“Monsters,” I said.
The gargoyle lowered itself until we were eye level again. It rested its knuckles against the ground while holding my gaze.
“Monsters stole ours too,” he said.
“I’m sorry for that.”
He tilted his head to the side while studying me. “You have returned it to us.”
“Yes.”
“Then we shall return yours to you,” he said.
The excitement that leapt forth within me was buried when, from the shadows, more heads materialized. I kept my alarm hidden as they created a circle around me.
I’d sensed them there, but it was still a shock to see them. Some of them were on full display, while others remained mostly hidden.
Deciding to take the chance of turning my back on this one, I turned in a slow circle to take in the others. I kept waiting for one of them to swing through my lightning and bash my head in, but I completed the circle without getting killed.
“If you want our help, you have to retract your lightning,” the first one said.
CHAPTER EIGHTY
Ellery
“Areyou going to kill me if I do?” I asked.
“If you believed that would happen, then why free us?” the gargoyle inquired.
“Because I didn’t know what else to do and had nowhere else to turn. What’s happening in Tempest now is… it’s… it’s… anightmare. We were trying to fight against it, but that’s all falling apart. If I can’t save Ryker, then it’s all lost.”
“The realm will fall to ruin if he dies?”
“The amsirah will.”
And so would I. I’d never give up the fight, but I’d never be the same again. Only a shell of who I was would remain if I failed Ryker.
“I understand our ancestors are the ones who put you here, but most amsirah are good, kind, and caring. They don’t deserve what’s being done to them, and their childrenespeciallydon’t deserve it.”
“The children?” the gargoyle inquired.
“The duke, Ryker’s father, is taking them from their homes, from their parents, and training them to become soldiers.”
“And Ryker’s the other lightning bearer?”
“Yes.”
“You know you’re unique among your kind.”
“So I’ve been told.”
“You’re unique in more ways than being a lightning bearer and controlling all the weathers. You also withstood the power of the stone.”
“That doesn’t make me unique. Someone else must have done so too, if they stole it from you.”
“Did they withstand it?”
“You didn’t possess it, and it was on a pedestal in that castle. Someone put it there.”
