked orders. Using more force than necessary, they snatched Caleb off the bed, slammed him against the wall, and shackled his hands behind his back.

  “Let him go! He’s done nothing wrong,” I demanded as I leapt to my feet, my nostrils flaring with each agitated breath. “You’re supposed to be protecting him!”

  Folding her arms over her chest, the Councilwoman tipped her head back to allow a better angle for her to peer down her nose at me. “I am protecting him, my dear. It seems he’s been sneaking off for rendezvouses with a Conduit that is now considered rogue. If he were to leak any of the demonic intel he possesses to you, it could be lethal. Not only for him, but to all of mankind.”

  I took one threatening step forward before better judgment rooted me where I stood. “That’s a load of crap and you know it. I’ve risked everything for my calling and now you’re going to doubt me for failing to listen to a group of people that have lied to me from the very beginning? I tell you what, the Gryphon can root around in my head whenever the mood hits him. Why don’t you ask him what kind of person I am?”

  She chewed on the inside of her cheek as if fighting off a victorious grin. “The Gryphon has been imprisoned for his refusal to cut off your powers. Congratulations, girl, you made the Protector of the Divine an outlaw.”

  Cold sweat dripped down my back between my shoulder blades. I was painfully aware that the tips of my toes rested at the very edge of a precipice that, if I dared lean into, would swirl me into a downward spiral of violent rage that there would be no coming back from. With every ounce of willpower I possessed, I clung to the last thread of self-control that was holding me back.

  “Remove him.” The Councilwoman barked with a flippant flick of her wrist.

  The guards roughly seized Caleb’s upper arms and began the inner glow that would transport them all out of here.

  “Celeste!” Caleb’s voice rose with desperation. “I showed ya the past so ya would realize it’s not the Council ya’r fightin’ for, but all the innocents that get caught in the midst of this battle. Remember that! I lov—”

  I lunged forward to grab him, but caught only air. Caleb and his captors were gone.

  “The new solitary suite waiting for him will ensure he cannot attempt this again.” If the Councilwoman noticed the seething steam radiating off of me, she made a point to ignore it. Instead, she soothed a hand along her tight bun of feathers to confirm none had dared slip from place. “Now, we have a much more pressing matter at hand. It has come to the attention of The Council that you are in possession of an artifact not meant for you. We demand that you hand it over at once. I assume you know to what I am referring?”

  Heat prickled up my spine to the top of my head. “Oh, I know exactly what you are referring to. But, I don’t do demands.”

  “You have no idea of the power that item possesses or the harm it could cause!” A hot flush reddened her pinched face.

  Despite my rage, I forced a casual tone of indifference. “Sometimes the most amazing discoveries are made by tinkering with things ya ought not be.”

  The Grand Councilwoman took a brazen step forward, smack dab into the center of my personal space. “You think you have this all figured out.” Her face twisted in a mask of pure hate. “But, hear this, you insufferable child. From this point on you will get no aid from the Council. Before we will ever consider your pleas to return to our fold you will deliver the discus. Plus, you will make a public apology for your insolence and take a blood oath that you will adhere to our rules from that point on. This matter is not up for negotiation or debate.”

  With slow and deliberate steps, I closed the remaining distance between us. Fear sparked in her avian eyes as my hot breath assaulted her face.

  “Before this is over,” I whispered softly, “you and I will have a confrontation. Count on that. Now get out of my house before I decide that moment needs to be now.”

  Her gaze scanned my face, trying to decipher if I was bluffing. I hitched up one eyebrow in response.

  Thin lips pressed together in a pinched white line. “You have no idea who you are dealing with.” Her parting words hung in the air as she disappeared in a shower of twinkling white lights.

  “Neither do you,” I muttered to the darkness.

  Chapter 11

  My knees bent to absorb the shock from my second story plummet. I didn’t let it slow me in the slightest, but turned on my heel and stomped toward my truck.

  “Dramatic exit executed with such an intense vigor,” an easily recognizable, and often infuriating, voice murmured from the shadows. “Where could you possibly be heading in such a huff?”

  I made no attempts to stifle my groan as Rowan slunk out from behind the big oak tree next to Gram’s driveway. “Isn’t it kind of stalker-ish to lurk outside my house, even by your standards?”

  “What makes you think I’m here to see you?” Rowan sauntered over with his usual swagger. “Actually, you have the makings of a sitcom happening in your garage. A band of misfit demons begged to take refuge amongst the yard tools and motor oil. Your follicly gifted brother allowed them to stay, as long as they never leave that Neanderthal thug’s sight. Oh, and my personal favorite moment, he made them recite that their wellbeing mattered less than every other item in the garage. Which was followed by a whiny discussion about how hurtful it was to know a lawn mower held greater value than their lives. It was very riveting stuff.”

  Wordlessly I stared, running my tongue over my teeth in an intentional display of my growing aggravation.

  “All right, I came to see you. Is that so horrible?” One flaxen eyebrow lifted suggestively. His wandering leer skimmed the length of my frame. “I thought maybe I could come inside and tuck you in—”

  I held up one hand to silence him. “Can we pass on the skeevy pirate routine? In case you misconstrued that dramatic exit, that wasn’t me training for Cirque Du Soleil. I’m kind of in a hurry to get out of here, without alerting the rest of Team Garrett.”

  The shadows cast by the streetlights sharpened the angles of Rowan’s face as he peered up at my open bedroom window. My curtains flapped and swayed in the night breeze, blown outside by my rash exit. “Something riled up our fated Chosen One and sent her storming off all by her lonesome, hell-bent on committing some brave act that other’s would deem monumentally stupid.” He glanced my way, his usual arrogance replaced by somber understanding. “Am I close to the mark?”

  I bristled at how well he could read me. Mostly because it acted as a painful reminder of our past—the good, the bad, and the gnomey. “Look, I get that you’re plagued with guilt and feel you have something to prove because of it. Selling a friend out
tends to have that effect. Regardless, right now I need you to pause your inner turmoil because I have somewhere to be.”

  “Would that place happen to be your own funeral?” he asked as I turned toward my truck. “Seems to me without your sword or your shield this march is destined to become your funeral precession.”

  “At least then this will all be over,” I muttered under my breath and yanked open the driver’s side door.

  In a puff of black smoke, Rowan materialized in front of me and slammed the door shut. “Let’s stop the emo theatrics before ya start combing your hair straight forward and subjecting us all to that dreadful music.”

  “What do you want here, Row?” I threw my hands in the air, letting them fall and slap against the sides of my legs. “You want the big reveal so you can try and talk me out of it? That’s fine, because it won’t change a thing. See, today has been the worst day in the history of bad days. Which, at first, I thought was an unfortunate coincidence. But now I realize that this is it—the big crescendo that’s been building since the moment I got my calling. Well, I’m tired of running. I’m done being scared. I want my life back. It was lame and ordinary, but it was mine. Abject mediocrity; those words are euphoric to me. Today, I’m going to reclaim what they stole from me.”

  I expected an argument. Yet, as the night wind blew a wavy lock of golden hair across Rowan’s forehead, something that resembled understanding swirled in his eyes. Not a single protest passed his lips as he wrenched open the truck door and gestured for me to slide in. “Let’s go then. But I’m driving.”

  I slapped a hand on the dimly glowing discus as it slid across the dash headed for a meeting with the floorboard. Palming it for safe keeping, I turned it first one way then the other, struggling to determine if it was actually getting brighter or if that was just the reflection off the street lights.

  Rowan hitched one eyebrow but seemed to be fighting to keep his expression pointedly neutral. “Clue me in, exactly how is the paper weight supposed to help our noble mission?”