The Gargoyle Gets His Girl

by Kristen Painter

  Shay gave her a curious look. “Kyanna is my big sister, too.”

  “Good point. And since it’s my fault that she’s become a problem for you, I’m going to do my best to make it up to you.”

  Shay’s curiosity turned to skepticism. “How?”

  “Does that mean you’re willing to try to help me?”

  A tentative smile brightened Shay’s face. “Yeah. Okay.”

  Willa smiled back and lowered her voice. “I’m going to need a few things…”

  After Shay left, Nick lay on the floor of the cell, arms folded behind his head, which was against the wall that joined his cell to Willa’s. There was a narrow cot along the back, but it wouldn’t have held half of him. The dungeon door opened and closed. He didn’t bother moving. Whoever it was, they weren’t here for him. Willa was the main attraction.

  It was a guard with food. He shoved the meal through a slot in the bars. Nick sat up. Some kind of meat stew in wooden bowls with wooden spoons. They were taking no chances where Willa was concerned.

  It occurred to him that if they were that worried about her powers, maybe they knew something she didn’t. Hopefully Willa had an idea about how to break them out of here. Her conversation with Shay had made it seem that way. If that was true, things weren’t as hopeless as they seemed.

  The guard waited while they ate, then collected the bowls and spoons and left. When the dungeon door was shut again, Nick spoke. “Willa?”

  “Here.” She laughed bitterly. “Where else would I be?”

  “If you think we could make a break for it, I could get us out of here.”

  “How?”

  “Brute strength. I’m sure I could punch through the wall between us, then right through the wooden slats on your side.”

  She was silent a moment. Like she didn’t want to shoot his plan down too quickly. “There are a lot of unknowns.”

  “Such as?”

  “Like how many guards are stationed outside and if there’s any sort of safe distance at which the bracelet stops working. I’m not even sure I can remember the way out of here. What if you can’t get airborne before Kyanna gets control of you again? Or Zane, for that matter? And besides…” She sighed. “I can’t leave things the way they are.”

  “You mean Shay.”

  Her voice was quiet with regret. “Yes.”

  “She’s a sweet kid.” He nodded, even though he knew she couldn’t see him. “We’ll come up with a different plan. One that protects her too.”

  The soft sigh that answered him sounded happy. “Thank you.”

  After a few seconds of silence, she spoke again. “I think I might have a way. If Shay brings me the things I need. You’re right about me needing to try harder. It’s not my instinct, you know? My instinct is to run. From trouble, from confrontation, from anything that upsets my world. But I can’t live like that anymore. I have to fight.”

  He wanted to punch through the wall right then and pull her into his arms. Soft rustling noises reached him. Then her voice came at him from a different level, and he knew she’d gotten to her feet.

  “I’m going to start practicing right now. I’m going to figure this out.”

  “You need anything from me?”

  “Not yet. But I will.”

  “I’ll be ready when you need me.”

  “Good.”

  She went quiet again. Then the crystals overhead began to flicker and brighten. When they dimmed, he could hear her breathing hard. Over the next few hours, it became a pattern. The crystals would brighten, then she’d rest for a while before attempting it again. Each time the crystals grew brighter and the rest grew shorter. He made a game of it. When she rested, he did push-ups.

  At last, a loud exhale echoed from her side. “I’m spent.”

  “Rest then. We haven’t had much sleep, and judging by my internal clock, I’d say it’s after midnight.”

  “Are you going to sleep?”

  “I’m going to try. We have to stay as strong as we can.”

  She was quiet a moment. “Thanks, Nick.”

  “For?”

  “For being the strength I need.”

  He smiled. He wanted to be that for her always. “Night, Willa.”

  “Night, Nick.”

  In less than ten minutes, her breathing evened out, and he knew she was sleeping. It made him feel good that she was able to rest. He wasn’t so sure he could manage that himself.

  He sat there, staring up at the crystal that glowed dim in the carved ceiling. He’d never been taken captive before. It wasn’t a pleasant feeling.

  A soft, scraping sound turned his head. A rat maybe?

  But the eyes that stared back at him belonged to Shay. He hadn’t heard the door open. Maybe she knew another way. She hung close to the far wall, peering at him like a human child might look at a lion or a bear in the zoo.

  “I’m not going to hurt you.” He kept his voice low to keep from waking Willa. “I would never hurt an innocent.”

  She didn’t move or speak.

  “Your sister is asleep.”

  Shay nodded. She took a step closer. “Kyanna found the things I was gathering for Willa and took them away. You tell her.”

  “I will.” He reached his hand out and clasped the bars closest to him. “I won’t let anything happen to her.”

  Shay’s gaze narrowed. “Are you really a gargoyle?”

  He nodded. “Do you want to see?”

  Her eyes rounded slightly, and she gave a quick jerk of her head, yes.

  He stood and moved to the center of the cell. If he was wrong and the bracelet was hampering his ability to shift, Shay was going to think he was a liar. But a second later, he’d transformed into his stone form. The available space in the cell had shrunk by half.

  Shay gasped, eyes wide. “Wow,” she breathed. “You look like…stone.” Her hand opened, and her fingers flexed.

  He glanced down. Damn bracelet had survived the shift. He reached out and laid his fingers on the cell’s crossbar. No way he’d get his hand through now. “You want to touch? See for yourself?”

  She nodded, but wariness hung in her gaze and kept her from approaching him.

  He closed his eyes. “I won’t look.”

  Her small feet shuffled across the rock floor toward him. He kept his eyes shut. Didn’t matter. He knew exactly when her thin fingers touched his.

  Power shot through him in a hard wave, the same way it had the first time Willa had come up to him at the fountain. He almost sucked in a breath, but she’d pulled her hand away just as fast. He opened his eyes and looked at her, almost expecting to see Willa there.

  Shay stared at him with a solemn respect he hadn’t expected from one so young. He shivered and returned to his human form.

  She came close to the bars, new knowledge shining in her eyes. “You love Willa. I felt it in you.”

  He nodded, slightly in awe of the little girl’s gifts. “I do.”

  Her small fist slipped between the bars, and she opened her hand, palm up. A gold filigree ring sat there. “Give this to her. It’s all I could get.”

  He took the ring. “I will. Thank you.”

  She nodded and left as quietly as she’d come, disappearing into a dark corner. Only the faintest shift in the air marked her passage through whatever hidden panel she’d used.

  He held the ring up, then tried to slip it onto his pinky finger for safe keeping. It wouldn’t go past the first knuckle. He took his dog tags off, slipped the chain through the ring, then put the tags back on before settling in to attempt sleep again.

  Shay’s powers were clearly being hidden, most likely because Willa’s parents had finally realized what a threat Kyanna was. And how dangerous that could be for Shay. He tucked one arm behind his head. How long before the little girl slipped up and Kyanna figured out Willa wasn’t her only threat?

  He closed his eyes, but sleep eluded him. He had too much on his mind. Like how to save Willa and her little sister.r />
  Willa woke, surprised she’d slept, but glad she had. Her plan was clear now. She just hoped she could pull it off.

  The dungeon door swung open before she could speak to Nick. A guard came with food. Hard biscuits, a slab of cheese and a jug of water for each of them. Not exactly Mummy’s. She heard Nick moving in his cell and wondered if he’d slept.

  “Morning, Nick,” she called over.

  “Morning, beautiful,” he responded.

  The guard grunted. Willa fixed him with a stare as he slid her tray through the slot. She grabbed it and went back to the bench to sit and eat. She was hungry and knew she needed to keep her strength up, but she also wanted to talk to Nick, and the guard wouldn’t leave them alone until they were done.

  Nick finished first, a sign he understood the same thing. She drank as much water as she could stomach, split the biscuit and tucked the cheese into it, then shoved the tray out through the slats. It clattered to the ground.

  “There,” she said to the guard. “Now you can go.”

  He picked up both trays and left, scowling. Like she cared what he thought. She reached through the slats to grab the bars on Nick’s side.

  Pings of fear, anger and sadness washed through her from the metal. She shuddered and forced the feelings down. “Nick. Come to the bars.”

  His warm fingers interlaced with hers. “How are you doing?”

  “I’m good. I have a plan. I just need Shay to come back with the things I requested.”

  He sighed. “She came back last night. You were asleep. Kyanna took the things away from her.” His hand disappeared and the soft glide and clink of metal filled the space for a moment. “She told me to give you this.”

  He held up a pretty gold ring made of whorls and spirals. Her mouth came open as she took the ring. Happiness and longing curled through her. “Shay gave this to you?”

  “Yes. Does it mean anything?”

  She nodded, then realized he couldn’t see her. “Yes,” she whispered. “It was mine.” Her parents had either given Shay the ring or Shay had found it. A few threads of worry coiled into Willa’s skin from the metal, probably the remnants of Shay’s feelings as she’d brought the ring to the dungeon. But that was the extent of the emotion. Perhaps Shay hadn’t worn it and had kept it in a jewelry box. Either way, there were no big negative feelings attached to it. “Did she say how she got it?”

  “No, sorry.”

  She slid the ring onto her finger and leaned against the slats to reach her arm through to Nick’s side again. “I’m happy to have it, but it’s not enough.” Her plan was crashing down around her.

  He laced his fingers with hers again. “What were you hoping for?”

  “Enough metal to get us out of here.”

  “Like for a key?”

  She rested her head on the slats. “No. I was going to make you a new bracelet. One that would keep you safe from the influences of any other fae.”

  “Maybe you could try again to get this one off me. Use the metal from that.”

  “Won’t work. The metal on the bracelet is tainted with too much magic already. I wouldn’t want to risk reusing it. New magic layered on top of old could confuse it. Make it dangerous to you.” She let out a long sigh. Then a soft curse.

  “How much metal do you need?”

  “More than this ring.”

  His hand disappeared again, then she heard the same soft metallic clinking she’d heard earlier. Then he held out his dog tags. “Would these work?”

  “Oh, Nick, I can’t ask you to—”

  “Of course you can. Our lives are at stake.”

  “Even so, these must be important to you.”

  “Not as important as you are.”

  “Thank you.” She took them. The sensations spilling off them made her close her eyes. Courage was the strongest, followed by determination, then loneliness and discovery and, finally, trace amounts of fear. If she hadn’t already fallen for Nick, touching his dog tags would have pushed her over that edge. She smiled. “These are perfect.” His willingness to sacrifice something so dear would only strengthen the magic. Her confidence returned. “I’m going to work on this immediately.”

  “Then?”

  “Then I’ll put this new bracelet on you, get the old one off and we get out of here.” It wasn’t going to be quite that easy, but she worried that Nick would try to stop her if she told him the whole thing. Not only that, telling him would mean Kyanna could get the info out of him if she wanted.

  Willa’s plan was risky. Life-or-death risky. She just didn’t know how else she was going to get them both free and protect Shay.

  “Sounds good to me. You need anything else?”

  She reached back to touch him one more time. “You don’t have a bar of gold over there, do you?”

  “Not today.” She could hear the smile in his voice. “You can do this, Willa. I know you can.”

  “Thanks for the vote of confidence.”

  “Is there any chance what you’re about to do could hurt you?”

  She hesitated. “There’s always a chance. But it’s never happened yet.”

  He gave her hand a little squeeze before sliding it back. “Well, be extra careful this time.”

  “I will,” she said.

  She took the dog tags and the ring and went to the bench. It was wood, like everything else in her cell. Not as pristine as her porcelain tub, but it would work. Before she’d moved into the apartment above the store, she’d done her magic in a large wooden salad bowl. She nodded. The bench would get the job done.

  She peeled the rubber silencers off the dog tags, then put them on the bench. Next she slipped the ring off and set it beside them. With great focus, she kneeled and raised her hands over the two objects, closing her eyes and opening herself to the metal.

  The heat and energy they emitted traveled into her palms and through her body, curling inside her rib cage with an easy pressure. The ring and the dog tags were still very distinct from one another. Both metals, gold and stainless steel, tended to be proud, but happy, which made them easy to work with.

  The courage of the dog tags resonated the loudest. For the little gold ring, it was a true mix of happiness and longing. All three emotions would work well in the new piece.

  She opened her eyes and took control of the metals. The ring sat up on its shank, while the dog tags rose to balance on their thin edges. The ball chain dangled down, pooling on the bench.

  She pictured the bracelet Nick was wearing. She wanted to replicate that as closely as possible and melding two pieces into something brand new was tricky. And rare. Usually her work meant she was combining the sacrificed piece into the new piece she’d already created. She was going to have to be careful and precise. There would be no second chance to get this right, and she had no tools to use to make adjustments.

  Whatever she ended up with was going to be the finished piece.

  With that in mind, she fixed the image of Nick’s bracelet into her head. Focused on it. Then again on the pieces before her.

  She willed them to obey her, to be open and agreeable to change. To accept their new form with happiness and to understand how important their purpose was.

  She closed her eyes again and located their energies within her chest. She took hold of them and forced them toward each other with her mind and her hands.

  When she opened her eyes, two shimmering clouds of metal danced before her. They overlapped slightly and her palms tingled, a sure sign that the process was working.

  She smiled. And began to work the magic that would finalize the process. “Free Nick from the influence of all fae. Protect him from their commands. Let him be his own person, free to use his own mind and strength and true form in any way he wishes.”

  She took a breath and brought the image of the bracelet to the forefront of her mind again. “Create this shape. Hold fast to it and meld with each other into something stronger. Become one with a new purpose.”

  She c
losed her hands in, pressing the clouds of metal into each other. There was no resistance, a strange and wonderful thing. The clouds blended and the small sparks of gold and steel wove together to form a tight sparkling ball. The energy increased, growing stronger and slightly frantic. Eager, really, but a little hard to control. She clung to the magic, restraining the metal as best she could, but it was aligned with her, channeling her need for the end result to be flawless. She refocused her attention, holding strong to the image of the bracelet, then brought her hands together and gave the cloud one more push.

  With a metallic twinkle, the cloud took on the shape of the bracelet and solidified. The brand new cuff stood on end for a moment, then fell to the bench, the shine and sparkle of the cloud gone, the metal transformed.

  She sucked in a deep breath and sank back on her heels, her body slightly numb and her limbs leaden. The work had been draining, but the result was perfect. Her best yet. She ran her fingers over the bracelet and smiled. It looked exactly like the one Nick was already wearing. No one would be able to tell the difference.

  Not by looking at it.

  “Nick,” she whispered. “It’s done. And it’s good.”

  “I knew you could do it.”

  “Thanks.” She heard the exhaustion in her voice so she knew Nick heard it, too. “Just give me a minute and we’ll do the next step.”

  Willa was quiet for about a quarter of an hour before she spoke again. He let her be. Whatever she’d done, she’d done for him. For them, yes, but making a bracelet that would free him from the commands of Kyanna and Zane was first and foremost for him.

  Gratefulness overwhelmed him, but there was no way to show it when he was still separated from her by rock and steel and wood. He rested his head against the rock separating them and tried to think of the right words to express how appreciative he was. Then she called his name.

  “Nick?”

  “Right here, sweetness.”

  “I’m ready for the next step.”

  She still sounded tired. “You sure you don’t want to rest some more?”

  “I’m good.”

  He waited a beat. “I could use a nap.”