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Once the decision is made, I cannot change it if it were the only thing I wanted in the world, because I need to see Julianna safe, more than I ever wanted anything, including the Keystone.
I’m halfway to the elevator when I think to say more to Dredd.
“Watch the vault. Change your position if you need to. See if the Keystone has moved. Inform Rook and Knox what is going on. I promise you I will get it one way or another. It’s a vow, Dredd. I won’t forget it.”
“I know, Titan. Now—” Dredd’s voice is abruptly cut off. Rook has worked the coven’s magic on the roof.
The blond man yanks open a door just to the left of the elevator, revealing a stairwell. I growl, strange and guttural. The humans at the party are focused on Freddy’s current drama.
Moving swiftly to the stairwell, my eyes are trained on the man’s back as he passes through the doorway. I push through the crowd, my only concession to stealth being that I stick to the edges of the room, where there are fewer bodies to move.
The man starts to close the door. I unconsciously slow as he turns to face me, attempting to hide my pursuit of him. His eyes, his pale marble-flecked eyes, search me out in the crowd, and as the door slowly closes, he smiles.
Maximus.
I was certain he would show up, but I was equally certain his pursuit was the Keystone and he didn’t have access to glamour magic. Clearly, I was wrong. Maximus came with a plan tonight, and by the way he followed her around, the plan is Julianna. The only reason I can think of is that he’s held onto his anger towards me since the fortress fell and has found his opportunity for revenge in her.
I make it to the stairwell in what feels like seconds after Maximus, but when I look down the echoing well, I see his blond head bobbing in and out of view only a couple floors from the bottom. I move with monstrous speed, flinging my human body over stairs ten at a time. I jump down floors, weaving between the railings, moving as fast as I can to get to her, my stone flesh rubbing viciously against the glamour.
My vision has narrowed to only what is in front of me, to my one objective: keeping Julianna safe. I’ve put her in this dangeragain, I realize, just like I did when her mother and manager tried to use me to get to her, and again, when I tried to fix it, I only put a bigger target on her back. I’ve put her in danger even as I promised I would keep her safe.
Even as she trusted me when I knew she stopped trusting anyone long ago.
Julianna has every right to hate me.
A sudden, painful sense of clarity bursts through the thick stone of my skull.
Of course she didn’t come to me for help. She is an intelligent woman. I’ve told her time and time again that she comes second to the Pull, and all she did was believe me. I was the one who didn’t believe my own words and thought I could manage my competing desires and responsibilities with ease.
My judgment has been so clouded. Hundreds of years with the Pull as my only driving emotion and I’d assumed what I felt for Julianna was simply the desire to find the Keystone and return to my life of guarding a fortress and the Relic Room within. A life of brotherhood, yes, but also solitude and stagnation. A life of loneliness—without her.
My adrenaline races, and my heart pumps with inhuman strength. My roar rips past my vocal cords and is pure monster as it echoes down the stairwell. Somewhere in some distant corner of my awareness, I can feel myself bending the steel bolts that hold the railing in place and ripping full lengths of it from its cement mooring as I race down the stairs.
When I hit the bottom of the stairs, the scent of fear is overwhelming.
Julianna.
I throw open the heavy metal door with such force, it flies off its hinges. The street in front of me is dark and, except for a few passing cars, is dead of human activity. I whip my head around, looking for any sign of life. I see nothing but hear the sound of Julianna running, her labored breath and bare feet over rough asphalt.
I chase after the sound.
I push my human body hard, but her scream echoes in my ear, and it’s not enough. I’m not fast enough, and this utterly ordinary and un-Strange body feels like a prison determined to make me fail.
Fuck it. Fuck the Strange and their rules.
I tear off my emerald ring and toss it to the ground. My body, my real body, rips through the fabric of my clothing like it is paper. My claws stab through my shoes, my tail tears my pants from my body, and my wings obliterate my jacket and shirt. When I shake my head in fury, I feel the weight of my horns, and my leather loincloth slaps against my thighs. I’m prepared for battle.
Julianna’s fear is sickly sweet, and the air is thick with it. I spit the taste out of my mouth and run faster.
The distinct whoosh of another gargoyle’s wings unfurling shifts the air, and a plume of dust and dirt is kicked up in the distance. Maximus has transformed out of his human form as well, and it will not be as easy to take him out now.
It doesn’t matter. Nothing matters but Julianna and the Pull that urges me to her.
Dropping my head down, I bend my knees, dig my claws into the ground, and bring my arms into my sides. My tail shoots out behind me, adding even more stability to the solid stance. I sit deeper into the position, my claws digging up chunks of the cement, and I launch into the air.
I push my wings hard and my lungs harder. The Pull is my guide, and Julianna’s small gasping breaths are all I can hear as I soar low over the street. She screams again. The sound is a beacon shooting up from the open parking lot only a block away.
I will make it. I will save her. I will keep her unharmed. I will never let her go.
