Page 53 of Hearts of Stone

“You heard my mistress,” I growled at this Adam. “Speak.”

“They won’t like that,” he noted to Mellors and Jade, shooting me a wary look.

“Who won’t like what?” she asked.

“Letting the gargoyles act independently. The old pricks of the Wildfyre club, they come from the old days where people kept their pets on a short leash.”

“Pets?” Jade turned to me and my whole chest felt like it was filled with a golden light. “They consider the gargoyles to be pets?”

“Gargoyles, demons, lesser fae… pretty much anything they’ve been able to bring under their command.” Adam’s mouth twisted into a rueful smile. “That probably seems rather barbaric.”

“It’s disgusting, is what it is,” she shot back at him. “These are sentient people… or creatures?” She turned back to me. “What do you prefer to be called?”

I took her hand then, feeling that delicious warmth that came from touching her, and forced back a long shudder of pleasure before smiling down at Jade.

“Yours. I prefer to be called yours.”

Carrick choked back a rude sound and Jade’s eyes widened, revealing all of their many-hued beauty, before she blushed prettily. And Adam? He watched everything with a keen eye, nodding slowly to himself until Jade forced herself to turn back around.

She didn’t let go of my hand though.

“So what’s their deal then?” she asked, nodding to the portraits lined up along the wall, depictions of men I knew, men I had served. “This is an old boys’ club for wizards or—?”

“You know what it is, Jade.” I didn’t like the familiar look Adam was giving our mate, not one bit, but I didn’t dare draw notice to my reaction, not even as he moved closer to her. “I can give you dates and names, events and places…but, you know.” His lips quirked up at the corners as his eyes bore into Jade’s. “You’re a woman in a man’s world. Feminism and modern social shifts have displaced some power away from old white men, but not much; not when you know exactly how much is being held back.”

“And who are you?” Graven asked. “Where do you fit in this world of old men?”

“I’m the descendant of one of Kenneth Whiteley’s bastard children,” Adam replied, with a smile. “I wasn’t born into this world, but I found myself in it when my gifts manifested. There were no witches or warlocks in our family, not for generations, until me.” His eyes were drawn back to Jade, as mine were. “I stumbled into this world, just like you did.”

“So we’re related?” Jade asked. As she took a step backwards, my hands snapped out to stop her from colliding with me.

I’d never touched a woman before. The feel of her, warm and soft in my hands? It hit me right in the gut.

Actually, a little lower.

My thumbs brushed against the soft cotton of her t-shirt and all I could do was wonder how much softer her skin was under it. I wanted to grip her tighter and pull her back against me. My cock was beginning to twitch against my thigh in response to that idea, when Carrick shot me a meaningful look. This one I took notice of. I let her go, patting her shoulder before taking a polite step backwards.

I patted her?

My cheeks felt icy cold as I realised I’d touched her the way humans do a cat.

“Every single one of us is related,” Adam continued, nodding to the portraits on the wall. “Every single one of these ‘First Families’ is hopelessly interbred with the other. They wanted to maintain the land holdings they were given when the colony began, then ensure they had powerful children to pass that onto, and so they created their exclusive little club.” He gestured to the room. “One where their stranglehold on the witching world as well as on the human world within the state could be maintained.”

“That’s why the guy with the cat’s bum face didn’t want me being introduced to them,” Jade said. “He thought there was little point because I’d just be getting married…” Her brow creased and smoothed. “They think I’m a…”

“Broodmare.” Adam at least had the grace to look discomfited by this. “And one they need rather desperately.”

I dragged my focus away from my mate to look across at my stone brothers. Because this…? Adam was saying something we’d known for a long time, but had heard none of them speak of.

“From what I can tell, witch families used the disruption caused by the European powers’ world-wide colonisation to spread far and wide across the globe. It’s well-documented that Christian religious dissidents sought the New World as a place where they could worship unmolested.” Adam smiled. “The witch families did the same, very successfully—until that whole thing in Salem in the US. But while the British colonies here adopted the same witchcraft laws as the mother country, no one’s ever been recorded as being convicted as a witch.”

He moved closer to Jade, holding her gaze, not looking away for a second.

“Australia is a country of unbelievers. In the latest census, atheists outnumber any single Christian sect and it is believed it will become the dominant mindset very soon. We are brought up to believe in what we can feel, see and hear, not the unseen and unknowable. And that has made it a perfect place for the first Families to flourish. They can use their powers to give them an advantage at every turn—”

“And no one will believe it to be anything other than good luck.” Jade nodded slowly. “So it’s basically the ultimate old boys’ club. Why do they need women?” She scanned the walls, no doubt looking for the female members of her family recorded there, but I knew she wouldn’t find them, not in this place.

“Because women are the most powerful. You are the wielder of the most primal magic: that of creating life where there was none.”

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