Page 13 of The Gargoyle's Grace
Inflicting as much pain as possible was on my mind, but getting the information was more important. For now. They spilled the names and addresses I asked for without much further provocation, much to my disappointment. All it took was a cuff on the ear to bring them to their knees, begging, like the spineless garbage they were. The only consolation was that they’d be on my list to visit in the very near future. Their survival was only guaranteed for the short term, though they had no idea about that.
With assurances that they’d keep our conversation to themselves, they scuttled off into the night, metaphorical tails between their legs. I took to the roofs to locate Grace, blood singing with a fierce combination of rage and the desire to protect her. Hopping from building to building, I released my wings, allowing the cool night air to buffet against me, hoping it would cool me off before I found her.
If it didn’t… we were both in for some trouble.
Chapter7
Grace
It took every ounce of willpower I had to calmly collect my pay for the night, turn in my apron, and leave the beer garden. My hands trembled, my breath rattled in my chest as I made my feet carry me away from the men I recognized. They’d drugged me and left me for dead in a warehouse across town. I was unreasonably proud I’d managed to serve them and leave without either screaming at them or breaking down.
Everyone had a story to tell about them once I’d asked. Before I’d been rotated in to serve them, some of the other waitresses had given me additional information about where they thought the men worked most of the time and had summarized their various offenses from previous visits.
It was enough. It had to be.
As I reached the first corner, relief teased at the edges of my awareness. I sucked in the first full breath I’d been able to manage since seeing the men laughing without a care over their ale. Then I promptly ran headlong into a very large, firm body.
“Sorry,” I muttered, but my blood turned to ice as I looked up and met a stern gaze. He was the last person, aside from the three in the beer garden, that I wanted to see.
“No harm done.” He ran his tongue along his teeth as he stared down at me, my spine straightening in response.
“Gaius.” I stepped to the side, trying to dart around him. “Apologies again. I’ll just be on my way.”
His heavy palm dropped onto my shoulder. “What’s the hurry, love?”
“I’m late getting back. If you don’t mind…” It wasn’t a total lie—I always had plenty to do back at the collegium. I was proud that my voice was firm. I even managed to lift an eyebrow in defiance. “The archmage is expecting me.” He most certainly was not, especially considering he wasn’t even in the city, but Gaius didn’t know that. Hopefully.
His piercing blue gaze narrowed, unrelenting as he searched my soul for the truth of my words. “We wouldn’t want to keep him waiting, now would we? Don’t be a stranger, Grace. See you in a couple of weeks at the very least.” His hand slipped from my shoulder, making a detour through my hair as I dipped my head politely.
I went all the way across the street to get distance from him before continuing on. As my feet traveled along the cobblestones, the hair on my neck bristled. My skin prickled, and I felt edgy. I had to stuff my hands in my pockets and force myself to face forward. I knew if I looked over my shoulder, I’d find him still watching me.
My hood slipped from my hair as I glanced up. I sucked in a breath when I found a hulking dark shadow with broad wings racing along the rooftops beside me. The quick glimpse told me all I needed to know for panic to truly set in. Gaius hadn’t let me go. He was following me.
I knew Revalia like the back of my hand, but in the dark, with lamps few and far between, I didn’t care to cut through the city using my usual back alley or skinny side road shortcuts.
“C’mon, Grace, pick up your feet,” I chided myself, gathering great handfuls of skirt as I pushed my legs to move just a little faster.
I turned right after passing a few more streets, deciding that my best route was through the woods that connected the collegium to the back of a residential part of town to save some time. And maybe I could lose my tail if I got lucky.
My chest burned with every breath as I went into a full run when the trees came into view. Plunging into the cover they offered, I wound through the massive old oaks, the moonlight the only illumination along my twisted path. Gnarled branches tore at my skirts, my face, my arms, but I didn’t slow down. The shadow was now directly above me, outlined by the bright white of the full moon like a dark angel.
I knew better.
He was no angel, and he was not to be trusted.
Cursing myself for being such a fool—again—I gulped down painful gasps of air as my feet ate up the distance between the edge of the city and the back of d’Arcan. I had no plan for what to do when I got there aside from hurl myself inside the doors, but that sounded like salvation in the present moment.
I could see the iron fencing of the horse paddock and nearly cried in relief. The beat of the heavy wings had grown closer, and I felt the dark shadow of him pressing along my back. Arms pumping, I raced across the dirt, prepared to hurdle the fence if need be.
All at once, the earth rose up to meet me as a heavy body crashed into me from behind. We tumbled through the leaves and underbrush, the large form plastered to my back, stone arms banded around my center. He took the brunt of the fall, I realized, as leaves and rocks skittered past my vision but left me unscathed. I hadn’t even lost my breath in the fall.
“Let me go!” I cursed, flailing my limbs uselessly against his grip.
“If you promise to stop running from me, I will,” the familiar voice grumbled, hot against my neck.
I froze, turning my head as far as it would go. To one side of us were trees, on the other, a collection of rounded boulders well over a man’s height.
“Magnus?”
