Page 24

Hit Me With Your Best Shot

Aubrey

As we inch closer to sunset, I keep my eyes on the terrain below.

Rennie and I are in the sky again, as we have been every few hours to allow us to have time to rest while we check out the path ahead for those below.

A loud beeping comes from my mate’s pocket and I bank right to get closer as he fumbles for the device to check it.

“We’re less than a mile from the spot where we are supposed to meet the emissary,” he says gravely.

Renard has always been gloomy about his past, and because that was the theme we have shared for so long, I didn’t worry about it.

However, now that we are about to face the people who broke his heart and cast him aside, he’s more introverted than normal.

I understand his trepidation—fear, shame, anger, and hurt carried for as long as we have been burdened with it is hard to manage.

But he’s put on a mostly brave face about the trip, hoping that it won’t cause an international incident when the family he’s chosen has to meet the one who did not choose him.

We are not calm preds, and our mate is volatile as fuck right now.

I can’t blame him for fretting about what will happen when the past and the future collide.

“I don’t see anyone. Are you sure?” I ask as my eyes scan the outcroppings and the land carefully. “How will they know when we have arrived?”

No one asked that question earlier, and I curse under my breath for not thinking of it until now.

I suppose I assumed there would be a gargoyle standing there, waiting, until we trudged up this damn mountain path.

Given the heat, that probably was a dumb thing to assume, and I roll my eyes at my na?veté inwardly.

I’m smarter than that, but I’ve been so distracted by worrying about attacks or stupid, vapid bints on some internet website that I missed a key part of the planning.

I can only hope his answer isn’t ‘they’ll show up at some point’.

“They will know the moment I step foot over the boundary of their territory.”

I squint at my mate as he glides through the air, pretending he isn’t tense from head to toe. His flight is different when he’s stressed, but he likely doesn’t realize it. I can tell how nervous he is even without seeing him close-up. “How does that work, exactly?”

“I don’t know.”

That doesn’t help me feel less concerned at all.

“Why don’t you know? Isn’t territory protection something they teach your young?” I’m remembering my lessons as a child, and dragons make that shit clear from the moment we can walk on two feet.

Renard changes course, coming closer so he can chat without yelling.

“Because they do not train the young—especially the important ones—in the ways of protecting our clutch or our contracts until they are over a certain age. I was sent packing not long before the birthday where I would have been put into that training. Thus, I know what every child or teen knows: no supernatural being can set foot in our lands without our knowledge.”

I stay silent as I mull that over because it very much sounds like gargoyles had magicals enchant their borders.

Their sense of smell is good, but not that good, and they don’t connect with nature like some shifters.

There’s simply no other way besides having guards spaced around the periphery that could be possible.

I don’t believe the sentry idea is viable at all—not according to the numbers Rennie has stated clutches live in.

It has to be via another source of power, and if it is?

That means his exile was about something entirely other than inter-marriage between species.

Did he accidentally break a treaty or provision in a deal with the Fae?

Looking over at his sad expression, I’d love to share that there’s hope for his family yet, but I cannot.

I don’t want to get his hopes up, nor do I want to hurt him again if they really are as stupid as we assumed.

However, my little theory would explain why a person is supposed to appear out of nowhere to greet us when we were given no specific dates or times to be here.

In fact, it might explain a lot of things that I plan to work on weaseling out of anyone in that clutch that I can get to talk.

“A historian or elder is what I need,” I mumble to myself.

People with jobs like mine—maintaining books and artifacts and records—love to discuss our positions and our obsessions.

Locating whoever is in charge of that duty within his people might lead me to more answers than the others poking around blindly.

“We should hit the ground and bring them up to speed,” Rennie says as he flexes his wings to catch a draft. “I don’t want them to cross the line first and end up in some sort of battle.”

Pressing my lips together, I nod, gesturing to a spot just a little bit ahead of the walking crew. “Let’s come down there and we can stop them. We should definitely enter your people’s land as a group, not split in half.”

I pin my wings back, angling myself for descent as my mate nods in agreement.

He moves to do the same and we move toward our family quickly, using the down drafts to slow our speed until our feet touch the ground.

Once we’re on terra firma, I let out a long breath, watching Felix and the ursine guide crest a hill to hike in our direction.

The tiger sees me, picking up the pace until the entire group is standing within feet of Renard and me.

“The device said we are close, and we should cross the border together,” I say firmly. “That’s why we came down.”

Renard looks at Dolly, his expression serious.

“Do not mention personal details until I tell you it’s time.

I would like to make certain there isn’t a trap awaiting us.

I don’t believe that to be the case, but giving them more information than they need is not smart.

They are cunning and capable of mimicking social behavior with outsiders when they choose—it’s part of the skill set they learn when they are ready to join the contract team. ”

“Now I know why you don’t have it,” I mutter playfully, and he shoots me a dirty look.

The closer we get to this damn nest, the more I wish we would have decided against coming here, I swear to Anubis’s wagging tail.

We followed the beeping sat phone until it indicates that we’re in the exact spot we were told to come to. It’s the highest peak, and we can look out to see a beautiful vista as everyone pants and passes around the canteens.

“This is where I leave you,” Marius says.

“You do not have camping equipment, and this area is full of protected wildlife. I suggest you do whatever it is you came for and leave before the darkest night comes upon you. There are… many dangerous things that roam the Carpathians after the sun goes down.”

“No shit,” Fitz says, as he adjusts his topknot. “That’s why we’re fucking here instead of in air conditioning. Fuck off.”

Dolly blinks at him, covering her mouth so she doesn’t spit out her water. Once she’s swallowed, she strides over to the tiger, pushing up on her toes to whisper in his ear. He laughs crazily, and I turn to Felix with an expectant look.

“He’s been paid, right? Your twin is right; he needs to get lost.” I guarantee whatever is going to happen won’t if we have an extra shifter hanging around out of some professional pride. “We’ll be fine without you, Ursa. Toddle back home.”

The bear finally grunts and waves his hand at us as if to say we’re insane, then trudges slowly back the way we came.

I monitor him while the others pull out jerky and energy bars to build up their reserves again before our gargoyle guide gets here.

I wait until the bear is far out of my view before I turn back to my family with a sigh of relief.

“Finally,” Rennie says as he shakes his head. “I thought he was going to insist on waiting forever.”

“Well, who can blame him?” Snack size asks as she squints at the peak. “There’s nothing here and no one to take the fall if we disappear off the face of the earth but him.”

Renard shakes his head, pointing to a spot farther down the cliff. “We need to move along the edge until someone comes. They will lead us to the nests and to my parents.”

Great, more vague shit that he doesn’t even know how it works or if it will fail.

“Okay,” Felix says as he tucks away his wrapper and grabs Dolly’s hand. “Let’s wander around the death-defying edge of the world until someone appears out of thin air.”

Chuckling at his dry wit, I wave at Chess and Fitz. “The Raj is right. We have to follow our broody poet; this is his area of the world, after all.”

They make annoyed faces but join us, and we all stroll together quietly.

A hawk cries in the distance and I hear local wildlife rustling somewhere nearby, but it’s quiet enough to hear a pin drop.

Rennie’s eyes dart over the landscape across the divide, sighing as he heads towards the sun.

“This is the right way to go, then we’ll circle back. ”

Our journey goes on for what feels like forever, but eventually, we stop when we get back to the place we started. The sun is just sinking below the horizon, and the sounds of nature are getting louder as time passes.

“Perhaps it isn’t working?” I offer gently.

I don’t want to suggest that his former clutch set him up, but it’s feeling like it could be the case.

The red color of the sun is beautiful and makes the landscape even more rustic, but we didn’t bring what we needed to be out here all night—something that fucking bear pointed out.

I’m going to be pretty goddamn furious if he turns out to be right.

“Give it some more time,” Renard says softly as he stares into the sky. “It’s coming.”

“Baby, I know you want to believe that they wouldn’t trick you, but—” Dolly’s words are cut off when she gasps.

I follow her gaze to the ridges across from the peak we’re standing on to see two huge gargoyles gliding through the air towards us.

The dim light of the sun catches their forms, and I notice one is a shiny, metallic gray-ish black, and the other is a deep green with crystalline accents.

They’re obviously looking for us, but until they come close enough to say that, I stand at the ready.

My dragon rumbles inside, letting me know that he’ll take over and blow them out of the sky if they so much as breathe wrong.

“That’s probably the emissary and a guard,” Rennie murmurs softly. “The guards are often from the lineage that shift into darker colored hard forms like me.”

“Uh, not to be distracting, but does anyone wish we’d made him tell us more about fucking gargoyles before we got here?” Fitz says ruefully. “I’m suddenly feeling extremely stupid because I thought you fuckers were all made of stone.”

Our mate chuckles, nodding at him. “Me, too. I mean, Rennie is shiny, but I guess… I didn’t really consider asking why. It’s just who he is, you know?”

“Gargoyles from various lines and heritages have rocky forms of lots of different minerals and stones. The one on the right has a jade form, so he must have come from the east to join the clutch. Some younger gargoyles leave their homes to visit clutches around the globe, to see if they would be a better fit than their original home.”

Looks like we’re all going to learn a whole fucking lot about his species—more than I ever thought I’d get to know—and it will be first hand.