Page 13 of Never Been Gargoyled
What had the woman said? I couldn’t remember, though I’d bet what I’d find inside would repeat it in succinct ways.
Feydin, stone sentinel and my latest buzzkill, had folded his wings against his back, and his faintly glowing, piercing gray eyes locked onto me like he could already sense incoming damage.
Standing near the fireplace, his growl ripped out. “Who hurt you?” he thundered. “I will kill them!”
I blinked up at him. “That escalated quickly.”
“You’re distressed.” He took a step closer, looming in carved lines and possibly malicious intent, if his statement was anything to go by.
“You’re hovering.”
“I’m well aware,” he said gruffly. “Tell me.”
Oddly, his protective demeanor didn’t bother me. Not with the envelope in my lap and my stomach threatening to roll over. The fact that someone noticed I was upset, that someone cared, stirred me in an appealing way.
“No one has hurt me—yet.” I took a breath and opened the envelope. The paper inside was thick and textured, the kind that whispered money. The letterhead made my pulse spike:Bland, Kingsley & Franks, LLP.
“Sounds fake but okay,” I said, and began reading aloud. “Notice of Intent to Challenge Probate.” I skimmed. “A client asserting legal heirship to the Winterbourne Estate…” I swallowed but it refused to go down. My arm holding the letter did, however, flopping on my lap. “Wait—what?”
The rest of it blurred together. Helga having a daughter no one had mentioned. A secret child. A birth certificate proving parentage. A petition to reopen the estate. Words likeasserted legal heirandrightful claim to full ownershipcut deeply.
“She’s saying she’s Helga’s daughter,” I said, unable to drag my gaze from the letter. “She wants everything. The whole estate.”
A low, guttural growl ripped up Feydin’s throat. Hiswings twitched, flaring outward before smoothing onto his back.
I looked up, the letter trembling in my grip. “What does it mean?”
“Someone has made a grave mistake, and I will kill them.”
“Well, no, you can’t do something like that.” Why was hysterical laughter bubbling up in my throat? I swallowed it back down. “We don’t randomly kill people.”
“I do.”
I cocked my head his way. “You really kill people?”
“I will if they hurt you.”
“That’s sweet and all and… Okay, that’s sweet.”
“I’m not sweet.”
“I think you are.” I looked down at the letter. “What in the world am I going to do?”
Feydin stepped closer. Some might call it looming, but him standing nearby, his wings slightly flared, felt comforting. I liked it. I liked his grumpy, stoic demeanor, too.
“I’m trained in law,” he said.
I blinked up at him. “You… What?”
“It was part of my role here,” he said, watching me carefully. “When Helga owned the estate. I protected her, yes, but also her legal interests. The building. The grounds. Whatever contracts she put into place, though I will point out that I was assigned this estate only twenty-five years ago.”
“You were achild gargoyle then?”
He scowled. “Gargoyles don’t age when they take stone form. For all intents and purposes, I’m thirty-two.”
“Alright.” I blinked slowly. “If you handled her legal affairs, you must know about her will naming me. Did you know about her daughter?”
He shook his head. “She didn’t share those details with me. I was away for a bit during the time she created her will. My brother… He lives in France. He needed me, and I went.” He said it simply, but I suspected it was anything but. “As for a possible daughter, she didn’t mention the possibility. She may have kept it secret, or it might not even be true.”
