Page 80 of A Tempest of Intrigue (Tempest of Shadows #4)

CHAPTER EIGHTY

Ellery

When we reached the next alcove, the lightning encircling my arm illuminated the stone creature within. They’d carved it so its wings were spread like it was preparing to take flight, or maybe it was landing.

Contorted into a sneer, the gargoyle’s open mouth revealed two fangs on its lower jaw and two on its upper. Each of those fangs was two inches long.

I couldn’t tell if the creature wore an expression of pain or murderous resolve as its stone eyes stared at me. Carved from a blue-gray stone I’d never seen before, the gargoyle had one hand with four-inch claws touching the ground, while the other was tucked against its chest.

Its alcove was replaced by a wall as we moved further up the pathway. When I stepped in front of the next alcove, I looked in to discover this gargoyle was in a different position.

It had its wing over its face like a bird settling down to sleep, or maybe it was trying to hide from the world. Further along, we passed one with its legs crossed, its wings tucked against its back, and a baby gargoyle cradled in its arms.

They were only statues, but my heart ached for this mother and her baby. The infant had its arms raised as if reaching for its mother while she gazed at it with love and what I swore was fear.

But why would anyone carve fear onto their features?

“Ryker,” I whispered.

“I’m here.”

He must have sensed my confusion and unexpected sorrow.

“I’m here,” he said again.

“What is this place? Where are we?”

“I don’t know.”

I didn’t know why I expected him to understand this when I didn’t. All of this was as new to him as it was to me.

After the gargoyle with the baby, I couldn’t look at them anymore. Most of the statues unnerved me, but that one tugged at my heartstrings, and tears pricked my eyes when I recalled it.

While it continued to feel like their eyes followed us every step of the way, nothing ever moved, and they never unleashed the attack I’d dreaded.

As we climbed higher, the temperature didn’t rise, and as exertion increased my breaths, they plumed heavily in the air before me. Mouse continued to shiver between us, but the exertion from our climb had lessened it.

When we finally made it to the top, I didn’t feel any relief as I prepared for it to trigger the gargoyles to take flight. I gazed back at the pathway, though I could only see ten feet behind me.

I held my breath as I waited for a monstrous face to loom out of the shadows, its lips to skim back, and its fangs to bite into my arm before ripping me away. It was all so clear in my head that my heart raced as a thin layer of sweat coated me.

But despite my vivid imagination, no sounds came from the shadows, and nothing chomped down on me. Still, it took everything I had to tear my eyes away from the path and back to Ryker and Mouse. I focused on them while remaining hyperalert for any sound behind me.

Ryker stood beneath the door with his head tilted back as he peered at it.

“How are we going to reach it?” I asked.

It was a problem we probably should have resolved before making the trek around the chamber, but I was so focused on not getting eaten that I hadn’t considered it until now.

And now, it might be too late.