Page 102 of Hearts of Stone

Her voice was like a call-to-arms now, like my old masters might have used when leading us onto the battlefield. I leapt and smashed into the wards and was dropped back down onto the ground.

“Wulfstan…”

I couldn’t fail at this, I couldn’t. She urged me to try again and again, until dust and dirt formed a thick crust on the spots where my blood flowed sluggishly, but even that didn’t stop me. I leapt until my legs ached and beyond, until my pinions screamed from the effort, over and over, until the wards stopped disappearing and stayed glowing bright. I studied their patterns, a niggling feeling in the back of my head telling me there was something to that, right before I leapt again.

And she stopped simply calling my name. Instead, she was there, standing before the gates.

“Wulfstan…”

I lumbered over to the metal grate and as I peered out between the gaps, I saw a woman. Or were there two? I shook my head, narrowing my eyes, to try and make the image resolve and, sure enough, only one woman remained. She smiled so gently at me that I wanted to give up on my attempt to get out, on everything, and just gaze at her until the sun rose. Then I wouldstay frozen in place, staring out into the grounds as if that might summon her again.

“Hello, Wulfstan, you magnificent beast,” she said.

“Madeline?” I asked and simply saying that name conjured so many memories. Of being in the big house and watching her slip through the halls like some kind of sylph, always out of my reach. Of her laughter echoing through the halls as I chased her in earnest, never catching up until she let me. Of sliding her hand down my cheek and then kissing me quickly, before slipping free again. “Madeline. What are you doing here?”

“I promised I’d free you.”

She did make that promise. She had said those words. I frowned as I remembered it, her vow whispered fiercely in the corner of a grand drawing room, where the masters disported themselves with all the strange creatures they drew to the house.

“If you were mine, I’d let you go,”she had said.“Free you from this house. If you help me to get free, I’ll help you.”

“Yes,” I’d said, over and over. It was always yes to Madeline.

“The time is drawing near,” said this Madeline, the one that couldn’t be standing on that grass. “Soon, Wulfstan, you’ll be free of your cage.” She let out a little sigh. “Of everything.”

“Free?” I wrapped my hands around the bars of the gates and stared up at the sky, though not for long. “The master said he must go and I must stay. He must go and I must stay, Madeline.”

There it was, that fog that had clouded my mind for so long, threatening to surge back in. She just shook her head with a smile.

“Not anymore. There’s a new master in the house now.” She looked over her shoulder, not at the house, but somewhere else. “One that comes from my line, not Luther’s. I couldn’t free you during my lifetime and I will always regret that. But in hers…?” She nodded slowly. “She will free you—free all of gargoyle-kind—and no warlock will ever be able to command your obedience again.”

“Free…?” I said in wonder as she grew thin and insubstantial, fading away like the mist on the moors when the sun rises high. “Free.” I stayed there, staring up at the sky until it began to lighten again, able to see it clearly for once. This would come to pass, I knew it, because Madeline never lied.

Chapter 56

Jade

I didn’t want to answer my phone. I could dimly hear it buzzing, but I just groaned, rolled over and buried my face into something that was big, strong and muscular. An arm went around me, holding me tight and wasn’t that nice…? I felt like I was simmering in a haze of pure happiness, being held close, kept safe as I’d slept. I wanted to just drop back down into sleep, but that persistent buzz was stopping me.

Who the hell would be ringing me now…?

That one little thought, that was all it took for my eyes to flick open, because I knew. The last time someone had called me as I’d slept, it had been Harry telling me something had happened to Daniel. And that was what had me sitting upright in bed.

“Jade?” Seneca asked in concern.

I ignored him, ignored all of them, as I clambered over an obstacle course of studly bodies until I fell off the bed and found my jacket. I yanked my phone free and saw who was calling me.

“Harry—?”

“You gotta get down here.” His usually rough voice was positively ragged, and that in itself told me how bad things were. “I’ve called the cops, called the ambulance, but—”

I didn’t let him finish that sentence. I couldn’t. I yanked at the robe hanging on the back of the door and threw it on, shoving the phone in my pocket before bolting from the room.

“Jade?” one of the gargoyles called. “Jade?”

“Can’t.” I said, running down the hall, my feet slipping on the very expensive oriental runner. “Daniel.”

“Someone has hurt your friend?”

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