Page 20 of Stone Seduction
I roared for him, blazing agony rioting in my bones. My body spasmed, totally at the mercy of this pain, drowning in sparkles.
Man, the vibrancy almost burned my peepers out of my head.
My wings retracted along with my tail, my stone skin switched off. The rest of me solidified as if dipped in concrete.
Shit.
I heard wings beating, a kerfuffle behind me. The glitter light died.
Shit. Shit. Shit.
For a few moments, I hovered in the air, a tad hopeful I might not take an unwanted skydive. But gravity quickly made me its bitch, my body spinning in a sickening descent.
By the stone gods, this was gonna hurt.
SIX
Luke
The light sealed me inside a glittery cocoon, robbing me of all liberties.
“The key,” Sharky’s voice echoed. “The key is ours.”
We were moving, ascending, the ring hot on my finger.
Great. Time to suffer a chat with Ember again.
I waited for the lava chamber to return, the sight of her burned body to test my patience. It didn’t happen, the temperature dropping, not rising.
“The key will be given to our queen of retribution. The end is coming.”
Retribution, huh? On who? The gargoyle king? Someone else?
I attempted words, shocked by the sentence falling from my mouth. “Care to fill me in?”
“The key will not speak. The key will be the key.”
Hmmm. Okay.
Stupid shark.
To my surprise, I could move, even turn around in this light, floating in zero gravity. It acted as my personal capsule, carrying me off to meet my doom with no emergency exit.
Damn. There really wasn’t an escape point. I searched for one, feeling for any weak points in the walls with my fingers. I even made a mental attempt, focusing on sensing cracks in the energy as if I wielded the power to make that happen.
Maybe if I wasn’t so suppressed…
I held the ring to my face, watching tiny fires dance within the gemstones.
“What are you?” I asked it. “And you can please get off my finger?”
Nothing, of course.
“Give me a hint,” I probed to the jewelry.
The ring tightened, pain shooting through my finger. The fires shimmered wildly, a searing heat shooting up my arm.
Holy crap!
