Chapter 10

"Gargoyle…gargoyle…oh,blacktourmaline!"I muttered to myself as I crushed and mixed, stewed and prepped. At least I knew a bit more about gargoyles than I knew about fucking grumpy-assed jinn.

Not that it was much.

Once upon a time, gargoyles had existed in both the mundane Planus realm and the magical Mageria realm, like a lot of creatures. When things started to get hairy and lines were drawn and treaties crafted, most magical folk came over to this side. Gargoyles, though…they were slow to change. Slow to take decisive action. Slow to do anything, really. I suppose it came from being made out of stone and being so closely connected with the energies of rock, and mountain, and immovable objects. But whatever the reason, a lot of them stubbornly stayed behind in the Planus, protecting the abodes of their powerful magic-working masters, even after those masters were long gone.

Planus had always had very little magic, but when droves of magical beings left the place, that sparse well of power grew even more depleted. It was not a good time for gargoyles. They slowly lost their own magic, burned themselves out protecting cathedrals and mansions for faithless masters who were never going to return. And what did they get for their stupid loyalty and clinging to tradition? They got turned to stone—like, real stone—slowly hardening in place until everyone thought they were just stupid statues.

See? This is why everything about magical families sucks. All I saw when I thought of the plight of the gargoyles was the stunning lack of loyalty their masters and employers had shown by leaving them behind. Sure, it was the gargoyles" choice to stay. But didn"t the people they worked for—who often benefitted from their protection without any form of payment or thanks, by the way—didn"t they owe it to the slow-natured creatures to try a little harder to save them?

Witches were really bastards. How more of us weren"t burned at the stake on a regular basis, I"d never understand.

I finished up my spell prep and looked everything over. I had elements to call to the deep, stone nature of a gargoyle, to rouse them a bit in case they had gone somnolent inside the book like they often would in the outside world. Lots of elements for personal protection and to help me smash through good old great granny"s spells and booby traps.

"Here"s hoping I don"t die," I said to Bis, who was riding on my shoulder, watching my work with a critical eye.

The little abomination had insisted, according to Niamh"s translation and my basic understanding of his gestures, that he wanted to be present this time. He was pissed at me for leaving him out when I freed the others, no matter how hard I tried to get him to understand that I was just trying to protect him.

I packed all my stuff up into my messenger bag and headed out to the side courtyard. I didn"t want to summon another pissed-off, destructive asshole in the garden where Niamh had just healed all those plants. So I had ventured out to one of the mansions million other outdoor nooks earlier, swept for and eliminated the boobytraps my ancestors had left scattered about the space, and did a quick cleansing with Niamh"s help.

Elijah was still missing in action. The coward.

Striding into the courtyard, I dumped my stack of stuff and got to work setting out candles and chalking a circle that may or may not hold the summoned gargoyle. According to everything I"d read, they had the annoying habit of being unaffected by wards and some types of magic. Which was why they made such excellent sentient home protection devices. Ugh.

Niamh strolled in, the bestiary tucked under her arm. My eyes narrowed when Aahil came trailing after her, wearing something he"d found somewhere in the house that might have once been a woman"s skirt, but he had somehow turned it into this flowing wrap thing that bared one shoulder and accented his narrow waist before flowing loose over his harem pants.

He met my eyes and gave me his standard evil bastard smirk. I ignored him entirely, taking the book from Niamh and setting it inside the spell circle, open to the section on gargoyle powers.

"Well, folks," I said with a manic grin, rolling up the sleeves of my black and green flannel shirt. "Ready to watch me get dead?"

I scooped Bis off my shoulder and tried to put him up on the top of an ugly centaur statue in the corner, out of the line of fire. But the stubborn little thing clung to my fingers with his strong, clever little hands and chittered at me like he was cussing up a storm.

"Look," I said for the dozenth time. "I don"t want you getting killed when this goes tits up—which it will, because it always does. I"m trying to protect you, you little terror," I said as I tried to pry him off me without hurting the little guy.

"He wants to know who will protect you, if he"s not there," Niamh informed me, fighting a smile. She came to solemnly look the rebellious rodent in the face. "I will protect her, Hibiscus. Elijah will help. She is not without allies."

He huffed, but let me put him down. I rolled my eyes when he stood on his back legs, crossed his little rodent arms, and turned to face away from me like a child in a snit. Whatever. At least he would be safe…ish. "Keep it up, and I"ll go back to the rental and get your hamster cage, young man!"

He set himself down on all four paws and gave me an unimpressed look. Oh good, we had moved on from toddler tantrum to petulant teenager. I flipped him off.

Niamh went to stand between me and the spell circle. I didn"t bother arguing with her about getting out of the way, since I knew it was pointless. "Elijah!" I called to the book. "You might want to get your ass out here, so you"re not trapped in that circle."

The ghost misted out of the book and floated over to hover at Niamh"s side. As if he could stop the gargoyle from murdering me by ghosting all over him. This bunch. I swear. They were going to give me a permanent migraine. "Nice to see you, Spooky," I commented.

He made a gusty sound. "You can berate me as much as you like later, Andy. After we free this poor soul from captivity."

Right. Poor soul who was probably going to rip my arms off and beat me to death with them or something equally graphic and awful. Gargoyles were ridiculously strong. The creature wouldn"t even need magic to snuff me out. Would probably squish me like a bug.

I sucked in a deep breath, then froze when Aahil casually drifted over to stand on Niamh"s other side, joining my wall of protection. I forced myself not to overreact. Asshole would probably just step out of the way when he realized he was accidentally standing in the way of my pain and death.

Calling on my magic, I started chanting, turning my focus inward as I battled my way through my ancestors" magic, unraveling all the work they"d done to imprison the gargoyle and use it for its power.

The last bit of the binding spell broke, and I sucked in a breath, feeling tired down to my bones. I guess this time the cost had been taken in the usual way—from my energy reserves and lifeforce. I felt exhausted all of a sudden, but not in the same sort of shaky, unreal way I did during a low blood sugar episode.

Thank the goddess for small miracles.

The gargoyle appeared in the circle with a thud, an ugly, pug-faced, dark stone monstrosity with stubby little wings and lion paws. It roared and shifted into person-shape, and I tilted my head back to take in what had to be nearly seven feet of rippling, stone-hard muscle. Black horns curled from his forehead, arching up and back, over his tightly curled, dark gray hair.

He paced right through my damned circle like it didn"t exist and grabbed the nearest bit of statuary—a cross-eyed mermaid with lopsided boobs—picked it up, and flung it through the nearest wall.

Yep. Pissed off monster. I was just so shocked.

Goddess, I was tired. I wanted nothing more than to get this over with so I could go nap for a day or two and restore my reserves.

Yellow eyes scanned the courtyard, and fangs flashed as the guy spoke. "Where is the witch?" he demanded, his breath coming in rapid bursts, like he"d just run a mile—or a few dozen, I guess, since he wasn"t human. Might take a bit more to wear the big guy out.

No one moved.

"Where is the witch who did this?" he asked again, his gaze sweeping over Elijah, Niamh, and Aahil. "Where is the one who…freed us?"

I sighed and stepped forward, a bit surprised when Aahil didn"t immediately move right out of my way so I could go get squashed. Huh. He must not want his toy to get broken before he had a chance to play with it. I shouldered past him and crossed my arms over my chest, lifting my head to meet the massive gargoyle"s yellow eyes.

"I"m right here," I said, my voice wobbling a bit with energy depletion. It wasn"t fear. I was too damned tired to really be scared.

"Andy—" Elijah protested, he and Niamh moving at the same time, the ghost tangling up inside the fae for a second as they both tried to intercept me. But the gargoyle reached me first, crossing the distance between us in two long strides and gripping me by my upper arms. Yep, this was it, I was about to be beaten to death with my own arms. Spectacular.

I called to what was left of my magic, pleading with mother earth to bolster me, but it was sluggish. The gargoyle released me before I even had a chance to try and zap him with a repulsion spell.

I gaped at him, mouth hanging open like an idiot, when the big guy dropped to his knees before me with a heart-wrenching sob. "Kill me too," he pleaded, his deep, gravelly voice breaking as tears trailed down his dark gray cheeks. "Please."

Okay. So…that wasn"t quite what I had expected.

I looked to the others, at a loss. Niamh frowned. Aahil just lifted one elegant shoulder in a careless shrug, his bored expression still firmly in place. Elijah did that weird hand-wringing thing he did where he fused his ghost appendages together and pulled them apart. "Oh, no…" the ghost sighed sadly.

I agreed. Seeing a big, scary dude like this fall apart was a bit unsettling. But I was tired. And if I wanted to take a nap, I needed to get this over with. I reached out my hand and set it between the gargoyle"s horns, atop his springy corkscrew curls.

His yellow eyes closed, and his shoulders slumped in complete surrender, ready to accept his death.

I patted him like a good dog, my hand heavy. Speaking was a chore, but I managed, somehow. "Gonna need you to carry me upstairs and put me in my bed when I pass out, big guy."

The edges of my vision closed in as he opened his eyes and looked up at me in surprise. I saw his hands come up.

Then I fainted.