“What they were about isn’t important. Because I’m afraid that I didn’t realize they were true visions until it was too late.” He dropped his eyes to the floor. “Which is why I keep asking you about yours. I want to make sure we don’t make the same mistake. It could cost you your life.”
“Oh.”
We both fell silent, and I struggled with what to say next. I wanted to ask him more about his visions, but it was clearly something he didn’t want to share. In fact, I had the sneaking suspicion he was counting down the minutes until I’d leave him in peace. I was two seconds away from excusing myself and picking my way back down the long flight of stairs when Silas cleared his throat.
“You did well standing up for yourself last night,” he said, referring to my horrendous discussion with the Queen in which she’d accused me of being a monstrous Unseelie fae.
“It certainly didn’t feel that way to me,” I said quietly.
“It’s never fun being the one under the microscope.” A pause. “I think she’s wrong, you know. I’ve met many fae in my lifetime, and you’re nothing like any of them.”
My gaze shifted from the paint-splattered floor, to Silas’s stool, and then finally to his piercing blue eyes. “You’ve met them?”
He nodded and pursed his lips. “They’re quite strange, the lot of them. Even the Seelies. They have an alien look in their eyes, and they like to speak in riddles. And there is a ruthlessness in their nature that I don’t believe could ever be dulled by an elixir, no matter how strong it was brewed. If you were a fae, I’d be able to tell, Rowena. That I can swear to you.”
I loosed a breath. Silas was saying everything I was too scared to hope. And everything I very much wanted to hear. He was trying to make me feel better. But why?
“You know, you’re a lot nicer than you like for people to think,” I said.
“Well, there you’re wrong, Rowena, because I don’t care if anyone thinks I’m good, bad, or horrendously terrible,” he said with a ghost of a smile. “The others…they assume I’m an asshole just because I prefer to be alone. I don’t find it necessary to correct them.”
“But don’t you ever get lonely here all by yourself?”
His eyes flashed. “Kipling is here. And besides, I’ve grown to appreciate the silence. Without it, I wouldn’t be able to…” He trailed off as he gestured at the stacks and stacks of painted canvasses scattered throughout the room.
I shifted my eyes to the canvas he’d turned away from my view. “You never mentioned you’re a painter.”
He furrowed his brows. “I’m not a painter. I just…take the images from my head and put them on a canvas. It helps me sort through the clutter and toss away the junk.”
“And was that image,” I asked, pointing to the silver-haired girl with the book, “cluttering up your mind too much?”
His icy hooded eyes met mine, and that flash of intensity that shook my bones appeared in all its brutal splendor. “No, that one right there…that I would call the opposite of junk.”
Downstairs, at breakfast, I braced myself for impact, but none came. Tess strode into the hall alone, hands slung into her leather jacket pockets like she hadn’t a care in the world.
“Queen Selene and her pals decided not to join us,” she said as she dropped into the chair next to Jasper. “Lucky us.”
“Lucky us indeed.” Marcus flashed a grin at me, his violet eyes sparkling with amusement.
We ate mostly in silence. Jasper attacked his breakfast with the kind of gusto that only he ever could. Eli ate quietly, his eyes distant as if he were lost in thought. Silas was the same old Silas, even after our conversation in the tower, and Marcus was too busy shooting me wicked smiles to make conversation.
Only Kipling had anything to say. “Have you made any progress with your powers, my dear?”
When I shook my head no, he patted my hand and drifted away from the table, toward the door. “You’ll get there. You’ll get there.”
Even though the presence of the shadow witches set everyone on edge, the rest of the day proceeded like all the ones before it. And, today, I made it to five full pushups before my arms buckled under my weight.
“Good.” Jasper held out a hand and pulled me to my feet. The wind ruffled my braid as I gasped in deep breaths, and I was thankful, for once, for the cold breeze. Today, we were training on top of one of the cliffs that overlooked the endless sea that surrounded the City of Wings. Up here, it felt as if we were the only two people in the world.
Up here, I almost felt…strong.
“You’ve done well this week,” he said with a curt nod. And coming from him, that was a glowing compliment. “Let’s spend the rest of our session together working on a maneuver.”
“A maneuver?” My heart lifted. “You mean, like a fighting maneuver? Thank the goddess. Finally!”
He laughed at my blatant display of excitement. “Has all our training together really been that awful so far?”
“I think brutal would be the right word for it. Absolutely, one-hundred percent brutal.”
He gave me a mock frown. “And here I thought you were enjoying your time with me.”
A strange heat filled my cheeks, and I bit my bottom lip. “Well, I didn’t mean you were terrible, Jasper. Just the hard-ass training you’ve been putting me through.”
He tucked a finger under my chin, his eyes flashing with the pure power he carried within him. “I know I’ve been tough on you, Ro, but only because I know you can take it. Eli and I agree. Your body and your powers might be weak right now, but you’re tough-as-nails. And you’re growing stronger by the day.”
I swallowed hard, barely daring to breathe. He and Eli had been talking about me? I was suddenly desperate to know what they’d said. Every word of it. Even if some of it had been less than complimentary. I wanted to know what these strong, beautiful, powerful men thought of me. If they’d warmed to me this past week just as I had to them.
His touch was tender, even as big and burly as he was. He rubbed his thumb against my skin, and my entire body thrummed.
“I watched you from afar for so damn long,” he murmured. “And now I get to train you, to speak to you, to touch you.”
A storm-cloud rolled across my thoughts. I took a step back, putting a gulf of cold air between us.
“I don’t blame you, Jasper.” I shifted away. Turned my back toward his. “But it still hurts. I don’t like to think about the fact that you just sat there and watched me be trapped and poisoned.”
“Rowena.” His voice was strained. “You have to understand. I didn’t truly realize what the Queen was doing. I didn’t know the elixir was poison.”
“But you knew something was wrong. I know you did.” I gasped at the icy breeze that slammed into me, at how it curled into my veins. “Even if you didn’t know everything, you still knew I was trapped in that Keep.”
His voice was gruff when he said, “You’re right. It was wrong. And I hope that I can make it up to you.”
My thoughts were full of clouds when I made the slow walk from the training cliff to the Scriptorium where Eli would be waiting for me. Jasper had offered to fly me, but I’d turned him down. I needed a moment alone with my thoughts. Those strange thoughts churning through my head.
Because while we’d stood up on those cliffs talking about moments from the past, I’d realized something. I’d only left one cage for another. Sure, I was free here in a sense. Much freer than I’d ever been. But I was still trapped. In this graveyard of a city full of stone statues that had once been living, breathing men. With no way to help them.
If I wanted to leave, I couldn’t.
There was no way out, not for me.
Marcus landed on the stone pathway beside me, folding up his wings and matching my gate. “Fancy seeing you here, love.”
I rolled my eyes. “What do you want, Marcus?”
“We haven’t had a chance to really chat, just the two of us, since I arrived last night. I wan
ted to see how you’re doing.”
“You brought my lying captors to the City of Wings. How do you think I’m doing?”
“I think,” he said in a purr, “that you’re looking quite alive and healthy, unlike the last time I saw you.”
I snapped my gaze his way. “So, you’re saying I looked dead a week ago? Gee, thanks, Marcus. You really know how to charm the pants off a lady.”
He shifted in front of me and winked as he blocked my pathway forward. I stopped short, propping my hands on my hips. “Well, if my charm causes your pants to fall off, then I certainly wouldn’t complain.”
“You’re disgusting,” I said, shoving past him as my cheeks glowed bright pink.
He fell into step beside me again. “Where are you hurrying off to so quickly?”
“If you must know, I’m on my way to meet Eli. He’s helping me figure out what kind of powers I have, since it clearly has nothing to do with shadow magic.”
“That sounds fun. Maybe I’ll join you.” He flashed me a wicked grin.
“I really don’t think—”
The whoosh of wings overhead snatched my attention away from Marcus. I dropped back my head, gazing up, up, up. Strong, powerful wings beat against the cool wind. Even from this distance, I could tell the creature spinning through the sky was Jasper.
But, instead of circling back around to the city, he aimed his body toward the distant clouds. And then he was off, his rippling body morphing into nothing more than a speck of dust.
My heart thundered as I watched him go, powerless to stop him.
Jasper was gone.
Chapter Fifteen
“What do you mean he’s gone?” Eli’s white knuckles rested on the oak table as he leaned all his body weight forward. “What did you do, Marcus?”
Marcus opened his mouth to speak. He’d been the one who had come straight to the hall, he’d been the one to sound the alarm to the others, and he’d been the one to announce that Jasper was gone.
“I’m sorry,” I said quietly, not daring to meet Eli’s eyes. “It’s not Marcus’s fault. It’s mine. I think I upset him.”
“Ro?” The surprise in Eli’s voice was unmistakable as he turned to me. He couldn’t believe I’d committed such a betrayal. I’d let him down. I’d let all of them down.
“We were talking, and I don’t know. He mentioned watching over me at the castle, and I turned away from him, told him it hurt to talk about it. And then he said he’d try to make it up to me.”
“Shit,” Silas shoved his fingers into his thick hair and paced the length of the table.
“I’m sorry.” I closed my eyes, not daring to meet any of their gazes straight on. “I didn’t realize that meant he would take to the skies.”
“It’s not your fault, Ro,” Eli said.
“I dare say,” Kipling said, “he’s gone off to do something courageously idiotic to prove his dedication to Rowena, like track down those hunters and eradicate them.”
My blood ran cold. “He wouldn’t try to do that by himself, would he?”
Because of me?
“I’ll go after him,” Eli said less than a heartbeat later. “I can talk some sense into him.”
“No, I should go,” Marcus cut in. “I can fly faster than you lot.”
“Just let me do it,” Silas sighed wearily. “The flight will give me some peace and quiet from all this bloody nattering.”
“No.” Kipling’s voice was firm, and all three shifters fell silent. The man might be decades older and even frailer than me, but he commanded a certain kind of respect from them, one that made them listen. “You three should stay here. I’ll call Sebastian. He’s the only one who can reign him back in. And if I offer him something in return, he’ll have Jasper back within a day.”
Silas pursed his lips. Eli frowned. And Marcus flat-out scowled.
“Who is Sebastian?” I asked, not for the first time.
“He’s our dick of a friend,” Marcus said.
“Friend?” Silas scoffed.
“Even more of a dick than this one.” He jerked his thumb at Silas.
It was impossible to sleep, both a blessing and a curse. I was bone-weary and desperately needed the rest, but I wanted an escape from my nightly dreams. Getting stabbed night after night wasn’t something I found particularly pleasant, even if none of it was real. Yet.
Somewhere within the city, a clock struck midnight, and I twisted in my sheets, heart thundering. Even wide awake, the nightmare haunted me. The flash of a knife. My body in a river. Rebecca’s traitorous face watching me with zero emotion in eyes that had always been warm before. I couldn’t get the images or the horror out of my head.
“Are you awake, Rowena?” came a soft whisper from the door. It was Silas.
I turned toward him, eyes wide, and shook my head. “No, I’m worried about Jasper, and I’m scared of my dreams. I know this is going to sound silly, but…this is the first time in my life he’s been more than a hundred yards away from me. It feels weird. I feel…”
Lonely.
The truth of my aching heart. Even since Tess’s arrival, I’d still felt lonely, especially at night when I was alone with my thoughts.
Silas pursed his lips, thoughtful. And then he strode across the room to the chair next to my bed. He wore a pair of dark sweatpants and a black tee, a nighttime reflection of his all-black daytime ensemble. But, in the dark here, his gaze was less shaded. More warm than cold. The ice was nowhere to be seen.
He dropped into the chair and leaned against the back. I could feel the power radiating off his skin, even from here. “I’ll stay here until you fall asleep. You shouldn’t have to be alone. Not if you don’t want to be.”
My entire body sighed, almost in relief. Comforted, just by the presence of another being in the room. Back at the castle, I hadn’t known that my statues were more than just stone. I hadn’t known they were men who would shield me with their massive, powerful wings. But they had still been something to me. Two protective guardians who kept watch while I drifted to sleep. I had never been truly alone.
“Tell me a story,” I said as I let my eyes drift shut. “Tell me about your last guardian assignment.”
A pause. “That is not a bedtime story, Rowena. It is not the kind of story to tell when you’re avoiding nightmares.”
I shivered.
Well. I didn’t quite know how to answer that.
“One day, I may tell you that story, just…not like this. Not here. Not now.” He shuddered out a weary sigh. “Instead, I’ll tell you about the City of Wings. Fifty years ago, everything was different. There were hundreds of men and women gargoyle shifters who walked these streets and called this place home.”
I cracked open an eye. “There were women shifters?”
“Oh yes. And children, too, sometimes. But the best part of the city was this tiny corner tucked far into the very back. Right on the edge of the cliffs. There were no paths that led there. You needed to fly in order to find it. And in that corner were two little shops and a bakery. One shop sold paint, brushes, canvasses, and every kind of artistic supply you could dream of. Each morning for a very long time, I would fly to my little pocket of this city, buy a canvas, a scone from the bakery, and sit down and paint the waves crashing against the cliffs until I got it right. It’s a shame those shops are closed now because I really think you would…”
My eyes grew heavy as a strange peace settled into my bones. And I had the first deep sleep I’d had in a very long while.
The next morning, I awoke in a tangle of manly limbs. Completely rested. Not one nightmare had shoved its way into my head. I glanced at Silas. At some point in the night, he’d climbed into bed with me. I tried not to think about what that might mean.
And for the first time in a very long while, I felt…warm.
Safe. Happy.
Cared for.
A throat cleared at my door, and I glanced up to find Tess staring at me with raised, waggling eyebrows. She
hooked her thumb toward the hallway. A question. An invitation. A demand for a conversation.
And I knew exactly what she wanted to talk about.
I scooted quietly to the end of the bed and slipped off, grabbing a cardigan as I swung out of the room. Tess waited in the Scriptorium, a wicked smile hanging off her lips.
“Well, well, well.” She let out a light laugh. “Looks like someone had fun last night.”
I pulled her a little further away from the bedroom door and whispered fiercely. “It wasn’t like that.”
“You’re telling me you just spent the night with that gorgeous hunk and nothing happened?” She tsked. “And here I was, thinking you were finally experiencing your sexual awakening after being locked up in a damn castle for twenty-two years.”
My face flamed. “It isn’t like that. Not really. That was just a cuddle and nothing more. He was comforting me.”
“Comforting?” She arched an eyebrow. “You can’t tell me it’s just friendship, Rowena. I’ve seen the way he looks at you. Hell, I’ve seen the way they all look at you, the shifters. And you at them. You can’t tell me there aren’t feelings there. Did you not sleep with him because you like one of the others more? I promise I won’t tell.”
This was a conversation I couldn’t be having. I’d barely even let myself consider the possibility, mostly because…well, because I wasn’t sure how I felt. And if I felt anything, who I felt it for the most.
The truth must have been reflected on my face because Tess widened her eyes. “Shit. You’ve gone and gotten crushes on all of them.”
“Shh.” I hissed at her, flicking my eyes down the hall. Of all the conversations in my life, this was one I very much did not want anyone to overhear.
“Look, I get it,” Tess said, a little quieter this time. “They’re sexy-ass men. But if you want to snag yourself a winged hunk, you’re going to have to choose eventually. You can’t have them all.”
Wings of Stone Page 8