Chapter 4 – Celaeno
CELAENO
“You hit me!” I shout at my attacker, glaring. My face throbs and I try to catch him by surprise and twist free, but I get nowhere. I can't move against him and he knows it.
The man lowers that face… the one I thought was beautiful just seconds ago, so that his mouth almost touches mine. He hums with strength, with something masculine and powerful. A shudder moves through my body that I don’t understand.
He doesn’t answer, just hovers above me, glaring.
I stop fighting and submit to his hold.
“What do you want?” I ask, my voice wavering.
“Grey!” someone shouts behind us.
His head spins toward the source of the noise, his nostrils flaring. The muscles in his jaw clench so hard I think he’s going to break his teeth.
Another man moves closer to us and into my vision.
I’m immediately struck by his size. Like the man on top of me, he’s as big as a god.
His hair is lighter, if only by a little.
And it’s shaggy, pushed back from his face like he runs his fingers through it far too much.
His face is gentler than the man above me, and yet, he’s angry.
His brows drawn together in frustration.
“You’ve got the collar on her. Get off of her.”
The man above me growls low in his throat like a beast whose been challenged.
I remember the coolness at my throat. Did they really put a collar on me? I wondered about my inability to shift. Does it have anything to do with the collar? Or is it something these men are doing to me?
“You heard him,” I say, steadying my voice. “Get off of me.”
The man doesn’t move, and his body feels heavier and heavier.
“Now!” I shout.
“Grey…” the man begins again.
At last, he rolls off of me.
Before either of them can react, I leap to my feet and start running. The edge of the building comes faster and faster. I can sense them behind me, feel their breath as they draw closer. The only sound I hear is their feet pounding the concrete.
I reach the edge of the roof.
“Don’t!” the second man shouts. “You can’t shift!”
My lips curl into a smile, and I leap. Crossing the impossible distance, I land on the other building. Then, looking back, I grin.
“Sorry, boys, not today.”
I continue running, leaping from one building to the next. I have to put as much distance between them and myself as possible. I don’t know why I can’t shift, but I’ll figure out a way to get this collar off and see if that fixes it.
Either way, I’m not sticking around to see what the two hot assholes want.
I reach the edge of the next building and jump for the next. In mid-air, I'm caught by something—someone—and a shout of shock explodes from my lips. I'm held tight, in an unbreakable hold, and we’re rising into the sky.
This is a third man, different from the other two. His dirty blond hair covers one of his eyes and his thin sweater is stretched across broad shoulders. And yet… it’s his skin that draws my attention. It’s… grey. Behind him, big, grey wings take us higher and higher.
“Gargoyle,” I whisper in complete terror.
He glances at me, his eyes unreadable. “Celaeno?”
No. No. This can’t be happening! Gargoyles used to crowd the skies, the only predators who hunt my kind. They were known to kill anything that threatened mankind.
And yet, as the years have passed, their numbers have faded. I can’t remember the last time I saw one. They’ve become more myth than reality.
I’d even forgotten to fear them.
“You have the wrong person,” I say, even though the words come out too high.
He’s holding me tightly, but not cruelly. I’m trying to figure out what he’s thinking. Does he believe me? Or does he know who I am and plan to kill me? He tilts his head, studying me without a word.
And then I feel the air shift. Beside us, two more gargoyles appear. I recognize the men who attacked me earlier.
I’ve just had the worst day of my life, and now three gargoyles have come to kill me.
“We know who you are,” he says, after a long minute. “We saw what you did to those humans.”
There are so many things I could do right now. I could call for my birds’ help. I could try to escape, and yet, I’ve lived such a long, lonely life.
Maybe death is the only way to truly escape.
I lean my head against his chest, and despite everything, I start to cry again.
We fly for a long time before we stop in a clearing in the middle of thick woods. He sets me down, and I collapse onto my knees. Before I can rethink my choice, I bow my head.
“Just do it.”
My request is met with silence.
Squeezing my eyes shut, I clench my hands in front of me, waiting for the sword that will take my head. All gargoyles know that beheading is the only way to kill my kind. Sweat trickles down my back. Birds sing sad songs in the trees around me. Still, I don’t move.
This is it.
I hear the slightest sound. And I know without looking up that the cruel gargoyle with black eyes has come to stand in front of me.
Inhaling, I hold my breath and wait.
Of all the ways I imagined how today would go, I never thought it would end like this.