Page 30 of The Stones for It
Darkness cocooned me as I sunk, separating me from the world above.
My feet found the soft bottom, and I kicked off, breaching the surface with a ragged gasp. The water was probably only as deep as I was tall, but I lurched for the rocky side, clinging on as I shoved wet strands from my face.
I glared at the gargoyle, water streaming down my cheeks from my sopping hair. “What. The. Fuck?”
He planted himself on the rocky bank and crossed his arms, making his pectorals pop distractingly. “You’re welcome.”
Anger stole my voice for a second as he threw my snarky words back at me from when I’d ripped the iron from his chest, what felt like a lifetime ago now.
It had me pausing just long enough for logic to penetrate.
The water’s pleasant warmth bathed my skin, but the acidic burning was gone.
The grouchy bastard had chucked me into a subterranean pool tohelpme.
“You could have just told me to jump in,” I groused, letting the hot tub temperature of the water soothe my aching joints for a moment.
I hauled myself up onto the dark rocky side and stood with a rush of water. My skin chilled at the cooler air, the damp mesh dress doing nothing except sticking to my upper body in a see-through sheen. At least it was a little cleaner now.
“And would you have listened?” The gargoyle scoffed. “You insist on being difficult at every turn. That rain shouldn’t have even hurt with all the spells cast over you humans for the Hunt. The Council wants you joining our courts, not dying in the wilds.”
“You think Ichoseto be burnt by your stupid rain?” I wrung my hair out, strangling it like it was that big bastard’s fat neck. “I’m immune to minor magics.”
A lot of soldiers had experimental anti-magic treatments done to them. It wasn’t something I’d expected to come back and bite me on the arse, though.
Outside, sheets of the noxious rain continued to fall. Even using Vrath’s wing as a brolly and cajoling him into carrying me again, the acid would find a way onto my skin.
I was trapped.
“Then we must wait until the rain stops,” Vrath snarled, confirming my fears.
I fought to maintain a calm façade as I watched the rain like it might stop any second. “Leave me.”
The thought of being separated worried me more than it should have, but Neiron was the priority for us both.
“No.” The single word seemed to echo through the cavern.
“And why not?”
Silence greeted my question, and I continued to glare at the rain.
Great. I was stuck in a cave with an irritable gargoyle until acid stopped falling from the sky.
I dragged my focus from the outside and faced the monster within. Vrath’s eyes blazed with rage like twin wildfires, burning up any restraint I had left.
“What is your problem?” I snapped.
“You.” He seethed. “You’re my problem.”
A flash of something sliced through my chest at his words, but I shoved down the stupid feelings. “Fuck you.”
His eyes darkened to a bloody shade. “Don’t tempt me.”
I snorted at the absurdity. This fae monarch was going to give me emotional whiplash.
“I didn’t ask to be stuck with you, big guy. Once we find Neiron, we can happily go our separate ways.” I waved him off. “You’ll never have to see my pretty face again.”
But why did that thought tug at my heart?
