Page 154 of Stone Temptation

Monster.

What was this thing out of my reach? Why did my head wail with searing agony when I tried to pick at the scab of memory?

Taking control of the water like it was second nature, I burst through the surface riding on a liquid platform, seawater churning beneath my feet.

“Luke?” Asher gasped.

There was no time to speak to the sexy gargoyle with a pack of chimera surrounding him. Too many for him to fight alone.

I’d kiss him later.

Jets of water obeyed my command, bursting to life around me, one for each of the fire-breathers. Tall harpoons poised to strike, their obedience and loyalty a comforting swell within me.

My power. Mine. At last we were united, understanding each other at the beginning of our journey together.

Nothing would stop me now. The monsters would bow to me. Humans and gargoyles, too. Incomparable, a new creature, greater than everything else.

Fear me.

Love me.

Surrender to me.

“Luke?”

I saw Asher’s shocked expression from the corner of my eye.

“Stay out of the way,” I told him. “This is my fight now.”

“Destroy him!” the chimera called as one.

“I wanted to fire a starting gun,” I retorted. “No fair!”

“Get the ring!” they added.

Good luck finding it on the seafloor!

The harpoons rumbled like a hundred angry waves, launching at each monster with viscous velocity. Too fast for them to evade, the monsters were hit with the full force of the speared water.

The impact ricocheted through me, shaking me like a ship in a storm—make that a ship in a bottle caught in a storm.

“Yes!” I cried, the intensity too much, yet incredible.

The monsters howled in agony as the harpoons drank them dry, funneling the power of fire and flight into me.

“Thanks!” I cried before a belly laugh.

A second round of harpoons came to life around me. Thicker this time, hammers on their ends rather than points.

The humans jumped ship into the water.

“You’re next,” I muttered, launching the hammer harpoons.

The water tore the monsters apart, obliterating them into a million shards of flesh and feather and bone. Their remnants scattered across the sea, dissipating into nothing.

My God, the power. This magnificent power swirling inside me. Fire and water and flight bumping into each other, chaotic and wild.

Settle down in there… I twitched, flinching from the struggle of the elements.

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