Shadows of Stone

by Jenna Wolfhart

  “It may sound unpleasant, but that doesn’t make it any less true.”

  “And I don’t doubt you in the least.” I held up a finger and twisted toward the shimmer again. “Which is why this must be something else.”

  Sebastian crossed his arms over his chest, the dim light of the moon casting shadows on his face. He looked strangely handsome in this lighting. Even I had to admit that, as much as I didn’t want to. There was something undeniably masculine about him. He was rough around the edges, sure, but I was beginning to think it was mostly for show.

  I blinked, trying to shake away my thoughts. Sebastian stood there gazing right back at me, his face a mask to hide whatever thoughts were flying through his mind.

  “Is this what you want to do?” he asked quietly. And for a moment, I forgot what we’d been talking about.

  I swallowed hard, and the heat I felt in my cheeks reflected nothing of the nighttime chill. “I don’t know what you mean.”

  “You want to go through the portal. Are you sure it’s a good idea? If it takes us to the realm of the gods, every last bit of magic vanishes from this one.”

  Oh, right. The portal, the gods, and the realms. Of course that was what we’d been talking about. It was ridiculous of me to get so confused.

  “You could go first and test it out.” But that idea wasn’t any better. If he went through the portal alone, he wouldn’t be protected by my cloaking magic. And who knew what sat waiting on the other side of it. A band of magic hunters, or even Eris herself.

  But Sebastian had already pulled his sword from its scabbard and held it aloft before him. He stepped toward the portal, and my heart lurched in my chest.

  “Sebastian, wait. I don’t actually think this is a good idea. You could get killed.”

  “Better me than you.” He took another step closer.

  My heartbeat thundered in my ears. “No. Stop. You can’t go through the portal alone.”

  He cast me a slight smile over his shoulder. “See you soon, princess.”

  Chapter 5

  There were two things I knew for certain. One, I couldn’t just stand there and do nothing while waiting for Sebastian to return. And two, well...I was pretty close to one hundred percent sure that this portal didn’t lead to the realm of the gods. Which meant that it led to somewhere else on earth. If that was the case, I could happily go through it without anything terrible happening.

  Humans couldn’t go into the realm of the gods. This led to the base of the magic hunters. Logically, I should be okay. But Sebastian might not be.

  With a deep breath, I stepped through the shimmering wall of energy and felt a whoosh of electric energy consume my body. The next instant, I found myself somewhere that looked nothing like the mossy island. In fact, night had turned into day, and the sun rose high in a mid-afternoon sky. Palm trees rose up around me, and the soft crash of waves on the sandy beach was nothing like the stormy lands where we’d just been.

  “Rowena,” Sebastian hissed, lowering his sword when I popped up right behind him. “What are you doing? I thought you were going to stay there until I said the coast was clear.”

  “Yeah, and then I decided that I’m not going to let you get yourself killed.” My cheeks went hot. “Because you’re useful to me. What with your enhanced powers.”

  His eyes widened slightly. “You were worried about me. Who would have thought after all that talking big that you actually cared?”

  “Don’t get so excited,” I snapped. “Like I said, your powers are useful. That’s all.”

  “Of course.” He smirked. “So, speaking of powers, how about you cloak us then before all those hunters over there spot us.”

  Whoops. In our little exchange slash argument, I hadn’t bothered to scan the surroundings. As I slid the shadowy mask over our skin, I noted that this place—wherever it was—was absolutely heaving with magic hunters. A large ancient stone building had been built along the edge of the shore, and it towered over everything like a hulking mass. Helicopters sat atop its flat roof, and several ships were docked along the wooden pier. Humans dressed in all black milled around on the criss-crossing paths, to and from what I imagined were training sessions and meetings.

  It looked like the campus of a university, though one that was focused on violence and destruction rather than on learning.

  Two male hunters passed us by, murmuring so quietly to each other that I couldn’t make out their words.

  “Well,” Sebastian said after they’d passed. “At least we know your magic is still working.”

  “Keep your voice quiet,” I hissed. “They’re human, but they’re not idiots. If they hear a floating voice, they’re going to know something is up.”

  Sebastian cut his eyes my way. “You know, you are far too tense about everything. But it’s your lucky day because I know of an excellent method for releasing tension.”

  Heat rushed into my neck. “I can’t believe you’re hitting on me when we’re in the middle of the magic hunter base. Not only that, but we’re twenty feet away from where at least a dozen of them are standing.”

  He chuckled and stepped closer, reaching out to trail a hot finger down my cheek. “Hitting on you? Now, why is it that your first thought was of something sexual? Because that isn’t what I meant in the least, Rowena. The best method for releasing tension is fighting. You know, the thing we’re probably going to do unless you can keep your frazzled brain focused on what we’re doing here.”

  My mouth dropped open. “My frazzled brain?”

  He lifted his shoulder in a shrug and grinned. “And what would you call it when you’re so distracted by my looks and my charm that you can’t think of anything other than the idea of me seducing you.”

  My mouth dropped open even more, and I let out a strained laugh, though the heat in my cheeks expanded to include my full face, my full neck, and hell, my entire body. “Your charm? You’ve got to be kidding me.”

  His eyes sparkled. “So, my charm you don’t believe, but you have no objections about my looks? Good to know, princess.”

  “If we weren’t in the middle of our enemies, I would so slap you right now.”

  He stepped closer, lowering his sword to his side. “I call your bluff.”

  “I would slap you,” I repeated, though it almost felt as though I was trying to convince myself more than him.

  “So, then do it.”

  A challenge. A dare. One that felt as though it held far more weight than it should. During all those long months working with him, after what he’d done to betray me and the others, I’d wished for the excuse and opportunity for me to show him exactly what I thought of him. Now, that moment was here, but I didn’t feel as though I was on the brink of success, of showing him who was boss, of demonstrating my power to him.

  No, I felt kind of...nervous. I felt how I imagined it would be to get ready for a first date. Butterflies spinning out of control in my stomach. Sweaty palms. A heartbeat that raced faster than the speediest cheetah.

  I felt exposed before him, like he could read every single thought and emotion flittering across my face right now.

  With a deep breath, I finally found the willpower within me to step closer to him so that my forehead was only an inch away from his chin. Sebastian was tall and built like a tank, and I knew he must see me as nothing more than a pesky ant that needed to be crushed. But he’d have to do far, far more to crush me.

  I raised my hand and just held it there in the air.

  Come on. Just get the slap over with, Rowena. All you have to do is give him a tap on the cheek.

  But I couldn’t. My stupid hand wouldn’t move. Instead, I stood there all weird and awkward with my hand in the air, as if I were the Queen of England.

  Sebastian’s hand shot out, and he had his fingers wrapped around my wrist before I even knew what was happening. He yanked, pulling me closer to him. My chest brushed against his, and that strange, frustrating sensation passed through me. A sensation I’d
felt before, one deep within my core. I’d felt it with Jasper, with Marcus, and then with Eli.

  No, no, no, no, no. Voices screamed into my head. Hundreds of them all blended together.

  “What are you doing?” I whispered.

  “You don’t want to hurt me,” he said in a low, soft voice that resembled an animalistic growl. “And I certainly don’t want to hurt you. In fact, I...”

  My eyes widened, and I could barely voice my next question. “In fact you what?”

  He stared at me for a long, quiet moment, and then his eyes flicked to the activity behind me. With a quick shake of his head, he dropped my wrist and stepped back. There was something strange about the way he moved, almost as though his body was stuck in a swamp. Every step was slower than the last.

  “Eris will likely be somewhere inside the headquarters. We should go now before all this talking catches the wrong kind of attention.”

  And just like that, whatever spark or bond I’d momentarily felt with Sebastian was gone in an instant. He’d just dropped the whole thing, like it was nothing at all to him. And truth was, it probably wasn’t.

  Besides, this strange exchange with Sebastian wasn’t what I needed to be concentrating on right now. I needed to focus on keeping us hidden and on keeping us alive.

  Chapter 6

  “So, all these people are being controlled by Eris?” I raised my eyebrows as we passed another group of twenty hunters who were training with their fists. We’d already passed at least a hundred, men and women of all shapes, sizes, and ages. There were older men and younger women, all focused on training up their bodies for one thing and one thing only: destroying me and everyone I loved.

  “I think it’s likely that she’s controlling some of them, but not all. There will be humans who want nothing more than to destroy every magical being on the planet.”

  “There are hundreds of them,” I said as we strode up the curving stone staircase at the front of the building. “Or maybe even thousands. It’s hard to tell when they’re all roaming around.”

  “I’m fairly certain it’s hundreds.” A pause. “Eris has created the army she thinks she needs in order to defeat us. Some of them will be volunteers, and some will be controlled like Fiona.”

  “Which means they could also snap out of it, like Fiona.”

  Sebastian frowned as we reached the door, holding a finger to his lips. As interesting as this conversation was, we couldn’t risk talking anymore, not even in whispers. Outside, the noise was drowned out by the slashing of swords and the whooshing of arrows through the humid air. But here and now and inside this expansive building? Everything we said or did would echo, our invisible voices amplified by the acoustics of the stone.

  With a nod, Sebastian pushed the door and quickly stepped back, watching it swing open from what appeared—to anyone else—to be out of its own volition. His ebony wings folded into his back as he stepped quietly through the door. My heart pounded hard in my chest, and I reached out to wrap my hand around his arm, more to keep him close to me than anything else. I couldn’t keep us both cloaked if he strayed too far.

  But he stiffened, glanced over his shoulder, and shot me a devious wink.

  That urge to slap him rose up inside me again.

  Together, we stepped into the stone building. Inside, it looked more like an old abandoned warehouse that had been transformed into a military base. The entire place consisted of what looked to be one room, stretching out far before us. Folding tables had been erected throughout the room, and they were now covered in a dizzying array of weapons.

  My stomach twisted in on itself. There were hundreds of them. Maybe even thousands. And they glistened like beacons of death underneath the overhead fluorescent lights. Mouth dry, I glanced up at Sebastian. His face echoed my own. Even he was shocked by the extent of their operation, and he’d been part of it for a time.

  Unfortunately, despite all the hunters milling about, I didn’t see anyone here that stood out as a leader. Goddess or not.

  Sebastian tugged at my arm, and I followed his nod toward a pair of smaller metal double doors that were on the far side of the warehouse. They were fairly nondescript. There was nothing special about them as far as doors went, but Sebastian was already pulling me across the floor. We were forced to stride past the clusters of hunters, past their tables full of military-grade weapons. Dread churned in my gut. As far as we all knew, nothing in the mortal realm would kill me, but those books and those rules had been written long before humans had developed such powerful weapons. There was no telling what a rocket launcher would do to me.

  And I wasn’t about to stick around to find out.

  Our footsteps were quiet on the stone floor, and my breath barely whispered from my lungs. We were halfway to the door when my foot came into contact with the smallest of twigs. A crunch sounded in response, and my entire body went as stiff as a board. I didn’t dare even swivel my head to glance at Sebastian for fear the hunters would somehow hear my hair swishing against my shoulders.

  One of the nearest hunters twisted from where she was loading some kind of rifle, and she frowned in my general direction. “Could have sworn I just heard something.”

  The hunter beside her let out a low chuckle. “You’re the jumpiest person I’ve ever met, Susan. You sure you’re up for being part of this thing? You’ve said you’ve seen or heard something suspicious about ten times since you got here.”

  She kept frowning in our direction before finally shaking her head and turning back to the table. “You can’t tell me this place doesn’t give you the creeps. It feels like there’s something here, something that Eris doesn’t want us to know. I mean, last time I checked, going through a shimmery portal was magic. And I thought we were trying to save this world from that very thing.”

  “Eris knows what she’s doing,” he replied. “Sometimes you’ve gotta use the weapons of the enemy in order to destroy that enemy.”

  So, the magic hunters knew that Eris was using some form of magic, though it didn’t sound as if they were aware that she was a goddess herself. Not that any of this was surprising or particularly useful. We needed to know her plan. We needed to know when she would launch her next attack. And we needed to know exactly how she was going to do it. Because judging from this warehouse, there would be a hell of a lot of firepower involved.

  Slowly, I lifted my foot off the cracked twig, and the two of us continued across the rest of the warehouse without another incident. With a deep breath, I stared hard at the double doors. I wished I could will our bodies to the other side.

  “Move.” Sebastian’s mouth was on my ear, and his hand was on my waist. He pulled me against his chest, twisting us out of the way just as two hunters approached the double doors. My heartbeat hammered a frantic beat, and my breath was frozen in my lungs. That had been close. The hunters were now standing where I’d been only seconds ago.

  Sebastian’s chest was underneath my hands. It was unsurprisingly ripped. Muscles upon muscles, cording together underneath his thin shirt. Every dip, every bulge...I felt them all with my fingertips. My blood roared in my veins, and I stumbled a step away from him, my chest tight.

  What the hell was going on with me?

  Behind me, the hunters pushed open the double doors. I tore my gaze away from Sebastian’s face and turned toward them, following close behind. Sebastian was on my heels, but I couldn’t bear to look at him, or touch him, or even smell his overwhelming presence.

  If I didn’t need to stay by his side to keep him cloaked, I’d be halfway across the warehouse by now.

  Through the door, we entered a long skinny hallway that led to another set of double doors. There were at least a dozen rooms that sprouted off from it, but the hunters ducked into the first. Sebastian and I followed, hovering in the doorway to find a woman inside. She had raven hair that streamed down her back and one curvy hip perched on an oak desk. Her mouth stretched wide when she saw the hunters.

  Even though I�
��d never seen her until this day, I knew exactly who she was.

  We’d found Eris.

  Chapter 7

  Sebastian had met her once before, so he knew what she looked like. He gave my elbow a squeeze. A signal that we’d come to the right place. It was hard not to react. There was something strange about her. An electric kind of energy vibrated off her skin, and her eyes were the deepest pools of black. Something about her felt...off.

  As if she didn’t belong in this realm.

  “Henry.” She nodded to the first hunter, and then turned to the second. “Matthew. I’m hoping you’ve come bearing good news.”

  Henry coughed into his hand and shifted on his feet. “I’m afraid the news isn’t as good as you were hoping. We haven’t been able to find Rowena. As expected, she left the City of Wings before we approached by ship. The place was a stone graveyard when we finally got inside. Completely abandoned and empty. Not a soul alive.”

  My heart thumped, so loud that I was certain Eris would be able to hear it. So the hunters had invaded the City of Wings, and they hadn’t found Silas. Both good news and bad. If they hadn’t found him, then they hadn’t killed him. But then did that mean he was still alive? Or had he fallen into a permanent state of stone?

  It was a thought I couldn’t bear.

  Eris plucked a small round ball from her desk and squeezed it tight in her shaking fist. “Yes, we knew that. You two were supposed to find out where she went. She and those other ridiculous winged creatures.”