Page 47 of Fated to the Gargoyle

“He is not searching,” I say. “He is waiting.”

For my mate.

I drop off the roof and land on her balcony rail. Sable hisses my name from above. I hear him and do not care. That ghoul is leaving her home.

NOW!

20

TREASURE

I’m still humming when I grab my purse off the passenger seat and climb out of the car. The lot light buzzes over my head. I take the stairs up with my scalp itching under this bun. It’s coming down as soon as I get through my door.

I work my key into the lock and step inside. The apartment sits darker than it should.

I flip the living room switch and get nothing. I try it again, and the room stays dark on me. That makes no sense, since the other units had lights on when I walked up and I know I paid my bill.

I toss my purse on the table. Out on the balcony, Soren flips my latch with one claw, and the glass door slides open. He ducks through. He broke into my apartment again, and I could not care less. It’s the hours apart that got me.

I cross the room and run right into his arms. He catches me, and then I go “oof.” My gargoyle turns and hands me straight out the balcony door to Sable, who hangs off the rail with his arms out and a frown already set.

“Whoa, whoa, what’s happening?” I twist around in his hold.

“Someone is in here.” Soren keeps watching the hall behind him. “My brother made me wait until you were off the stairs. Forgive me.” He slides the door shut between us.

“Put me down.” I kick my feet, and Sable adjusts me like a sack of flour that talks. “The treasure is in there!”

“Some of those jewels are priceless,” Sable says, drifting us back from the rail. “But nothing in that chest would be missed the way you would be missed, Treasure. I will not release you.”

“Ugh.” I quit kicking and hang there. “How is it fair that I got the noble monsters? I want to decorate our home, Sable. You can’t just let some thief⁠⁠—”

Soren moves deeper into my apartment and disappears down the hall toward my bedroom. I swallow the rest of that argument.

I kick again. Sable brings his face down level with mine, still holding me over open air. “Enough, Treasure. Quiet down, or I will take you back to your cabin.”

I huff my mouth shut.

Something breaks in my bedroom, and it better not be my lamp. A bigger crash follows, and now I don’t care what it is. Soren is in there.

A man flies out of my hallway and slams into my living room wall hard enough to shake the balcony rail.

I gasp against Sable’s arm. Soren is out of that hall before the wall quits shaking. The man never gets the chance to stand.

The intruder is human. He punches and claws at Soren’s arms, and it does exactly nothing. Soren shoves the balcony door back open and drags him out by the hood. He throws him off my balcony.

Sable’s wings spread wide, and we drift down after him. I’m watching my mate.

The man hits the grass and rolls. He comes up roaring, his arm folded wrong against his chest. Under the lot light I get a good look at him. He’s Black, tall, and wiry, in a plain hoodie, and his brown skin carries an ashy gray underneath it. His eyes sit in rings so deep he looks drained.

Soren steps off my balcony and drops. He lands at the man’s feet without a sound, and the face on my gargoyle is one I have never met. There’s no warmth in the gold of his eyes at all. It burns flat and hot.

The man scrambles up and tries to run.

Soren is simply in front of him. I never saw him move.

He leans down over the man. “What witch do you serve, ghoul?”

“Ghoul?” I twist in Sable’s arms. “What the hell is a ghoul?”