“Almost there,” Tess whispered.
But then we would have to make it all the way around the side of Buckingham Palace. And then what? We still couldn’t travel with the sword.
With clasped hands, Tess and I took step after step across the drawbridge. The wood groaned underneath us, but the sound didn’t raise an alarm. Soon, we were across. Only steps to the bushes now. Only steps before we could hide and plot our next route.
“Stop right there,” a female voice sounded from behind me, and something cold and hard slid against the back of my neck. Alarm shook through me, and Tess’s shadows flittered away into the night. The cool thing against my neck was the barrel of a gun.
“Drop your weapon,” the voice said. “And you, leave your hands by your sides.”
The last bit was to Tess. The woman must have realized we were no ordinary humans.
Sneaking out of a witch castle at midnight with a sword was the bit that probably gave us away.
For a moment, I thought about lifting the sword in the air and swinging it at her head. But then the gun dug harder into my neck.
“Drop your weapon,” she repeated. “I can get a shot off far before the steel even comes close to hitting me.”
She was right, I realized. Up against Sebastian’s threat, I’d moved at an exhilarating speed. Fast enough to make the blow. But I’d had a fire raging inside of me, one I didn’t feel now. Sure, I was angry and scared. But, it just wasn’t the same. That blazing fury wasn’t there.
So, I loosened my grip on the sword and watched it fall onto the carpet of grass at my feet.
“Good. Now, turn around.”
Slowly, we both spun on our feet to face a woman clad in all black. Long red hair fell past her shoulders in waves, and her smooth pale skin glowed underneath the moonlight. She pursed her reddish lips and pulled back on the hammer of her gun. The click echoed in the quiet night. Up above, I could feel the eyes of the guards boring down on us. She wasn’t one of them, but they weren’t stopping her from doing a thing.
“What were you doing in there? Why do you have a sword?” she asked.
Tess and I stood silent. By my side, I could feel Tess curling her hands, drawing the shadows toward her fingers.
“If you won’t talk to me, then I’ll just have to take you back to headquarters.”
“Where are your headquarters?” I asked, stalling for time more than anything else. If we could just keep her talking for a bit longer, then maybe, just maybe, Tess could throw a good spell into her face.
The woman laughed. “If you think I’m going to tell you where our base is, then you witches are dumber than I thought.”
“So, you’re one of them,” I continued. “A hunter.”
The clouds shifted overhead, and the full moon sky beamed down on where we stood. It illuminated her face, and her eyes widened into dinner-sized plates. She reached out, and I flinched as she fingered a strand of my hair.
“You’re her.” And then she gripped my hair tight in her fist. She jerked me forward. I stumbled on my feet, falling forward onto my knees. The impact shook my teeth just as she kicked her boot into my back.
My face met the ground. Dirt smeared into my nose.
And then she pressed her boot hard against my spine. So hard I swore I heard it crack.
Sobs shook my body as I tried to claw my way back to my feet, but my muscles were still too weak. I didn’t have the power, the strength. My arms couldn’t push me up, not against her firm boot on my back.
The gun exploded into the night. I screamed and waited for the pain, but it never came. Instead, the weight of her body flew off my back. Thunder roared in my ears. In the distance, the blare of an alarm cut through the night. Shaking hands grabbed my arms and pulled me to my feet. Tess stared at me, her eyes wild. She held the sword in her hands. And her lip was trembling.
“The guards are coming. We have to get out of here. Rowena, we’re going to have to leave the sword behind.”
My eyes caught the body on the ground. Blood poured from a gaping wound in her head.
“I shot her,” she whispered. “Somehow, I used my magic to shoot that gun.”
Footsteps thundered on the drawbridge, and I dragged my eyes from the hunter’s body to Tess. She was right. If we didn’t leave now, we’d be surrounded within moments. We had to go now. Which meant…we had to leave the sword behind.
After all this, we had to leave my sword. The one thing in the world that could help me hone my powers.
Wind whirled around me in a bitterly cold tornado. A winged form blocked the moon above as the violent power of Silas filled the Gardens. With one grim look at the guards charging toward us, their guns raised, he grabbed Tess’s arm and mine.
And then we were off, soaring through the clouds.
Gunshots rang out behind us, and the shouts of curses when they missed. Not a single bullet hit its mark. We’d made it out of there alive. With the weapon, the one that would help me harness my powers. I clutched the sword against my chest and heaved out the biggest sigh of relief. Rowena: 1. Hunters: 0.
At least for now.
Chapter 21
“Silas,” I said, breathless as we landed on a rooftop only a few blocks from the Palace. “What are you doing here?”
“You thought we were actually going to let you go into that castle unguarded?”
He was right. That would have been a stupid thing to think. But I had.
“Why have we stopped?” Tess asked, her eyes still haunted from what she’d done back at the gates. “They’ll have helicopters looking for us any second now.”
“I know.” He nodded. “But I’m not strong enough to carry the both of you all the way back home. Not with that sword as well. Tess, will you be alright to travel by yourself to the island and wait? I’ll carry Rowena back to the city, and then I’ll come to collect you.” His hooded eyes were dark. “Though I must warn you, it may take a few hours.”
Tess nodded and blinked away into darkness.
“I brought a scabbard for your back, just in case something like this happened.” He pushed a leather contraption into my hands. “It will be easier to get home that way.”
In the distance, I heard the whir of helicopter blades.
Quickly, I slid the sword into the scabbard and attached it firmly to my back before facing away from Silas, just as I’d done with every flight so far with the gargoyles.
But Silas gently turned me to face him, his hooded gaze not meeting my eyes. “Because of the sword, we’ll need to fly facing each other. Hold tight around my shoulders.”
My breath hitched as he slid his arms around my waist, pulling me tight against his chest. He was warm and hard as stone, and his breath whispered across my ear as I weaved my arms around his neck.
“Are you ready?” he murmured.
His breath on my skin made me shiver.
I nodded.
His grip tightened around me as he pushed up from the rooftop. The dark sky slid by, the stars twinkling brightly up above. As he flew, his body curved toward mine, as if he were worried I might fall. I had been carried by all four of them now. Silas was, by far, the most gentle of the lot. But, I thought, as his powerful wings beat the air, I couldn’t let that quiet gentleness fool me. His muscles rippled under my hands as he sped up and away from London, away from the shores and far across the sea. It was as if the strength pulsed out of him, a brutal force he didn’t let anyone see.
Except, I could feel it where every inch of our bodies touched.
I shifted my head, turning toward him, pulling back just enough so that I could see his face. Moonlight reflected across his features. The darkness of his hair and the ice blue of his eyes. The strong jaw. The high cheekbones. The mouth he always pursed when he was lost in thought.
Blushing, I glanced away.
“Thank you,” I said. “For saving me.”
He grunted. “I didn’t save you. Tess did. I’m merely providing the exit strategy.”
>
“Still, you were there,” I said, raising my voice over the sound of rushing wings. “We’d be stuck in London still. If it weren’t for you.”
“You can repay me by learning to use that sword,” he said.
“So that we all don’t have to bug you in the city anymore?” I said it in a laugh, but I wasn’t joking. Perhaps all of his help had been just that. A way to get us to move on from his home as quickly as possible.
He’d made it more than clear he didn’t like guests.
His grip tightened around my waist. “I’ve seen the way you look at the sea sometimes, Rowena. I know you don’t want to be there.”
“I…” I stammered. He was right, and he was wrong.
“It’s okay,” he said. “I understand. My home is a graveyard of stone. If I were someone like you, I wouldn’t want to live there either.”
“Someone like me?” I frowned. “What’s that supposed to mean?”
“Someone who needs the outside world to be happy. You don’t want to spend the rest of your life cooped up in a city with four gargoyle shifters and an old scholar.” A pause. “You can’t tell me I’m wrong. I see you, Rowena, whether you admit it or not.”
“I…” My heart squeezed. Because he was right, though it had nothing to do with him. Or Jasper. Or Eli. Or Marcus. It had to do with me. I craved freedom like I’d never craved anything before. The ability to venture out and see the world. To eat and drink a dozen cuisines. To dance to every kind of music. To fill my nose with a million different scents. I wanted to live. And I couldn’t do that in the City of Wings, no matter how much I’d come to care for the shifters these past couple of weeks.
It was my refuge, but it wasn’t my home.
Several moments passed in silence. I didn’t know how to explain how I felt, and in truth, I didn’t need to. Silas knew the longing in my heart, and I couldn’t bear to lie and say he was wrong.
So, he continued to fly on, and we didn’t speak the rest of the way back to the city. And all the while I couldn’t help but feel as though I may have gained the sword but I’d lost something else.
Chapter 22
Silas didn’t come to breakfast the next morning. Neither did Jasper. Somehow, I’d hurt the both of them, without meaning to do anything of the sort.
I knocked on Jasper’s door. No answer. Glaring at the thick wood separating me from the shifter, I slammed my fist against it again. “Jasper, come on. Please open up. I need to talk to you. And…I need your help.”
A rustle. A thump. And then the opening of the door. Jasper stared out at me, warily. His hair was mussed, and he wasn’t wearing a shirt, and my breath caught. His abs were a six-pack of pure muscle. No, they were a ten-pack. And a sharp V cut down his chest and—
“Eyes are up here, Ro.”
My whole face turned to flames.
“Sorry, I, ah.” Turning my head so that I didn’t have to look into his golden eyes, I tried to remember why I’d come here. Oh, yes. That was right. “I need you to teach me how to use my sword.”
He clenched his teeth, rippling the strong muscles of his jaw. A heavy sigh. “Alright.”
He took me to the same cliffside again. Taught me how to hold the sword. Watched me with an expression that only reflected what I thought: I still wasn’t strong enough for this weapon. Not yet.
After two hours of falling onto my ass every time I tried to finish a swing, I dropped my weapon to the ground and let out a heavy, defeated sigh.
“We never talked,” I said, swiping the beads of sweat off my forehead.
He eyed me warily. “About what?”
“About the fact you flew off half-cocked in search of a fight because you thought I insulted you.”
“I didn’t think you insulted me, Ro. I thought you were right.” He sighed and shook his head. “Deep down, I knew you were unhappy at Dreadford Castle. My job was—is—to protect you. I should have seen what was going on and done something to stop it.”
“Thank you for saying that,” I said softly. “But I don’t want you to get yourself killed in order to prove a point.”
“It wasn’t to prove a point.” He flapped his wings. “It was to keep the same damn thing from happening again. You were trapped inside that castle for too many years. I don’t want you to end up bitter and in pain because you’re trapped here for just as long, if not longer. I thought I could take out the enemy, make it safe for you to go back to the mainland. Or, hell, go wherever in the world you want to go.”
My heart warmed. He understood. And he had put his life on the line because of it.
I strode toward him, into the soft breeze of his wings. And I placed a hand on his chest. Leaned forward.
And said: “Jasper. Please don’t ever do that again.”
“I would do whatever it took to protect you, Ro.” He slid his hand around the back of my neck, his fingers sliding into the loose strands of my hair. I shivered. And he took that to mean I was cold. Instantly, he’d pulled me closer to him, his wings curving forward to block the wind.
To keep me safe and warm.
But I still shuddered, wondering at the strange flickering of my heart.
“Dying for me wouldn’t protect me,” I whispered. It would only leave me hurt. And broken. And lost.
Lonely.
That was how I felt without Jasper by my side.
His lips found mine, hungry and hot and full of a desperate kind of need I felt in my gut. I curled my fingers against his hard chest, relishing in the feel of his body. His tongue spread my lips, darting into my mouth. A moan filled my throat as fire shot through me.
I wanted him. Every inch of me needed him. Desperately.
My stone guardian.
When he pulled back, his face was flush. His eyes were wild. “I’m sorry. I got carried away. I shouldn’t have—”
“Shh.” I pressed a finger to his lips and smiled. “Don’t be sorry.”
“Oh, Ro,” he growled, dragging his hands down my back, drinking me up with his hungry golden eyes. “I really shouldn’t have done that.”
“Why?” I asked, my heart beating wildly in my chest. “Unless…unless you don’t feel that way toward me?”
He clenched his jaw and turned his back toward me. “I can’t do this, Rowena. You and me? It’s just not on the cards.”
Rowena, not Ro.
I balled my fists and blinked back my tears. He was rejecting me. Right after I’d pressed my lips to his and breathed in the stony scent of him. My first kiss. My only kiss. And it was getting thrown right back into my face, like it hadn’t mattered to him at all.
Maybe it hadn’t.
“Fine,” I said, voice tight. “Let’s just pretend it didn’t happen. I won’t mention it again if you don’t.”
“Rowena, I—”
But I cut him off. “I’m serious. We need to forget it. Because you have to teach me how to use this sword, and you can’t do that if we’re in some kind of weird fight over a stupid, meaningless kiss.”
The words hurt, but I stood my ground. Because the kiss wasn’t meaningless. Not to me, even if it was for him. The touch of his lips had sparked something in me I didn’t even know was there. A longing. A yearning. A fire that flamed every time my eyes drank in the muscular, powerful sight of him. He was breathtaking. Strong. Kind. Protective. And I wanted to feel his lips on mine again. Over and over until nothing else existed in the world but us.
Tension punctuated the air as I waited for his response. My heart batted hard against my ribcage. A part of me wanted him to refuse to forget, because I knew I sure as hell couldn’t. He’d turn around, gather me back into his arms, and pick up where we’d left off.
But he didn’t do any of that. Instead, he sighed and agreed we’d train on. He kept me out on that cliff for two very long hours, and he didn’t mention the kiss again once.
I didn’t know if I was relieved or hurt.
Maybe both.
Definitely both.
We made a
breakthrough later in the week. Every day, without fail, we’d go up to the cliffs, and I’d try to harness my power. And, without fail, it wouldn’t happen. I would get sparks of it here and there, but never in full glory.
Jasper tried again and again, as strained as it felt between us. Eli tried. Silas tried. And Marcus tried. It wasn’t until all four of the shifters joined me at once that anything more than an ember sparked to life.
“Why don’t you hold the sword with just one hand?” Eli asked, flipping through a book. “We’ve only tried it with both hands. Maybe there’s something wrong with that.”
“It is way too heavy for me to hold in one hand,” I muttered.
“Don’t listen to him, love,” Marcus said. “That sword is built to be used double-handed.”
Eli shot Marcus a glare.
“All of you, just…just please be quiet for a moment,” I said, tightening my grip around the golden hilt. While they’d been arguing, my fingertips had felt the buzz of something sharp, like an electrical jolt. I closed my eyes and sucked in a deep breath, blocking out everything around me, even the shifters.
My ears heard the distant rush of sea and wind, and a soft winter breeze rustled the hair on my shoulders. The buzzing grew; the tingle of electricity built into a vibrating hum. And then I sucked in a breath. Every inch of my skin felt hot, burning me up like a fire was roaring within my gut.
Eyes still closed, I let out a battlecry of rage and swung my sword. Power shot from my core and exploded down the end of the blade.
With a gasp of surprise, I opened my eyes. All around me, the ground was peppered by tiny flickering fires. The shifters stared at me, wide-eyed and open-mouthed. Marcus slowly clapped, his lips curving into a wicked smile.
“Looks like you’ve found your power, Ro.” Pride flickered in Jasper’s eyes. But so did something else. Worry.
Chapter 23
That night, we celebrated. Kipling gathered us all together for a feast, and the entire table was packed with elaborate food. I had no idea where he got it all, but I didn’t ask. I just enjoyed myself. For the first time in…well, in forever. I’d never feasted like this back at Dreadford Castle. And the wine…oh, the wine. It was warming and fruity, and it gave my head a delicious light-headedness that kept me giggling all evening long.
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