Page 78 of Stone Temptation

“Here is fine.” I went to my bed, instantly protective. “Will it hurt him?”

“I hope not.”

I’d smash the fucking ring before it hurt my…

…mark.

“Rest as much as you can,” she added. “We’ll discuss everything in the morning.”

“Wait.”

She paused, her hand on the doorhandle. “What is it?”

“Seth tried robbing you. What happens to him?”

“He sent me a wakeup call. This was nothing but a lavish attention grab. He succeeded. I’m now working with him to solve this.”

Ta da! There was his masterplan. “For real? He uses a human to break into your office and gets clean away with it?”

“As I said, he wanted to make me see sense. I’ve seen it. We’re now investigating the king and my heart is breaking.”

No sympathy from me, even if Carissa was the bee’s knees a lot of the time.

“Stay vigilant. At least you’ll get to leave this tower when Luke does. Off to the seaside.”

I liked living in London.

“Please keep what I told you to yourself. And, if Luke overheard anything, make sure he stays quiet, or I’ll be forced to take action.”

This wasn’t happening. She hadn’t spouted that shit to me. Gargoyles didn’t get to use humans like this. She didn’t get to behave like this.

“Ma’am, I?—”

“Don’t argue, Asher. Concentrate on Luke. Leave this to me. I’m sorry the human got caught in this middle of this attention grab.”

If she called it an attention grab again, I’d roar my lungs out.

“Your mark is clean, his powers registered. No consequences.”

“Bollocks…” I whispered, rubbing the back of my neck.

“I know.”

“Seth shouldn’t be clean. This isn’t fair.”

“Life never is. But your mark is still a thief.”

“What about?—”

“If he steals anything else for his brother, steps will be taken.”

“But—”

“There are better methods than thieving.”

She left me alone to ponder the steaming pile of shit she’d left behind.

You have to be strong for Luke.