CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
I trained, and trained, and trained. Fire was an unwieldy beast. But my will was iron.
I crossed my arms and studied Tavin Hays as he hovered behind his travesty of a desk; it looked to be a few ounces off my weight in gold and tossed the flickering lamplight in a way that made me want to melt it. His eyes were wide and furious over the band of fire that burned at his neck.
“Your men tried to shoot me with ironweb,” I snapped. “I can only assume it was at your direction.”
“I can assure you,” he ground through tightly clenched teeth, “it was not. They will be punished in accordance with their lack of manners.” The glare he threw the five men around me was murder.
I buried my delight at his tangible discomfort and turned my ire on his halfwit guards. “Hands,” I barked.
They splayed their fingers and stood rooted. I backed into a corner and tossed up a shield, regardless, before returning my attention to Tavin.
“I don’t believe you for one godsdamned second, first of all,” I said. “Secondly, I came here with a mutually beneficial proposition. Now you’re just going to do what I tell you to.”
“I am certain we can still—”
“Sit down in your gaudy fucking chair and shut up.” I released the band around his neck. “This isn’t a negotiation.”
He sat so stiffly I couldn’t contain my smirk at the thought of a stick up his ass, too. Except, for this asshole, I favored a literal stick instead of a figurative one. More a branch, really.
“How can I help you, then?” His smile was as brittle as a half-crumbled skeleton.
I returned one sharper than glass. “I have a prob—”
The door slammed open and I whipped toward it, my hands already poised to raise my shield further—or just burn them all.
But it was a human woman who stepped through the door.
She was stunning, with thick brown waves, soft features, and a body that could bring a man to his knees.
As if Tavin were man enough to do such a thing.
Alexei stumbled in behind her and struck the ground, his face painted with agony as he curled in on himself. Griffon and the veritable armory he had pointed at his back came next. A sleek, honey-brown dog followed dutifully at one of the men’s heels.
I kept my face carefully neutral—all except the eyebrow that slowly crept up my forehead. Griffon’s body was drawn taut as a bowstring, his fists clenched and neck bunched with fury.
“It seems your stonetalon infestation is worse than I thought,” I quipped as I turned back to Tavin. He was on his feet and all but salivating as he leaned over the desk. The hunger on his face as he stared at Griffon set my fingers twitching.
He ignored me. “What in all the gods’ realms could have possessed you to come back here?” He asked Griffon. His gaze was unfettered malice. My skin prickled.
Griffon didn’t answer, but his eyes flicked to the woman. His chin dipped in a near imperceptible nod before he returned his smoldering rage to Tavin.
The dog’s nose tipped skyward and its eyes fell on me. Shit.
Tavin’s jaw clenched with Griffon’s silence. He turned to one of the men who had dragged them in. “What is she doing here?” He nodded toward the woman.
“Winnie found that stonetalon near the slave huts,” he answered, pointing to Griffon. The dog glanced up at her name, but her attention snapped back to me just as quickly. “She was with him.”
Tavin’s manic grin only widened. “And that one?” He indicated Alexei.
“Caught trying to save the other.” He snorted. “Doesn’t seem to have magic.”
Alexei’s moans were a steady undercurrent beneath the yapping, the ironweb in his system wreaking havoc without magic to bind.
“Why were you talking to a stonetalon?” Tavin demanded of the woman.
She glanced at Griffon, then raised her chin. “Because I’m the one who released him from your cells all those years ago.”
My brows shot up and my gaze snapped to Griffon. His eyes drifted shut at her admission.
Winnie stalked toward me and sank to her haunches, one of her paws rising in my direction. I went rigid behind my wall of flames and fought to keep my face neutral as the entire room turned in my direction.
“Cute hound,” I said.
“She sniffs out stonetalons,” Tavin said flatly. “Tell me, why is she pointing at you?”
I raised a brow. “Perhaps because I’ve made it my business to kill them? These clothes have been drenched with stonetalon blood. Recently, in fact.” I crossed my arms over my chest. “What exactly are you suggesting, Tavin? And I’d advise you choose your next words carefully.”
He wisely chose no words at all and turned back to his guards. He nodded toward Alexei. “Kill him. Put the other two in the dungeon. I’ll deal with them after…this.”
Griffon’s eyes found mine, the warm brown devoured by his blown pupils and the desperate question that seared straight into my bones—Are you going to help me?
He strained against his bonds, his body poised to fight.
Not just for himself, but his friend and this woman who had once helped him—saved him.
Part of me screamed to leave him to his fate. Cried that he deserved whatever had and would happen to him in Tavin’s dungeon. But he hadn’t left me in that alley, to maim and kill and drown in a lake of innocent blood.
I tore my eyes off him and held up a finger. “That isn’t going to work for me, actually.”
The look Tavin shot me was pure venom.
“You see, that one’s name is Griffon. I have been searching for him for fifteen long years. He has Solstice to answer for, and you, Tavin Hays, will not get in my way. I’m happy to dispose of the spare, as well. As a favor, of course, after you agree to all my terms.”
Tavin’s hands were white-knuckled on the desk. “I find myself surprised you didn’t reduce him to a pile of ash the second he stepped through the door, if that is the case,” he forced through bared teeth.
“Oh, such a fate is far too painless for him.” I waggled my finger between him and Griffon.
“And I was rather enjoying the show.” I burned away the rope binding Griffon and Alexei’s wrists and claimed them with manacles of fire.
I added a ring around each of their throats for good measure.
Griffon turned his murderous expression on me, his lips peeling back off his canines, but relief flooded his gaze.
Tavin snorted and released his death grip on his desk. “And my slave? Am I given your almighty leave to deal with my own traitors?”
My voice dropped an octave. “She is none of your concern.”
“Of course, she isn’t.” Tavin’s face was redder than a crimson mask. “Out. All of you,” he snapped.
“Sir, I—”
“I think our guest has them under control. Leave us!” he barked.
The men filed out of the room.
Once the door snicked shut behind them, Tavin shifted his attention back to me. Barely contained rage simmered beneath every facet of his rigid posture. “Shall we get to the reason you’re here, or would you just prefer the keys to your latest conquest?”
“I don’t want this shit stain of a property,” I spat. “But you are going to give weekly access to someone. She will take what she needs, and you will leave her alone.”
“And tell me, who am I to allow to steal from me?”
“A female gargoyle. My height. White-blond hair. That’s all you need to know.”
He leaned forward, a glint in his eyes. “The infamous Lydia Blake, gargoyle hunter and executioner, working for her prey? What would the council think?”
I dissolved the wall of fire in front of me and took one, calculated step toward him.
He jerked back. “I work for me,” I said, the words barely above a whisper.
“The gargoyle and I have a mutual acquaintance that I’ve recently become involved with.
It’s come to my attention that she provides him with fable for medicinal purposes. ”
A thin smile flattened out his lips. “Why, I thought you were involved with young Mr. Wylder.”
“Involved, yes. Married to, no.” Let him think me a whore.
This asshole would never know about Brie.
The topic of sex was a lovely segue into the little reminder I’d come to deliver, anyways.
“The nature of my relationship with both has something to do with that thing you dared suggest a decade ago.” I tilted my head and tapped my chin.
“Just without the bribery component because, well, real men don’t have to pay a woman to fuck them. ”
A vein throbbed at his temple. “She may come into my fields once a week, but she will pay—”
“No, she won’t.” I took another predatory step.
“You’re sitting on an incredible medicinal drug, yet you make a fortune selling rich bastards sex-crazed visions instead.
” Two more steps brought me flush with his desk.
I slapped my hands on its surface and looked him dead in the eyes.
“You are not going to tell anyone. You are not going to harm a hair on her head. You are going to sit your reprehensible ass down and let her take what she needs. If you don’t, your dick will make that banana from all those years ago look like a snack fit for the fucking gods. Got it?”
The color drained out of his face.
“And don’t even think of sending a Shadow after me. Someone already tried that. Dane Carthwright paid for it with his life.”
His eyes bugged out of his skull at that.
“Looks like you’ve got a new leader to negotiate the terms of your kills with.” I spun around and sauntered to Griffon. I stopped just in front of him, a smile playing on my lips. “I’m going to enjoy what comes next.”
His expression was nothing short of predatory, the heat in his gaze scorching me under my thick layers. “So am I.”
I dissolved the bonds around his wrists and tossed a lazy finger in Alexei’s direction. “Get this trash off the floor.” I glanced back at Tavin. “And have five doses of ironweb delivered to the gate.”
Once Alexei was slung over Griffon’s shoulder, I shoved him toward the door.
Once there, I halted and pivoted back to Tavin. “Oh, and one more thing.” My tone lost every hint of amusement. “You don’t have ‘slaves’ anymore. You have employees under my protection, who earn a fair wage. I wouldn’t advise tossing them to the streets, either.”
The vein in his forehead looked like it might explode.
“Your cock is counting on you, Tavin.”