Page 7 of The Stone Survival
“What if he’s working for the faction?” Shar said.
“No,” Serath replied. “It doesn’t fit. The faction wants Cameron dead, but Lionel has done nothing but protect her. He hid her from the council.”
“And killed her mother,” Shar muttered. Then louder… “Andhe hid her from the alpha. From her father.”
“For all we know, he could genuinely think that Ivor is evil,” Levi said. “We don’t know what their relationship is like or how it ended. Lionel also put Cameron on the elite team path, something the faction wouldn’t have done if they wanted the elite team destabilized.”
“And we have to consider Romi,” Curi said. “The factiontookRomi and turned him. I can’t imagine Lionel would have wanted that.”
And that was the most compelling piece of evidence. There was no doubt in my mind that Lionel loved Romi. There was no way he would have allowed his son to be abused and turned into a graynite. “I think we can safely conclude that, despite his crimes, Lionel is not with the faction.”
They all murmured in agreement.
“Then maybe we need to consider bringing him into the circle of trust,” Shar said reluctantly. “Finding out exactly what he did to your mother.”
“No. Not yet. Not until we’re certain that he can be trusted.”
“And how will we know?”
I shrugged. “We just…will.”
“The person we should be looking at is Ulrickson,” Serath said.
Levi went as still as stone. “Excuse me?”
Serath sat up straighter, his eyes bright. “You heard me.”
Levi’s hands curled into fists. “My father isnota traitor.”
“Ulrickson murdered his own brother and his sister-in-law, then abandoned his nephew.” Serath stood slowly, and Levi mirrored the action. “I believe he did it for status and power, because one moment he was an admin grunt, and the next he was on the council.”
Levi’s jaw ticked. “You have no proof of that.”
“No. I don’t. If I did, then I’d have claimed justice for my family by now. Instead, I’ve spent my life wondering what kind of male would sacrifice his blood for power.”
Levi’s eye twitched, and when he spoke, it wasn’t to refute Serath’s claims about his father being a murderer or power hungry; he simply said, “He wouldn’t put me in harm’s way. He’s not with the faction.” But he didn’t sound too sure now.
I stepped in. “Ulrickson is the last person we’ll be trusting either way, and Levi’s on board with that. The rest we should shelve for now.”
Serath pressed his lips together and nodded.
My ears picked up the sound of bootfalls drawing near. “Good because I think we’re about to be hit by a fresh wave of information.”
The door opened, and Ivor stood on the threshold, hands tucked into his pant pockets, a ghost of a smile on his lips.
“Good evening. Are you ready for story time?”
CHAPTER 4
There was plenty of seating in the room, and Curi and Serath moved the sofas so we were gathered around the large oak coffee table facing Ivor. I sat with Serath, and Curi sat with Shar, while Levi claimed an armchair.
Tea was passed around, and we settled in to listen to what Ivor had to tell us.
“We should start at the beginning,” Ivor said. “When the rift to the other place first opened. The gray began to seep into our world. It was their atmosphere, toxic to humans and home to terrifying beasts from their world. The gargoyles were able to withstand the gray to a degree, but the rift was guarded by creatures that even they couldn’t best, and the atmosphere close to it was lethal, even to gargoyles. We were losing the war against what was essentially a terraforming of our world. But then the high council of witches made a proposition. They’d had contact with beings from this other world—disembodied entities called shedim. These shedim were the protectors of powerful relics that were housed in the world beyond the gray. They had the power to withstand the gray and fight the beasts but not in their disembodied states. The rift opening had pulled them through, stripping their souls from their bodies in the process. Theirqueen promised that they could close the rift if they were given hosts.”
I could see where this was going now. “Gargoyle hosts?”
“Yes, but it wasn’t as simple as gargoylesagreeingto be possessed. The shedim were not ghosts, they were the souls oflivingcreatures. And so the witches created a curse that would strip the gargoyles of their souls, leaving their bodies empty and ready to house a shedim soul.”
