Page 1 of Stone Seduction
ONE
Luke
The bitter sea air slapped me in the face with icy gauntlets, freezing rain soaking me through.
Where have you gone?
I shouldn’t be out here in the dead of night, struggling with the holes in my memory. But to hell with the shivers, the soggy pajamas, and the impending hypothermia. I wanted to find the missing pieces.
Where have you gone?
While Asher, my personal gargoyle bodyguard, slept in my bed, I’d crept outside. He’d be mad at me for coming alone, but what he didn’t know wouldn’t annoy him.
Go back to bed,my inner voice told me.Snuggle. Be dry.
I swiped the voice away, not wanting to get all warm and fuzzy over Asher right now. The mind holes would not be quiet.
How about revealing your secrets, then?
Gaps in my memories. At least, I thought there were gaps. I wasn’t sure. This might just be a side effect from the milky potion suppressing my new power, making me believe there were nonexistent problems in my brain.
Stupid potion. It still let me turn invisible and receive weird visions about an icy prison, but the new additions were locked away by its suppressing magic.
Hmmm.
With zero recollection of its arrival, I’d developed the ability to steal the abilities of others, bending them to my will. Like the fire and flight abilities I’d taken from the chimeras who’d attacked Brinecrest a couple of nights ago.
But when the hell did I receive this upgrade? When did I become a potential threat that needed to be kept on a leash by this suppressing potion?
I balled my hands into fists, my rage churning like the dark water before me. All this time, a thieving power sat inside me and Seth kept it under control by administering the potion every time he sucked my cock after a game of chess.
Never again.
Never. Ever. Again.
Seth. That liar. That manipulator. Once a man to give me pleasure, now a man to fill me with regret.
Damn him.
Okay, so I guess it was best for me to take the potion and keep my powers at bay for everyone’s safety, until we figured out what to do with me.
I mean, I could also end the motes. Devour them and puke them back up as nasty goo. Which opened up the possibility of obliterating them, allowing the gargoyles to return to Gula—their home world—and end their days as our protectors.
Was that my destiny?
This cautiousness left a nasty taste in my mouth. This power wasmine. Mine. Mine. Mine. Out of reach, locked away in cage. Kept from me.
I want what is minea dark voice whispered.
Too right. Screw Seth, the wretched gargoyle weaver. Grind his face into broken glass, make it hurt, make him bleed, obliterate him.
My temples throbbed, the cold biting harder. I left the peninsula’s tiny beach and plunged into the familiar vision of the icy prison.
A vertical tunnel of ice stretched above my head, many windows embedded into the smooth surface, poisonous snakes behind each one.
I wept, so cold, desperate to be free.
“Must get out. Must get out.”
