Page 112 of Hearts of Stone

But that couldn’t be true. I’d seen what happened to humans that came inside this building, and I could still hear their screams. I fought against the stone in which I was still locked, wanting to shout those words at her. But my mate did as she was told, unlocking the gates, the sound of the chain being pulled free alerting everyone nearby as to what they were doing.

Including him.

Like a sore tooth your tongue couldn’t leave alone, or a bone that had healed badly, starting to ache as a storm brewed, my senses spread out across the grounds in an attempt to detect him. And there he was. Stalking across the grass, just like he had each time he came to play in my cell.

No, I thought furiously, willing my lips to move.No, no, no, no—

“Inside!” Madeline commanded and she and the other woman did just that, chaining up the gate and locking it behind them.

It wasn’t safe behind the gate, didn’t they know that? Here wasn’t safe for anything made from flesh and blood. One of my claws shifted against the ground, then another, just a tiny little flex of the knuckles. The sun was now a crimson red, and in that moment the world turned to blood.

Luther was a master carver, able to use his knife, his whip, his cauterising iron to take the base clay of someone’s body and turn it into something else altogether. Something that bore little resemblance to the person they had been or to… anything really.He would do the same to both of them and my scream rose at the thought but got stuck in my throat.

“We need to find it.” Madeline picked up one thing, then another, tossing it on the ground around her.

“Find what?” Jade yelped.

“The amulet Luther tied his soul to.” She raked through bags, flickered the pages of books before turning to the other woman. “My soul was bound to the house because I didn’t fulfil my promise during my life, but he… Luther was supposed to be dead. We saw the body.”

She swallowed hard, then went to take Jade’s hand.

“Master Kenneth swore the estate would go to my son, mine, not bloody Luther, because even he knew how twisted that boy was.” Her lips thinned. “Not on the surface though, of course. Luther could pretend to be the perfect gentleman and that’s what sucked me in. He was gentle where Kenneth was rough. He was considerate, where Kenneth cared only for himself, but…”

Her throat bobbed as she swallowed.

“But he could never maintain the mask for too long, and when it cracked, you saw how much worse it was. Kenneth was like a child, unable to deny himself any pleasure, but Luther…” Her breath came out like a sob. “Luther was never a child. No mere boy could be so calculating, so cruel. He looked after me, cosseted me, until I got pregnant with his child and then…”

A sharp clang at the gates drew their attention away from each other and back to him.

It was a strange thing, to see another wear my face. Had I looked that mad when I’d raged across the battlefield? I liked to think that hellish flames didn’t burn in my eyes like they did in Luther’s.

“Open the gate, Jade,” he said, conjuring a ball of fire in his hand, making me want to shrink back. “Open the gate or I’ll make you.”

Luther moved with a deliberate slowness, bending down to brush his fingers across the dry grass that had been allowed to grow long within the courtyard of Z Ward. I heard the crackle of the fire come to life and that dreaded sound dragged me out of the present and back a hundred years.

“You’ll never have my son,”Madeline said, standing tall as flames licked the walls of Z Ward. “You can do what you like to me—”

“Oh, I will…” Luther said, prowling closer.

Blood adorned his skin, coating his hands.

“I’ve hidden him away, cast a ward on him that even you can’t break,” Madeline stammered out.

I growled where I was, pacing restlessly on the spot, not allowed free rein.

“That youthinkI can’t break,” Luther corrected. “What you know of magic could fill a thimble. I, however—”

But she didn’t deign to listen to his speech; instead she turned to me.

“Wulfstan, you promised.” I had, we all had. I remembered that clearly; but the master’s hold on me was absolute. “You swore you’d get me away from here and keep my child safe. If he finds my boy, you’ll never find your fated mate.” I heard the note of magical command in her voice, knew this would be the way of it, due to the working she was now unconsciously performing. “But if you keep me safe so I can raise him up right, you’ll—”

Her words were like those of my old master, back at the castle, stirring me and the other soldiers before a battle. She outlined an objective, one I felt I must achieve with my whole heart, that swell of pride a foreign thing in my chest. Gargoyles were wild, uncontained things before the Fall, so warlocksdeemed us useless as familiars, right up until the first witch brought us to heel. But while this master, and those before him, could command our obedience, there was always a flaw in that control. We were not mindless creatures with no will of our own, and as I listened to Madeline’s words, something that had died in the heart of every inmate of Z Ward flickered to life.

Hope.

I roared my rebellion, grinning ferociously when I saw Luther’s face fall, and while I no longer held my stone axe, I found something else that would do. I grabbed two of the meat hooks that hung from the bars in the roof then sent them slicing through the air.

“Wulf…!”

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