Page 14 of Protected By the Gargoyle
“Janie,” he said in a gentle tone and touched her forearm. “You know I would never do anything like that to you.”
“I know.” She pushed the wooden chair back so abruptly when she stood that the chair almost toppled back. It appeared to hover mid-decision before it fell forward on the rug, remaining upright. “What can we do?” She paced across the library, her limp more pronounced in her frustration, and turned back. “We have to stop it. There has to be a way to undo what I’ve done.”
“Yes, you’re right. There must be a way.” He stood and raised his hand, attempting to get a read on the energy nearby. Tingles of dark magic crept against his palm. Fuck.
The air in the library grew stifling, squeezing him with a claustrophobic hold. He had to do something—and fast.
He lowered his hands and clenched his fingers into his palm as he tried to recall the right words. The only ones that came to him were in Latin, which he hadn’t studied since his youth. He made up a chant with words to reverse the last action and undo what was invoked. Whether it was effective, he didn’t know. He didn’t dabble in dark magic but had encountered it—most recently with the demons. It was powerful. Strong. Would his magic be effective against it?
He didn’t have a damn clue.
“Did you do it?” Janie’s trembling voice edged higher with a twinge of hope.
How he wished he could confirm it and erase her fears, but the residue of dark energy in the room remained.
Arto pressed his palm upright and bellowed in English, “Whatever being has entered this space is not welcome here. Your presence does not belong in this realm. Leave and go back from where you came.”
“Go back to your hellish realm!” Janie shouted. “You are not welcome here. Leave! And never return!”
Although she projected her voice with confidence, it edged higher at the end. Her face turned pale. She wrapped her arms around herself and rocked. “What have I done?” Her hands shook as she brought them to her temples and repeated, “What. Have. I. Done?”
He strode over to her and held her shoulders. “Janie, don’t be afraid. We’ll fix this.”
She stared at him with questioning eyes. “How?”
“We might have already done so and stopped whatever might have happened—if anything.”
All he wanted to do was protect her and keep her safe. Instead, he gave her a tool to unleash her worst fear and put her in danger.
“And if not?” Her haunted eyes searched his.
Arto gulped. He had no idea. “I must talk to Roman.”
* * *
“What doyou mean you think she said an incantation?” Roman’s voice was low but seethed with rage.
Arto didn’t blame him. What he had done was unconscionable.
He met with Roman in the seating area where he’d been with Janie not long before. In the short time since then, their world might have turned inside out. Janie was now with Larissa, telling her what happened.
Arto hung his head. Although they were friends, Roman led the Stone Sentries in Boston and now had a heap of hell to deal with.
“I apologize, Commander. It is all my doing.” Arto had already given his leader a quick summary of what had happened and how he’d tried to undo it.
Roman paced with quick steps across the stone tile floor, his footsteps echoing in the silence. “How could you have given her a tool that would do this?” A vein in his neck throbbed. When he turned to face Arto again, his fury was palpable, practically pulsing from each muscle. The whites of his eyes started to turn crimson, another sure sign of his anger.
“It was my fault,” Janie announced as she entered the room with Larissa. “I’m the one who asked to learn more about demons. I figured the more I knew the safer I’d be.” She stared at the floor. “I was wrong. I’m sorry.”
“If we’re going to go there, then I’m the one who started all this with my vision,” Larissa declared.
Roman turned to his mate.
“But there’s no time for blame right now,” she continued. “We have to act. We need to figure out exactly what happened and if we can stop what we fear from happening.”
Roman stared at her for several seconds and blinked. The red hue that masked his eyes faded. “You’re right. We must act fast.”
Arto blew out a breath, grateful for Larissa’s suggestion. Roman refocused and telecommunicated to all the sentries to be on alert for demon activity.
