I’m surprised. But maybe I shouldn’t be. Baelen bound himself to me with the Rath Heartstone. My Mercy Heartstone was connected to me and the Storm. Together, they must burn like ice, scorched earth, and acid rain combined.
I can’t help it. I laugh out loud. “Then how do you sleep?”
He growls in response: an unhappy sound. It’s the same sound that gargoyles make deep in their throats when they’re upset about something.
I say, “I hear the gargoyle in you, Grayson Glory. You aren’t part of the elven world. You are a gargoyle. Which means you answer to me.”
He crouches a little, a defensive gesture. If he had wings, he would tuck them around himself in a protective gesture right now. My assertion that I control him was a stab in the dark, a desperate call to the gargoyle inside of him, but it looks like I might have hit a nerve.
Again, he assesses the distance between us, taking a step to close it. His gaze darts to my hip and it suddenly dawns on me that I still have Cassian’s bone lash. I never asked what the tip was made out of, but Roar once told me that the lash was strong enough to take a gargoyle’s head off. I’ve never used one—I don’t know how—but I wonder if it could be strong enough to shatter the pieces of the heartstones in Grayson’s back and break the tether. I unhook it but I don’t unravel it yet, watching for his reaction to determine whether he’s worried about it. To my disappointment he ignores the lash, his focus traveling from my hip to my neck in one burning sweep.
His hand flexes.
My body tugs toward him against my will.
My eyes widen. “I will not be your puppet.”
His hand flexes again. My power flares. I quickly reattach the lash to my belt so I don’t lose it. I fight the pull of Grayson’s power, digging my heels in.
His eyes narrow. A purple glow emits around him, coming from his back. The Mercy Heartstone is working overtime trying to move me, but I refuse to budge. Golden light grows around me in response. It’s Prime. It’s my heart power. Of course. I’ve been trying to fight using my strength again, but Prime is my heart, the only power that could fight the pull of the Mercy heart.
Sweat breaks out on Grayson’s forehead and chest. He growls, “Come here.”
“There’s that gargoyle again,” I say, hoping I can rattle him even more. “And no, I won’t.”
He speaks through gritted teeth. “You will come here. If I can’t control you, the Elven Command will seek to kill you. Is that what you want?” He actually looks like he cares. What on earth has changed since I tried to shoot my power through him? He’s morphed from I-will-break-you-Grayson into I-don’t-want-you-to-die-Grayson. What’s going on with this male?
My head shoots up as lightning crackles in the distance. Thunder rumbles across the sky, a booming vibration approaching fast. It literally shakes the air around us: a sonic boom. I wobble backward, but my heart leaps.
It’s Baelen. He’s coming for me.
“The Storm is coming, Grayson. You won’t be able to fight both of us. I suggest you get out of here while you can.”
I have no idea if it’s true that Baelen and I could defeat him. I’m only now figuring out which power to use against Grayson, and Baelen hasn’t fought him before, but at the very least I need Grayson to doubt his ability to fight us both at once.
It looks very much like he does doubt himself. The tug that was pulling against my torso disappears. But his new target is worse. His hand shoots out and the sphere containing Liliana and the babies speeds toward him. Inside the sphere, Liliana jolts backward. I don’t have to hear her to know she screamed.
Grayson shouts, “If I’m going, I’m taking her with me.”
“No!” My heart-power bursts around me, giving me speed as I race toward him. But this time, I don’t try to defeat his power or use mine against him. It wouldn’t work anyway. Instead, I collide with him, using the force of my momentum to physically shove him aside, breaking his concentration.
Relief floods me as Liliana’s sphere stops gliding toward Grayson. He loses his balance, slides sideways, but at the last moment, his satisfied eyes meet mine and that’s when I know I made a big mistake.
He grabs me. “I knew you’d come to me.”
Lightning crackles behind me. A crimson storm wails down on the cliff and Baelen slams onto the ledge so hard that cracks shatter along the cliff. He is full of rage, more than I’ve ever seen. His eyes meet mine, his lightning streaks across the distance between us, aimed at Grayson, but it’s too late.
Grayson’s heartbeat thuds against mine.
One beat.
Two beats.
His power flares. Then we’re gone.
