Chapter 14
CHAPTER 14
DUMONT
D umont , Lyam interrupted me as I sprinted to the front door of the Vault .
What ? I barked. I didn’t have time for interruptions.
It’s Eloise . She just went down into a metro station. She looked distressed and uncertain where to go. I thought I should let you know.
Fuuuuccck !
I raised my hand, ready to pound my fist into the front door. But lashing out wouldn’t help me find her. I took in a long, deep breath to clear my head so I could think more rationally.
Tell me everything.
While he did, I threw the front door open and searched for her with frantic hope, as if she’d turn around and come back to me. Since there were countless stops where she could head or even hide out in the miles of stations networking the Underground City , it would be almost impossible to find her. But I damn sure would look, no matter how long it took, even to the end of my days. She was my mate!
Rushing back to our building, I hid behind hedges, cloaked myself, and shifted to winged form. Hugo and Anya burst out of the door of the Vault .
“ Where are you going?” Anya asked.
“ To find Eloise .”
“ I’ll come with you,” Hugo said.
“ No . Stay with Anya .” I didn’t have time to get into it, discussing who should cover whom and where. All I knew was that I had to find Eloise . And soon.
I flapped my wings as I ran forward and soared into the sky. My heart raced as I searched below. Where was she? I scanned over buildings and roofs. Streets and cars. Pedestrians congregated in groups. Too many lights distracted rather than helped illuminate what I wanted to see. Fuck !
Focus . Right . Panicking wouldn’t help anything. This bond messed up my mind so much, making it hard to follow reason rather than pure instinct—all which screamed find her.
I had to look at this as a commander, not as a gargoyle frantic to find his mate. Yes , I had to use the sentries. I had an entire fucking city with eyes. If I took two seconds to remember to lead my team rather than react without a damn plan, I could be more effective than flying haphazardly over a city when she was last seen going underground.
Eloise was last seen heading into the metro. I winced as I communicated that message to my team. Keep watch for her and notify me immediately if you see her. I then indicated where she was last seen and what she was wearing, which Lyam had described to me—a white sundress with daisies on it. I grimaced, remembering her excitement when she’d shown me the dress on her phone. She’d been so happy then, picking out some new clothes. And now… I gulped.
My breath came short as I continued searching, although I wasn’t winded from the flight. It was great unease that she was in danger.
Why had she left?
Sure , her letter noted the reason, but perhaps it was something more. Maybe it had to do with me. Last night, I’d shown her more of my gargoyle nature. She’d told me not to hide anything from her, and I hadn’t. Had that been too much for her? Did it lead to her running away?
How foolish of me to think that she’d be okay with someone so different from what she was used to!
Why else would she run from me when there were so many threats out in the city? Did she not trust me to protect her? Ouch . That freakin’ hurt.
Still , I had to swallow the pain and find her. Even if I did, would she want to return to the Vault with me? She’d made her intentions clear in the letter. She was leaving Montreal .
And that meant she was leaving me. Damn it all!
After what felt like an eternity of fruitless searching, a sentry interrupted my thoughts.
Dumont , I found Eloise .
Oh , thank the moon and stars.
Where is she?
This part isn’t good. A phoenix is flying with her in its claws. It must be Calix .
The air went thin, as if all oxygen seeped away. Not only had he found a way to regenerate, but he’d gotten to Eloise . My wings seemed weighted with concrete, and I thought I’d pass out.
No . Hell no. I wouldn’t let him take her anywhere.
I took a slow, measured breath to keep my head on and stay calm. Where ?
I think… It looks like he’s flying them to Adelaide’s library.
ELOISE
I mashed my eyes shut as fear seized me. No , I couldn’t look down. Who knew how high up in the sky I was now?
Please be a gargoyle. Please be a gargoyle, I repeated like a mantra.
A gargoyle would be a protector—that was what I’d learned over recent days. Dumont might have given one orders to come and get me, fly me back to safety at the Vault .
Yet , the sinking sensation swallowing me signaled that wasn’t the case.
Forcing myself to crack my eyelids open, I peered out. Bright city lights danced in my peripheral vision below, but I couldn’t look down.
After taking in a shaky breath, I slowly shifted my attention to the creature holding me. Its claws wrapped around my body like a cage—claws that didn’t resemble any gargoyle I’d seen thus far. No , these were more avian-like. No , no, please no… A shudder racked my body.
I braved a peek over my shoulder, and a gurgling gasp caught in my throat. Every hair on my body stood on end. The creature holding me wasn’t a gargoyle at all, but a phoenix. Which meant I was utterly screwed.
Panic swelled higher and I stifled another scream. It wouldn’t do a damn thing to help me.
What the hell could I do to escape this situation? I couldn’t fight. This creature could simply drop me, and from this height, there was no way I’d survive. Which meant I had to depend on this monster to keep me alive.
Regret piled on like bricks stacking up the walls of a fortress. What had I done? Why had I run?
Mustering my courage, I asked, “ Who —who are you?” in a trembling voice, although I feared I knew the horrifying answer.
The phoenix responded with a birdlike cackle. “ You don’t recognize me, Eloise ?” Its sinister voice echoed through me, leaving my skin frigid.
One pounding heartbeat. Then another. Three more before I could find my voice again. “ Calix .”
His breath was hot on my neck. “ Surprised ?”
I recoiled but there was no way to escape him.
“ Ye -yes.” After a shaky inhale, I asked, “ How ?”
“ Don’t worry about that. That magic is beyond your comprehension.”
And likely dark as hell. “ But —but why me? Where are you taking me?”
He didn’t respond for several seconds, and the uncertainty of our destination amplified my terror. “ You’ll see.”
His answer didn’t help.
He tsked. “ How foolish you are, little Eloise . I’d been trying to find you, and you made it difficult by hiding out with the gargoyles.” A mirthless chuckle followed. “ Then you walk right out into the open unprotected. Almost too easy…”
I lifted my fingers to my temples and rubbed them. What he said was true. I screwed up badly. Instead of putting my trust in Dumont and Anya and the sentries, I ran away. What a tragic mistake that had been. And now…
Although I wanted to press my eyes shut once more and not look below, I had to know where we were going. Flying across Montreal in the grasp of a powerful monster was enough to make me want to scream the entire way, but I had to be sensible and not freak out.
“ How are people not noticing us?” Surely , the people below would find the sight of a massive, winged creature carrying a woman through the sky unnatural, but no one had reacted as of yet. It was like—we were invisible.
“ Are you”— I swallowed—“cloaked?”
After a few beats of his wings, Calix replied, “ I see you learned a thing or two from those stone-heads.”
The lights of the bustling city below spread farther apart as we appeared to be flying away from it. We passed over a tree-covered area and soon after flew toward a building—one with gargoyles perched on the roof.
I gasped. Oh god. “ The library?”
“ Yes . You know what I want from there. And I know you can get through the wards.”
“ But —”
The two gargoyles animated as they broke free from the building and soared at us. A burst of flames shot across the sky toward them—coming from Calix . I shrieked and curled into a semi-ball out of instinct.
“ Back away,” Calix shouted. “ Or I’ll burn her and the entire damn library down.”
Oh . My . God . This madman would destroy everything. Kill me. Burn my grandmother’s beloved library with all her books and art and magic.
The gargoyles, who appeared to be unscathed by the fire, paused.
“ That’s right.” Calix chuckled. “ Tell your commander that I have his precious witch. There’s nothing any of you can do. I won.”
The weight of my mistake sank through me.
Calix descended, and within seconds, we landed on the ground before the library. He pointed at the front door.
His feathered wings retracted into his back while the rest of his body reshaped. Within a blink, Calix stood before me, tall and deceptively handsome with long blond hair—the figure I’d run from in the past now claimed me captive.
“ Never run from me again, little Eloise . I’ll always come back and find a way to get to you.”
My breath caught in my throat, then came in rough pants. “ Why ?” I demanded. “ What do you want from me?”
He took my hair into his hand and let it slip through his fingers. “ Everything .”
Bile rose in my throat before I bit it back.
He sniffed at me, and I hunched my shoulders. “ There are two witches. Which one does the prophecy refer to? I thought it was your sister, but there’s something about you that makes me wonder…”
A witch will grow in power with the aid of the grimoire.
We thought it was Anya . After all, she’d been able to defeat Calix by using the grimoire and our grandmother’s magic. But I sure as hell wouldn’t admit that to him as that could put her in more danger.
I forced myself to lie, if only to protect Anya .
“ Yes , it’s me.”
Calix cackled. “ You’ll have the chance to prove it. But I may take you both with me, just to be sure. You can both serve at my side.”
“ No way.” I punched his chest, yet he didn’t react—not even wince. “ Never !”
He grabbed my wrists. “ You don’t have a choice.”
I shuddered but then forced my chin up an inch. “ Why not?”
“ Because if you don’t do as I say, I’ll burn down this entire city—starting with your grandmother’s precious library.”
A scream attempted to slide its way through my lips, but I stifled it. He knew I was Adelaide’s granddaughter even after she’d hidden it so well over the years. I wouldn’t admit to anything.
“ You wouldn’t.”
He sneered. “ Oh , wouldn’t I ? Who do you think set the other fires in the city?”
I blinked, trying to understand it all.
“ Why ?” My lips parted in disbelief. “ Why would you do that?”
“ Victoria —whom you know as Adelaide —and I have a long history. She was the most powerful woman I’d ever encountered. She thought faking your deaths and changing your names would fool me?” He snorted. “ Ha !”
Puzzle pieces from my murky past formed into pictures in my mind—the mere idea one of absolute horror.
“ Did you— Are you?”
“ What’s the matter, little Eloise ?” he mocked. “ Having trouble forming a question?”
I glared over my shoulder at this bird-creature and barked out, “ Did you burn my parents’ house down?”
If that was true, that would make him a lot older than he looked and countless times more dangerous. Yet , considering how he’d appeared to come back from the dead, perhaps that restarted his biological clock to some degree.
One —two—five heartbeats echoed in my ear before he responded.
“ The bitch deserved it for denying me. You and your sister will make up for it by serving me.”
Rage rolled through me like a brush fire that quickly escalated to rising flames. He was the reason I grew up without a family. No parents. No grandmother. No twin sister. And now Calix thought he could control Anya and me?
“ Never .” I lunged at him. “ Never !”