Page 48 of Hearts of Stone

I barely breathed that out, turning around to stare up into their faces and seeing that same intensity as before. No… it was something more. Something…

“You think…” I could hardly get the words out, the surge of emotion making my throat close down. “You think…”

My science teachers had always said to ignore thoughts, feelings, hunches and to judge things on the evidence before you, but I’m fairly sure they never anticipated me applying that in a situation like this.

I leaned forward, into the small space between the four of us. I’d stared and stared at their strange grey skin, but only now saw the faint stipple on its surface, like the pitting on their pebbles. My hand closed tight around those small stones, clinging to them like they were talismans to save me from getting hurt. Because that damn flame of hope, it started to burn higher. I could almost see that defiant little yellow tongue of fire shifting, flickering inside my chest.

“You think I’m…” I lifted my fist that clutched their pebbles and carefully opened my hand again, seeing each of the stones nestled in my palm as though it was made to fit there.

“Our fated mate.” Seneca said the words urgently, leaning down, his eyes searching mine. “We belong to you, Mistress, by right of your ownership of the house, but also…” He let out a little sigh.

“We could be owned by the King of England himself,” Carrick said gruffly, the muscle in his jaw ticcing, “but it wouldn’t make any difference. No witch or warlock has a claim on us that youdon’t supersede. You thought we were there only in your dream last night? Perhaps a nightmare?”

My hand slid down to rest on my pelvis, feeling that deep throb start up again.

“A dream,” I corrected. “Definitely the best of dreams.”

“And that is what you are for us,” Graven said. “I have dreamed of you since the moment I first became stone. It's a strange place, somewhere between sleep and full consciousness, but the stillness lets your mind reach far, wide. In the first days of my life as a gargoyle, you were just a vague and hazy thing, always just outside my reach. I saw the curve of your cheek, the slender length of your fingers as I grasped for them, but never more than that. Until the day you walked into the house.”

He wrapped my fingers back around the pebbles in my palm.

“No matter what you decide, you will always remain mistress of The Eyrie, as we will remain yours to command, but maybe, just maybe, you might also come to call us by that most treasured of titles.” He nodded slowly. “Mate.”

“Mate,” the others said, with the same solemnity; with the same flicker of hope.

Chapter 27

Jade

“You can’t…” My voice became a squeak as I tried to force the words out. “No. You can’t mean…”

My hand went to my chest as I felt my heartbeat stutter, then lurch back into action into a rapid patter, sending the blood surging through my veins. At the same time, it was as though that had opened the floodgates for a deluge of emotion that had been stuck, and that’s when it started to hurt.

I’d been numb for so long.

I didn’t have the luxury of expressing my rage when I found out what Trevor was up to, because I had nowhere to go if I walked out the door. I couldn’t even grieve the end of the only real romantic relationship I’d had, because if I’d let that bring me to my knees, I would never have got up again. I’d been forced to move forward like a boxer, unable to let them get me against the ropes, hit after hit after hit, until everything seemed like a blow.

And that’s what this felt like now.

Hope might have seemed like a flickering flame, something at risk of going out, that had to be protected and nurtured. Butnow it felt like a raging fire, threatening to engulf me. My cheeks were red hot when I lifted a hand to my face. I was no doubt blushing like some giddy teenager when one of the hot guys at school says he likes her. But I wasn’t a kid anymore. I couldn’t allow the flames that flared up in my chest to get any higher, so I tamped them down ruthlessly.

“It’s not real,” I said, with confidence I didn’t feel. “It can’t be real.” I flung my arm wide, half-turning to point imperiously at the depiction of the woman and her mates that I’d been so transfixed by moments before. “None of this can be real.” I wildly cast my eyes around the room, looking everywhere but at the three gargoyles so close to me as I searched for some sort of visual evidence to support what I was saying. “I’m not…” My throat tightened again. “You’re not…”

“You’ve been hurt,” Graven said, in that measured, reasonable tone of his, as if I wasn’t completely losing my shit in real time.

“Don’t talk about that,” I growled, shaking my head.

“Someone unworthy of you broke your heart,” Seneca said, with a scowl.

“How do you…?”

My voice failed me altogether. Did I wear my heartbreak on my skin like other people did their scars? Could people see it? The taint of rejection, of betrayal, but so much worse, because I was a participant in Trevor’s abuse of me. Other women, stronger than me, would’ve made a clean break and walked away, gone to a women’s shelter rather than stay in the same apartment as him. Other women would have had a whole phalanx of supportive friends to take care of them and been set up in someone’s guest bedroom, helped to get back on their feet. Other women would’ve gone back home if they had no other options, licked their wounds and then, once they’d healed, got back out there. But I… I’d felt like I couldn’t do that; I could stillremember Mum’s look of concern as Trevor and I had said our goodbyes when we moved to Adelaide.

“Are you sure, love?”she’d asked me in a low voice, eyes flicking between me and Trevor. “You don’t have to do this. We’ll scrape together some money and help set you up in a place on your own.”

I’d waved away her fears, assuring her I’d be fine; better than fine. That everything would be amazing and she’d see then that I was doing the right thing. But she’d been right and I’d been wrong. Not wanting to face that fact and head home with my tail between my legs was what had kept me there, couch-surfing in what had been my home. I shook my head. I couldn’t afford to get stuck in all of that shit. Instead, I turned my gaze on the three of them.

“How do you know about… Trevor?” I asked carefully.

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