The forest lay to the west.
I couldn’t see it from the village, not directly, but I felt it—a presence at the edge of my thoughts. La Forêt de Veillepierre. The forest of stone-watchers.
The stories returned to me in pieces. A castle swallowed by roots and time. Men turned to stone. A beast that flew only at night.
La Forêt de Veillepierre. Where Mom had gone with Henri that morning—and hadn’t returned.
I pressed my palm against the doorframe. Maybe they’d decided to stay the night. Maybe the healer had insisted on keeping Henri for observation.
A thousand more maybes danced in my mind.
But maybes weren’t answers.
If they didn’t return by morning, there was only one thing to do.
Go find them.
CHAPTER 2
HADRIEN
Who dared to trespass on my land?
My grounds?
My—sanctuary?
I focused on the movement between the trees from my stone perch atop the castle. They drifted like ghostly shadows floating through the forest.
As long as they remained in the woods, all would be fine. I watched, my stone body tingling with wariness as I tracked them, but the sun loomed bright, pinning me in my stone form until dark.
They approached.
Closer to the forest’s edge.
Closer to the castle.
Closer…
No one should be able to breach my land.
Not unless…
No, I couldn’t think of it. As if this curse wasn’t horrid enough.
I sharpened my senses as I kept attuned to the figure in the breaks through the forest canopy. It was a woman wearing a cloak and pushing a cart, which appeared to have a child inside covered in blankets. What fool would bring a child through the forest?
She adjusted her grip and kept walking the path, her steps determined despite her slumped shoulders.
Once, I would have called out. I would have flown down and shifted from stone to help this woman and her child. I’d offer water, shelter, or even escort her back to whatever village she’d come from. Back then, I’d been a commander, a gargoyle warrior who could shift at will, and helping lost villagers would have been my natural response.
Now I was trapped in statue form from sunrise to sunset, yet my mind remained active and aware, watching and waiting as I counted down every agonizing hour until dusk released me.
Most nights, I flew up to the top of the castle, where I could bask in my stone form beneath the sun while the world passed by. And down below, I’d watch over my soldiers—the way I had done so when they’d been alive. Not now.
No, they’d also been locked in stone by the queen, preserved in statue form like sculptures in a garden. Only she’d given them the peace of death.
And me?
