I didn’t need the pep talk this time. I didn’t need the Ivy House watch, even though it was currently tucked into the pocket of my pantsuit. After our first meeting and the battle yesterday, I knew our worth. I knew how my team stacked up against ordinary gargoyles.
In short, we were exceptional. Our team was the best there was. I would no longer suffer anyone to question that.
“I’d say it’s about time,”Ivy House drawled, “but haven’t we been here before?”
Honestly, I had no idea. Probably. This job seemed to have milestone after milestone. We’d conquer one thing, and anotherchallenge would present itself. Each would get harder and harder.
That was necessary, I supposed. If things stayed the same, we’d never grow in magic or as a team. Silver lining.
As before, the door opened when we reached it. The butler stepped away, revealing Evan standing nearby in a suit. His face was grim.
I took a deep breath, remembering the assurances I’djustbeen thinking. We were amazing. They were lucky to know us. They were fools to say, ‘no,’ etcetera, etcetera.
“Jessie. Austin.” He offered us a slight bow, which was odd for him. “Please. Come this way.”
He led us past the sculpture as before but didn’t head to the den. Instead, he took us to a room at the back of the house. One entire wall was glass, offering a breathtaking view of the mountains beyond.
“Sit. Please.” He indicated a couch that faced the view and took a chair on our right. “Tristan.” He pointed at the chair opposite the coffee table from him. “Suuue.” He elongated the vowel, as though not quite confident that was the right name.
I felt Tristan’s confusion through our connection.
“You’ll notice that I don’t have my Guardians present.” Evan braced his elbows on the arms of the chair and steepled his fingers. “I’m not standing on ceremony for this meeting. I’m going to get right to it, is that okay with you?”
Austin didn’t move a muscle. I nodded for the both of us. I’d been trained to be polite all my life. Some things were hard to uproot.
“Try,”Ivy House said.
I barely stopped from rolling my eyes.
“What you two are doing with the convocation is unprecedented in the gargoyle culture,” Evan went on. “The older members among my advisors don’t trust it. More thanthat, they don’t like it. It is too much change for them. Too much instability.” He paused, his eyes delving into mine. “Too much risk. They worry about aligning with a situation like yours, we’ll say. Ultimately, they worry about losing status.”
He crossed an ankle over his knee.
“When I read those letters you sent to my cousin, Jessie, I had a feeling about you. I had a very strong gut reaction. When I got that sculpture, the feeling grew. And when you walked in yesterday, carrying a pocket watch out of time—thank you for allowing me to see that, by the way—my heart started racing.Youare unprecedented, Jessie. A female gargoyle feels like something out of time, like that sculpture, and the watch you carry. To me, they feel symbolic.Youfeel symbolic.”
He entwined his fingers in his lap.
“A female gargoyle is supposed to unite her kind,” he continued. “So many take this to mean uniting the gargoyles. Uniting our Guardians, more specifically.” He shook his head. “You are unitingallof us. Guardians, yes, but also the garhettes, like the barista at the coffee shop who chats to your green haired Jane. The non-Guardian gargoyles, like the bartender who now respects shifters and basajaunak and even the puca because they kept the drunks in line. The people on the sidelines yesterday, who are usually left out, but felt like part of the action because the ground force chased them around. Who saw a man being flown through the air by a gargoyle so he could help protect his people. This kind of thing speaks to us, Jessie. Austin. It’s inclusive of not just our fighters, but of our community. It isthatwhich makes me feel the power of your position and your role. It solidifies that I was right, they were wrong, nah-nah-nah-nah-nah.”
I felt my brows draw together with that last bit, surprised that such a serious and heartfelt speech had taken a comical turn.
“I have ten advisors. Five are all in. Two are on the fence. Three threatened to quit if I entertained this folly. They’ve been fired.” He shrugged. “Honestly, it was a pleasure. They’ve pushed back on everything I’ve done since the beginning, including sending Withor away.”
I felt my eyebrows lift. No one in the room moved.
Evan nodded. “We’re in. My people want to be part of something bigger, and I feel the rightness in this. We’ve sequestered ourselves onto lonely mountains, as your people like to say, and isolated ourselves from the rest of the world. From each other, even. Weneedto be united. We need to step back into the world of the living.” His gaze swung to Austin. “I want to talk more about the production cairns and selling to a larger market. Before we do that, I want to see your operations. If you are half as good as you say you are, I’ll want to discuss terms, logistics, and how to get my blown glass into every house in America.”
Austin pulled his hand from my thigh where it had been resting and placed it along the back of the couch. He liked Evan’s ambitiousness. It spoke to his own.
“That can be arranged,” he said simply.
Evan nodded, focused on me now. “I would like to offer you my sincerest apologies for some of the questions I asked you in our first meeting. I was trying to…” He tightened his lips, clearly searching for the words. “My former advisors wanted certain guarantees from you personally, not grasping how co-leadership worked. And maybe I didn’t grasp it, either. It does you credit that your…betas threw it back in my face and identified your importance in a way that my former advisors will probably never understand. Which is fine. They were due to retire, anyway. Their time would be better spent in front of a fire with their feet up, or at their grandkid’s flying lessons.”
I waved it away. “They were fair questions.”
He shook his head. “No, they weren’t. They were ignorant questions, asked by someone not accustomed to actual battle and certainly not understanding the very real war. We only play at fighting, something you made all too evident yesterday. Your leadership will never be called into question in this cairn again, nor in my presence, without my speaking up on your behalf. I wanted you to know that.”
“Thank you.” I smiled at him. “That’s really nice of you to say.”
