Click. Click. Click.
There was more clicking now, and while some of it came closer, the rest stayed out of sight, in what I assumed was the dungeon. Ellery tried to smile, but it faltered before vanishing.
“What is making that sound?” I asked again.
CHAPTER THIRTY-SIX
Ryker
“I returned the Heart of Stone to the gargoyles,” she blurted so fast I barely heard what she said.
Though I’d already started to suspect this, it took a few seconds to register her words before the meaning sank in.
“What. The. Fuck,” Tucker whispered.
“You returned the what to the what?” Samael inquired.
Ellery was still trying to grin at me in a weird, almost maniacal way. “Ryker, I had to. They were the only hope we had after you were taken.”
She’d taken a risk that never should have been taken and possibly doomed us all to save me.
“Ellery—”
“All the aristocrats are dead!”
She blurted these words out too, but this time they registered almost immediately. My eyebrows shot up as a sharp intake of breath came from behind me.
“Well, almost all the aristocrats,” Ellery amended. “The Countess of Halsbad and the Baron of Muzek and his family weren’t home. We suspect they’re here with your father.”
“Is the Earl of Oakley dead?” Tucker asked.
“Yes, and his sons,” Ellery said.
“Good.”
“How is that possible?” Lawrence demanded.
I was too stunned to speak as I absorbed her revelations.
“We split up and killed them all tonight. Your father doesn’t know yet; I don’t think anyone does. Their bodies probably won’t be discovered until morning. We cut off the snake’s tail, and now we’re here for its body. Once the children are free, the duke has almost no hold over this realm anymore… especially now that you’ve escaped too. How are you free?”
“You killed all the aristocrats,” I muttered, unable to process her question on top of her revelations. “How?”
Ellery glanced over her shoulder as the clicking stopped. I couldn’t see the gargoyles standing there, but I sensed them in the shadows, watching, waiting, and perhaps plotting to kill us all.
“We formulated a plan,” Ellery replied, “and carried it out.”
I didn’t like the haunted look in her eyes or the way her gaze fell to the ground.
“We did what we had to do,” she whispered.
I clasped her chin again and lifted her head so she had to look at me. “You did what they’ve forced us to do; I don’t doubt that. What happened?”
Her eyes misted before she blinked the tears away. “We got into their castles while they were sleeping and killed them.”
“Holy shit,” Samael said from the shadows.
“Holy shit is right,” Tucker agreed.
