Chapter 54
CHAPTER FIFTY-FOUR
Tucker
“I have no idea! I don’t feel one, but I’m also not sure if they normally have one or not.”
I knew about the Heart of Stone; I was with Ellery and Ryker when it was discovered, but I had no idea how it worked. When Ellery returned it to them, did it break into pieces to enter all of them? Or did it magically disappear into them? Did it give them heartbeats afterward?
I was completely clueless about how these creatures worked, and we were running out of time. The gargoyle had fallen at the edge of the Revenant Woods; the shadows there protected it, but the soldiers were pressing closer.
They’d stopped trying to enter the forest, realizing it was a suicide mission and their fires wouldn’t stay lit, but they’d come for us. And they would gladly kill or capture a gargoyle. I was sure Ryker’s father would love to get his hands on one.
Looking up, I wiped away the water pouring down my face as I examined the trees. Some of the fires still burned in the underbrush, but they were mostly down to hot coals.
Many of the closest treetops were gone, and more trees had fallen, but flames no longer devoured them. At least we didn’t have to worry about a fire getting to him.
The poltergeists still hovered at the edge of the tree line, but most of the monstrous forest animals had retreated. They probably lingered nearby, waiting to pounce if anyone tried to harm the woods again, but they’d left this fight to us and the poltergeists.
I winced when another ball of hail pelted me in the back of the skull. Staying at the tree line wasn’t helping with my throbbing head.
Rising, I grasped one of the gargoyle’s wings and gently pulled it toward his back. The large wing moved far more easily than I’d expected, and when I closed it in place, it remained there.
The woman jumped up and folded the other wing before securing it against the gargoyle’s back. Once the delicate structures were safely ensconced, we worked together to roll the massive creature over.
When it fell onto its back, its arms flopped out at its sides.
The tips of its lethal claws gleamed in the fading light of the fire.
His eyes remained open and unseeing, or maybe they were closed; I didn’t know if it was possible to tell the difference.
Hell, I didn’t even know if their eyes closed.
“Is it dead?” Fletcher shouted as he fell to his knees across from us.
Much as I’d done already, he searched for a pulse. If the frustration on his face was any indication, he wasn’t having any success in finding it either.
“I have no idea,” I told him. “But we can’t leave him here. If he’s not dead, he might be by the time this ends.”
“Let’s get him moved then!” Fletcher shouted.
The three of us rose and bent to grasp the creature under its armpits and arms. The gargoyle had to weigh at least five hundred pounds, but we managed to drag it into the shelter of the trees. We gathered some nearby debris and started covering its body to keep it hidden.
The poltergeists studied the creature with curiosity as one of its brethren landed a few feet away. I stopped the process of covering its body with some falling branches as a fresh wave of cannon fire and screams pummeled the air.
A gargoyle landed a few feet away. It closed its wings as it stalked toward us. With care, it knelt beside its friend.
“Is he alive?” I shouted.
The gargoyle nodded. “Yes. She will heal.”
I guess I was wrong about the sex then. “Should we keep covering her to keep her hidden?”
“Yes.”
The gargoyle helped us finish covering her before taking flight again. I looked at the others as more cannons fired.
I couldn’t tell where they’d aimed those balls, but the hair on my nape rose as the whistling sound came closer. I started to shout a warning, but before I could get it out, one of the balls slammed into Fletcher, lifted him off the ground, and flung him past me.