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“It was over three hundred years before the coven found us and gave us the rings. But only the last ten of those were spent here and the other caves nearby.”
“Three hundred?” I gasp.
A hollow ache starts in my chest. I rub my hand over my sternum, pressing harder when the pain doesn’t go away.
“There aren’t many Strange in the world. Of the original twenty gargoyles the witches created, there are only the five of us left after the fortress fell.”
“I didn’t think you could die.”
“We are immortal but not invincible. A very important distinction.”
When I first met Rook, I’d wondered what could’ve broken his horn. I can’t imagine what could scar Dredd’s stone skin and tear his wing.
“My gargoyle brothers died because they attacked the fortress—attacked us. They fell under crumbling rubble and broken magic.” His already tense body stiffens further, his wings pulling tight to himself and his clawed feet digging into the dirt floor.
“Why? Why would they turn on you or your purpose?”
One second his back is to me, the next Titan is facing me, now only a foot away. I yelp in surprise, freezing as I take in the pained look on his face.
“Tonight is not about that, Julianna.” His voice is low, but it carries the weight of a roar, and I step back.
The ache grows under my rib cage, and it makes looking at him even more difficult. I have my silly little problems—a bad mother, a bad manager, a bad man. He, however, spent hundreds of years in hiding and is now finally being pulled into action to find the one thing he and his brotherhood ever cared about, the Keystone. And my asshole of an ex-arrangement might’ve fucked it up.
“I’m sorry. About tonight, about Harris,” I answer before breathing. “It isn’t my fault, I know that. He was the dick, but if I would’ve handled him differently or simply walked away, you wouldn’t be—”
“Stop,” Titan roars, his voice echoing in the cave, and I feel it in my body.
My head snaps to look at him, and I go stock still. The adrenaline in my body surges at the sight of his snarling mouth. Every point of his sharp teeth are exposed.
Titan, again and again, has described himself as a monster, but I’ve never truly seen it, not until this moment. He is immense, and his body overwhelms the space. His horns graze the rock ceiling, and his expanded wings block out any light from the cave’s opening. His tail slaps hard against the ground, causing the dirt around him to kick up. I take in every granite bulge of his muscles and the hard plane of his stomach. I watch as his clenched claws dig into the stone flesh of his palms and the talons on his feet work deep grooves into the dirt.
He had called himself brutal and vicious. I see it now. I see the fury in his eyes.
“Are you angry at me?” Like a moth to a flamethrower, I take a small step closer to Titan.
“No,” he says through clenched fangs. “I’m angry at myself. I should’ve been there sooner.”
“But the Pull…”
His brows drag together, and he growls, cutting off my words.
“I’m sorry, Julianna. Harris should’ve never been allowed near you.”
I close the distance between us to cup his jaw with both hands. I guide his marble eyes down to meet mine. If he won’t let me speak, then I will find a way to let him know he has nothing to apologize for.
“Don’t look at me that way.” Titan grinds out the words like each one is more painful than the next. It only makes me want to soothe him more.
“Like what?” I chew at the corner of my bottom lip and let my eyes drop to the floor before flicking them back up to his.
“Like you are giving yourself to me.” His voice is suddenly low and raspy. “Like you want me to devour you.”
“What if I want you to devour me?”
I watch his chest expand as he takes in a sharp breath. My eyes linger on the hard surface of his broad chest, the way it looks like stone, but I know it feels like heat and sin.
“Don’t start this, little thief.”
His claws circle my wrists, and he pulls my hands from his face. With a small tug, he focuses my attention off his body and back to him, holding me within his gaze.
