“You are a great wisdom on the subject of the heart, I see, and not more than a child yourself.” He allowed a suitable amount of sarcasm to drip from his words.
She just snorted. “I’ve got eyes and a big enough brain to figure out what they show me. You could use a little work in that department. Huh? Maybe you need glasses?”
Gryton frowned at her while wrestling back his annoyance, since it just caused her more amusement.
Luckily, Anna and his mother were finishing up in the practice area, and his sire was calling him over.
Chapter 27
Erika
ERIKA ROLLED HER SHOULDERS and stretched, limbering up her muscles. She was growing soft because of this babysitting detail. Once Gryton and Gregory finished up, she planned to take a turn against someone. But just then Erika’s strange gift flared to life. She jerked her gaze back to the combatants.
While she still couldn’t control her unique superpower to the degree she’d like, she was beginning to understand it. And right this moment, it was preparing for a feast.
Erika stalked closer to the sand ring where Obsidian and Gryton were now circling each other, Gregory having finished his bout with his son earlier.
“This isn’t going to end well,” she muttered to no one in particular.
Gryton and Obsidian circled each other, both measuring and judging. Their swords connected in a clatter and then the two opponents launched themselves at each other.
The session was breathtaking to behold. They moved with swift grace. It surprised Erika the big gargoyle could move so fast, but he matched Gryton’s speed and power.
Of the two, the fire elemental was the prettier fighter, his moves more graceful, his footwork something to be envied.
Yet the big gargoyle wasn’t without skills. And his frame looked like it could deliver much more devastating strikes than Gryton’s slimmer build.
“You would think so, wouldn’t you? But you’d be wrong, Null.” The fire elemental glanced sidelong at Erika and grinned at her.
Erika attempted to sound reasonable. “Come on. Don’t be a shithead.”
Gryton disengaged from Obsidian long enough to deliver an elegant bow in Erika’s direction, gaining more than one questioning look from the other onlookers. And now that she glanced around, she realized the other fights had stopped to watch this one.
“Seriously! Don’t be a total shithead in front of everyone, you twat!”
Gryton continued like he hadn’t heard, his attention directed at the gargoyle.
“Shadowlight, I notice you still follow Anna around like a lost pup,” Gryton said, his tone inflammatory and his words loud enough to carry.
Erika instantly knew he was trying to anger or otherwise unbalance the big gargoyle. A hostile current flowed between the two opponents. While she didn’t know all the details, she knew there was bad blood between them. Now she wished she’d found time to wade through all the reports and briefing materials Major Resnick had dumped on her.
Obsidian didn’t fall for Gryton’s baiting and continued their bout in silence. He even slammed a fist to Gryton’s jaw, the fire elemental failing to dart away in time.
“Well done, Cub.” Gryton wiped his hand across his lips. “No one has bloodied me in a fair fight in a long time.”
He flicked the blood off his fingers. Where the drops splattered, tiny fires sprung up.
Greenborrow cursed in some foreign language and then stomped out each of the small fires.
While the revelation that Gryton’s blood could start a blaze had distracted her, the man in question had landed a blow that sent the gargoyle stumbling back a few steps.
Claw marks now sliced across the gargoyle’s chest.
“Want to call a temporary halt to the practice, so Anna can lick your wounds, Cub?”
“There is no magic during the fight.” Gran barked out before Obsidian responded.
Gryton tipped his head in acknowledgment of Gran’s words. “I’m not using magic. I am magic. I can’t control the fire in my blood without using my powers.”
“I wasn’t talking about the fires!” Gran gave her quarterstaff a shake.
“Ah. The armor? It also helps to contain the fire magic, but I shall cede to your wishes in this since you are correct. It does give me an advantage over a naked gargoyle.”
“That’s not what I meant either!” Gran’s scowl could shrivel balls, but Gryton seemed impervious.
A moment later Gryton’s armor was absorbed back into his skin, leaving him in leather pants and boots. His fingers still ended in talons, but they weren’t as long or as sharp looking as when his armor grew to cover the ends.
“Fine.” Gran waved her quarterstaff threateningly. “But in the future, don’t call on magic during practice and don’t draw blood. The point of these exercises is to increase your skill enough to battle an opponent and be good enough to defeat them with no need to first maim them.”
“As you wish.” He gave Gran a surly little bow.
“Keep that up, she’ll crack your skull,” Erika warned.
Gryton just arched a regal brow at Erika before turning to face his opponent, where he was being doctored by Anna.
After Anna was satisfied Obsidian’s injuries were superficial, she gave him a shove back toward the ring. “Give Tin Man an ass-kicking for me.”
Erika almost felt pity for Gryton. Everyone hated him.
“Don’t waste your pity on me, Null. I couldn’t care less about what others think of me.”
“No chance of that. As soon as you open your mouth, any pity I feel dies a swift death.”
Obsidian came at Gryton, nearly catching the fire elemental off guard.
The two opponents met with a thwack of wooden practice swords and the smack of flesh as they kicked and punched and used whatever body part they could to inflict damage on the other.
For the first time, Gryton’s boots began to kick up a small cloud of dust as he twisted and thrust and lunged. The fight lost much of its earlier elegance.
Their swords came together at an awkward angle, the cross pieces catching together. The two fighters held their positions, muscles flexing in a show of strength. They remained like that, neither giving ground until Gryton leaned close and whispered in Obsidian’s ear. Only Erika’s link to the fire elemental allowed her to hear what they said.
“I see the Cub is all grown up. Yet, by Anna’s dissatisfied look, it’s equally clear you don’t know how to pleasure a female.”
Obsidian growled a warning but kept his composure.
“Dammit, Gryton,” Erika warned. “You will get yourself killed.”
Gryton smirked at her before turning his attention to Anna. Though his words were for Obsidian. “Perhaps I should step in and offer your Kyrsu my services until you figure out the way of things.”
As Gryton had planned, the big gargoyle lost his shit in grand fashion. Tossing aside his sword, he dropped to all fours and charged.
Hastily sidestepping, Gryton narrowly avoided getting gored by the gargoyle’s horns. Then in a move almost too swift to follow, he used the flat of his sword blade to slap away the gargoyle’s blade tip tail.
But none of Gryton’s moves slowed the gargoyle. Rearing up to stand on two legs, Obsidian called on his magic. A rushing wave of cold power swirled around Erika’s body as it rushed past. In its wake, wickedly sharp shards of darkness coalesced out of thin air.
Erika started forward but instinctively halted when a dome of shimmering power rose up from the ground to encircle the ring, trapping the two opponents within.
Gryton flashed a narrow-lipped smile at the gargoyle. “I thought we weren’t supposed to use magic.”
“Rules change.”
“In that case, let me help strengthen the dome so we’ll have more time together.” He waved a hand, and a secondary layer of power adhered itself to Obsidian’s dome spell.
Anna, Lillian, and Gregory all launched their own magic at the shield within seconds o
f each other. And Erika witnessed where their combined power was working on chewing through the energy of the barrier, but if she were to guess, the two opponents would still have sufficient time to do serious harm to each other before the dome gave way.
“Hell. As much as I like a good mixed martial arts match, this isn’t happening.” She stormed forward the last five feet, her natural ability cycling up as it fed on everyone and everything in her immediate vicinity.
When she was within a foot of the shield, her strange talent expanded out from her body, looking like heat waves rising up from her skin. It latched onto the substance of the shield and burrowed in, fine filaments spreading from the point of contact.
At first, there was no discernible change in the shield. At least not to the naked eye. Five seconds crawled by. Ten. Twenty. Thirty. Then like glass fracturing under an impact, a spider-webbing pattern spread across the dome’s surface. Little bits at a time, sections of the shield fell away and vanished into a drifting fog.
Though the magic fog didn’t escape. Her superpower drew it toward her, and her body absorbed it. With a little shudder, she stepped into the ring as the shield continued to unravel.
Not wasting any time, she stomped across the distance and latched onto the two startled males. At first, she thought they’d been so focused upon each other they hadn’t seen her coming. Then she got a look at Gryton’s grimace.
“You have our attention,” his words came out in a pained hiss.
“Good. You going to behave now?”
“I doubt we could move a toe out of line even if we wanted to.”
She studied them both and then gave Gryton’s arm a squeeze. His muscles were tense, locked up tight. “Interesting. Paralysis. Think I just found another side of my superpower. Now, what was that in the ring?”
The fire elemental remained stubbornly silent.
“No? You don’t want to talk? How about you have a seat instead?” Responding to her will, her gift reached out and stripped a greater amount of magic from the two males.
To her surprise, she realized the ability was obeying her commands.
She wasn’t sure which male was more surprised. Though, to go by his expression, the gargoyle was the more flabbergasted of the two.
“Good. Now stop and think about how stupid you two jackasses just acted. And for what? To impress Anna? She didn’t look too impressed as she stormed off. But you’ve got bigger problems. There are three rather old and powerful godlike beings waiting to have a word with you both.”
Erika stepped back and then nodded to Lillian, Gregory, and Thayn. “They’re all yours.”
The oldest gargoyle flashed her a mouthful of sharp teeth. “Thank you, Null. I shall enjoy having a long talk with them.”
“Wait in line,” Lillian muttered angrily. “I’m about to have a word with my son.”
Gregory’s dark laughter echoed through the glade.
Erika would have loved to be a fly on the wall as Gryton and Obsidian got their epic dressing downs. She sighed and glanced toward the hamadryad. Unfortunately, she couldn’t stay this close without risking the tree fetus while her superpower was active.
Besides, she was under orders to report any new altercation to Major Resnick. Slumping her shoulders, she trudged toward the nearest maze entrance as the other guards stationed along the wall of the maze moved nearer to take up positions closer to the arguing fae.
When she deemed she was far enough into the maze to be a safe distance from the hamadryad, she stopped and looked around, swiftly realizing she’d taken a wrong turn. A dead-end awaited her ten feet ahead.
“Crazy freaking maze!”
Backtracking, she’d only made it down the lengths of two corridors when the shadows directly ahead shimmered and spat out a gargoyle and a female fae. They made it a few more strides before collapsing in front of Erika.
Or rather, the gargoyle collapsed, and the woman just spilled from his back to land in a crumpled heap at Erika’s feet.
“Now what? And what’s it with me and mazes and gargoyles?”
Chapter 28
Erika
SHE CHECKED THE FEMALE fae for a pulse. After a moment, she felt the slow throb. The woman was alive. But something was wrong. Otherwise, there wouldn’t be an unconscious gargoyle and his equally unconscious fae companion sprawled on the gravel path.
Since she hadn’t met either of them before, she assumed they were new arrivals to this realm. Before she examined them, she radioed in their location. While she waited for backup and the transport helicopter to arrive, she walked a circle around them, looking for weapons. They had what looked like swords and bows.
But they didn’t have wounds, so it was unlikely that they’d been injured in a fight.
From Gryton’s memories, she learned that new fae found adjusting to this realm hard. And if they just had the misfortune to meet up with a magic sucking Null within minutes of their arrival?
“That’s some welcome to the Mortal Realm.”
The gargoyle made a huffing snort at the sound of her voice. Then nothing else for a moment until he issued a second huff as his wings folded tight to his back. He gave himself a shake and then started to rise, but he miscalculated his returning strength and collapsed back to his knees.
“Hey. Take it easy.” She hoped he understood English. “I assume you just arrived. It takes some time to grow accustomed to this realm’s lack of magic, or so I’m told.”
He focused on her, his gaze sharpening.
“I’m Private Erika Emerson. If you wait here, I’ll have someone go get the Avatars. Though they probably felt the moment you appeared and are already on their way.”
“What are you? What did you do to us?” Suspicion laced his words.
Under the circumstances, she couldn’t blame him.
“I’m something called a Null. I absorb all types of magic.”
“You feed on magic?” The suspicion in his voice grew tenfold.
Erika held her hands up to show them empty then took several steps away, hoping the distance would slow the drain. “If you believe the Avatars, I don’t feed on magic since I don’t get any benefit from it. I just absorb it and then release it later.”
He slowly came to his feet and checked on the woman while keeping Erika in his line of sight. When he assured himself that the fae was unharmed, he turned his stare back to Erika for several tension-filled minutes.
Then he shrugged and shook himself. “I’m Oath.”
“Nice to meet you, Oath.”
Just then the woman moaned and rolled over, her hand coming up to shield her eyes from the sun overhead. She spoke a language Erika didn’t know.
“What did she say?”
Oath glanced between them before answering. “We come with dire news, Private Erika Emerson. We must speak with the Avatars immediately.”
Of course it was dire news.
Fate—the Bitch—never took a day off.
Chapter 29
Erika
“WHO IS SHE?” ERIKA asked as the woman blinked up at the sky, still stunned by the combination of being newly arrived and having her magic torn away by a Null. Or maybe it was the hit to the head when she smacked into the ground.
“She’s a dryad scout. Recently returned from enemy territory,” the gargoyle said as if that should explain everything to Erika.
And it meant something. She glanced back down at the female. As a human, Erika might be new to the whole Magic Realm thing, but she’d already gathered enough to know that anyone recently from the Battle Goddess’s kingdom warranted extra scrutiny.
“She carries news of the utmost importance,” the gargoyle continued when Erika didn’t immediately react.
Frowning down at the fae, Erika gave the woman one last skeptical look and then shrugged. If the fae had been harboring some spell placed on her by the enemy, it was likely gone now after the woman had been drained to the point of unconsciousness. Whatever news she carried might very well be world
-changing.
But first Erika had to get the other fae on her feet.
Nodding to the gargoyle, she said, “Help her up. The sooner we get her to the Avatars, the sooner she can share her news.”
And the easier it will be to get you both on the transport, Erika muttered in her own head.
While the gargoyle’s magic would be useless against her, there also wasn’t anything she could do to prevent him from bolting.
But she was lucky. She didn’t have to hog-tie a seven-foot-tall gargoyle. He followed her through the twisting corridors of the maze while carrying his barely conscious dryad companion in his arms.
Shortly before they reached the glade, the unit on guard duty joined them and encircled the gargoyle. There had been a couple of tense moments, but the gargoyle soon seemed more curious than concerned.
When they emerged into the meadow at the center of the maze, it was to find the others already waiting. Thayn approached first.
“Oath, Larkwood, what news?” Thayn asked as he helped set the still unsteady dryad on her feet.
Erika stepped back to a safe distance, not wanting to drain the woman any more than she already had.
Anna and Obsidian arrived next, swiftly joined by Lillian and Gregory. Gryton hung back, but still came forward to hear what they had to say. Erika joined Gryton, figuring if they all started talking in dryad or gargoyle or some other language, she could use their mental link to translate.
He glowered at her briefly but was soon focused on the newcomers.
THE HELICOPTER CARRYING Major Resnick and his team arrived before the dryad could complete her tale. A few tense moments ensued when Oath reacted in fear and made to attack the transport. Luckily Obsidian and Anna could calm the gargoyle. During the exchange, Erika learned Oath was actually very young, which explained a few things.
The Complete Gargoyle and Sorceress Boxset (Books 1-9) Page 172