Page 19 of The Stone Initiation
How the heck was I going to follow them?
Sharniza shook her head with a knowing look. “You should have taken the bus home.”
She broke into a jog then leapt into the air to join the others.
“It’s all right,” Touron said. “I don’t know what we’ll have to do once we get to where we’re going, but I can carry you there.”
Relief made my knees weak. “Thank you.”
“Turn around,” he said. I planted my back to him, and he wrapped one huge hand easily around my waist. “Don’t wriggle.”
My feet left the ground, air whooshing over me, raking through my hair and stealing my breath as we climbed into the night sky. Euphoria swelled in my chest as Touron’s wings splayed to catch the updraft, taking us higher. I let out a whoop, and Touron’s laugh rumbled through me.
“Pretty epic, huh?” he said.
“It is! It so fucking is!” This was what I was missing. This power and freedom. But I’d take what I could from this moment and sear it into my mind. “Thank you.”
“Don’t thank me yet. Who knows what’s in store for us.”
But in that moment, I didn’t care. In that moment, my senses were in overload, taking in the vista of moonlit fields and silver-kissed canopies of forestland below. The scent of ozone filled my head, and the symphony of beating wings surrounded me. In that moment I was a part of something bigger. In that moment, I was one of them.
It helped that the gargoyles who had stared and sneered at me were now too focused on what was to come to pay me any mind.
Moths spawned in my belly, and I breathed through a sudden wave of anxiety. I could do this. I had to do this.
We flew past acres of forestland and a spattering of buildings clustered into a small village, and farther, toward a mountain range. The air grew cool and misty, and the distinctive sound of rushing water drifted up to us.
The elite led us into a valley in the mountains which morphed into a ravine housing a rushing tide of water. Rapids churned and flowed, hard and fast.
The elite flew higher and perched on the closest side of the ravine. They crouched, bodies bunched and ready to leap, waiting for us to join them.
The ledge was wide and deep with plenty of room for us all to land.
“Tuck in your legs,” Touron instructed.
I bent my knees and held onto the hand wrapped around my waist as we took a dive toward the ledge to join the others. Touron set me down gently, ignoring the sneers and growls the other gargoyles threw his way.
They were angry that he’d helped me?
Seriously?
“Weakness should not be shouldered,” a gargoyle with dark blue hair snarled. “Weakness can infect us all.” He closed in on us, and two other gargoyles joined him, trying to pin Touron in. “She doesn’t belong, and you showed weakness in feeling sorry for her.”
Rage starbursted in my chest. “Back off.” I slipped between Touron and them, hands bunched into fists, body vibrating with anger. I didn’t give a shit how much bigger than me they were, didn’t care that one flap of a wing could knock me off the ledge, all that mattered was smacking down the bully, and I didn’t need huge fists to do that, just a little wit.
I relaxed my fists and crossed my arms affecting an unintimidated air. “Aren’t guardians meant to protect humans?”
His eyes narrowed. “Of course.”
“Hello, half human here.” I jerked a thumb toward myself.
Blue-hair’s sneer deepened, menace radiating from every inch of his body. “You’re either human or you’re not. There’s nohalfabout it.”
I held my ground, tipping my chin up to look him in the eye. “Yeah, well you obviously flunked genetics class, didn’t you?”
Touron choked back a laugh.
“You think that’s funny, Lomax?” blue boy asked. He shook his head and turned away. “Did you think it was funny when your brother got taken down by a grotesque?”
