by Cate Corvin
Selter dropped his mockery of concern, shoving his hands back in his pockets along with Sawyer’s phone. “He was promised a Sapphire stoneheart in exchange for bringing our employer the Ruby. There aren’t many things a man won’t do for that sort of trade. But you know why I’m still around, Zara?”
I glared at him through the bars with red-rimmed eyes, remaining silent. The thought of Josh as a Sapphire stoneheart was utterly horrifying, and I felt bone-deep relief that he’d died before he’d gotten his hands on one. The hell I’d be in if they’d followed through on their promise was unfathomable.
“Because I don’t aspire above my level,” Selter said, leaning in close. “He was a dangerous liability, a failure at his job, and he wanted too much. It was a shame I had to put him down, he had such promise in the beginning. You had that same potential, but I can’t do anything for you now.”
“That won’t stop them from killing you anyway,” I said through gritted teeth. This whole damn time, if I’d just listened to my gut instinct that Josh was dirty, I might’ve been able to see it all clearly. I’d have made the connection to Selter, realized just how deep the rot within the department had spread.
Robert laughed and spit a stream of tobacco to the side. “You’ve got it all wrong, sweetheart.”
No wonder Robert hadn’t given two shits if we brought him in. He’d known there was an inside man to send him right back onto the streets, into the waiting arms of his gargoyle employers. Chasing him down had been for nothing.
For a minute, I felt regret that I didn’t drop him off the side of the building when I had the chance. At least that would have been some form of justice for the innocent lives he’d stolen.
“Oh, I don’t think so.” Selter was a smug fucker, so sure of himself. “We look out for our own here. That’s something you gotta understand. Unlike your little crew of gargoyles. Even Hawkins didn’t stay loyal to you. I warned you about him, told you I’d be a better partner. Now he’s probably off fucking the blonde since you’re a lost cause.”
I said nothing, of course. There was no way Angelique would’ve lied for me if she was on their side, but I couldn’t let any hint of that show or we’d both be at risk. In my case, at even greater risk.
Robert shifted in place, glancing up at the hypersonic emitter on the wall outside my cell. “Let’s get this show on the road, Selter.”
Selter was suddenly all business, digging in his pockets until he pulled out a key card. “Right. Get that emitter turned off. She’s been under long enough to be weakened enough that we can get her out of here.” He swiped the card and the cell doors clanked as they unlocked. “Don’t try to get cute with me, Zara. You might be stone, but you’re all softened up. I could break your arms just as easily as before. Step to the back of the cell, turn around, and put your hands up.”
My teeth ground together painfully, but I obeyed, even while fury coursed through my veins. A thousand scenarios flashed through my head, and I landed on a single vision that made sense.
Wherever they were planning on taking me, it was the end of the line. They’d been softening me up so they could cut the stoneheart from my chest with ease, which meant there were no second chances if I went along without a fight this time around.
There was only one thing I could do. It might break me, but I was sure, stiff with rage as I was, that at least I’d be able to break them a little too before the end.
The cell doors scraped open and I heard the scuff of a boot landing inside my cell. Selter’s breath touched the back of my neck as he patted me down, lingering on my hips and waist. His touch made my skin crawl.
“You shouldn’t have any weapons, but it’s protocol, Sterling.” He was all cool professionalism now. “She’s clean, turn the emitter off. Sterling, turn around slowly.”
I obeyed, keeping my outspread hands level with my head. Selter’s face came into view, and this close, nothing could hide his nervousness. A fine sheen of sweat gleamed across his bald scalp and forehead and his gaze flitted around wildly.
Outside the cell, Robert rose on his tiptoes and tapped at something on the emitter box. The faint buzzing that’d been omnipresent in my wrists for days vanished, and the cuffs were suddenly nothing more than heavy bracelets.
“Step into the hall. No sudden movements.”
Selter prodded my spine and I moved forward, hating him like fire. Despite that, the constant nausea the emitter had generated was rapidly fading, and my skin felt less sensitive to the air and temperature already.
I held my breath as I passed through the cell door. What if they were wrong about how long it would take the effects of the hypersonic pulses to fade?
One chance.
I kept that in mind as Selter closed in behind me, and when I saw my opening, I took it.
The dirty cop made the mistake of hooking his thumbs in his belt loops to hike his jeans up under his potbelly, and I dropped my arms, driving an elbow backwards into his substantial torso.
I might’ve been soft, but the point of my elbow dug deep into his gut and he let out a strangled “oof” that filled me with angry satisfaction. Moving as fast as my weakened body would allow, I yanked my arm forward and drove it back a second time, aiming for his solar plexus.
Selter gagged, and I spun on my heel, driving an uppercut towards his face. The bastard jerked his head aside and my fist met his collarbone instead. Pain radiated through my knuckles when they cracked against bone, but the pain was a lot less than I was expecting.
Robert’s mouth had fallen open. I shoved Selter aside and went after him, throwing my full bodyweight against his chest.
We tumbled backwards into the cell doors. Robert was yelling, but over the thudding pulse in my ears I couldn’t make out what he was saying, and I didn’t care. I drove my fist into his stomach, smashing into every part of him I could reach until a pair of hands landed on my shoulders and ripped me off him.
Selter threw me into the wall. My head collided with concrete and I went down hard, seeing stars, but the pain was dull and short-lived.
My body was hardening again. I huffed out a sigh of relief mixed with a laugh and scrambled to my feet, driving into Selter next. He wrapped his arms around me in a bear-hug, squeezing hard enough to crack human ribs, but all I felt was a vague discomfort.
Unfortunately, I wasn’t strong enough to take them down completely. The lack of food had weakened me and my head spun. Robert’s fists landed on my back and shoulders, drove into my kidneys, and Selter slammed me onto the floor.
I curled up on myself as boots slammed into me. They kicked hard, stomping down on every part of me they could reach, both of them yelling wordlessly at the top of their lungs.
Selter stopped first, his face as red as a tomato and his breath coming out in a wheeze. That’s what this asshole got for eating so many donuts, the fucking walking stereotype. I rolled away from Robert’s boots and grabbed Selter’s ankle, squeezing hard until I felt bone shift under my fingers.
Selter screamed, kicking me hard in the face. My head snapped back and the stars returned to my vision, but I was like a dog with its jaws locked on. There was no way I was letting go of this bastard until I was sure the damage was permanent.
He shook his leg, trying to get me off, and my skin scraped over concrete. I asked myself what Gio would do, and the answer was pretty simple: squeeze until it breaks. Take this motherfucker out.
Robert’s boot glanced off my spine and something dark rocketed overhead, smashing into the arsonist. I felt Selter’s ankle ripped out of my grip and strong hands picked me up off the floor.
For a wild second I thought it was Gio, but my vision cleared and the scent of a familiar cologne hit my nose. Sebastian. He was holding me up under my arms while my head lolled like a rag doll’s.
Nolan had Selter by the throat. The Topaz looked furious, his square jaw set. Robert was slumped against the cell doors, and something about the broken lines of his body told me he wasn’t getting up again
.
“What. The. Fuck are you doing,” Nolan breathed, his deep voice just above a whisper. The sound of the threat in it made my skin prickle with foreboding. “Orders were to wait for us.”
“Hey, now,” Selter said, sounding rightfully nervous. He held up his hands in that futile, wimpy gesture he liked to make. “I’ve known the prisoner for a while. Didn’t seem like a big deal if I wanted to talk to her before you turn her into stone sushi.”
My stomach turned. I didn’t need a clearer visual than that to know what I was going to look like by the time they were done with me.
“Your acquaintanceship with the prisoner ended the moment we had her in custody.” Nolan shook Selter by the collar, and the cop stared back at him with bulging eyes. He might not have been afraid of me, but there was obviously no doubt in him that Nolan could rip him apart with his bare hands. “She isn’t your toy to torment, and our employer was very fucking specific about the condition he wanted her in.”
I wanted to point out that the condition they’d kept me in was comparable to locking a pet in a filthy cage, but my mouth didn’t seem to be connected to my brain at that moment.
Nolan pushed Selter up against the wall, his forearm an iron bar across the cop’s throat. Selter’s face, red only moments ago, was steadily turning a deep plum. The gargoyle’s nostrils flared as he glowered at him.
“If there is any damage to her stoneheart, no matter what kind it is, our employer will be coming to you for his pound of flesh. Don’t think you’re irreplaceable. You’re just another crooked meatbag in a world full of them.” Nolan’s smile was both beautiful and terrifying.
Selter choked, and Nolan loosened his armbar across his throat. “I got it,” Selter gasped, tears in his bulging eyes. “I got it. Swear. I’ll keep my hands off her.”
“Keep your mouth shut, too.” Nolan released him. Selter dropped to his knees, drawing in an agonized breath. “It’s a shame she’s the one we have to carve up. Because do you know what I hate more than anything?”
He knelt down to stare Selter in the eye. “What’s that?” Selter whispered, trying to curl away from him like a worm.
Nolan leaned in, his wings trembling. “A traitor. Just because my employer is willing to tolerate your kind doesn’t mean I approve, and if I get the chance to wipe you off the face of this earth, you better watch your ass.”
Selter nodded shakily, and Nolan glared at him for a moment longer before rising to his feet. Sebastian was holding me almost delicately, but he kept me high up enough that my toes barely brushed the ground. There was no way I was breaking out of this gargoyle’s grip, especially while I was still weak from the disruptor and the ass kicking.
I decided I might as well get some last words if I was going to be turned into sushi. “That’s rich, coming from you, Nolan.”
Nolan’s glare turned my way, but I wasn’t going to be cowed. Unlike Selter, he followed his employer’s orders. He wouldn’t savage me just for mouthing off.
“You hate a traitor? Have you looked in the mirror lately? Like it or not, I’m a gargoyle, too.” I paused to take a breath, my words coming out shaky. “But you’re just going to let them carve me open. You’re a traitor to the Accords and to your own kind.”
A muscle twitched in Nolan’s jaw. His shoulders were still squared in a hostile stance.
“Someday, everyone will know what you did here. I hope they remember your name. Nolan, the gargoyle who ignored the Stone Accords and helped to cut up his own kind, kept them in cells, starved them. You’re no gargoyle. You’re just a big chunk of hypocritical, sentient kitchen countertop granite.”
He prowled forward slowly, stepping over Robert’s outstretched legs and saying nothing. I wondered if maybe I’d overestimated how much he was allowed to harm me without pissing off his employer.
When Nolan was close enough that I felt his exhaled breath on my cheekbone, he stopped. “You have no fucking idea,” he said in a low whisper. “Not a damn clue what’s going on here. Keep that in mind before you run your mouth.”
The only reason I shut up was because Sebastian’s hands were tightening under my arms. Selter and Robert hadn’t been enough to break me, but these two fullbloods would have no problems crushing me to pieces.
Nolan straightened up again as quick as a viper, his hard face going blank. He turned on his heel, revealing the new gargoyle behind him.
The gears in my brain whirred and seemed to grind to a stunned halt as I took him in.
His gelled blond hair, ultra-white teeth, and movie star looks were woefully out of place in this dank corridor, and he flicked an invisible speck of dust off the shoulder of his silk suit.
Curled sapphire horns caught the faint light filtering in through the cell windows as he strode towards us. “Is there a hold up, Nolan?” Kreslin Kobalt asked, adjusting the silk handkerchief in his suit pocket.
I felt like I’d swallowed an entire block of ice. Only three weeks ago I’d stood shoulder to shoulder with him while he worked a crowd into a bawling frenzy, never guessing that he might be involved in anything more nefarious than trying to shed his washed-up TV-star image.
“Issues with the human hires, sir.” Nolan’s voice came out as hard and flat as his expression.
Kreslin barely spared them a glance. “Find new ones. How’s my little Ruby holding up?”
All I wanted to do was bite off the finger he extended towards me, but I was still too surprised to move, and he slid it under my chin, forcing my head up to look at him. He gave me that plastic movie-star smile. “Look at you, all hardened up and out in the big, wide world. Not as fun as you thought it’d be, huh?”
Here in the cells, in his own personal hell, he completely abandoned all pretense of the suave politician he aspired to be. “I’m not a Ruby, asshole,” I gritted out, but Kreslin just shook his head and clicked his tongue against his teeth, all without losing that smile.
“Please. If you were an Amethyst, you’d be sobbing your pitiful little heart right now. I’m pushing you with everything I’ve got, and you’re giving me…” He cocked his head, examining my eyes for tears. I didn’t feel sorrow or a need to cry at all right now. “Absolutely nothing. You’re immune, sweetheart. Which means you’ve got Victor’s Ruby tucked safely away in that chest.”
It was only when he pointed out that he was focusing all of his magic on me that I noticed the buzz of energy as his magic touched mine, trying to find a way through. Fuck.
“Damien will never stop hunting you,” I whispered. My vault of ideas was empty. He was sure of the truth, and this was the end.
Kreslin lifted one shoulder in a careless shrug. “Viridios isn’t my problem, I’ve got people who’ll handle him for me. Your stoneheart is my only concern. Take her to the lab, boys. I think it’s time for me to conduct the exit interviews for our human ex-employees.”
Sebastian hefted me into his arms, and all the energy to fight went out of me.
Kreslin’s voice echoed after us, as smug as ever, right before I heard the sound of crunching bone. Both Selter and Robert had officially slipped the mortal coil. It filled me with grim satisfaction.
Until I realized I’d be joining them soon.
Chapter Twenty-Two
The cellblock terminated at an iron door that required another key card to unlock. Nolan opened it, holding the door wide as Sebastian carried me through.
Surprisingly, the other side of the door was not the cement compound I’d expected. It opened on a wide, opulently-furnished room that looked like it came from a catalogue for vacation mansions. Everything was Oriental carpet, stucco walls, and expensive wrought-iron chandeliers lit with a warm glow.
The iron door slammed shut and Nolan led us through the rest of the mansion down a long marble hallway. Oil paintings in gilt frames hung on the wall. It was so strangely ordinary, until we hit an elevator.
Nolan pressed the down button, and we all piled inside. Sebastian finally lowered me to the floor, but his large
hand remained clamped on the back of my neck, holding me in place.
“You don’t have to do this,” I said, my voice trembling. “Whatever grudge he’s got against the Kyrillians, I had nothing to do with it.”
Nolan clasped his hands behind his back in a military stance, watching the numbers descend. “It’s not because of a grudge.”
That didn’t make me feel better at all.
“Then why?” I demanded, forcing my knees to stop trembling. Every second that passed, my skin got a little harder. Soon, I’d be able to smash my wrists against a wall and destroy these cuffs… as long as I could get away.
Both gargoyles gave me an almost-pitying look. It was clear I wasn’t getting any answers out of them, and they obviously thought it didn’t matter anyways.
The elevator slowed to a stomach-flipping halt and the doors slid open. The corridor before us was concrete again, but this time it was smooth, well-lit, and obviously cared for, unlike my mildewy cell.
Sebastian pushed me forward and I walked, my fists clenched at my sides.
Then my breath caught in my throat like I’d been kicked in the gut. The corridor ended in a full-on laboratory that looked like it’d been crossed with a medical clinic, with steel gurneys lined up against the walls, and a cushioned table in the middle of the room. A bright light hung above it, and there was a table laid out with cutting instruments and an empty stainless tray.
Another metal arm extended from the ceiling over it, with what looked like a drill attached.
Absolutely no way in hell.
I shoved Sebastian, ducking under his arm and careening back towards the elevator, but it was like trying to knock down a brick wall. Both gargoyles were on me in seconds, knocking me flat to the floor.
My cheek smashed up against concrete and Nolan yanked my arms behind my back. “Zara,” he said in my ear. The sound of my name out of one of their mouths brought me up short. So I’d finally become a gargoyle with a name to them, just when it was too late to matter. “The more you fight, the worse it will be for you.”