Page 48 of Stone Temptation

Pfft. They could shove it.

Before I continued to the bathroom, I picked up on a lack of cinnamon and orange blossom scent from the human. As if it’d been switched off.

Weird.

Then it struck my senses in a sweet burst, a warm breeze drifting by.

“The fuck?”

A human hurried past me, his bladder clearly about to explode.

I sniffed in the direction of the ballroom. No. Not that way. The scent was coming from the right.

How was that possible?

I sniffed again, trying to piece this together. No one went right unless they were a gargoyle. Around that corner were two guards and one private stairwell. Luke would be turned away in an instant.

How was he to my left and his scent to my right? Man, my head hurt. I was overthinking this. Nothing a quick pee wouldn’t fix.

The call for aid whispered louder as I unzipped. A heady scent of brine overwhelmed me, almost throwing my stream away from the urinal.

“Bollocks,” I muttered.

As I finished up, the whispers became rolling waves. Seagulls mewing, a salty wind, a seaside town in the dark. I snapped my rose quartz bracelet, thinking, thinking, thinking.

Luke’s scent remained in the air, still pointing to the right-hand corridor. My curiosity got the better of me, taking me to the guards.

“S’up?” Mara asked, scratching her nose.

“Did a human come down here just now?”

She looked at Axel on her right, both gargoyles shaking their heads.

“What about Weaver Seth?”

Nope.

I tried a different question. “Do you smell anything unusual?”

“Only chicken,” Axel answered.

Mara agreed.

“Anything sweeter?” I queried.

Luke’s aroma clearly wafted around them, trailing up the stairwell.

Nope.

“Why do you ask?” Axel wondered.

“No reason. Gonna take a time out.”

Mara chuckled. “How much champagne you had?”

I smiled, wincing dramatically. “Nothing ten minutes won’t sort out.”

“Lucky.”