I watch in horror as Megara lands. Megara in daylight. Walking around in gargoyle form in the sun. How can this be? It doesn’t matter. If only Violet and I had gone into the garden before I turned, but I wanted privacy. I didn’t want the others to know I have fallen for our zoana. I’m so stupid! Megara could have seen her sisters; maybe then she would think twice about what she’s doing. I hate myself in this moment. Trapped in stone and unable to move, I’ve never felt more helpless in my long life. Fear grips my solidified form. She saunters around, still the Megara I once knew. This is good and bad. This means I still know her weaknesses. This also means I know her darkness. Violet doesn’t move - smart. She’s not well versed enough in her magic to put up a good enough fight. Her mouth though, that mouth that is a match for mine any day, may get her killed before I can save her. The fear sharpens my mind during my stone sleep. Normally it takes a lot of control to focus on the outside world while we are stone. Right now, I see more. Especially since Megara is in my face.
“My love, it has been so long...come find us...devil’s keep,” Megara tells me.
Devil’s keep. I will go there. Except, no! Violet is fighting back. When did those spells stick? Has she been practicing? They leave my line of sight, but I can still hear most of it. Loud enough the others might hear it too. Crashing, glass breaking, Violet yelling spells we did not teach her. She must have been practicing in her own time. Silence. They got her or killed her.
I can easily envision Meg killing Violet long before sundown. All the different versions of Violet lifeless and flayed fill my mind. The silence crushes me. I just know that by the time the sun sets, Violet - my Violet - who is sunlight smashed inside of a human, her life will be over. The only sunlight I’ve known for over 600 years snuffed out.
Wait, my premature grief is blinding the facts. If Megara kills Violet, I’ll be stuck in stone until the next zoana is chosen. “Come find us...devil’s keep.” She doesn’t plan to kill Violet. We have a chance. I will catch Megara. Kill those other gargoyles who ever laid their massive paws on my love. I will make Megara tell me how she is awake in daylight, and I will end her if she hurts my sunlight.
I try to formulate a plan. I try to focus. But one cannot fight stone sleep forever, I drift. Through the memory of last night and the memory of this morning. Happiness or horror, unsure of what the night will bring. I drift.
Chapter Eighteen
Violet
Unfamiliar voices creep into my subconscious. The pounding of my head drives me slowly awake and with it come the memories of the last moments I can remember. Megara - Zaphyra and Zemira’s sister - was kidnapping me, flanked with minions like any cliché villain. With no idea where I am or what time it is, I keep my eyes closed and listen. The voices are too far away to make anything out just yet, either that or the pounding in my head is still too loud. Stupid gargoyle. She took me by surprise, and now I know for sure they must plan to kill me. I have no plans to just let that happen. I am not the same lost girl I was when I came to Concrete; I am a Kai. A zoana of gargoyles, who has fought monsters. Albeit semi-unsuccessfully, but I have gotten better since then. Between the gargoyles and Madame Leticia teaching me about my magic, I know I can do this. Well, I think I can. No - I have to be sure. I have to be strong. I do have magic. Magic that, my ancestors willing, will get me out of here. I can’t count on my gargoyles to save me, I don’t have the link with them my ancestors did, but I will go down fighting if it comes to it.
Unwilling to risk them noticing if I open my eyes, I adjust myself slightly to get a feel for where I am. I am in a chair, it’s hard and heavy since it doesn’t move when I move. My hands are strapped down with tape, and my mouth is definitely gagged, probably with expensive curtain material. Discretely as I can I push with my tongue to get the gag out of my mouth. Maybe I can whisper an incantation, something, to get these binds off of my hands and feet and get out of here before they notice me. I maneuver my mouth in the a,e,i,o,u form my old singing teacher taught me and keep pushing with my tongue stretching the gag. Apparently while I slept, I drooled all over this stupid cloth so its juicy enough it finally loosens a bit and slides down my chin, leaving what I also feel is a trail of saliva hanging and no way to wipe it off. Being my own hero isn’t so sexy.
A large scrape surprises me.
“We are done,” a deep male voice says. A male voice that sounds familiar.
“Then let’s wake the little witch up and get this finished,” a female says.
Wait - I know her voice for sure. My eyes snap open in shock.
“Not yet,” the man says. “Give it a few more minutes. We have to wait exactly for sunset. Unless you want your sisters to stay stone forever.”
Denial hits me as I see the two figures walking around a graffiti covered cement room. They’re standing at a long thick oak table full of glass vials and beakers and hot liquids; it looks like a mad scientist’s lab. To go with the mad gargoyle scientist motif, holes of differing sizes are splattered across the floor, ceiling, and walls. Some with rebar sticking out. There are gaping spaces where windows once were; they’ve been gone long enough, not even shards of glass are left. In every window and at the top of a stairway, a gargoyle stands waiting. The gargoyles don’t scare me half as much as the two people do. Two people who are no doubt gargoyles too. The man is Mr. Abarax. The man who wanted to buy the estate from Aunt Irene. He was a gargoyle, probably trying to just get closer to my gargoyles. He must have thought she was the zoana at the time.
The female though...the one who called me a little witch. Her hair is short and pale blonde fanning out from her chin, but she is still her. I see the resemblance to her sisters clear as day now. She looks so young. I didn’t hear the lilt in her voice before when she was a gargoyle; their voices become deeper when not in human form.
“Madame Leticia,” I say under my breath without thinking.
Megara stills while talking to Mr. Abarax and turns to me. My stupid mouth! Now I’ll never slip away. She smiles. “Violet, you recognize me, I’m quite flattered.”
I suddenly feel very small and very stupid with those grey eyes on me. “You’re Megara.” How could I have missed this? Everything she taught me, defensive moves, incantations, all of it. Why in the world would she do that? What would she get out of teaching me my magic? The questions become a flurry in my mind.
“Oh, I’m much more than that. I am Megara uncursed!” She throws her hands up into the air in dramatic flair like a burlesque dancer showing off her long gloves. The gargoyles around her chuckle, obviously amused by her antics.
Mr. Abarax turns to me now. “Since she’s awake, we can get her prepped.”
Two minion gargoyles come towards me. I can’t tell if they are the same ones from earlier. They grab the chair on each side and lift me up. I’m tempted to try zapping them, but if they drop me, I’ll likely fall through a hole in the ground and impale myself on the rebar below. So, I keep my mouth shut.
“You remember Abraxas don’t you, dear? He met you in the Kai estate,” Megara tells me as if she’s making a formal introduction at a party, not a kidnapping and murder plot.
“Abraxas, that’s worse than Abarax.” I scrunch my nose. Megara looks annoyed. What did she expect me to do, say nice to see you again?