Page 22 of Fire in Stone

He leaned back with a deep breath. “Fae can’t break their promises. Giving one to her would make me her slave for the rest of my life. Until she chose to release me. If she ever did.”

“Ha! No wonder you refused.”

He seemed happy that I understood. Something fluttered deep in my belly in response to his smile. Warmth spread through my body despite the morning chill.

He definitely needed to go back to where he came from.

The sooner the better. Before I did something I would most likely regret.

“Yes, I refused,” he said. “And for that, she forced me to remain in my stone form permanently, using the smoke ofwomoraleaves.”

The smoke.He’d mentioned it before, but it just dawned on me now.

“Oh, that’s what those smoldering bundles of leaves were. There were quite a few of them in the crate with you.”

“Where did they go?”

“I soaked them in water and threw them away.”

“Good girl.” He placed his arm on the back of the bench. His thumb pressed into my shoulder in this position. It was an innocent enough gesture, except that it caused a far from innocent sensation to roll through my body. “You saved me, Amber.”

His words and the look in his intense, ink-black eyes made my cheeks flair hot with a blush.

“Saved? Elex, I stole you, remember?”

He shook his head slowly, not taking his eyes from me.

“You freed me from a vile, cruel creature who imprisoned me. I spent years forced to remain in the form that gargoyles are only meant to take at night. I listened and watched, without being able to move a muscle. For years, I didn’t speak, I didn’t feel. I didn’tlive. Amber, do you know what torture that was? You saved me. I’m now in your debt.”

Wow, just like that, he’d turned me from a thief into a hero. His words and the gratitude shining in his eyes made me feel so good. I basked in his appreciation.

Except that I had no right to “bask” in it. I couldn’t allow him to think better about me than I was.

“Elex, I had no idea I was rescuing you. Trust me, my intentions weren’t pure or noble. I was planning to sell you.”

He tilted his head to the side, studying me with a slight squint of his eyes.

“Do you still want to sell me?”

“No,” I huffed. “I’m a thief, not a slave trader. That buyer can go fuck himself. Who is he, by the way? Do you know?”

The only thing I knew from Chris about the buyer was that he was French.

Elex shook his head. “I have no idea. I’ve never heard of anyone else wanting me.”

“A competitor, maybe? Or just someone who has seen you in the menagerie and wished to have you for himself?” At the end of the day, it didn’t really matter who the buyer was. He wasn’t getting Elex anyway, now. “You do make an exquisite piece of art, you know?”

The corners of his eyes crinkled with a smile. “Is that a compliment?”

Was he flirting with me?

Did I start it? What was I thinking?

My face burned even hotter now.

“No. Not a compliment, just stating a fact,” I mumbled, flustered. “Anyway… You’re a free man now, Elex. Find your portal, go back home.”

I’d have to explain all of it to Chris somehow. But Chris owed me an explanation, too. I wondered if he knew more about Elex than he’d told me.

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