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CHAPTER SIXTY-THREE

Ellery

“The gem,” I whispered. “Where did they steal it from?”

“From usssss .”

The hissed word “ us” was full of malevolence. While they couldn’t all speak to us, I felt it emanating from all the statues.

“That pulsating stone in the town belongs to you?” Tucker asked.

“It’s not pulsating; it’s beating,” the third answered.

“For us,” the fourth added.

“And the stone destroyed those amsirah?” Tucker asked.

“Without us, its power grows until it becomes too much to contain. When that happens, the energy it releases becomes destructive,” the third said.

“The magnetic storms,” Scarlet whispered.

“We don’t know what those are.”

The fact the third one had said, we don’t know what those are, instead of I , really made the telecommunication possibility more real. Are they plotting against us?

“The stone is ours ,” the third continued. “Their greed made them steal it from us, but it is ours .”

“Why would they want it?” I asked. “It doesn’t do anything.”

“It is a great source of power.”

“And whether they could harvest that power for themselves or not, they still wanted to control it,” Ryker said.

“Yesssss.”

“Sounds like our ancestors were as greedy and incompetent as our current leaders,” Ianto said.

“Why is there no history of those amsirah or you?” Tucker asked.

“All our histories are kept in the temple.”

A little shock ran through me at learning they knew about the temple. It made sense since they were buried beneath it, but it was also surreal to have something that belonged to our world also be a part of theirs .

These things had existed thousands upon thousands of years ago. However, this one thing about Tempest connected us over the many millennia separating their existence from ours.

“No,” Tucker said. “There are gargoyles on the temple, and the stained glass windows contain depictions of them, but my father and I have read through all the histories, and there is no mention of you. We all grew up with rumors of your existence in this realm, but we assumed they were just stories, especially since no gargoyles exist in any realm.”

“We exist,” the third said. “We’ve been imprisoned.

Search the temple for us; you will find our stories there.

You will learn how we once worked with your kind, helped protect them, and were friends until they turned on us.

They broke those bonds when they tricked us, stole the stone, and imprisoned us here. ”

“I don’t have to search the temple. Unless there’s a hidden room somewhere, you don’t exist in any of the writings in that building.”

“Then they eradicated us from the histories.”

The third one’s voice remained that guttural, hollow sound, but hatred emanated from it.

“We exist,” the third insisted, and I had the creepy notion they were all nodding in agreement.

“Yes, you do,” Tucker agreed, “but not in the histories of Tempest… not anymore.”

I glanced uneasily at the other gargoyles tucked securely within their alcoves. Most remained in shadow, and while I pictured them perched at the edge, ready to spring, no scrape of stone sounded, and pebbles didn’t bounce off the walls as they prepared to tear us apart.

“We exist,” the third said again. “They took our heart from us. We need it back.”

We glanced uneasily at each other. Since I was also trapped in Tempest, I sympathized with these creatures but didn’t trust them, and I couldn’t touch that stone.

If our ancestors had stolen it from them, we must be able to do so, but I wasn’t taking the chance. I already knew how standing beside it made me feel; I wasn’t touching it.

“I’m not sure how to do that,” Tucker said.

Ryker shifted as he shot Tucker a look. I suspected he felt a lot like me when it came to that gem and these things.

“Who controls the weathers?” the third gargoyle asked.

I blinked at the abrupt change of topic. What a strange thing to ask while trying to get their heart back.

“We all do,” Tucker answered.

“No,” the third replied. “Not all of you.”

My blood ran cold, and when Ryker stiffened beside me, I knew he’d taken this abrupt change the same way I had. These things somehow knew about me.

The others exchanged confused looks while Ryker’s hands clenched and unclenched beside me. If he’d ever held any chance of helping the gargoyles, it had just vanished.

“Each of us has control over some form of weather,” Tucker said.

“Yes, yes,” the third replied impatiently. “You are amsirah, after all, but which of you controls them all ?”

The others looked more confused as they stared at each other. Ryker didn’t move, but tension hummed through him. I suspected he was contemplating destroying the statues to shut them up.

While I hadn’t planned for my final secret to come out this way, it was time. I’d kept my secret from them to protect me, but I’d never outright lied about it, and I couldn’t bring myself to do it now.

The truth would come out one day, and when it did, I’d prefer it if they didn’t think of me as a liar. I trusted those in this cavern, and it was time for them to know.

“I do,” I admitted.