Page 119 of Hearts of Stone

“No. No! I said it before and I’ll say it again, what’s the point of all this power?” She held her hands out like they contained an offering, the light within them getting brighter. “Like, sure, I don’t have to use the torch app on my phone anymore in the dark, but what good does it do?”

“Jade, you—”

“Power that doesn’t try to make the world better is worse than having no power,” she insisted.

“And you have, lass.” I took a hesitant step forward. She hadn’t claimed me, I wasn’t her mate, so perhaps that freed me somewhat. “You’ve allowed many restless souls to move on to a place that’s better—”

“And Wulfstan?” She searched my face, then Madeline’s. “What about Wulfstan’s? Where did his soul go? He said he’d find me in the next life—”

“Gargoyles and witches remain tied from one life to the next,” Madeline explained. “You’ll see Wulf again, though hopefully next time in much happier circumstances. You’ll get the chance to start again—”

“Why notnow?” I saw both Luther and Madeline in Jade right now, in that determined tilt of her chin. “Why not? If his soul will return and he’ll be born again, why can’t that happen now?” She held out a hand to Madeline, the light glowing ever more fiercely and Madeline just stared as something grew from it. A small shape flittered through the air, a butterfly made from pure light magic, that floated towards the other woman.

“Butterflies are said to be conduits between the world of the living and that of the dead,” Madeline said in a low voice, holding out her hand so the butterfly could alight. She paused for a moment, watching its wings lazily open and close. “Some say they are the souls of the dead waiting to be reborn. I wonder…”

Both the butterfly and the woman seemed to glow brighter until it hurt to look at them and we all had to avert our eyes. And then I felt it. Something light, bright, that filled my heart and drove all the pain out.

It was the feeling I got each time I was around Jade, multiplied a thousand times.

I let out a sigh then, all my fears and jealousy seeping out of me, and as I exhaled so did everyone else.

Including Wulfstan.

The startled gasp was what had my eyes flicking open and I saw my brother’s form had turned from stone back to flesh again, right before he sat up and stretched, then rose to his feet.

“Greetings,” he said, looking around himself in confusion. “I’m Wulfstan. Where the hell am I?”

Chapter 66

Jade

“I’m Wulfstan. Where the hell am I?”

In the history of all the most beautiful words used, none to me were as beautiful as those. I rushed towards Wulf, his arms opening instinctively, and it only took a second before his arms and wings wrapped around me.

“You’re—” he said, in a voice filled with awe.

“Yup.”

“And I’m…?”

I reached up, searching his neck for the small bite I’d left there and I smiled when I felt the faint indentations in his skin.

“Yep.” I clung to him tighter. Even though it felt like I was trying to hug the side of a cliff, I didn’t let that stop me. “I’m your fated mate and you’re mine.”

“You’ve accepted…” His grip tightened on me. “Far be it for me to question a gift from the gods themselves but… may I know your name, milady?”

I looked up at him, feeling a brief flash of pain when, for a moment, his face seemed to be superimposed with the one I despised most in the world. But not for long. Luther hadstolen Wulf’s face, not the other way around. As if he could have approximated even a tiny fraction of Wulf’s bravery or his strength of heart. When I looked past that to the male who actually stood before me, I saw something else that was missing from his expression: pain. He’d told me that he’d see me again in the next life, but…

“Jade,” I replied. “I’m Jade Barlow, but… what do you remember?”

“Of this place?” He looked over his shoulder, then beyond the rubble to the house. “Nothing, milady Jade.”

“Just Jade,” I corrected.

He smiled, and it was a natural, gentle expression, rather than a snarl or a twist of the lips.

“Just Jade, then. Nothing. I was a warrior on the walls of Tonbury Castle. I fought—”

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