Chapter 29 #3
We stopped in front of the door. It swung open before we could ring or knock. A man dressed in a white suit with a black tie and stuffy air about him greeted us. He looked about half Mr. Tom’s age but just as pompous.
“Please, come through, Miss Ironheart, Mr. Steele.” He stepped out of the way and gestured to the interior of the house.
Connections suddenly formed in my mind as I thought about the events leading up to this moment: how Evan had gotten here, and ultimately, my role in all this.
I’d taken a backseat to so much recently—allowing Austin to lead because it was shifter politics and letting Tristan and Patty pave the way since they knew the details of cairn life—that I hadn’t stepped up when I really needed to.
But now, strangely helped by Sebastian’s presence, suddenly I felt so much more in charge. Everything seemed so crystal clear.
“Cool,” I said to no one in particular. I brushed my fingers over the Ivy House pocket watch, a relic out of time, like my incredible magic. Like the house I was mistress of, guarding its people.
I was a Guardian, as well. I was a cairn leader.
But I was also so much more.
It was time I remembered that. Evan was one of my people. They all were. That was the blessing and curse of a female gargoyle, so rare. We brought everyone together. We unified our army, through better or worse.
Evan could choose to ignore me, to cast me out, but I knew his people would want to join our convocation’s purpose. They craved what Austin and I had to offer. The moment I extended a connection—and some of them already had it from when they visited us—was the moment they were mine. Not his, mine.
Gargoyle leaders could play hardball all they wanted, but if they didn’t have the loyalty of their people, they had nothing.
Just like in O’Briens, all I had to do was prove that status quo.
In the end, as the shifters were learning with Austin, it came down to who could lead the best. And that was me.
It was Austin. It was, without a doubt, the combined might of our team.
“I’m good.” I nodded. My fingers brushed that watch again, and I remembered where I’d come from, why I’d chosen magic, and how I’d gotten here. “I got this.”
“Exactly.” Sebastian walked up to stand beside me, his shoulders back, his head high, ignoring the alphas entirely. He gave me a cocky grin. “We are enough in our own right, but sometimes we need to gloss things up to show everyone else what we are really capable of.”
His gaze swept down my body, and I had no idea how I knew it, but he was adjusting the perception of my mage persona. His cunning gaze said it all. He’d adjusted my image based on what he was seeing now, based on me. I was finally connecting with who I was and what I’d become.
“Ready?” he asked me, and I knew he was asking himself, as well. We’d land this cairn and the rest would follow. Maybe not tonight, but eventually. This was trivial. The real battle was just beginning, and that was with the mages. Momar had recently proven he had his eye on us. Time to focus.
“Ready,” I replied, thinking now of what we needed to combat Momar. Of how we could stack the odds—not in our favor—but at least somewhat more evenly.
A blast of magic rocketed out of me, shaking the air and making everyone flinch. It had been a while since that had happened. Austin knew exactly what it was.
“How bad?” he asked, probably wondering if I’d summoned another phoenix, or maybe something more terrible.
Whatever it was, he’d confront it. He’d put himself in front of me and wrestle the creature into submission.
He wasn’t the best because of Ivy House, his power or experience.
He was the best because he had to be to protect me.
He’d do it because I asked. Because I needed it.
All of this, everything he did, was because of me.
I loved him so much it hurt.
But this wasn’t his fight.
“Not bad,” I said, knowing the sort of summons I’d sent. “For you, anyway.”
I connected gazes with Sebastian—no, I connected gazes with Elliot Graves.
He knew without having to be asked. This was a summons he and I would handle. Mages, some nasty, some nice, all powerful. It was time to call in the next wave. It was time to finally combat the thing that was currently plaguing the magical world, and to do that, we had to put ourselves on the line.
“Come on.” Elliot Graves gave me a playboy smile as he looped his arm through mine.
His eyes were all Sebastian, though. Cunning, intelligent…
loving and sentimental. “Let’s have a wonderful dinner and help this leader realize that he didn’t earn his status on his own, shall we?
Your team cut the legs out from under Withor, and you were just about to put the nail in the coffin when Evan showed up.
I think it’s about time you stopped playing nice, don’t you? ”
A persona. Sometimes, to get the job done, you had to strap on your armor. And if you didn’t have that, you had to strap on the confidence of a mediocre man looking for a raise in a job he didn’t understand.