“Speaking of mates.” Cassius eyes my glowing tattoos with another grin. “Seems like captivity wasn’t all that bad, huh, At?”
“It had its upsides.” I grin.
“It looks like this is under control. We should probably get back to our perch,” one of the gargoyles says.
“Wait, I never even asked your names.” It feels wrong to just let them go after they came all the way here to help us.
“Azam,” the tallest says.
“Jonu,” says another, covered in a thick coat of moss.
“Vikas,” says the third one.
“Thank you all for your help.”
Rune reaches us and drops his sister’s hand.
“Yes, thank you,” he says.
“Sorry for the trouble,” Rhiannon murmurs, glancing around at everyone with a contrite, apologetic look in her eyes.
“Before they go, can you help them?” I ask Rune. “They were cursed by the Ninth Ward witches and they can’t shift anymore. They’ve been stuck in their stone forms for too long.”
“Shit, yeah, it’s the least I can do.” He steps close to Azam and lays his hands on the towering gargoyle’s chest. It only takes a few seconds for his magic to start to glow through the smallest cracks and fissures in the stone. With a shudder and a sigh, Azam’s stone form melts away, and he’s left standing before us as a massive, and naked, muscular man.
He groans and stretches. “Fuck, that feels good.” He reaches down for his dick and lets out another happy sound. “Hell yeah, I finally have a dick again. Halle-fucking-lujah.”
Rune laughs and gets to work on Jonu, then Vikas in turn.
“Being mated to you is fucking amazing. I don’t need any time to recharge my magic, and I am so fucking powerful.”
“Among other perks?” Roman waggles his eyebrows.
The gargoyles thank him again, then disappear into the night. I don’t know if they’re heading back to their perches or going somewhere far away from the witches who cursed them. Hopefully the latter. But my bigger concern right now is where Rune is planning to go.
“Soooo… we can get out of here, right?” I ask, glancing at Rhiannon.
“Yes. Sorry again.”
“Call it sibling rivalry,” Rune says. “But, yes, let’s get the fuck out of here.”
“Where to?” I don’t want to come off as needy, but I probably need to check in with Auri and the last thing I want is to be apart from my mate right now.
He wraps his arms around my neck and leans the full weight of his body against me.
“Take me to your home for now, gargoyle. We’ll sort out the future later. Right now, I just need a fucking shower.”
I chuckle and wrap my arms around him, pulling him into a kiss as we slip into the void.
TWENTY-TWO
RUNE
Touching down in the underworld is not at all what I expected. It’s cool, with plenty of light. I’m not sure of the origin of the light, but it seems natural, like the realm is lit from within. It’s also cleaner and more structured than I would have guessed. It’s like a human city, but with far fewer people. There are beings bustling around though—I assume they’re demons and the like. It’s kind of nice. Weirdly, it reminds me of New York.
Atlas grips my hand, leading me down a pathway into a large structure. “This is where I live. Auri’s compound.”
“What does a demon need mercenaries for anyway?” I ask the question that’s been bothering me for ages. Obviously, he sent them after me to get that cursed amulet. I still don’t know what he did with it or plans to do with it, and that weighs heavily on my mind.
