Bound by Stone

by Jenna Wolfhart

  “Now what, Ro?” Eli asked. “You want to get out of this place? Go back home?”

  I shook my head. “I made Jasper a promise, and it’s one I intend to keep. We’re here in the caves. There’s no way we can leave without going to the veil. I have to try to speak with Hecate.”

  Chapter 16

  Eli took the lead. He’d been in the caves once before, and the Oracle had taken him to the veil where he could make his oath to the goddess. We followed a low-lit passageway that tunnelled deep into the mountain. It went straight down, each wall carved in a perfect circle, like it had been made my man. Or perhaps by the gods.

  When we reached the end of the tunnel and stepped out into the expansive cavern whose slick stone walls rippled with purples and golds, I knew deep down in my bones that we’d entered the right place. It buzzed with magic and power, tickling my skin and filling my lungs with a strange kind of air, one that made me feel a hundred times more alive. Something about it felt familiar and right, as if I’d stepped back in time to the era when Hecate had walked the earth, magic blooming all around her. New and untainted by war, jealousy, and death.

  I breathed in and closed my eyes. My arms lifted from my sides out of their own accord. Power filled me, crisp and pure and true. I’d felt hints of this kind of power before, in fleeting moments when I’d been able to harness that goddess power within me, but I’d never felt it quite like this. It felt as though it surrounded every cell in my body, both within and without.

  One of the gargoyles let out a low whistle, and I opened my eyes. It wasn’t just one of them staring at me with eyes wide and mouth slightly parted. It was all three of them. And then, in unison, they knelt.

  “You are truly of the goddess,” Eli murmured, casting his eyes to the ground as he bowed his head before me. “I’m yours, and I will follow you to the ends of the earth.”

  “As will I, my love,” Marcus whispered.

  Eyes wide, I glanced from one to the other, my hand pressing tight against my heart. Was this part of their weird mating ritual? If so, I wasn’t entirely sure how I felt about it. But then—

  “Yeah, I’m not going to be sappy about it like these assholes,” Sebastian muttered, “but I’m also here to, you know, protect you and shit.”

  “What’s going on?” I whispered.

  Please, for the love of all that is good and holy, please do not let Sebastian be trying to join the whole mating thing the gargoyles started with their wing dance-off in the mansion.

  “You’re a goddess,” Eli said. “Light from the realm of the gods is spilling through the veil, and it’s shining on you, pointing you out as what you truly are.”

  “I mean, didn’t we know that before?”

  “You’re being blessed by the realm of the gods,” Marcus said. “They’re accepting you as one of them. It means we need to do the same.”

  My heart lurched as I glanced all around me. Were we inside the veil now? Is that why power and magic swirled around us? The golds and purples? The yellows and blues? And if so...

  “Does that mean the gods can see us and hear us?” I asked. “And wait a minute...you said gods. Plural. I thought there was only Hecate.”

  “Long story. Short answer,” Eli said as he finally stood from the cavern floor. “Yes, there’s more than one god, though Hecate is the only one of magic. And yes, if they are blessing you, then one or more of them will be on the other side of the veil. The Oracle said she’s the only one who can speak to them, but I no longer think that’s true at all. I believe they can hear us now.”

  A hush fell around us. I spun in place, glancing at the purple and gold light that danced on the walls. A whisper hissed from somewhere to my right, and then from my left. I spun and spun, the magic twisting around my body. Where was the veil? But better yet, where was the hole? Could I step through it? Look into my grandmother’s face for the very first time?

  But before I could even end the thought, the whisper grew louder. “You cannot step through. Magic will vanish from their world, and your mates will turn to stone.”

  I froze, and my voice caught in my throat. That had been a woman’s voice, though one that was strangely alien. Lyrical and deep, like the sound of water crashing against the rocky edges of a cliff.

  Slowly, I lowered myself to one knee and bowed my head. “Hecate?”

  “You do not need to bow before me, child,” the voice answered, louder this time. “You are one of the gods. You must stand and claim your throne.”

  “Claim my throne?” I glanced up, as though I imagined I could see her face if I only turned in the right direction. “What does that mean?”

  “The human realm is yours to rule.” Her voice lowered into a hiss. “Take it.”

  “What?” I breathed the word, glancing around me at the three shifters who still knelt before me, like I was some kind of deity to be served, but I wasn’t. I was just a girl. One with powers, yes, but a girl just the same.

  Shaking my head, I moved to Marcus’s side and touched his shoulder. He kept his gaze on the ground. “Stop this. I don’t want you to bow.”

  “They know a Queen when they see one,” the voice whispered. “Isn’t that why you’re here? To finally claim your powers and your kingdom?”

  “No, of course not,” I hissed, fisting my hands and whirling toward the whisper. No one stood before me. Wherever Hecate was, she wasn’t in this room. She was somewhere else. Another realm. So close and yet so far away. “I came here because I need your help.”

  “My help?” She let out a harsh laugh. “You’re a goddess, Rowena Mortensen. You need no one’s help, not even mine. Those magic hunters have nothing compared to the power that fills your soul.”

  “So, you know about them then?” I whirled again to find nothing but shadows of purple and gold, and that strange sweet light that flickered through the cavern like lightning bugs.

  “Of course I know about them. You think I would leave my family without keeping an eye on them?”

  “Then why haven’t you done anything?” My fisted hands trembled by my sides. “Why haven’t you come? Witches are dying. Gargoyles are turning to stone. The fae have slaughtered an entire coven. Why haven’t you done anything to stop all this war?”

  “Sometimes terrible things must happen for good to prevail,” she said, voice suddenly quiet and still. “There cannot be life without death or light without darkness. I know it seems as though I have abandoned you all, but one day I hope you’ll understand that it was the only way.”

  “The only way,” I muttered. “So, I guess this means that I can’t convince you to come here now and help us. Magic and all its users are just doomed, huh? You don’t care?”

  “They’re not doomed. You are there.” A slight sigh. “I’m afraid that our time is coming to a close.”

  “Wait.” My heart thumped hard, and I took a step forward, even though there was no one truly there to stop. “There was something else I wanted to ask of you.”

  A pause. “Yes?”

  “Two gargoyle guardians made an oath in your name to protect me. Part of that oath involved...” My cheeks warmed, but I continued on. “It involved a rule that they could not touch me or else they would become permanent stone. One of them broke the no-touching rule, and he’s turned to stone. The other...” I trailed off and cleared my throat, glancing at where Eli’s knee dug into the hard ground.

  “He’s your mate,” Hecate said. “I can sense it. To be honest, I wouldn’t have imagined my granddaughter as the mate of a harem of gargoyles, but it’s strangely fitting. They are strong and powerful. I dare say no one quite deserves you, but they come as close as any man could.”

  “So you’ll reverse the oath? The curse on Jasper?” I asked, heart lifting. After everything that had happened, I hadn’t had very much hope that Hecate would agree to anything at all. Her reaction was far from what I’d expected, and I could scarcely believe my luck. We’d made it into the caves, and we’d found the veil. While she wo
uldn’t help us fight the hunters, she would give us Jasper back. And she might very well undo Eli’s oath, a thought that shot a thrill through my body.

  “Unfortunately, Rowena, I do not have the power to do so,” Hecate replied. “The gargoyles did not make the oath to me, although they no doubt believed they did.”

  I furrowed my eyebrows. “I don’t understand.”

  “That Fury has been lying to you all. They made the oath to her, and she used her knowledge of this place to make them think they were pledging themselves to me. If you want to get your gargoyle back, you’re going to need the Fury’s blood.”

  Chapter 17

  “I should have known,” Eli said, pacing back and forth in the small clearing. After we’d exited the caves, we’d headed straight into the depths of the forest, stopping at the first clearing we found. We needed to stay as hidden as possible. None of us knew how closely the Fury had been watching the entrance to the caves, or if she’d been tracking our movements ever since.

  “Yeah, she really made an ass of us, brother,” Marcus said, moving quickly from one end of the clearing to the next. He was on edge, his body thrumming with an intense energy that I’d seen in him before, on the night we’d raided the Blood Coven’s castle in order to rescue the mages that had been hiding from the fae. Marcus was aching to do something, and I had a feeling that something had to deal with taking down the Fury.

  “Explain, please,” I said. “Remember that I had no clue about any of this until I met you guys.”

  “Furies are strange creatures,” Eli said.

  “That’s one way to put it,” Sebastian grunted. “They’re psycho.”

  Eli shot Sebastian a look. “I will eternally be grateful that you saved my life back there, Sebastian, but for the love of the goddess, stop interrupting me every time I try to speak.”

  Sebastian smirked. “It takes you three times as long to say something. Figured princess here just wants to cut to the chase.”

  I let out an irritated sigh. “Honestly, the both of you just stop. Now isn’t the time to be arguing.”

  Sebastian crossed his arms over his chest and shrugged. “Suit yourself.”

  I glanced at Marcus, who was still moving through the clearing, peering into the forest. He was far too caught up in whatever he was doing to get dragged into this petty argument. Watching him, with his strength, his power, and his confidence, my heart swelled. While the mating ritual had been more than a little odd, it had confirmed one very important thing to me. I was his, and he was mine. We were mates. And I couldn’t wait until all of this was over so that we could enjoy each other the way we both truly wanted. Not in small moments scattered throughout quests and battles and wars, but in long stretches of time over a lifetime of happy months and years.

  “Ro.”

  I took a deep breath and dragged my gaze from one of my mates to the other. Eli gave me a soft smile, as if he knew exactly what I’d been thinking. Marcus had been right. There was no jealousy or anger or sadness in his eyes, just the same kind of hope I had in my heart, reflected right back toward me. Eli wanted that long sweet life just as much as I did, but right now, it felt so achingly far away.

  “So, tell me about this Fury,” I merely said.

  He gave a nod. “Furies are creatures from the realm of the gods, not here. They are...servants of a sort. Winged soldiers and guards, always at the ready to fight for the gods.”

  “Okay,” I said. “That makes sense, I guess. Hecate brought a Fury here when she came, and then left her behind to stand guard.”

  “Yes, that’s likely what happened,” Eli continued. “If there’s one thing I’m realizing about Hecate, it’s that she did want to leave the human realm in good hands. Even if she refuses to return, she wants magic and those who use it to flourish here.”

  I wrinkled my nose. “She certainly has a strange way of showing it. Didn’t you hear what she said in the cave?” Or had I been the only one who could hear that conversation?

  “We did.” Eli shot a glance at Sebastian. “Anyway, back to the Fury. Those creatures have one specialty when it comes to powers, and that is the ability to bind men to their oaths. Honestly, the fact I didn’t realize what she was makes me feel like an idiot. All this time, she hasn’t been contacting Hecate, she’s just been taking our oaths herself.”

  “I don’t understand. Why would she do that?”

  “Furies get a hit of power when someone makes an oath to them,” Sebastian said, frowning. “And then they get even more of a hit of power when that someone breaks the oath.”

  My eyes widened, and realization hit me hard with a hammer. Things were starting to make a little more sense, though not in the way that I wanted. The Fury had been tricking the gargoyles to make oaths to her all these years, and she wanted them to break them. Why else had she made us agree to her rules, and then practically dared us to enter the caves? She’d wanted us to break the promise we’d made. She’d locked us up, and then...

  “She’s fled, hasn’t she?” I asked.

  It was then that Marcus finally strode over to the group, a calm mask of confidence on his face. But I could see past what he wanted me to see. In his eyes, a rage flickered through the silver flecks, lighting them up like dancing stars on a violet sky.

  “Yeah, I thought it was strange that it was so easy for us to get out of those chains,” Marcus said. “Truth was, she didn’t care if we escaped. It was only a way to slow us down. She’ll be gone.”

  “No,” I breathed around a heart full of sorrow and fear. If she’d left, she’d taken with her the only chance I had of saving Jasper. “I need her blood.”

  “We all need her blood.” Eli’s mossy green eyes met mine. I didn’t know if he meant for Jasper or for himself, but it didn’t matter. Because if we didn’t get the Fury’s blood, Jasper would never again walk the streets of the City of Wings, and I would never be able to press my finger to my mate’s lips.

  “We’ll track her,” Marcus said. “While you were filling in Ro, I had a look around. There’s evidence that she came through here not that long ago. Plus, I caught a hint of her scent. We can follow her trail.”

  “Can’t Furies fucking fly?” Sebastian asked. “If she’s got a pair of wings, then she’ll be long gone. I don’t know how we can track her in the damn sky.”

  “I don’t think she has wings,” Eli said with a quick shake of his head. “Or, if she does, they no longer work. Remember, there’s a curse on this place. No one can fly here. Over time, that could have eroded her own abilities.”

  My mind began whirring over this new information, puzzle pieces sliding together in a way that made this entire situation make obvious sense. “That’s why she takes the oaths. And that’s why she tempted us to break them. She wants a dose of power. She’s trying to get her wings to work again.”

  Eli gave a nod, and Marcus beamed. They both had pride shining in their eyes, but all I’d done was just add two and two. My sappy guardians.

  “That makes a lot of sense, Ro,” Eli said.

  “Hopefully, it wasn’t enough power to work,” Marcus said, “but if we have any hope of tracking her down, we need to make a move now. She is at least an hour ahead of us.”

  Chapter 18

  If I wanted to escape three angry gargoyles and a pissed off demigoddess, I would have probably done exactly what the Fury did. She didn’t go to the beach, find a boat, and take to the seas. If she had, we would have found her easily enough. The beach was out of range of the anti-flight radius, so one sweep of the skies, and that would be it.

  Instead, she’d gone deeper into the mainland of Italy, deeper into the mountain, and deeper into the forest. And somehow, we were still very much within Circe’s territory.

  When night fell, we stopped beside a small stream that trickled by, small fish darting underneath the pale blue. We’d been moving for hours, so long that every muscle in my body ached. And my eyes. Oh, my eyes. They were heavy and puffy and desperate to close.
We hadn’t gotten any sleep the night before, unless I counted the short moments after the Fury had knocked us out to chain us up in the caves.

  And I most definitely did not count that.

  “Why are we stopping?” I asked, though my body groaned from relief when I eased down onto a smooth stone beside the stream. I could sit here for days with the way I currently felt.

  “Because you look like you’re about to pass out,” Marcus said gently, resting a comforting hand on my shoulder. “And we could use some rest as well.”

  “You know, I feel like immortals shouldn’t have to sleep,” I muttered. “Surely goddesses should be immune to exhaustion.”

  “Unfortunately, it doesn’t work that way, Ro.” Eli knelt beside me and smiled. “Don’t forget, the Fury can’t keep going all night either. She’ll need a break.”

  “I’m pretty certain we’re catching up with her, love,” Marcus said. “Her scent is growing stronger.”

  Indeed, even I could smell the faint fiery scent of the creature. It had been steadily growing stronger over the past few hours, though it was still weak enough to prevent me from pinpointing exactly where it was coming from. We’d gained ground, but not enough.

  “It’s too dark to continue on anyway,” Sebastian said. “Can’t see shit with the moon behind those clouds.”

  I glanced up, frowned. “I can. Why not let me take the lead, and maybe we can catch up to—”

  “No,” all three of them said in unison.

  “We’ll camp here tonight,” Marcus said. “And, in the morning, we’ll get back on the trail.”

  The fire flickered against the trees, casting strange orange shapes against the thick trunks. Leaves twisted and turned, full of shadows and bursts of light. I huddled next to the campfire, sandwiched between my two mates, watching the way the black smoke curled up from the fire.

  We were all silent. There was nothing much more to say, especially not when exhaustion pulled so heavily on my eyelids. I tried to fight it off, but couldn’t. Marcus wrapped his arm around my shoulders, pulled me closed, and dropped a kiss on my forehead.