Page 28 of The Stone Initiation
“Was Orix wet when he grabbed you?” Touron asked.
“No…but Serath… I think Serath was. Water splashed me when he grabbed Orix.”
“So Serath was in the water.” Sharniza’s eyes narrowed.
“It’s obvious there’s something strange going on here,” Touron said. “We need to stick together.”
“We?” Sharniza scoffed. “No. This isn’t my problem.” She shifted into gargoyle form and shook out her wings. “I’m headed to the top and victory. I suggest you do the same,” she said to Touron.
“We might not have gotten across if not for Cameron’s idea,” Touron said.
“And I’m grateful,” Sharniza said to me. “But that’s where our association ends.” She leapt up, latched onto the wall, and began to climb, her epic body moving with sinuous grace.
Touron sighed. “I feel bad for her. The pressure must be intense.”
“Aziza blood?”
“Yeah, big five and all.” He gave me a crooked smile. “At least you and I don’t have to worry about living up to the family name.”
A needle of guilt stabbed at me, but I shook it off. “Nope, I just have to worry about living.”
He frowned. “Sharniza may not want to be friends, but I do. I’ve got your back.”
“Why? Because you feel sorry for me?”
He shook his head. “Nah. Because you remind me of my brother.”
I arched a brow. “Seriously?” I looked down at myself. “Your brother?”
He chuckled and reached out to ruffle my hair. “You’re mouthy and feisty and you don’t quit, just like him. He got on my nerves, but I loved him. Maybe hanging with you will make me miss him less.”
My throat thickened. “Yeah, okay. Friends.” I gave him a cheeky grin. “Does that involve a lift to the top of the ravine?”
He shifted into his gargoyle form and rolled his neck on his shoulders. “I think that can be arranged.”
We were partway up the wall with me clinging to Touron’s back like a rhesus monkey when the spot between my shoulder blades grew hot.
I looked over my shoulder, across the river to the other side of the ravine, at the ledge where the task had begun. A figure crouched there, dark hair whipping in the wind. And although it was too far for me to be sure, I was certain that it was Serath and that he had his gaze fixed on me.
CHAPTER12
Only seven gargoyles made it across the ravine, ten if you included us. They stood about with droopy wings catching their breath while their cuts and scrapes healed.
Curi crouched by a boulder, knuckles grazing earth, blue hair hanging lank against his cheeks. Sweat dripped off his chin and hit the ground.
Of his two minions, only one remained.
The twin females had made it too. They’d shifted back to their human form and were leaning against a tree looking wiped out.
Shocked gazes tracked me as I joined them, flanked by Sharniza and Touron.
Curi snarled, unfurling his body to stand tall, hands curling into fists. “You cheated.” He glared at me then at Touron. “You carried her.”
He’d obviously been too busy trying to stay alive in the air to see how we’d crossed.
“We swam,” Sharniza said. “Cameron’s idea.”
“Fuck,” one of the twins said. “The water…of course.”
