I let out a breath. “Amazing capacity for pain, yes. I couldn’t handle it. It was…”
Mr. Tom nodded solemnly.
I tried to run my fingers through my tangled hair before giving up. “All my failures with flying, and he put his life in my hands because he had faith I’d figure it out in time to save us both.”
“He’s a remarkable leader. He brings out the best in his people. And look! You flew!” Mr. Tom beamed, his scowl morphing into a proud smile that would have scared children. “When Ulric saw you, he stepped forward in such a rush that he burned his face on that barrier. Everything about your gargoyle form is perfect. It is a thing of strength and beauty, and you carried someone as muscle-laden as Austin Steele with those tiny little wings! Oh, what a treat to watch. Horrifying, and you surely shaved decades off my life span, but majestic.”
“Right, right.” I swung my feet over the edge of the bed and reached for my phone. “How long have I been out?”
“Two days. You had a lot of healing to do.”
“How long has Austin been on the hunt?”
“He’s been working on it for almost a day. As I said, he has a pretty incredible tolerance for pain. Last I heard, he was only finding dead ends. Those mages are advanced in their magic, and he doesn’t have a starting point because Damarion and his gargoyles couldn’t find the lower entrance to that cave. Once you were freed, they came back here with you.”
Damarion and his gargoyles.
They were supposed to be my gargoyles.
That problem would have to wait.
I sent a quick text off to Austin: Where are you?
To Mr. Tom I said, “I know a creature who can help us find the entrance.” I headed for the closest, my skin feeling strangely crackly.
“Oh, that basajaun? No, I’m afraid that is out of the question. Austin Steele tracked him down, but the creature wouldn’t tell him anything. He tried to subdue the basajaun, and Damarion tried to dominate it, but neither succeeded. Austin Steele worried he would kill the creature if it led to an altercation, and Damarion pulled back, which leads me to believe he feared he’d be bested. You have to be careful with basajaunak. They have large extended families and hold grudges. They are like a hairy, stinky mob. Kill one of them and their whole unit shows up and tries to claim vengeance. We don’t need that kind of heat.”
I shook my head, pulling on some jeans and a shirt. I clearly hadn’t appreciated the full extent of Austin’s prowess before. Handling that kind of pain not once, but twice, shrugging it off, and getting back out there to secure his home was… It was almost larger than life. It was unbelievable.
“Those two guys can’t even be in the same room without going for each other’s throats,” I said. “Clearly that…what was it? The hairy creature?”
“The basajaun. He came in when you were flying. Hairy, stinky, wild, prone to hold grudges…”
“Right, that creature. Well, clearly he’s cut from the same mold as Austin and Damarion. That, or the guys came on too strong, posturing and acting like macho idiots, and he wasn’t having it. I’ve got something he wants, though.”
“Really?” Mr. Tom followed me from the room. “What’s that?”
“Magical flowers.”
“I’m not following…”
My phone chimed, and I glanced at the screen.
Austin: At the bar. Organizing sentries throughout town. You okay?
My first destination was the kitchen to retrieve a huge glass of water. Maybe two.
I answered Austin. My skin is waxy, but I’m good. Going to go find that hairy creature. I don’t think it’ll attack me. It let me escape. We have an accord.
In the kitchen, I filled a glass, drank it, and then slugged back a few more.
“The thing is…” I wiped my mouth and headed for the back door. “He didn’t seem to know much about the mages. I got the feeling that he’d always had the guard job, hadn’t actually done it forever, and was doing it because that was his expected role. It didn’t seem like he’d asked any questions of them. He might not know anything about them.”
“When did you talk to it?” Mr. Tom followed me outside. Edgar stood on Niamh’s porch, his hand up to knock. He turned our way when he saw us.
I quickly filled Mr. Tom in as I walked across the street to Edgar. A pulse of magic sang through my bones, and I felt doors open within Ivy House. A high-pitched scream made me look back.
Lights flickered in the windows. Smoke curled from one of the chimneys on the right side.
“What’s…”
My speech dried up as the front door swung open and Ulric came running out of the house, followed quickly by Damarion, both of them wide-eyed and in a state of undress. From around the side of the house ran Cedric, holding up his britches as though he’d received the summons midway through getting dressed and hadn’t paused to finish. Another body blasted from a second-story window, fell to the front lawn, turned the harried dive into a roll, and bounded up. Jasper, the gargoyle I hadn’t talked to much. I really needed to make more time to get to know everyone. That was certainly part of the reason why they were Damarion’s gargoyles.