Total pages in book: 135
Estimated words: 128061 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 640(@200wpm)___ 512(@250wpm)___ 427(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 128061 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 640(@200wpm)___ 512(@250wpm)___ 427(@300wpm)
“Yes, please,” I said. “Whatever they are having.” I motioned at the leaders.
“Same, thank you,” Austin told him, then turned to the leaders. “We’ve welcomed you into this territory and given your people an adjustment period to learn how to properly behave. We’ve allowed you to check out our operations, and when you brought more people into the territory for your play at battle, we allowed it because of your customs. After all that, you still allow your petty insecurities to blind you.” He paused for a moment, and silence rang in the room. “I’m not going to tell you how to do your jobs. It’s more effective for us to sit back and watch you step into your own graves. One thing I know, however—you’ll think back on this trip and know with certainty that you chose the wrong path. We will make sure of it.”
He looked over at me then, and I knew him well enough to know that he’d just changed whatever it was he’d set out to do.
“What do you say we go sample from the food trucks with the others?” he asked me as the server poured us glasses of wine. “We can eat here anytime. We might as well enjoy better company.”
I smiled at him and pushed my chair back. “Excellent idea.”
Before we left, Austin addressed the leaders one more time. “You’ve overstayed your welcome. You are now here on our good graces, and my patience has dried up. I’ll expect you to leave this territory as soon as possible.”
I thought I heard Nessa swear softly, but before I could glance over to see what the matter was, Nelson said, “Gladly,” and a strange sort of buzz permeated the restaurant. It sounded like a swarm of bees, but on a much larger scale. Like gargoyle wings when Nathanial was trying to summon his people, but in a chorus.
The leaders all looked in confusion in the direction we were heading.
“What’s that—”
“Attack,” Tristan said over me urgently, grabbing Nessa’s shoulder. “That’s our warning system.”
“Tristan, sir,” someone yelled from the lobby. “We’ve received notice of an attack!”
“Attack?” I said as my gargoyle flowered power within me. “Who—”
Austin’s phone rang as Broken Sue yelled into the restaurant, “We’ve got mages and mercenaries, sir, crossing the territory in the northeast. Nine mages and two dozen mercenaries. They’re coming in hot.”
“Let’s go, let’s go!” I shouted, yanking off the necklace. “Austin, back your people away until we can get fliers there. Sebastian and Nessa, we need you visible. We’ll fly you in. Nessa, after that, you’ll go on the ground. Sebastian, Ulric will be keeping you airborne. The fliers will take on the magical people so our ground crew can tear up their mercenaries. Let’s get out there!”
THIRTY-ONE
Jessie
The buzzing was louder outside—three gargoyles in the air were beating their wings fast and shallow enough to make a loud humming sound. It was incredibly handy as a warning system.
Shifters ran toward the parking lot. Broken Sue waited for Austin. They’d drive there and shift when they were close.
“Miss Jessie,” Nathanial said as he ran toward me, ripping his shirt off his torso. My team ran behind him, all of them shedding their clothes as well. “You need to call the gargoyles. Don’t worry about the leaders, not for this. Do what you were meant to do and join us all together. Bring them into the fight as a unit so that they don’t clutter the air on their own.”
“Yeah, they’ll want to go to battle,” Ulric said, out of breath as he discarded his pants. “You’ll need to organize them.”
I remembered Nathanial telling me the gargoyles would want me to bring the fight to them. I knew in my heart he was right. When called to battle, gargoyles felt excited and eager and giddy with anticipation. They were a battle species, apparently like the basajaunak that had already gathered around us, wanting to do what they were made to do. Fight.
“No problem,” I said, flicking off my shoes and then shedding my clothes.
Austin grabbed me around the middle and hauled me to him roughly, his hand in my hair and his lips pressed firmly to mine. A car stopped not far away, loaded with shifters waiting for their alpha.
“Stay safe,” he told me. “Find the darkness. Don’t fear it—I’ll never allow you to be lost. Guard what’s most precious to me in the world, Jacinta. Guard yourself. I love you.”
“I love you,” I told him, taking this moment to focus solely on him.
And then we were each going off in opposite directions, him to get to the battle and me to get in the air.
“They will not mess with our home,” I said to myself, shifting into my gargoyle form and then launching into the air.
I didn’t know why these mages were attacking, or whose mages they were. I’d thought Momar had all his people tied up in anticipation of Kingsley’s battle. All I knew was that they’d be sorry for showing up on our doorstep without a larger arsenal. Because I’d bring in these gargoyles, I’d handle the magic, and I would show those useless leaders what it actually meant to be an army of gargoyles.