Relief coursed through me. “Okay, good.” I brushed the hair away from my face. “Austin is on his way. He’ll find Alek.”
“That lad made a right balls of the battle,” Niamh said. “Sure, he flat-out got in the way when Cedric was zeroing in on the enemy shootin’ that magic. If you ask me, yer passin’ up a grand wee lesson for the lad. What happens when you are not helpful? Left for dead, that’s what, and good enough for ya.”
“Not much of a team player, then, ye eld bag?” Mr. Tom said from the brambles, his words a little slurred and his fake Irish accident utterly terrible and therefore hilarious.
Niamh blew out a breath and walked away. “Speaking of letting the weak links die off…”
“Mr. Tom, can you get out of there? Will you heal?” I paused, then added, “Could you not crawl out in your other form?”
“No, miss, I’m okay. I was just taking a little break before I headed back into the fray. This seemed as cozy a place to land as any. A little poke-y, but nothing like a pea under my mattresses, right?”
“Donkey,” Niamh muttered. “He’s clearly cracked his head. He’s going to have to be carried home.”
“Oh no, I don’t want to be any trouble.”
“Should we send someone to get a truck, and we can haul him home that way?” I asked.
“One of the others can carry him,” Niamh replied. “Mind you, one of ’em will need to drag him out first. There isn’t enough room to fly over him and scoop him out.”
“I’m not going to make them cut themselves up. He’s my responsibility. I’ll do it,” I said with a sigh.
Of all the days not to bring a metal suit. Not that I had one, but still…
“Okay, Mr. Tom, I’m going to come in and get you, okay? I’m going to take your hand and drag you out. It won’t be pleasant.” I reduced my voice to a mumble. “For either of us.”
After walking around the perimeter and finding a smallish break on one side of the brambles, I steeled myself and shoved the branches aside, making room for me to work my way in. Given my escalated healing rate, this would merely be painful. Tolerate that for a bit, drag him out, and I was done.
“No.” The large gargoyle stepped forward, his wings opening just a bit more, the ends dusting the ground. “I. Go.”
“It’s fine, honestly. It’ll just be—”
“No.” He gently placed his hand on my shoulder, the warmth sending a wash of goosebumps across my flesh. “I. Go.” The pressure of his touch made me step back, out of the way. “Me.”
Given his skin was coarser than mine, and he seemed tough and no-nonsense, I stopped arguing. Brambles shouldn’t hurt him as much as they would me.
He didn’t enter the mess of thorns gingerly, like I’d planned to. He marched in, thorns scraping across his arms and crushed under his feet. Red lines opened up along his skin, blood welling quickly and dripping down. He turned his head to the side and reached. His arm flexed, and then he was turning and walking back out, dragging poor Mr. Tom behind him.
“Not as fun as exfoliating with a Brillo pad,” Mr. Tom said, his wings catching and the split one leaving a trail of blood behind him.
The large gargoyle dumped Mr. Tom on the ground, looked down on the badly torn wing, grunted, and resumed his place in front of his men.
“Ouch.” Mr. Tom didn’t bother getting up. “That was mostly unpleasant.”
Another peek into the connection, and I saw Austin was almost here. As soon as we found Alek, we could all head back. I’d about had it. World’s worst flying lesson. I wished I could just throw in the towel. And now we had yet another problem on our hands—the attack, and how these mages had known where I’d be.
Suddenly exhausted, I didn’t have it in me to be nervous about the future. I’d get to that later.
“Mr. Tom, change into stone so you can start healing. Who volunteers to carry him?” I lifted my eyebrows as I faced the gargoyles. “He is the caretaker of Ivy House, and I am its mistress. Really? None of you want the honor of carrying him?”
The bright pink gargoyle stepped forward, his chest shimmering with an electric sheen of blue. I hadn’t known they could come in disco colors. I quite liked it.
“Thank you.” I nudged Mr. Tom with my foot. “Come on, change. Hurry up now.”
“Of course, miss. I am just now summoning the energy. It is not easy, I assure you. I feel rather like a wad of gum that has been swallowed and has since been worked out the other side.”
I frowned down at him. That wasn’t a great image, but it did seem accurate.