Page 97 of The Stone Curse
I answered for Ignus. “He’s saying that thisfactionof graynites devoured my brother’s soul and turned him into a monster?”
My team knew the truth about how graynites were made. I’d insisted that fact be shared with them as soon as they enlisted for elite.
Ignus rolled his eyes. “The faction isn’t run by graynites, and even if it was, graynitesdon’tfeed on souls.”
That wasn’t what we’d been told. “Then how are graynites made?”
“Graynites were created by a curse,” Ignus said. “They can’t bemade. They’re born—either with the curse dormant in their blood, or as halfbloods like me.” He grinned, showcasing even white teeth.
None of this aligned with anything I’d been told. “I don’t understand. I thought graynites couldn’t procreate with humans.”
“They can’t. They don’t.” He winked. “The boss will explain it all soon.”
“Your graynite leader?”
“Yep.”
“But the factiondoesn’thave a graynite leader?”
“Correct.”
So non-graynites using graynites? “But they have graynites working for them…”
“See, you’re picking it all up perfectly.”
“What did you mean about the curse being dormant in their blood?” Sharniza asked my next question.
“Ah, yes. You see, there is only one kind of gargoyle that carries the curse.” He smiled, but it didn’t quite reach his eyes. “A sigma gargoyle.”
Stunned silence metIgnus’s revelation, and suddenly everything began to make sense to me. Pieces of the puzzle fell into place as he continued to explain.
“The curse is ancient,” Ignus said. “The story is long, boring, and something the boss will tell best, but this whole thing that your council has about sigmas being forbidden to consummate with their fated mates is wrapped up in the curse.”
I licked my lips and said the words floating in my head. “Consummation activates the curse, doesn’t it?”
“Yes. It activates the curse, and it kills the sigma’s mate.”
Shar exhaled sharply. “So all this time when sigmas slipped up and the council took them away…”
“The curse had been activated,” Curi said.
“Turning them into graynites,” Levi said.
“Not exactly,” Ignus said. “There’s more to the change than simply activating the curse, but boss will be pissed if I tell youeverything. He wants to speak to you himself. What Icantell you is that now that your fated mate has had his curse activated by artificial means, you’re safe. You can consummate to your heart’s content.” He shrugged. “I suppose something positive has come out of everything, after all.”
But how had this faction activated his curse artificially?
“Why should we believe anything you say?” Levi asked. “You could be playing us.”
“True. But I’m not, and I think deep down you can sense that. Look, we have a common enemy. All these years we’ve been fighting the same fight. The graynite attacks you’ve fended off have come from the faction. They’ve dedicated their lives tofinding sigmas and either forcing them to activate their curse or taking the sigmas that accidentally activate it and turning them into graynites.”
But he was forgetting something. Something that refuted what he was saying. “Romi wasn’t a sigma.”
He arched a brow. “Wasn’t he?”
The smug look on his face annoyed me. “He wasn’t. He would have told me. Serath would have said.”
“If he’s a graynite, then it means he was a sigma. Lionel probably hid the fact. Not difficult for a man of his power.” His eyes hardened, and his jaw clenched. “I’m sure he’s used his influence many times to get what he wants.”
