Breathing heavily, I laughed like a madwoman.
“I’m losing my mind, I think,” I said afterward, lying on top of him, not at all caring that we were on the floor.
He wrapped his arms around my back and heaved a sigh of contentment. “Mating. Best just to go with it. This is why we’d usually head out into the woods for the week and just…be together.”
“Yes, but if you’re in the woods away from people, you can’t fight. I feel like kicking some ass and then screwing you into oblivion as the victory lap.”
A smile spread across his face. “Quite the change from when we first got here. The battling, I mean.”
“I know. I’m sure it’ll wear off, but…you said to go with it.”
“Yes, I did.” He squeezed me a little tighter. “Damn it, I’m turned on again. You are a literal dream come true. Yes. Let’s battle. First a quickie against each other until one of us submits, and then against the enemy with our pack.”
Take two.
“Okay.” I gave a thumbs-up to nobody as I again walked out and leaned against the wall.
“Feel any surlier?” Niamh asked, now back by the kitchen.
“A little happy magic might do you good, ye olde crone,” Mr. Tom said.
“Is that supposed to be my accent?” Niamh turned to him as he filled another glass of water.
“Mine was less shrill, I know. I’ll work on it.” He sniffed.
“No, Mr. Tom, coffee this time. Time to get my game face on.” I held out my finger as Austin exited the room, silently telling him to get away. His proximity got me every time.
“Ah, good, she’s seeing some sense.” Niamh wandered my way, in her sweats like everyone else. They were all ready and waiting, eyes on me, faces blank.
“So.” I took a deep breath and noticed all the younger gargoyles shivered. “What?”
“Time for battle,” Nathanial said gruffly.
Excitement rolled through me. A smile blossomed on my face and anticipation flowered in my middle.
“Yes, it is.” I accepted a steaming mug from Mr. Tom. “Here’s the thing: that low magical ceiling isn’t fair to the gargoyles. I’m going to try to break it.”
“No need,” the basajaun said, munching on a banana. “The mountain will help.”
“What, by doing a little rumble?” Mr. Tom asked.
“It was just warming up,” the basajaun replied.
I remembered that rumble. The vibrations beneath my feet had been subdued but unmistakable. I also remembered what Elliot Graves had said after I hit the wall of a tunnel with my magic. He’d seemed genuinely nervous about the prospect of bringing the ceiling down.
Austin stared at me from across the way, and I could feel the coiled darkness within him. He was battle-hardened and ready to claim the victory we were owed.
My smile was back. My manic cackle. My departure from rational thoughts.
“Just go with it.”
It was the first time Ivy House had spoken to me in these tunnels. She’d clearly followed our progress through the links.
“This is your destiny. Seize it.” It was a battle cry if I’d ever heard one. She was egging me on.
“Go for it,” I said to the basajaun, and Austin nodded. “No more playing by Elliot Graves’s rules. If he won’t come out to me, he will go down with the ship.”
“Yes!” the basajaun roared, fired up. The shifters shed their clothes, including Austin, and changed, adding to the chorus. The gargoyles and Niamh turned into their other forms, joining in.
Edger yelled, “Whoopie!”
If vampires roared, he’d clearly forgotten how.
Magic pulsing through me, feeling the call of battle in my bones, I headed for the door. “Let’s go.”
“Change,” Ivy House said.
“I might need to talk to—”
“You are a female gargoyle and the heir. You have given in to your beast. You are, even now, calling your cairn. Change, and show them that you are no mage. Own what you are: a creature with magic. An animal, if they so choose, that is more than they can ever be. Show them. Change.”
I stripped off my muumuu and shifted like the others had. My claws tapped on the ground as I walked toward the foyer. My wings fluttered behind me. It felt wrong to be trapped in this mountain. Wrong to be away from the sky.
“Wake up the mountain,” I said to the basajaun, which came out a garbled mess.
Nathanial repeated it, much better at speaking in his gargoyle form. Really, I had no idea how he’d understood me. Very handy, that guy.
The ground beneath my feet vibrated, and somewhere deep within the rock, I swore I heard a moan.
The path to the battlefield was the same, but we traveled it so much differently this time. Adrenaline coursed through us, one and all. Fire pumped in our middles. The excited shifters were breathing in hard pants, and the wings of the gargoyles fluttered like mine.
The sunlight cut across my face as we emerged outside, but I didn’t raise my hands to it. I looked up at the magic keeping us enclosed, keeping us on the ground, and a strange pulse blasted out from my middle. Nathanial roared, followed by Jasper, Ulric, and Mr. Tom. The basajaun took up the call, followed by the shifters. The mountain groaned louder, its rumbling intensifying.
“Whoopie!”
I shook my head. There had to be a cooler thing for Edgar to shout.
As we descended the steps, I paused and pointed. The magical roof of the makeshift colosseum had been altered. It was a huge dome now. Plenty of room for even Hollace to fly.
Elliot Graves clearly wanted to meet with me in the flesh. There could be no other explanation. He’d allowed me all of my resources, and given the strength I had on my team, no one would be able to defeat me.
How could I ever have doubted?
“You were a Jane,” Ivy House said, and I wondered if I’d thought that at her instead of just to myself. “You are now a gargoyle. You are donning your mantle and owning your place as Ivy House heir. Banging that alpha has done as much good for you as pining after you has done for him. You’re welcome for forcing him into it at every turn.”
When she started singing “Matchmaker, Matchmaker,” I cut her off. Couldn’t she stick with the battle cries and call it a day?
The setup was the same in the locker room, down to the attendant in the red coat. Her eyes widened when she saw me. They drifted down my body, snagging on my wings as I fluttered them.
“Hel-lo?” I ground out, trying to be as clear as possible.
She started. “What are you?”
“A female gargoyle,” Cyra said. “Cool, right?”
“I thought you’d be as ugly as the men—” The woman cut herself off, as though realizing her words might cause offense, about-faced, and walked from the room. Apparently that meant we were supposed to follow her.
The sand in the arena was the same, but for some droplets of blood here and there. The blue sky above called to me, and as I followed the woman to our position, I looked up.
Forms of all different colors and sizes soared in the sky, gargoyles all, some just outside of the dome and some far beyond it. Thirty, at least, more than had flown from town to await our call.
Even as I stood and watched, in rapture, wanting to lift into the sky and soar with them, two more flew over from the closest peak, coming toward us and joining the others.