Page 55 of The Stone Initiation
We move into single file down a corridor. The sky peeks at us through gaps where the windowpanes have fallen out.
An arch leads us into a large chamber and the smell of blood and gore hit me.
It takes a moment to process what I’m seeing and when it does, the scene makes no sense.
Several bodies are sprawled on the ground, either gutted or with their throats ripped out. And the remains of several more are piled into a corner. Some of the bodies are in partial shift.
The mutts.
But others are in human form.
Prasan points at two of the bodies. “They’re marked.”
There are two types of hunter. The civilian hunters and the marked. The marked are rumored to have druid origins somewhere in their bloodlines and work in packs. Each pack has their own mark, a symbol that they tattoo onto their bodies, probably related to their druidic ancestor. Two of the four males have visible marks, and I wager the other two are somewhere in this mess of dead bodies also.
Someone got to this nest before us.
What is this?
A shadow shifts, my scalp tightens, and a growl swells in my chest. “Come out. Now.”
A man steps out of the shadows across the room, wiping blood off his face with a handkerchief.
“You made it. I was wondering when you’d show up,” he says.
My skin hardens, an automatic response to a serious threat. But this male looks human. Smells human. Barely six feet in height with a medium, wiry build, he’s hardly a threat, and yet I have no doubt he’s responsible for the carnage here.
“Who are you?” Prasan asks. Ever the information gatherer.
“Ah, introductions. How civil. Not at all what I’ve heard about your kind.”
“Then you know we don’t have the patience for small talk.” I take a step forward and the air crackles in warning. The familiar scent of sulfur hits me, and my stomach hollows.
Because that smell only accompanies one type of creature. “Graynite.”
He smirks.
“He can’t be,” Prasan says. “He’s human.”
“Am I?” His eyes flash yellow, the gleam of a graynite’s eyes. “Sorry about the mess. I was trying a little experiment. Didn’t go so well. Turns out hunters don’t take too well to the wolf curse. They die excruciatingly, so I did the right thing and put them out of their misery, and once they were dead…well…the mutts didn’t matter anymore.” He tucks his hands into his jeans pockets and lifts his shoulders. “So sorry you got dragged all the way over here for nothing.”
I have no idea how he exists, but there’s only one way to find out. We need to capture and interrogate him.
The others have come to the same conclusion, I feel it in the fizz in the air and the throb in my blood. We take one unified step toward him then dash.
I aim straight for him, while Selas and Prasan flank him.
His eyes flare wide as he realizes what’s about to happen. Regular gargoyles can’t move this fast, but we’re not regular gargoyles.
I make a grab for him. My fingers graze the cotton of his shirt and victory rages through my blood, but in the end, I grab only air.
He’s gone.
“Fuck!” Prasan punches the wall and brick and mortar crumble to the ground.
“We have to report this to the Stone Council,” Selas says. “This…this could change everything.”
Yes, because until now, Graynites haven’t been able to procreate with humans. It’s what’s kept their numbers in control. But if what we just encountered was a Graynite-human hybrid then we’re all in big trouble.
