We all kept our hands up, directing the wind and rain toward the gargoyles as Tucker edged closer to them.He tilted his head back and forth as the elements created a strange, hollow-sounding noise within the third and fourth gargoyles.It wasn’t words, but it certainly wasn’t any sound I’d ever heard before either.
“Can you hear us?”Tucker asked.
I didn’t want the answer to that question.And as the seconds ticked past, I didn’t get it.
“Push the wind and rain more towards those two,” Tucker said as he pointed at the third and fourth gargoyles.“Maybe we can try pushing it into them instead of blowing it across them.”
“I don’t think they’ll like that,” Callan said.
It seemed ridiculous to think such a thing about an inanimate object made ofstone, but I agreed with him.However, I obeyed Tucker’s command and helped push the wind and rain more toward those two gargoyles.
That strange, hollow sound increased until it echoed around us.It reverberated within the cavern in a whomping noise I felt in my bones.
“Can you hear us?”Tucker asked again.
I waited, my breath held in anticipation of finally learning something… and in terror.I wasn’t ready to learn these statueswerewatching and listening to us like I’d suspected.
The hollow sound turned into something more like a groan.The wind nearly caught that noise, but judging by the way we all tensed, I wasn’t the only one who heard it.
“Yeeeessss.”
CHAPTERSIXTY-TWO
Ellery
The word was a dragged-outgroan that shot up the hair on my arms and nape.I nearly yanked my hands back and shoved them in my pockets to stop my control of the elements.
“You can hear us,” Tucker said with far more excitement than anyone should feel right now.
“Yeeeessss.”
Having come from both gargoyles this time, the word was stronger as it echoed around the cavern, but it sounded as if it was coming from a rusty, creaky voice box that hadn’t been used in thousands of years… and that was probably accurate given what little we knew of them and the town.
None of the statues moved, but I sensed a rising excitement in the air that didn’t just come from Tucker.I was sure if the gargoyles could come to life, they’d thump their chests as they issued animalistic sounds between their words.
“Why are you here?”Tucker asked.
“Trapped,” came the response.
The word wasn’t as dragged out or rusty this time.They were adjusting to using their voices again, or the rain was lubricating their windpipes.
“Trapped by who?”Tucker asked.
“You.”
An icy chill crept down my nape as fury vibrated from that word.I might have been imagining their rage, but I didn’t think so.These things werepissed.
“We didn’t trap you here,” Tucker said.“Until recently, we didn’t know you existed.”
“Your kind put us here,” the third one said.
I didn’t want to talk about these things, but that piqued my curiosity.“Why?”I blurted.
“Greed,” the third one said.
“Control,” the fourth said.
“Power,” they said together.
