Chapter 28 – Jordon
JORDON
We walk through the gargoyle village. Many of the children are out with their fathers.
Watching them run and play fills me with a longing I think I’ve had for a long time but pretended I didn’t.
I acted as if helping to care for the children and the families was the same thing as having my own family, but it isn’t.
I’ve been living a lie. Miserable in my own skin and feeling trapped in this place. How had I just kept pretending for so long?
“Will you miss it here?” Elliot asks me softly.
I shake my head. “No, I don’t think I will.”
Since we’ve come back, the four of us have talked in ways we haven’t for years. We’ve realized that we’re not happy and that life is too short to be this miserable. When we’re done sorting things out with the shade, we’re leaving.
And I don’t think we’re coming back.
“What will your Elites do with me?” Shade asks from my other side.
Unable to help myself, I wind my fingers with hers, and she looks up at me with those brilliant purple eyes. “We’re not sure what they want, but we know we won’t let them hurt you.”
“Why?” she asks.
“You know why,” Damon responds. There’s a grumpiness to his voice, but also an affectionate note.
Deciding to stop drinking hasn’t been easy on him, but we’re all doing what we can to keep him focused on why he’s doing it. Because life might not be short for us, but it still shouldn’t be wasted.
“Why?” she asks again after a quiet moment.
“Because we care about you.” Cody says the words in nearly a whisper, as if he’s embarrassed.
“I care for you too,” she tells us, sounding surprised.
I release her hand, even though I don’t want to, and we stop before the largest building in our little town. Our great hall. A building where the Elites wait for us to bring the shade to them.
Deep down, I think Elliot still holds onto the smallest hope that his father will finally be proud of him. And there’s a tension in all of us, because no one wants to say the words aloud… That we’ve come to the conclusion that the Elites sent us on a mission they didn’t plan for us to survive.
It’s changed the way we feel, about this place and about these people. Because while loyalty is something every gargoyle embraces fully, none of these people feel the same loyalty to us.
“Time to face the music,” Damon says.
Cody laughs. “Hopefully for the last time.”
“The last time?” she asks.
I lean closer to her. “We talked and none of us plan to stay here. Apparently some of the things you said got through our thick skulls, and we plan to chase a new life after this.”
Her eyes sparkle. “Can I come?”
I draw back, surprised. My gaze meets those of my brothers. We never discussed having her come with us. Actually, I think we were too scared to, even though it was in the back of all our minds.
Could a relationship between us really work? It’s not like we’re the first gargoyles to fall for a monster, nor do I think we’ll be the last. But things are so new between us. We’re still trying to figure out who we are without our unwanted responsibilities and the sanctuary.
“Just think about it,” she says, giving me a sweet smile.
Then she starts heading for the door.
We scramble after her, and Damon might act all cool, but he rushes to open the door for her. She gives him another one of those smiles of hers, and his cheeks turn the slightest shade of pink.
I walk in after her, raising a brow at him.
He mumbles, “Shut up.”
I have to clench my teeth together to keep from laughing. Now is the time to face the Elites and stand strong as a Brotherhood. There will be plenty of time to tease Damon later.
We end up walking in a line next to each other as we move toward the oldest members of our community. We slow our pace to match Elliot’s, who doesn’t try quite as hard to hide his limp from them. A fact that makes me oddly proud.
I’d known that Cody, Damon, and I have changed a great deal as people during the mission, but it wasn’t until this moment that I saw the change in Elliot so clearly.
And he’d changed in the best possible way, just like all of us.
His head held high. His brown eyes locked straight ahead of him.
His confidence radiated the way it always should have.
“Elites,” he greets when we stand before them.
Galena sits a few spots down from the new head of the Elites, Norbert.
The healer’s eyes are kind as they slide from the shade to us, and it hits me for the first time what she must be thinking.
After helping the female monsters give birth to their own children, she must see in us the potential for happiness and love too.
Why hadn’t I seen it until now?
My gaze moves to Shade. She looks so beautiful, wearing a white cotton shirt and dark slacks, sent to her from one of the female monsters.
Her feet are bare, but it suits her, and her hair has been pulled back, revealing the weaving strands of purple.
Her horns are concealed, and her skin almost looks tan in the light.
She could pass for a human right now. Which is a strange realization.
“So,” Norbert draws out the word.
Steel slides into my spine, and I stare back at him. I don’t like Norbert. His hair is a steely grey that reaches his shoulders, and his eyes are dark, almost black. Unlike Edgar, who radiated anger and power, Norbert hid his thirst for power better. But not well enough.
“You were successful,” he says.
I see Elliot’s father, Gary, draw himself up taller, and I can sense his rage.
He didn’t expect his son to come back. Perhaps he even hoped he wouldn’t.
. Gary has done everything possible to try to forget that Elliot was his son over the years, and Elliot’s mother has done everything to try to forget that many years ago she chose such an awful man.
Even if it was a miracle that he was able to get her pregnant.
“We killed the vampires,” Elliot tells them, drawing himself up taller. “Just as we were asked.”
“And you brought the shade…”
“We brought the shade, because she’s the only reason we’re still alive today. She helped us and fought back against the vampires. So when she was injured, we brought her to the place we knew she could be helped.”
Norbert’s eyes narrow. “What are you saying?”
“Whatever you have planned for her, well, plans have changed.” Elliot’s voice comes out so strong and certain that I wish I could clasp him on the back.
“We won’t allow her to be hurt.”
Gary suddenly stands. “What the hell, son? You had one job to do…and you can’t even do that well!”
The shade surprises all of us by speaking. “You must be Elliot’s father.”
Gary’s brows rise.
She takes a step closer to him. “I don’t like you.”
For some reason, I laugh. Maybe it’s because Gary looks like she just slapped him, or maybe it’s because she’s absolutely right. I don’t like him either.
Gary shifts into his stone form. “You, monster, do not get to address me, an Elite gargoyle.”
The shade doesn’t even flinch; she stares back at him with a kind of confidence that makes pride grow within me. I don’t think Gary has ever met a person who wasn’t intimidated by him.
“I’ve decided that I don’t like gargoyles, other than these ones beside me. You’re…assholes who don’t appreciate Elliot for who he is. You’re men so focused on what you want that you don’t care if the people around you are unhappy.”
Elizabeth stands and puts a hand on Gary’s chest. “She’s not wrong.”
Gary whirls on her.
She shrugs, her long white hair shifting on her shoulders as she does so. “Our youthful gargoyles are lost and unhappy. We’re trying our best, but it doesn’t seem to be enough.”
Gary shifts back into his human form, and I can see him breathing harshly. “This should not be discussed in front of the monster.”
“Why not?” the shade asks, seemingly unaware of his anger. “I have a lot of ideas that could help.”
Elizabeth’s gaze actually gentles as she looks at Shade. “What kind of ideas?”
Gary opens his mouth, but the shade answers.
“For one, I think it’s wonderful that you’ve created this sanctuary for your gargoyles, but they need more.
They need to see the world. They need to have other purposes than just killing monsters.
The world has changed. You can’t just keep doing what you’ve always done and think it’s going to work.
” She pauses, then looks at us. “Because the way things are, they aren’t free to find their happiness.
And that’s…wrong. They deserve to be happy, and to be free. ”
“Happy and free?” Gary shouts, his gaze snapping to his son. “Is that what you want?” he sneers.
For the first time in our lives, Elliot holds his gaze. “Actually, that’s exactly what we want. And once we’re done here, we’re going. You all think we’re useless. We’re going to find a place we aren’t.”
“A cripple, two drunks, and a gargoyle who might as well not exist?”
“That’s right,” Elliot says.
Elizabeth falls back into her seat and leans to one side to speak to the other Elites. All of them look upset. Yes, they’ve made it their goal to continue the gargoyle race, regardless of the consequences, but they’ve never cared what happened to the younger generations until now.
I wonder if they regret all these years of making us feel small and insignificant.
Suddenly a guard enters the throne room.
Norbert raises a brow, his calculating gaze lifting from us to the guard. “I said we didn’t wish to be bothered.”
“There’s a problem,” the guard says.
Norbert’s eyes flash with anger.
“The gargoyle and his…phoenix brother have arrived. With the head of a monster.”
Norbert curses softly. “I don’t have time for their pathetic attempt to be seen as Brothers. Send them away!”
“They want to speak to an Elite.”
Norbert opens his mouth, then closes it. Leaning back in his throne, he says, “Fine, everyone out. I would speak to the shade alone. Gary, I’ll have you address the traitor.”
We start to argue at the same time as the Elites do.