Page 2 of Never Been Gargoyled
May the gardening fates be kind. They’d guided me well so far. After all, I was here, about to restore the glorious landscape around me. “Glorious” was a definite stretch, but even with it overgrown and crumbling around me, I adored my new home already. With luck and lots of work, I’d open my botanical gardens to the public in a few months.
Turning, I peered around, spying a shed off to the left. I’d bet anything there would be tools I could use to get inside the estate. Maybe even a crowbar I could use to pry open the boarded-up window beside the front door. A quick glance showed me the nails had come halfway out, as if someone else had tried to get in but gave up before they got caught. A shovel could also finish my break-in nicely.
This was going to work out. Soon I’d be inside, settling on a snuggly couch with a glass of wine in my hand. I’d lift it in a toast to my new life, my new adventure.
Inside the shed that was thankfully unlocked, I turned on my phone’s light. Spying a crowbar hangingon a hook on my right, I scooted in that direction—and ran face-first into a ginormous spider web.
Shrieking and dropping my phone, my heart, and probably my brains as well, I danced around, sputtering, trying to pluck the web off my face. Praying the spider hadn’t been sitting in the middle.
Finally, I made myself stop quaking and wiggled the rest of the webbing off my fingers, shuddering while I did it.
My phone had held guard, the phone light pointing at the ceiling, outlining more webs and even an empty bees nest. I hoped it was empty. Otherwise, I’d have to relocate the critters. They could live wherever they pleased outside, but I drew the line with them taking up residence inside the buildings.
I picked up my phone and grabbed a walking cane someone had left by the door, using it as a sword to ease aside the remaining webs between me and my salvation: the crowbar I needed to get inside my new home.
Still shaking, I returned to the front of the house, seriously considering scooting to Betty and sleeping on the backseat. Everything looked brighter in the morning, right? That’s what all those cute memes with flowers and rainbows said.
Not buying it.
I propped my phone in a planter in desperate need of flowers, the light pointed at the boarded-up window, and got to work.
I thrust the tip of the crowbar back beneath the board and leaned back. A groaning creak rang out, andthe board gave way fast. I fell on my ass, skidding across the porch floor, picking up paint chips while I did it. If I got a splinter in my butt, I was going to kill… Okay, I couldn't kill anyone, not even a spider.
Still, I could seek my revenge in some other way, probably with the scraper I’d use on the porch floor.
I shook my fist at the sky in warning.
A few more tries, and the board clattered onto the porch floor, leaving a window completely void of all glass. At least I wouldn’t have to worry about getting cut trying to get inside.
I stuffed my bag through the opening.
But when I’d hitched my leg up and thrust my foot through the gap, an unmistakable male voice rang out.
“Leave this place now.”
I reeled around so fast, I fell again, this time landing hard on the board I’d removed from the window, a nail scraping my tender flesh.
My whimper slipped from my mouth before I could hold it back.
“Who’s there?” I whispered, climbing to my feet and rubbing my sore ass. “Come out and identify yourself.” I held up my phone, sweeping it around but finding no one nearby. “I’ve got the police on speed dial, and I’m not afraid to call them.” Actually, 9-1-1 put all the cops on speed dial, but they might not know that.
“You should not be here,” someone growled, making me jump.
I angled my light around again, but still saw nothing,not a single soul standing on the walkway or behind the few spindly bushes to my right.
But when a scraping sound echoed from above me, like stone dragging across stone, I yelped.
Turning, I leaped through the window opening, landing hard on the other side on myplushbelly, the wind knocked from my lungs.
Chapter 2
Feydin
Cold.
Not winter cold, but something deeper. Like I'd been buried for a very long time. My limbs were locked tight, my lungs unmoving. Stone had wrapped around me from the inside out, a second skin that couldn't breathe.
Thencrack.A hairline split bloomed along my left side.
