Page 9 of Dragon’s Golden Mate (Shifter Nation: Enchanted Over Forty #2)

She wanted to give him a solid answer. Kendrick had asked for her help because he believed she could provide it, but Maeve wasn’t sure.

“I’ve never had to rely on the ley lines for my power before.

This could be a coincidence. Maybe something else inside me healed with that shift. It’s hard to say. What do you feel?”

His chest was right next to her shoulder, and his breath caught for a moment as he looked into her eyes. “I’m not sure, either.”

Even there, when the cathedral could come crashing down around their shoulders for all they knew, it was impossible not to think about what was happening between them.

Closing her hand, Maeve let her magic dissipate. “If we’re here, maybe we should get some photographs of the gargoyles you mentioned. Then you can translate the runes,” she suggested.

He nodded. “The one on the outside of the building would be too hard to get to, but there’s one up there.” Kendrick pointed.

Maeve looked up. There was a second story, a balcony of sorts that stretched along the sides of the sanctuary over the pews.

The vaults of the ceiling came down to create arches over each opening of the balcony, and a carved railing added beautiful decorative detail.

Shorter pews and chairs took up the narrow space.

It was just as fascinating as everything else, but she didn’t see any stone creatures.

“I must be looking in the wrong spot, because I don’t see it,” Maeve told him.

“It was right there.” Kendrick looked all along the balcony on that side. “I saw it. I know I did.”

“We could go up there,” Maeve suggested.

He hesitated for a moment before nodding and heading toward a set of stairs. “All right, but I haven’t been up here yet. I don’t know if the floor is sound, and we’ll really have to be careful.”

“That’s fine. Oh.” Maeve paused as they reached the bottom of the stairs.

A gargoyle sat right on top of the newel post. His large wings were stretched out and up toward the ceiling, and his stone muscles were finely carved to show off his strength.

His feet hung over the edge of the post, and the wood had been carved to make his claws look as though they were digging into it.

“This one’s easiest to see,” Kendrick told her. “It’s the only one at eye level. He’s something, isn’t he?”

Maeve was a sensible person. She knew that a statue was just a statue.

Carved stones and crystals could be used for their symbolism, and sometimes the material itself could be powerful, but they weren’t alive.

“That face,” she murmured, taking in the slightly uneven arched brows over doleful eyes.

“He looks like he feels sorry for himself.”

“Here are the runes I mentioned.” Kendrick pointed at his toes. Then he took out his phone and snapped a picture. “It’ll be interesting to see if they’re the same on all of the gargoyles. I also have a theory that they might not be contemporary to the building.”

“Weren’t they used in this style?” Maeve asked, realizing she knew very little about the subject. Notre-Dame came to mind, but that was built long before the church in which they now stood.

“Sometimes they were.” Kendrick started up the stairs, using his feet to test the strength of each tread before he put his full weight on it. “It’s their placement that’s such a surprise. And, of course, the runes.”

The second floor was just as breathtaking as the first, except the view was different.

Shafts of light, standing out in the dusty air, angled down from the windows.

The vastness of the space could still be seen, but now from a dizzying height.

The columns that held up the roof were topped with decorative scrollwork that simply couldn’t be appreciated from the first floor.

“Careful here.” Kendrick skirted around a hole in the floor. He moved over to the railing and leaned out slightly, craning his head to look at the sloped area where he thought one of the grotesques should be. “I just don’t understand.”

Movement caught Maeve’s eye. She stepped past him, noting a small hole near the roofline.

It was just big enough for a squirrel to squeeze in.

“What are the chances that we’re not the only ones who broke into the church?

You mentioned how much of what’s in here would be snapped up by an architectural salvage company. Maybe someone came in and stole it.”

“But then why not steal the one down there on the newel post? It’d be the easiest one to grab.” Kendrick moved along the gallery, leaning out to check above him once again.

“Good point.” The pews up here were much shorter to account for the space. Maeve stepped around one and froze. “Kendrick?”

“Hm?”

“The gargoyle that you’re looking for right now, what did it look like?”

“It was basically a stylized cat,” he explained, “but more savage.”

“Sort of like a mini panther?”

“Yes.

“No wings, though.”

“No.”

“About the size of a large housecat?”

“Yes. Why? Did you find it?” Kendrick’s feet echoed on the wooden floor behind her.

“That depends. You tell me what that is.” Maeve pointed to the corner, where a creature was staring at her. Its ears were angled back, and its eyes were fierce, making it look like it was plotting murder. It was the same dull grey as the gobliny figure at the bottom of the stairs.

“This must be a different one,” Kendrick told her. “The one I saw was stretched out, clinging to the wall.”

The creature took a step forward.

Maeve and Kendrick both jumped back. “Like that?” she asked, hardly believing what she was seeing.

The cat-like beast took long, slinking paces toward them, stretching its front paws out and sinking its claws into the floor. Its long, sinewy body rippled with muscles. Though it very much looked like a feline, there was only stone where fur should’ve been.

“Holy hell.” Kendrick reached out to grab Maeve, pushing her behind him. “I guess that explains why it’s not where I saw it last.”

The gargoyle opened its mouth, showing a row of sharp teeth, and hissed as it crept another step forward.

“I think we should go,” Maeve suggested.

“Yes. Let’s get you out of here.”

“Me? What about you? It’s small, Kendrick, but it’s made of stone,” she reminded him. Maeve glanced behind her. “The stairs are right here.”

“Go!”

She hurried down, glad to hear him thundering down behind her. Maeve could feel the cat’s presence behind her, watching her. She reached the landing, and her hand skimmed across unstained wood at the top of the newel post.

“Shit!” Kendrick grabbed her from behind and pulled her to the floor just as the goblin divebombed them, its wings making a terrible grinding noise as it flew past.

As they scrambled to their feet, Maeve realized that the magical feeling she’d been experiencing there was completely gone. It was replaced by a deep, bone-chilling horror that rolled her stomach. Her muscles threatened to freeze up completely.

Kendrick grabbed her arm and pulled her along with him. They rushed down the aisle together, only to find another winged creature flying at them. Its screech shattered the air. “It’s the damn bird!” Kendrick flung out his hand as it reached them.

The hawk-like thing crashed into the walls, sending a new shower of plaster down before it soared up to the ceiling again.

A heavy thud sounded behind Maeve. She turned to see that the cat had pounced down from the gallery, damaging the pew below. It bounded to the floor.

Suddenly, her vision blurred. A nightmare appeared before her eyes, an image of her skin being ripped from her bones. Blood poured from her wounds and ran down her sides, pooling on the floor. It was gone as soon as it came.

Kendrick grunted, holding his side. His face was contorted with pain, although Maeve saw no injuries.

“Come on.” She grabbed his hand. These creatures were small, but they weren’t fighting fair. Staying there would only cause damage to the church, themselves, or both.

They reached the offices and Sunday school classrooms, sped down the hall, and burst out into the parking lot. Kendrick slammed the door shut behind him. He grabbed a nearby landscaping stone and tossed it down in front of the door to keep it from opening again.

Hand-in-hand, they dashed across the parking lot until they reached the sidewalk, panting.

“What the fuck was that?” Behind them, the church looked like the old, slightly forlorn but strikingly beautiful building she’d initially seen. No stone creatures came flooding out of it to fight them off.

“I don’t know,” he admitted, his voice softer than usual. “I can assure you, Maeve, when I told you it might be dangerous in there, that’s not what I meant.”

“Did you…did they…” Maeve struggled with the right way to ask her question. “Did you see things? Or feel things?”

“I did. I saw a blistering hot wind scorching my skin and flesh away, layer by layer. The energy in the building, what I thought was magic, that changed, too.”

Though it was no less disturbing, Maeve was glad that at least it wasn’t a figment of her imagination. “What the hell is going on in there?”

Kendrick gently touched her elbow. “Let’s get back to Tina’s. I think we need a little time to recover from that.”

“All right.” They walked back through town, mostly in stunned silence. “What are you going to tell your client?” Maeve asked after a bit.

“Definitely not that the building attacked us,” he said with a rumble of a laugh. “She’s supposed to set up another appointment with me.”

“You can’t go back there,” Maeve protested.

“The creatures didn’t attack when I was there with her,” he countered. “Maybe it has something to do with the ownership of the place. I’m not sure. I just know I want to find out more.”

Maeve nodded as they reached The Crystal Cauldron. “Let me know when you do.”