Chapter 79
CHAPTER SEVENTY-NINE
Ellery
When my lightning flared around me, it created a barrier between me and the creature looming over me. No, not a creature… a gargoyle.
I almost took an instinctive step back but managed to stop myself from revealing my distress to this beast. I couldn’t see anything other than its face, as its body remained engulfed in shadows.
My neck ached from tipping it back to gaze at the face, but I also wouldn’t move it. I didn’t know if it could hear the accelerated beat of my heart or smell my fear, but if it couldn’t, then I would do my best to keep my anxiety hidden from it.
Slowly, the creature lowered until it was eye level with me. Those eyes were still that same gray stone, and while I couldn’t see a pupil focusing on me, I knew its attention was locked on me as I lifted my chin and fisted my hands.
When its claw-tipped fingers moved into view, I glanced at them before focusing on the monster again. I was afraid to look away for more than a second; if I did, it might gut me.
The gargoyle rose higher again, and my head tipped back as it straightened to its full height of almost eight feet. My lightning played off the gargoyle’s gray, stone face as it stepped forward.
The claws on its feet clicked off the stone floor. Inwardly, I flinched at the skin-crawling sound, but stayed outwardly impassive as it continued to click the longer claw on its big toe. That one claw alone could slice my head from my shoulders.
I told you so, that inner voice taunted as the gargoyle’s wings opened.
Our impending death isn’t exactly something to brag about.
My rebuke wasn’t much of one, considering that voice was right. It had warned me, and now I was standing before a creature with wings at least ten feet wide and solid gray, unmoving eyes.
I yearned to back away from the imposing creature, or cower in the shadows, but I was the one who messed up by releasing it; I couldn’t turn away from this. If they intended to kill me, I’d find a way to stop them… just like my ancestors did.
The gargoyle didn’t try to reach through the barrier of lightning to kill me. I wasn’t sure if my lightning would injure it or if it was just waiting for its friends to join in the fun before tearing me apart.
Are its friends awake?
I strained to hear anything approaching, but despite this thing’s claws, weight, and size, I hadn’t heard it coming either. The thing had been as silent as a wraith, which made it even more a child of the forest that brought me to it.
The others could all be slipping forward to surround me as they prepared to pounce… or they could already be all around me. I almost glanced away to search the shadows, but if I discovered them there, I might scream.
I could increase my lightning until it illuminated far more of the cavern, but my instincts told me that wouldn’t be well received. I had enough lightning to keep me safe, and that would have to do.
I kept my gaze riveted on the towering gargoyle while I waited for something to give. Did the heart only work for one of them at a time? Did they somehow share it amongst them?
I didn’t see how that was possible, but I hadn’t known a stone could bring gargoyles to life until recently. Anything was possible when it came to these things.
When the gargoyle lowered again, I realized its eyes rotated in its head when they roamed over me. I kept expecting to hear a grating sound coming from those eyes, but my lightning remained the only noise in the cavern.
We stared at each other as the seconds ticked into minutes, but still neither of us moved. I had so many questions, but I wouldn’t be the first to speak.
While I kept my attention on the beast across from me, my other senses stayed attuned to my surroundings. I couldn’t see them, but I sensed the others getting closer, and this time, it wasn’t my imagination.
Finally, when I could barely stand the tension anymore, the gargoyle spoke. “Who stole your heart?”
The question, uttered in a gravelly voice from the gargoyle across from me, was so unexpected that I blinked in surprise. The voice was different than when we used the wind and rain to talk to them before.
It wasn’t as guttural or harsh. It was amazingly mellow and pleasant given this thing’s towering physique and ominous countenance.
The last time we were here, fury emanated from the gargoyles’ words and voices, but I didn’t sense that as much this time. They must still be fuming about what happened to them, and who could blame them, yet this one hadn’t lashed out to kill me.
That was a win.
Despite the strange question, I understood exactly what the gargoyle meant by it. Somehow, he’d sensed my heart was missing, or maybe it understood something had made me desperate enough to return here.
“Monsters,” I said.
The gargoyle lowered itself until we were eye level again. It rested its knuckles against the ground while holding my gaze.
“Monsters stole ours too,” he said.
“I’m sorry for that.”
He tilted his head to the side while studying me. “You have returned it to us.”
“Yes.”
“Then we shall return yours to you,” he said.
The excitement that leapt forth within me was buried when, from the shadows, more heads materialized. I kept my alarm hidden as they created a circle around me.
I’d sensed them there, but it was still a shock to see them. Some of them were on full display, while others remained mostly hidden.
Deciding to take the chance of turning my back on this one, I turned in a slow circle to take in the others. I kept waiting for one of them to swing through my lightning and bash my head in, but I completed the circle without getting killed.
“If you want our help, you have to retract your lightning,” the first one said.