Page 83 of The Stone Initiation
“Ignore them,” Sharniza growled from behind me. “Keep moving.”
A leg blocked my path and the owner grinned up at me aggressively. “You should introduce yourself, halfblood,” he said. “It’s the polite thing to do.”
I met his amber gaze evenly. “So’s not blocking a lady’s path with your boot.”
“Ladies don’t belong here at Stonehaven,” he said. “Ladies don’t make good warriors.”
“It’s a joke letting you in,” one of the other gargoyles at his table said.
They were all big guys. Larger than the average cadets. The one blocking me had a buzz cut and a mulish jaw. And his companion had the sharp predatory features of a bird of prey. Both had amber eyes. Related maybe?
I made to climb over his leg, but he raised it, looking up at me with a smug smile. My instinct was to throat punch him, but I staunched it and backed up, intending to bypass him altogether, but the gargoyle at the next table blocked us with his leg.
Anger flared in my chest. “Move.” My tone was lethal soft.
“Get out of the way,” Sharniza said from behind me.
“Aw, do you need your goyle bitch buddy to fight your battles,” the mulish gargoyle said.
“Jay, she’s an Aziza,” his buddy whisper-hissed.
“Then she should know better than to carry dead-weight,” Jay said. “Being a guardian is no joke. This program, this academy, is no joke.” He stood to tower over me. “Letting you in makes a mockery of us all.”
“Lettingme in?” I squared up to him. “No oneletme in. I earned my place here. I passed the entrance test just like all of you, so back the fuck off.”
He leaned in, his expression a mask of menace and mockery. “Or what?”
“Back off,” Touron shoved his shoulder but the goyle barely moved, his attention fixed on me.
I wasn’t strong enough to fight, what I was pretty sure was an initiate, and I didn’t have the training to take him physically down a peg or two. But I could make him look and feel small.
“Fine, don’t back off, stand there, towering over a female half your size. I guess whaling on the little guy makes you feel big, huh? It won’t help you out there against the graynites, the shifters and the vamps.” I tapped my chin with an index finger. “Wait, have you ever even gone up against a shifter or a vamp? Do you know how to take one out? No? Because I do. It’s what I’ve been doing for the past two years while you sat in your cushy mansion waiting to get your acceptance letter to Stonehaven, so don’t fucking tell me what I deserve. If anyone deserves to be here, it’s the likes of me.”
Pindrop silence greeted my speech.
My scalp pricked and then a voice spoke up from behind me, abrasive and familiar, and a balm to my fired-up senses.
“Get away from her, Batiste. Now.”
Jay stepped back quickly and tucked in his chin. “Elite Halle, I meant no disrespect.”
“Yes, you did,” Serath said. “I can see now you’re not ready for an alpha position. You’ll stay in initiates for another three months.”
Jay looked up in horror. “Elite Halle, with all due respect, I was merely—”
“Enough!” Serath snapped. “Get out.”
I finally dared to turn my head to look at him. His gaze zeroed in on me straight away, and that one look was like a punch to my chest. I exhaled sharply, and his husky eyes darkened. I was back in the woods with his hands on me and his mouth on mine. Our bodies rubbing together, desperate to connect.
A band of pain tightened on my thigh. “Look away,” Sharniza whispered.
I dropped my gaze quickly to break the connection.
When I looked up again the elites were heading out of the door with Jay and his companion in front of them.
One by one the other gargoyles went back to their meals, and now no one was looking my way.
We joined the twins at the table they’d saved for us.
