Page 38 of The Stone Initiation
Ooooh, good cover story. I smiled thinly, letting them believe that lie.
“I’m sorry,” Ginia said, joining us. “Gargoyle males can be bastards.”
“Hey!” Touron looked offended.
“Not all of them,” she added quickly.
I’d side-stepped a tricky situation. “So, what’s an omega?”
“Any female that isn’t us,” Ginia said with a tight smile.
“There are two kinds of female gargoyles,” her sister explained. “Alphas and omegas. The alphas are built to fight, protect, and lead. History says that in the old days we were the warriors that protected the camps when the males went hunting or to war. Then our world perished, and we came to the human world. We made alliances with the humans and took an oath to protect them in exchange for refuge. And we played our part, but the world changed, and magic dwindled, and our aid was no longer required, so we slept in stone for centuries until the Gray came.”
“What is this? Story time?” Curi entered trailed by two other gargoyles. “If she doesn’t know about our history then she doesn’t deserve to be here.”
“None of us knew about our history until we were taught it,” Ginia’s twin said sharply.
“Palia, don’t even bother,” Ginia said. “He’s not worth it.”
“No,” Curi said. “It’s your kind that aren’t worth it. Females who can’t reproduce so pretend to be males. You’re all just walking cu—”
Sharniza’s fist was in his face before he could finish the slur.
Curi staggered back, hands flying up to cup his nose.
A low growl that promised pain ripped through him and his body bulged as his beast begged to be free. But he shut it down and slowly raised his head looking at her from beneath heavy brows. “You’ll pay for that, Aziza.”
Sharniza crossed her arms, her stance relaxed and unaffected, but the tense lines of her shoulders told me she was ready to react if Curi attacked. “I’ll be waiting, Mason.”
He turned on his heel and strode toward the exit shoving his minions aside to get past. They looked momentarily torn, as if they wanted to stay.
“Move it.” Curi called.
They quickly followed.
Sharniza picked up her plate and took it to the dishwasher. “Let’s load up and get going. Induction starts in two hours. We should check out the grounds and orient ourselves before then.”
Touron nodded. “Okay, sure, we’ll just gloss over the last minute then, shall we?”
Sharniza shot him a sharp glance and he held up a placating hand.
“Mind if we tag along?” Ginia asked.
Sharniza shrugged. “It’s a free world.”
We cleaned up and headed out. It looked like our trio had just grown to five strong.
CHAPTER16
We’d all gotten maps and induction books in our packages, but only Palia had brought her map of campus with her. We spent the next hour taking a tour of the grounds. Orientation would take place in the main building in the center of the academy grounds, so we didn’t bother checking it out. We could do that when we went to our first class later.
We passed more dorm houses as we headed north. These were larger buildings with more stories than ours. There were several iron-framed towers visible too, with platforms high up. Perches for observational purposes no doubt.
There was a running track, and a trail that led into the forest to the northwest.
We were headed toward a redbrick two-story building when a Gargoyle pushing a cart laden with tools crossed our path. He was muttering under his breath but stopped short at the sight of us.
His back was hunched, and he peered at us through milky eyes. He was the first old gargoyle I’d ever seen. I hadn’t realized they could look so aged.
