Shadows of Stone

by Jenna Wolfhart

  “Hi everyone,” I said with a soft smile. Once upon a time, I had been timid among these witches who had considered me an inferior, weakling human. Now, I was the one addressing them. “As I’m sure you’ve noticed, there’s been a lot of comings and goings in the past week or so.”

  Queen Selene nodded, giving me an encouraging smile from across the room. We’d filled her in first, of course. She was a member of our strange, hastily-formed council, and we’d consulted her before calling this meeting with her witches. It was more a show of respect than anything else, because I would have certainly spoken to the witches about our plans whether she liked it or not.

  They had a right to know.

  “We’ve discovered Eris’s intentions are to target me and only me from now on, which I’m sure will come as a great relief to you all.”

  Tess, who had taken up a spot near the front, frowned up at me. “No, I can’t say that does anything to calm my nerves. If she kills you, she kills us all. And besides, I happen to like you better alive, Rowena.”

  I nibbled on my bottom lip. I might not have told the vampires the entire truth, but I couldn’t keep what I’d heard away from the witches.

  “Turns out, she doesn’t actually want to destroy magic. She wants to take mine from me and use it to rule this realm.”

  Silence descended upon the crowd before me. Tess, again, raised her hand and spoke up. “I’m sorry, but I don’t see how that’s any better, Rowena. She’s the goddess of strife and discord. She’d make our lives a living hell, not to mention what she’d do to the humans. If she takes your magic as her own, that’s just as bad as if she destroyed it. Hell, it’s probably even worse.”

  Murmurs of agreement whispered through the gathered witches.

  “Alright, so yes. You’re right. It would suck. That’s why we’ve devised a plan to stop her.”

  I filled them in on the rest. How we’d travelled to visit the Vespa clan and how they’d requested that we retrieve the brother’s coffin. How we’d gotten captured within the underground city. How I’d been forced to undergo those three trials. I skipped over most of the details of that, more embarrassed than anything else. I wasn’t going to brag about what I’d done. I’d only fought for my survival and the survival of my mates. Any of them sitting before me now would have done the same.

  “So,” I said, clearing my throat. “We’re going to go to Dreadford Castle and allow Eris to be alerted about my presence there. And then we’ll use the harp to trap her.”

  “How will you get away in time?” Tess asked. “That harp sounds like it could just as easily trap you as her.”

  “Well, that’s where you come in, Tess. When it’s time, you can teleport me out of there.”

  She gave a nod and grinned. “You’ve got it, boss.”

  “And that brings us to why I’ve gathered you all here,” I said, swallowing hard as I met the cold eyes of the shadow witches. “Yes, we will be trapping Eris, but we would be naive to believe she won’t bring an army with her when she comes. We need to be prepared for that. Some of the hunters will still fight, even after she’s been captured. Some might even attempt to free her. We need all the manpower we can get, but I want you to understand that fighting in this war is completely optional. If you want to fight, just go stand over there with Queen Selene.”

  For a moment, no one moved. I couldn’t blame them. The witches had had a hard rode up until now. They’d not only lost their home, but they’d lost so many friends and loved ones to Eris’s repeated attacks. Their numbers were dwindling. They were tired, emotionally exhausted, and raw. If not a single one of them wanted to join this fight, I wouldn’t be surprised.

  Tess was the first to stand and move over to the Queen, more as a symbol to the others than anything else. She was always going to fight. She had from day one, and she’d be there until the end. Once Tess had made her way across the room, several more witches stood and joined her. Soon, the sofas were mostly empty. Dozens of witches had volunteered to fight.

  I pressed my hand to my heart and gave them a nod. “We’re going to join up with the newly-woken gargoyles in the City of Wings before we set our trap in Dreadford Castle. We’ll leave first thing in the morning.”

  Chapter 22

  With a heavy sigh, I sunk into the bubbles of my bath. My entire body ached, and so did my heart. I felt raw and bleeding inside, and I knew without a doubt that things would only get worse before they got better. The next twenty-four hours were going to be rough. At the end of it, I had to hope that we’d end up on top, but there was no telling how much we might lose in getting there.

  A knock sounded on my door.

  “Let me guess,” I said with a laugh. “Alaric?”

  Sebastian’s head popped around the doorframe, and he frowned. “Why in the name of the goddess would Alaric be visiting you while you’re in the bath?”

  My cheeks flamed, more out of embarrassment at him seeing me naked in the bathtub than the fact I’d thought he was Alaric.

  “The real question is, why are you here?”

  His eyes went dark, and a wicked smile spread across his lips. “Why do you think I’m here, princess? I’ll give you one guess. If you get it wrong, then I get to ask for anything I want.”

  My heart trembled, and I swallowed hard. Anything? I had a sneaking suspicion that Sebastian was a very...creative and unique kind of lover, and there was a very, very large part of me that wanted to find out. And then there was the other part of me. The part that was so nervous that my knees quaked.

  Sebastian suddenly stiffened and turned his head to stare out the door. With a frown, he shuffled further inside the bathroom, crossed his arms over his chest, and leaned against the wall. Jasper, Eli, Silas, and Marcus all strode into the bathroom behind him. They were all fisted hands and narrowed eyes, and that mate-like energy rippled off of them in waves.

  “I knew he would be bothering her,” Marcus said, striding forward to poke Sebastian right in the chest. “I could just see it in his face. He fancies himself a potential mate, as ridiculous and impossible as that sounds.”

  I opened my mouth to try to explain that it wasn’t as ridiculous as they all seemed to think, but Jasper’s growl cut me right off.

  “You need to stay away from her, Sebastian. She’s ours. Not yours. You think because she has four mates that you can just waltz in here while she’s taking a bath and try to force your grimy hands on her, but—”

  “Please stop,” I said, my voice tight in my throat.

  Jasper’s spine stiffened, and he turned to meet my gaze. “He’s trying to threaten our bond with you. We can’t allow it, Rowena.”

  My cheeks flaming with a new kind of heat, I cleared my throat, twisting my hands together underneath the carpet of bubbles that hid my body from view. “Listen. This actually isn’t his fault.”

  Eli pursed his lips, and Silas frowned. It was Marcus who strode to my side and perched on the side of the bathtub, gazing down at me with pure confusion written all over his handsome face. My god, this was embarrassing. Why did this have to happen while I was in the bath of all places?

  “Because you’ve been nice to him? Well, you’ve been nice to Alaric, and I don’t see him in here trying to get in that tub with you.”

  “Actually,” Sebastian began, but I shot him a sharp look.

  “This has nothing to do with Alaric, so let’s just drop that right now.” I took a deep breath. “This is about me and Sebastian and about the fact that I maybe don’t hate him as much as I thought I did.”

  Marcus blinked at me.

  “You’re really painting a great picture of me, princess,” Sebastian said with a soft laugh.

  “What I mean is that I care for him, okay?” I gripped the tub in my shaking hands and did my best to stay calm. “Just like I care for you all. I know it sounds crazy. I already have four mates, right? But I can’t help how I feel. And I know that you won’t accept him as part of us, but that doesn’t mean that I don’t
have feelings. Feelings I’ve tried to stop, believe me, but they’re feelings that are very much there. So, anyway. That’s what’s going on in here. So, before you all decide to beat each other up, can you please leave and let me bathe in peace?”

  Jasper grunted and turned to glare at Sebastian. “This all true?”

  Sebastian lifted his shoulder in a shrug. “You know as much as I do, mate. She’s been hot and cold the past few weeks, and that was a ramble and a half if I ever heard one. Hell, you know as much as I do.”

  “Do you want to be her mate?” Silas asked, his voice low and ice cold.

  Goddess, I should have kept my mouth shut. They wouldn’t just drop it, no matter how much I asked them to leave well enough alone. Truly, they couldn’t help themselves. The mating fight-off was an instinct, one they found impossible to ignore. Not a single one of them would be able to move past this until they’d done the ritual.

  “Look at her.” Sebastian nodded to me. “She’s the most glorious creature alive. Of course I want to be her mate.”

  “Well, you know what that means, don’t you, Sebastian?” Marcus asked in a tight voice.

  “Yeah, yeah.” Sebastian pushed away from the wall, and his wings ripped out of his back. “You’re all going to have to flex your muscles and show me exactly how much you want me to leave Rowena alone.”

  “Honestly,” I said, grabbing a towel from the floor and standing from the bathtub. Every eye in the room was suddenly on me, and an electricity sizzled in the air. Rivulets of water ran down my naked skin, and soap clung to my thighs and neck.

  Marcus cleared his throat, and his cheeks were dotted with pink. I couldn’t bear to look at anyone else. They’d all seen me naked at one point or another, except for Sebastian. But not all at once. Not like this. And certainly not before they were all about to fight over me.

  I wrapped the towel around my body and stepped onto the mat by my feet. “Listen, Sebastian. You don’t have to do this. The whole thing is absolutely nonsensical, and I don’t want anyone to get hurt, least of all over me.”

  “You can’t honestly expect me to drop this when you’re standing there all sexy and wet in that little towel of yours with your nipples poking through.”

  I swallowed hard and blushed even harder, desperately trying to wrap the towel around me in such a way that all five of them weren’t staring at my breasts. But that appeared to be an impossible task.

  “You can’t talk about her like that.” Jasper stalked toward Sebastian, and his own wings exploded from his back in one violent motion.

  “Rowena, get back,” Silas said in a warning, sliding in front of me as his own wings unfolded behind him. Eli and Marcus followed suit only seconds behind, and now, all five gargoyles were circling each other, their brilliant ebony wings trembling with pure unbridled testosterone.

  “Sebastian,” Marcus began with a growl, “how can we trust that you have Rowena’s best interests at heart? After everything you’ve done?”

  With a roll of my eyes, I tried to move in between them, but their massive wings just knocked me to the side.

  “I don’t expect you to trust me,” Sebastian said with a laugh. “Hell, I don’t expect you to let me into your little group at all.”

  “So, then why are you doing this?” Eli asked with a frown.

  At that, Sebastian’s eyes flicked my way, and a strange emotion churned within them. “Because she has made it clear that she wants me. She wants me to be her mate. While I have no doubt in my mind that you all will not allow it, I have to fight for it. I have to fight for her.”

  My lips lifted at the corners, despite the strange energy and atmosphere in the room, despite the fear I felt in my heart for him. It was one of the sweetest things anyone had ever said about me.

  The electric tension in the air seemed to sizzle into nothing within seconds. Jasper growled at the ground. Marcus sighed while Eli studied Sebastian’s face as if it were a puzzle he wanted to solve.

  “Well, I can’t fight you after you’ve said that, mate.” Marcus strode over to Sebastian and stuck out his hand. “I’ll welcome you into the harem if the others will.”

  Sebastian glanced up, his eyebrows raised in surprise. “You serious?”

  “You clearly love, Rowena,” Silas said, striding up to shake Sebastian’s hand as well. “If that is how you feel about her, then I feel no need to fight you either.”

  And with that, my harem became five. Five men who loved and cared for me. Five gargoyles who made my body ache and tremble with desire. My world suddenly felt complete.

  I had everything I needed now, and nothing could take that away from me.

  Chapter 23

  My massive bed was big enough for the six of us. We all piled underneath the covers, and I couldn’t help but giggle at the number of beautiful men I had in my bed with me. I wanted them all, so terribly so. At one time, they’d told me that gargoyles would often share their mates in bed, though they didn’t get involved with each other.

  Maybe it was time to test that little tradition of theirs...

  “We just need to ask one question,” Marcus said, chuckling when I slid my body on top of his.

  I lifted my eyebrows. “Yes?”

  “You seem to have a knack for adding gargoyles to your harem,” he said with a wink. “Are there any other potential mates we should be aware of? Alaric, for example. I know you two are fond of each other.”

  “I have a soft spot for Alaric,” I admitted, “but not in the way you think. I don’t feel that tug toward him the way I feel with all of you. We’re just friends. Good friends. And I’d never want that to change between us. Besides, I think he has his eyes on someone else.”

  I’d noticed the way Alaric looked at Tess, and I hadn’t missed the fact that he’d tried to climb inside her window back when he was a stone man desperate to change into flesh. He’d used his desire to get closer to me as an explanation, but I saw it for what it was: an excuse.

  “Some say that the females know the moment their harem is fully formed, deep within their souls.” Eli turned to face me, reaching out to trace a circle on my skin. “Have you felt anything like that? It’s okay if you haven’t.”

  “Actually...” I said with a smile, remembering how I’d felt the moment that my mates had welcomed Sebastian into the fold. “That is exactly how I felt. Like everything was right. Like my world was finally complete.”

  Sebastian beamed. The assassin with the scar beamed.

  Shouts exploded in the night. In an instant, I was out of the bed, gazing out the floor-to-ceiling windows that looked out onto the expansive home’s lawns. Darkness was heavy and thick. Not a single light shone outside. More shouts sounded, though this time, I realized they were coming from inside.

  I grabbed my sword and motioned for my gargoyles to follow me. They were on their feet within seconds, grabbing their own weapons from the rack we kept by the bedroom door. Our feet pounded the marble floors as we rushed into the living room to find absolute chaos. Magic hunters had swarmed the mansion, and fighting had erupted all around.

  I sprang into action, rushing toward the nearest hunter. He had a bow and arrow, and he was about to make a shot right at Tess’s head. I slammed into him just before he loosed the arrow, and we tumbled into a heap on the floor.

  He screamed as I held him down, forcing his body to still. Finally, he stopped kicking his legs, and he glared up at me, fear and hate churning in his eyes. “Get off of me.”

  “How many of you came? Did Eris send you?”

  He spat in my face, but I didn’t give him the satisfaction of flinching from the splat of saliva on my chin. “Of course she sent us. One of our hunters spotted you in London, and we followed you back here. It wasn’t hard to do. Not when you have a bunch of winged men flying around you.” His smile turned to ice. “It was only a matter of time before we caught you.”

  I shoved him harder against the ground, gritting my teeth. “Did Eris come with you? Where is s
he?”

  This wasn’t how we’d planned for things to go down, but it was better than nothing. We had the harp. The hunters had attacked. Eris couldn’t be far behind. We could still use the instrument to trap her, even if it meant making it all up as we went.

  “I’d rather die than tell you where she is.”

  Frowning, I wrapped my hands around his neck and held tight until he passed out from the lack of oxygen. I didn’t know if he was one of the hunters that had come here voluntarily or if he was being controlled by Eris’s smooth melodic voice. So, if there was any way to spare him, I would. He’d wake up after his body recovered.

  I jumped up from the ground and took in the chaos of the fight. In the darkness, the witches were using their shadow magic, casting streams of dark magic at the hunters. The humans were fighting back, but they’d chosen the wrong weapons for this battle. There were no guns, and there were few bows and arrows. Instead, they were attempting to attack with swords and knives. And they were losing, especially now that the gargoyles were involved.

  The witches didn’t need me here. They were doing fine all on their own.

  I needed to find Eris.

  My feet pounded the ground as I flew down the hallway and onto the grass outside of the mansion. Stars dotted the sky above, and a cool breeze rippled the hair around my shoulders. It was a perfect clear night, one that spoke of calm, soothing peace. But there was an undercurrent of something else drifting along on the breeze. Something dark and chaotic.