AllFreeNovel
Share Us
I stayed glued on the action. “This is for killing my father.”
The man slumped on the ground, swallowed by the oversized weeds.
A roar rattled through the night, and I flinched.
From within the folds of the grass, a white lion leaped out, his movement a blur. He slammed into the gargoyle’s stomach, driving the creature backward. No one had ever stood up to the stone guard.
The gargoyle stumbled backward but steadfast. As an undead, fear didn’t play a role in its attacks.
The albino lion shook himself, his enormous mane swishing around his head. He stood taller than Reed in lion form and raised his head, unleashing a guttural growl. Except this was no ordinary lion. On top of his head were two bull-like horns, white as polished pearl. He had long, curved, saber-shaped canine fangs, but saber-tooth lions were extinct. His tail swung back and forth, tipped with an oversize scorpion’s barb.
I gawked, my mouth falling open. It was as if the universe had crafted him by piecing together elements from other animals. I’d always assumed he was a human. Was this why he attacked others—to steal body parts with magic? I’d never heard of anyone born this way.
The animal pounced at the charging gargoyle, both caught in a tangle of limbs and wings and tails. They hit the ground hard, their hissing snarls leaving me covered in goosebumps.
Gingernuts hopped up on the windowsill, curious about the racket.
The lion flew into a tree trunk but scrambled to his feet and recoiled, scanning the woods behind him. He planned to run because maybe taking out the guard went against the witch’s rules. But then again, he had to save himself. The stone creature closed the distance between them.
“Don’t let him escape,” I called out, gripping the wall as I half-leaned out to watch the battle.
His white tail struck the gargoyle’s stone face, the scorpion barb hitting the guardian right in the eye. It shook its head, swiping at the affected pupil.
I bounced on my toes and cheered.
Stab him in the heart already.
“Yes.”
But the gargoyle swung around, its wings beating, and swooped after him, wobbling at first, as if unable to keep its balance.
The white beast snarled, his ears flattened against his head, and he hurled himself upward at the stone guardian. The gargoyle pivoted his wings, bringing himself to a stop midair, and kicked the animal with its hind legs in the chest with such force, the shifter winced and smacked the ground with a thud. White vapors floated from his parted lips.
At once, the guardian tumbled to his knees, patting his eye over and over.
The lion staggered upward, stumbling about. While the animal limped away into the woods, the gargoyle climbed up and staggered after him.
I grasped my hair, clenching it, my eyes on the duo below, when a long strand floated away from me. I reached out and grabbed it, staring at it in astonishment, when the piece broke off in my hand. The rest floated away.
I rocked on the spot because my tresses were uncuttable and I’d never shed before. I stared at the strand, twisting in the air like a worm slithering over salt. Staring back at the injured fighters, I wracked my brain for an explanation. The other gargoyle had been injured before by Dustin, and I hadn’t lost any hair then, but now I had when the white-haired man had gotten slammed.
“Oh, hell.” My curse was connected with the lion’s strength!
Scenario after scenario hammered in my mind. My hair had grown from the first day I’d been tossed into the tower, and I’d never understood why. They kept me guarded by the stone creature, protected. Did that mean the creep drew his power from my magical hair, whether it was on me or Gingernuts?
