Page 59 of Stone Temptation
“Brace yourself!”
With a mighty fist, he punched through the ceiling.
FOURTEEN
Asher
Avoiding a fight went against every fiber of my being. But so did placing my mark in the path of danger.
I flew around the tower, searching for more chimeras, holding Luke close.
He must be bad news. Breaking into Carissa’s office didn’t say “helpless victim” to me. It rang dodgy as fuck.
But why did he fit right in my arms? Why didn’t I get knobhead energy from him? I liked to think myself a good judge of character.
Luke registered on the nice end of the scale.
Before I dove into the clouds to take him to street level, I clocked movement on a balcony on the left side of Carissa’s office. Human movement.
A human in mountaineering gear.
There you are!
The man’s sweaty stink reached me, the sounds of heavy breathing coming at me.
Conflicting reactions landed. Get Luke to ground level or make a quick pit stop to ruin this human’s break-in?
My new compulsion to protect my mark might resist the latter, but, at the end of the day, it didn’t control me.
Fuck it. I’d do both.
I flew at the balcony, the human slipping into the open doors. Landing quietly, I made sure Luke kept his mouth shut, my finger pressed to his lips.
I’d like to press more than my finger there…
He nodded, getting my gist.
Taking point, I led us through the sparse bedroom of a fellow gargoyle knight, following the dirty stink back to the office. Commanding Luke to pause, I peered through a fresh hole in the wall, watching the human in his freaky gas mask explore the ruins of the office.
Two of the walls were gone, the ceiling completely crumbled. No sign of the desk, Carissa’s clocks scattered everywhere. None of them ticked.
The human paused at Luke’s discarded suit jacket, crouching beside it. He picked it up, checking the pockets, fished out a ring box, and removed the piece of jewelry.
Fuck no.
I rushed him. He dove to the side, dropping the ring, then drew a dagger.
“What—”
He drove it into his chest just as my fingers skimmed his black coat, keeling over. A few twitches later, he died.
I stood over his body. “Now I really, really don’t understand.”
I heard movement behind me, Luke approaching the ring. “I came for this. That.” He nodded at the ring, not sounding right.
I went to him. “You came for it?”
He chewed his bottom lip, folding his arms around his bare upper body. In that moment, he seemed so lost, so…complicated.