Page 76 of Hearts of Stone

Doing the right thing for the wrong reason, that’s what my mother would’ve called what we were doing, I thought to myself as we landed outside of Mother Agnes’ tent. I could barely remember my mother’s face, recalling instead the soft burr of her voice, the scent of the lavender and rosewater she always wore that hung around her like a cloud, but she would have thought this a bad business, that was for certain. A feeling Mother Agnes seemed to share when we walked back into her tent.

“Back again?” She arched an eyebrow at that. “I can’t teach you unless your energy is…” She set down the knitting she’d been working on and then got to her feet, peering at Jade. “What’s been happening? Your energy and theirs,” she waved her hand around, “it’s all chaotic.”

“Wulfstan,” I replied, because there was no need to explain further. Everyone in the magical community knew his fate.

“The Beast of Z Ward?” When she said that, Jade flinched. “What, is he…?” Her eyes, green like a cat’s, swung to me andthen Agnes smiled. “Oh no. No. Well, that’s a pretty piece of poetic justice, if there ever was one.”

“What does that mean?” Jade asked. “What does any of this mean? I feel like everyone talks in damn riddles all the time.”

“Helps with the woo-woo aura of the place,” Daniel said, but he shrank back against Jade when Agnes’ focus shifted to him. “Apologies, your witchy-poo-ness. Don’t turn me into a toad, please. I’m too pretty to become a reptile.”

“Transfiguration requires far too much energy to achieve,” she said, narrowing her eyes as she stared at him, then Jade. “You’ve brought a human into our world? That rarely goes well.”

“The human decided he was coming,” my mate replied. “Try and keep him away.”

“So this is your McGonagall?” Daniel asked me. “She’s going to help you free the mad gargoyle?”

“You want to free The Beast?” Agnes said, in alarm.

In some ways it was gratifying to hear an echo of my own response. It meant that my fears weren’t completely unfounded. Seeing Jade step forward and into Z Ward… Beyond the fact I saw the ghosts of that place, heard their screams with every step, it was moreso the reality that Wulfstan was the biggest of us and the least controlled. When she’d stepped towards him I’d thought my heart would burst from the sudden surge of apprehension. But gargoyles don’t show fear. We are sought after for our stoicism, our strength and so I had forced myself to silently watch her step right up to Wulf…

“He’s been locked up in Z Ward for nearly a hundred years,” Jade said.

“Because he’s a danger to himself and others.”

“I would be too, if I was forced to live within the walls of the place where I was violently abused and where I’d been forced to abuse other people.” Jade took in a steady breath, consciously forcing herself to calm down. “He’s been forced tore-experience his trauma over and over. Each time he wakes up, he’s traumatised again by what was done to him and what he did to others. I’m assuming there aren’t any gargoyle therapists around—”

“No, it's not a field our stone brothers tend to get into,” Agnes replied with a tight smile.

“So then I need to fix this.”

“Jade…” I sighed out her name, wanting to warn her to curtail her ambitions, all the while knowing we’d move heaven and earth to help her achieve them. The fact she would work so hard to try and save our brother made my heart swell, but an equal and opposite sadness rose with it. “Lass, not everyone can come back from—”

“Don’t.” My mate didn’t carry herself like any of the other masters I’d had, but at that moment her aura of command rivalled the power of any of them. “Don’t write him off. Don’t say ‘this is the way things are’, otherwise what’s the point of having all this power and money?”

“Gucci,” Daniel said, ticking off one finger. “Dolce and Gabbana—”

“I’m gonna Dolce your Gabbana in a minute,” Jade muttered, shooting him a dark look. “I thought the point of having more money than God was to make changes. If I can’t help people, make things better, then…” She blinked at me. “I don’t want to be heir to the Whiteley estate.”

And that’s when I realised how serious she was. It felt like a cold knife sliding into my guts, the idea of her rejecting her position as heir. It wasn’t just that another would be found to take her place, like that Adam, or that The Eyrie would be broken up, sold off, with the proceeds of the sale going to the other First Families.

We wouldn’t be able to keep watch over her.

She would be out there in the world, living her life exposed to all manner of dangers and we’d be tied to this house or another, doing the bidding of men who didn’t deserve our loyalty, protecting those who had no business being protected. My wings rustled, as if in readiness to snatch her up, and for just a moment I fantasised about it. Of flying her far, far away from all of this. We could find a nice cave to live in and she’d—

“Goddess, you’re like Madeline.” Agnes’ voice cut through my reverie. “I knew her well. Did you know that?”

“No,” Jade said, as the other woman steered her towards the back of the tent.

“I helped her to determine the nature of the Whiteley curse before she performed it because the things are notoriously tricky to put in place. All those fables about heroes working out a way to get around the curse conditions have people getting very creative in their attempts to avoid its restrictions.”

Agnes sat down in her throne-like chair.

“I told her to include this: that if the Whiteley family didn’t recognise the true heir to the family fortune, they’d be cursed to see all of their fortunes and their influence wane with each generation, until one who shared Madeline’s blood and theirs would see them restored or…” Jade leaned forward and that icy blade slid deeper into my heart as Agnes continued, “…it would be lost forever. It took some time for the Whiteleys to realise Madeline’s curse had come true. And as fewer and fewer gargoyles wakened for each new master of the house and the Whiteley fortunes and power waned, so did those of the other First Families.”

The witch grinned toothily.

“I admit, that was an unforeseen little moment of triumph. The lot of them are so closely intertwined, you can’t bring down one without the other.”

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