“We tried,” Henry said with a slight bow of his head. “But there is no trace of her.”
Eris hissed, a sound that sent a cold lick of dread down my spine. It wasn’t a human sound. It was more like a snake, but one that was ten times the size of any normal serpent. Swallowing hard, I glanced at Sebastian. His jaw was clenched tight, tension radiating across his entire body.
“We’re never going to win if we don’t catch her.” Eris pounded the table with her fist, so hard that the wood cracked underneath the force of it. Both of the hunters jumped and exchanged alarmed glances with each other. I had a feeling that being the bearer of bad news was not the most ideal scenario for her underlings. In fact, I wouldn’t be surprised if they ended up dead.
“We’ll keep looking,” Matthew said quickly. “It’s not as if she’s alone. There will be that whole group of witches with her. And someone will eventually spot those gargoyles flying through the skies.”
Eris stood from the desk and stalked toward the hunters. Their backs stiffened, but they held their ground. When Eris reached them, she widened those dark soulless eyes and peered into their faces.
“You will find her. Do you understand me?” Her voice had gone low and melodic, and my mind felt as though it was stuck in a sticky, fluffy cloud, one that I couldn’t climb out of no matter how hard I tried. How easy it would be to give into that cloud, to let it consume my entire body. All I had to do was let go. The world was a terrible place, full of violence and darkness and horrible people. The cloud would hold none of that, not if I let go and lost myself within it.
Sebastian’s grip tightened on my elbow, jerking me out of my strange dreamlike reverie. It had been Eris’s voice, I realized. There was something hypnotic about it, and it was certainly how she’d been able to control so many of her army.
“Yes, Eris,” Matthew said, his voice flat, his eyes vacant. “We will find Rowena.”
“Good.” Her smile was razor sharp. “Because as soon as you find her, we can finally end this war once and for all. No more getting side-tracked by witches and gargoyles and vampires. The girl is the only thing I need. Rowena Mortensen will die, her magic will transfer to me, and this realm will finally be mine to rule for the rest of eternity.”
Part II
A Taste Of Darkness
Chapter 8
Sebastian pulled me out of the room before Eris could dismiss her two hunters. If they knocked straight into two invisible beings, it would be a fantastic way to get us both captured or killed. My mind was whirring from Eris’s words. She wanted me dead. Not to protect the human realm but to consume all traces of my grandmother’s magic so she could rule over every living being who called this place their home. She didn’t want to rid the world of magic. She wanted to take it all for herself.
We retreated back down the hallway and paused at the double doors. Sebastian threw them open, grabbed my hand, and pulled me along the warehouse floor. Our footsteps were no longer quiet now. They were loud. Loud enough to catch the attention of a cluster of magic hunters we passed. The very same ones we’d alerted on the way in.
Susan whipped up her head and squinted. “Look. I know you all won’t believe me, but I swear on my mother’s grave that I just heard some footsteps. And now, no one is there. Not that I can see anyway.”
“Sebastian,” I whispered, but he just kept going.
Several more hunters turned our way as our footsteps grew faster and louder. We were running now, sprinting toward the heavy doors that would lead us into the safety of the sun. But now, a murmur had gone up in the crowd, and several of the hunters had started moving our way, as if they were following the sound of our footsteps.
We reached the door. Sebastian threw it open. And then we came face to face with a crowd of angry hunters. They surrounded the open doorway in a half circle, blocking our escape route. They each raised their guns in turn, narrowing their eyes as they squinted down the aim.
“We might not be able to see you, but we know you’re there. Might as well drop your defenses and reveal yourself. Otherwise, we’ll just start shooting, killing you on the spot.”
I swallowed hard. I might be able to survive these bullets, but Sebastian couldn’t. If they rained fire upon us now, it would be next to impossible for Sebastian to make it out of this unscathed. But if we revealed ourselves to them now, that wouldn’t necessarily solve the situation either. We’d still be targets, and easier ones at that.
Plus, they had no idea exactly who was in their midst right now.
They didn’t know it was the goddess they were seeking to destroy.
Sebastian squeezed my elbow. Another signal. One I hoped I didn’t misinterpret. We were going to make a run for it.
With a deep breath, I held the shadows tight around us, and I dropped to the ground, tugging Sebastian along with me. He fell to the ground by my side, his body halfway on top of mine. But I wasn’t about to let him take the bullets, not when I could survive them. I pushed him off of me and rolled on top of him just as an explosion of gunfire ripped through the air. I squeezed my eyes shut tight and curled my body over my gargoyle. He might be bigger than me, but I could protect him as best I could.
The fire continued, the seconds ticking by like the beat of a dying heart. Shot after shot after shot until the horrifying concert cut off into abrupt silence. I pressed my lips together, not daring to even breathe.
“Huh,” one of the hunters said. “Surely they couldn’t have survived that.”
Eris’s chilly voice whispered out from the warehouse. “What is the meaning of all this commotion? Why have you fired all these bullets? There are missing chunks of stone all over this wall.”
A long pause before one of the hunters spoke. “We thought we heard some footsteps. You told us all once that those witches can keep themselves invisible, so we thought a bunch of them had snuck in here or something.”
“You idiots,” she hissed. “They are shadow witches. Do you know how shadow witches harness their powers? I’ll give you one guess.”
He nervously cleared his throat. A part of me yearned to look up and see his face, but I had to keep still and quiet. I couldn’t risk Eris realizing that she was wrong. “Shadows.”
While the witches required shadows to harness their powers, I didn’t. But they didn’t know that.
“That’s right,” she said in a clipped voice. “And do you see any shadows out here? Yeah, I didn’t think so. There’s not even a single fucking cloud in the sky. And now, you’ve wasted all this ammunition on some imaginary ghosts. You should be happy that I’m not ripping your head right off that puny little body of yours right this second.”
Sebastian twitched underneath me, and I realized that I was probably pushing all the air out of his lungs. Not to mention, he still could have been hit during the storm of fire. I needed to check to make sure he was alright, something I couldn’t do until Eris and the other hunters disappeared back inside their warehouse.
“I’m sorry, Eris. I don’t know what I was thinking.”
“This is your one strike,” she hissed. “Do something like this again, and you’ll join my crew of bait for the Nosferatu.”
And with that, footsteps pounded the ground, and the heavy door of the warehouse slammed shut. Relief poured through my body, and I sagged momentarily onto Sebastian. Until he squirmed underneath me again, reminding me that he might not be as unscathed as I was.
After several moments of muttered conversation, the hunters began to drift away from the scene of the crime, going back to whatever it was they’d been doing before they decided to attack an invisible goddess. With a soft grunt, I rolled off of Sebastian and landed on my back with an oomph.
His head was facing me, his eyes locked on my face. Dirt clung to every pore on his cheeks. “I appreciate the desire to keep me from getting killed, but you’re a lot heavier than you look.”
“You’re welcome,” I said, not even bothering to sharpen my tone this time. I was far too r
elieved to see that Sebastian was one-hundred percent free of blood. No bullet holes, no scratch marks, no nothing. Just a little dirt and a red face.
“You do realize the reason I blocked first is that I have the same power you do,” he said, grunting as he pushed himself up off the ground. “Their guns can’t hurt me any more than they can hurt you.”
“So, I sprawled on top of you for nothing. Of course.” Because it couldn’t be any other way, not for me.
He winked. “Oh, it wasn’t for nothing.”
My face flamed. What the hell did that mean?
“Come on,” he said, motioning for me to follow. “Let’s get back to the portal before they try to stab us with swords. Because that I’m definitely not immune to.”
I had so many questions for him. How had he gotten these powers? How many did he have? A part of me didn’t want to know, the part that understood he’d gained all he had because of his previous life as an assassin. But another part of me couldn’t ignore my curiosity. Sebastian was different than the other gargoyles. At first, I’d been certain the difference was a terrible thing. He was rude, violent, disloyal. But was he? Once he’d realized exactly what the magic hunters were doing, he’d changed.
He was no longer the ruthless assassin I’d first met, but had he changed enough for me to truly trust him?
We raced across the grass, and we were back through the portal within moments. Finally, I dropped the cloaking spell from around our bodies, bent at the waist, and gripped my knees tight as I heaved in deep breaths of fresh, salty air. The adrenaline that had been charging through my body suddenly vanished in the blink of an eye. I was left feeling spent, broken, and more exhausted than I could remember ever being before.
“Whoa there.” Sebastian’s strong arms wrapped around me as I tumbled toward the sand. He caught me just before my knees hit the earth, and my hands found his shoulders as if by instinct. He held me tight, his chest brushing against mine.
My eyes widened, and my breath went all weird and rattly. I didn’t even know what to say. Hell, I didn’t even know what I thought. My gaze dropping to his lips, I caught the sight of the long scar running down the side of his face. When I’d first met him, that scar had been a signal of everything terrible he’d done. Like a mark that his past had left behind on him. But now, I didn’t see a mark of danger on him. I saw something else, something that made him seem almost...vulnerable.
But that was crazy.
“Sometimes, you look at me like you want to kill me. And then other times, you look at me like this,” he said in a strangely tight voice.
“Like what?” I whispered.
“Like you want me to kiss you. Like you want me to do far more than just kiss you.” A pause as he searched my face. “Tell me what it is you want from me, Rowena. Tell me I’m not imagining how you feel.”
“I feel…” I trailed off...caught up in the pure magic of the moment. It would be so easy to give in and tell him exactly what I’d been thinking these past few weeks. How much I’d softened toward him. How often I wondered what it might be like to be with him. How often I caught myself staring at his face. But I couldn’t. This was Sebastian, the gargoyle who had almost gotten us all killed.
“I feel like we should get back to the others.”
Chapter 9
The others were waiting for us when we landed on the shores of Mont Circeo. Eli, Jasper, and Marcus. Even Alaric. They stood in a line, all staring up at the brightening morning skies. We’d travelled all night to return home. In complete silence.
I had no idea what to say to him anymore. Now that we’d put words to the strange connection we both felt, there was no going back from it. No longer did I feel as though I could rile him up or shoot barb after barb at him. Instead, I just felt embarrassed and sad, as though I’d just lost someone who had become an important part of my life.
We could never again be the way we’d once been.
And it made me feel far more let down than I would have thought.
When we landed on the shores, Eli, Jasper, and Marcus all rushed forward, each wrapping their arms tight around me. I closed my eyes and breathed them in. Stone and mist, ice and dusk. Scents so familiar that they felt as if they were my own. The relief of seeing them crushed down on my head, and I fought back the tears that filled my eyes.
The past couple of days had been tough. This trip had been a way to put us back in control, but I felt more like a fish out of water than I had before we’d gone.
“You okay, love?” Marcus pulled back and searched my eyes, reading my emotions within an instant. And then he glanced to Sebastian, frowning as if he’d just now noticed that we did not have a trunk full of weapons. “What happened at the castle?”
“It’s a long story,” I said with a heavy sigh. “I could really use a bath, and then we should fill Kipling and the Queen in on what we found out on our trip. And we’ll fill you in, too, of course.”
Marcus had me in his arms before I could say another word, and no matter how many times I protested, he insisted on carrying me back home. Of course, I didn’t really mind it though.
A knock sounded on the door and I peered over the mound of bubbles. I’d only been in the bath ten minutes, and I needed awhile longer to de-stress from the trip. Still, the door cracked open, and Alaric’s face appeared.
My whole body turned to flames, and I ducked lower in the water. More out of embarrassment than because I felt any sort of attraction to Alaric. In fact, even as we’d grown closer over the past few weeks, our relationship had been one of close friendship and nothing more. And we both liked it that way. He’d become important to me in a way that almost no one else ever had, save for Tess.
“I’m so sorry.” He started, shook his head, and then began to pull the door shut.
“Wait,” I called out before he could close it completely. “Do you need something?”
The door ceased moving, though I couldn’t see him on the other side of it now. “I’m sorry, Rowena. I don’t know why I came in here looking for you. Logic would say you’d be in the bath, and I swear I’m not trying to get a glimpse of you naked. I know we’re friends and nothing more.”
I let out a light laugh. “It’s fine, Alaric. Just tell me what you need.”
“Well...” He hesitated, and then he inched just enough inside of the room for one eye to be showing. “I wanted to see if you’re okay. Sebastian filled us in on what happened.”
I swore under my breath. “I wish he hadn’t done that. We were supposed to have a big meeting about it.”
“He thought you might need a rest. Said you were feeling a bit overwhelmed by it all, and I can’t blame you.”
Overwhelmed, my ass. He was probably trying to take credit for that new tidbit of information we’d overheard.
“Well, I can’t say I’m surprised he wanted to tell everyone on his own.” I huffed out a breath, causing the warm water to ripple in soft waves. “Anyway, I’m fine. Just a little tired from having to keep us cloaked for so long. It’s the kind of spell that takes a lot out of me.”
“I can imagine,” he said quietly.
“And the truth is, we might have some more information now, but I don’t know how it’s going to help us, Alaric.” A pause as I frowned. “Eris has far more men under her command. They have lots and lots of terrible weapons. And while I’ve gotten a lot stronger these past few weeks, I’m still learning. I don’t see how we can win against her, even knowing what she wants.”
He nodded and inched a bit further into the room, though he kept his eyes cast away from the bathtub. As he stood there in the doorway, I let my eyes wander across every inch of him. It was almost hard to believe that he’d been frozen in stone, and not that long ago. He’d fought against it, yes, but he’d still been one of the hundreds of fallen gargoyles, those who could no longer shift into man. He’d been like that for months before I’d arrived in the City of Wings. And he was the only proof I had that my existence in this world was a g
ood thing.
“I don’t think I ever told you how I was able to find the strength to shift back,” he said, leaning against the doorframe.
“My magic started growing stronger.”
“Yes.” He gave a nod. “And no. At least, that wasn’t it fully.”
“Okay, so then what was it?”
“It was you, Rowena.” A ghost of a smile flashed across his lips. “I saw you arrive that day. Silas met you on the cliff. Something told me you were the one we’d been waiting for all that time, and I knew you could bring life back to our city. So, I kept trying to get close to you.” He let out a low chuckle. “As you well know, that didn’t work very well, not until the others moved me into the Scriptorium. And then you tried to take a bullet for me...”
I swallowed hard, dipping my chin underneath the steaming water. None of this was news to me, but it didn’t stop the swell in my heart. It was hard to believe how I, Rowena Mortensen, could give anyone hope, least of all a powerful gargoyle. But he wasn’t lying. I had somehow truly helped him. And now he was standing here before me as a man.
“Anyway, I just wanted to thank you,” he said after clearing his throat. “And, after your bath, there’s something I think you need to see. Just come get me when you’re ready.”
Everyone was huddled in Kipling’s study when I got out of the bath. They all fell silent when I strode inside, and the hush shouted louder than any words could. I wrapped a blanket around my shoulders and perched on the leather armchair, frowning at the closed off faces of my mates.
“Don’t stop talking on my account,” I said. “If you’re trying to plot something without me, you know I’ll find out.”
Marcus pursed his lips, and Eli sighed. Jasper was the first one to break.
“Eris wants you and you alone. You’re her target. She knows that you’re with us and the other witches.” A pause as he cleared his throat. “So, we thought...”
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