Page 2 of Stone Seduction
“Stay…” another voice said. “You must stay. You cannot leave.”
I whimpered, slamming a fist into a window. The glass shattered, slicing my hand open. Two snakes slithered out, falling onto the ice beside my feet. They thrashed in death, their venom seeping into the ice as their hearts beat for the last time.
Poison. It seeped into me. Always inside, never leaving. Always, always, always.
“I lost you,” I sobbed, blood running down my arm. “I lost you because I…” I couldn’t finish, the pining unbearable.
“Let me out. Let me out. Let me out.”
Laughter. Rage. My fists breaking another window, the cold too much, the poison too much.
Everything too much.
Snakes spilled and died and I screamed.
Screamed for everything.
Screamed for?—
The vision collapsed, shoving me back onto the beach. I lumbered forward, falling to my knees in the wet sand.
“Crap.”
Damn vision. A possible warning of a future attack from Ember, a result of my apparent clairvoyancy.
A cluster of blue motes drifted past my face, glittering as if they were the most innocent particles to ever float by.
No chance.
Motes granted humans magical abilities while also making the monsters that plagued our world. Burped up from the bowels of the earth through mote vents, glittering away as they sowed their chaos.
And indestructible until my latest development.
Mote enchanters were able to use the energy of the motes to create potions or charms—some more skilled than others.
I snarled at the specks as they moved down the beach. A second purple cluster shot into the sky, sucked up by a funnel of wind.
Ugh. I should go inside, the shivering in my body not only from the cold, but also from craving my powers.
God, I didn’t want to be this creature, furious at being suppressed, salivating over the deadly potential of my skills. It was so exhausting, taking me away from my quest to rescue my brother, Finn, after a monster smashed his built-in gargoyle protection and made him a terror.
I had to get back to saving him, to cure him of his terrible fate. He shouldn’t be a terror—a creature made by a monster consuming its soul, dying in the process. Terrors were immortal tools for the monsters, able to smash gargoyle magic. If they ever escaped the terror houses holding them, they’d rampage and feast freely on humans.
Monsters craved human flesh more than anything, desperate to scare or trick us into giving up our protection. While mostly unsuccessful, it didn’t stop them from trying.
Green light shimmered across my skin, reminding me of the safety net within. No monster could lay a hand, a tooth, a tentacle, or any spiky appendage upon me.
Could I destroy terrors? Could I remove Finn’s affliction and bring back his soul?
My eyes brimmed with hot tears, my heart aching for Finn’s face, his laughter, to hear him talk about his obsession with theRMS Titanic. All of it. I just wanted my brother back.
“I miss you so much.” The wind swallowed my words.
I needed to keep working on a cure for Finn. I still had my pathetic mote enchanter powers, and I’d use them to keep making potions and charms to crack this heartbreaking code.
Never give up.
Why did we have to part on an argument? Pain twinged in my skull as I recalled our screaming match at Crab Cove, everything spinning, spinning, spinning.
