No one is pleased to see me, and the workers are not happy at the prospect of feeding us, but since Valerie is gone, and they know how close we are, they oblige even if begrudgingly.
“They’re a fun bunch,” Miyako says as we head to one of the kids’ rooms after dinner.
“If I had to grow up here…” Nea shakes her head. “I wouldn’t have tolerated such disrespect.”
“Hey,” Malak protests.
“It’s fine,” I say. “Can we just go over the plan again?”
And we do, running through it again and again. Darius suggests we take turns resting since we don't know when she'll arrive, but I can't even think about sleep right now. Malak, though, lies down in one of the small beds and promptly falls asleep.
Nea snickers. “He’s no warrior if he can sleep now.”
"Better to be well-rested than to be fighting tired," he mutters under his breath.
Hmm. Maybe he isn’t sleeping that deeply.
I smile at Nea, but she just rolls her eyes and shakes her head. “Trolls,” she murmurs.
“He’s a good guy,” I tell her.
“You can have him.”
“No thanks. He prefers—” A pillow hits me square in the face. “Hey!”
Immature? Yes. Inappropriate? Yes. Fun? Yes again. We launch into a pillow fight, all of us but stoic Darius. When Miyako’s pillow misses the intended target of Vothos, who ducked, the pillow hits Darius square in the side of the head. The fight halts momentarily, but then Darius picks up the pillow and chucks it at Lucent, who is caught completely unawares. Honestly, it’s not good at all that we’re so oblivious and have such slow reaction times, but we’re talking and laughing and having a good time bonding.
I just hope that we won’t be crying soon.
Eventually, the pillow fight dies down, and we settle in to wait in silence. Malak has given up trying to sleep, and I sit next to him. At one point, I notice Miyako staring at an oblivious Darius, and I nudge Malak and nod to them.
Malak shakes his head.
I lift my eyebrows. The room is getting dark, but he might be able to see yet.
“They dated last year for almost the entire year,” the troll whispers in my ear. “Then, he broke it off. Neither have dated anyone else since.”
“Do you think they’ll get back together?”
No. You should mind your own business and concentrate on the task ahead.
I scowl at Darius. Stay out of my head.
Then don’t think so loudly and don’t think about me.
Yes, Your Highness.
The hour grows late, and I’m restless. I want to get up and pace, but there’s not enough room with all of these beds crammed into here. It doesn’t matter that they’re pushed against opposite walls. There’s hardly any space between them.
“Breathe. Just relax,” Malak says.
I try to inhale and exhale, concentrating on my breathing, but soon, I’m panting, anxious and worried. What if the gargoyle didn’t just take Valerie? What if Valerie’s dead? Maybe we should’ve tried to find the gargoyle harder, sooner. I know gargoyles aren’t active during the day, but Lapis Draca is part dragon so maybe she can.
Just then, the terrible screeching sound stone on stone, of claws on stone, grates through my ears, and I rush over to the window and throw it open.
There, just outside the window, flapping her stone wings as if they were flesh, is our target, Lapis Draca.
Miyako shoves me to the side. Two silver tails appear, and she opens her mouth. A blast of light bursts out and strikes the gargoyle straight in the face.
Lapis Draca shrieks, the sound grating, inhuman, and I cover my ears. Crap. The others will hear and come racing in, and the fox-fire doesn't seem to be strong enough…
Vothos, now at his giant height again, yanks on the gargoyle. I think he’s trying to pull her inside the room, but he would have to break the window and part of the wall to get the stone dragon in here. Instead, she flies backward, Vothos still holding onto her, his legs dangling.
“No!” I send out a burst of wind, jarring Vothos loose from the gargoyle. He lands hard in the branches of the tree I climbed with Kayden.
I climb onto the windowsill. The gargoyle is starting to fly away.
“Get to the roof,” I shout to the others. Earlier, I showed them the door to give them access should we have need, and, man, did we have need now.
They rush to comply, all but Vothos who is stuck in the tree. I conjure my wind again, and slowly, I find the will to jump out the window. My arms flail as I fall, but I guide the wind, force myself back up, and manage to almost reach the roof. My fingers grip the edge, and Nea grabs my wrists and hoists me up.
“Darius, get into her mind,” I say.
“I’ve been trying,” he snaps.
Vothos is waving his arms. Maybe he wants to come over to the roof, but Lapis Draca is trying to fly away, and I can’t have that. I conjure my wind again, and I do my best to stop her wings from flapping, but they’re so heavy. They’re made of stone after all. How in the world is she able to fly?
Well, if I can’t bring her back here, I’m just going to have to go to her.
I back up and then race along the roof and jump. Again, I fall at first, but then I manage to recover. I start to fall again, but my fingers grab onto the cold stone tail. I climb up onto her back and then sit with my legs around her neck.
“You,” Lapis Draca hisses.
“Where’s Valerie?”
The sound the gargoyle makes is terrifying. Maybe it’s supposed to be a laugh.
“You’ll never find her,” the stone dragon crows.
“And your baby will never hatch.”
It’s precisely the wrong thing to say. She does a flip, but I manage to hold on, my nails digging into her gravelly back. Again, she flips, this time flying upside down. My grip loosens. I’m going to fall!
Don’t panic. You got this.
Darius. I focus on him, on his belief in me, and I use my wind to hold me in place. Eventually, Lapis Draca rights herself again, and I’m on her back once more.
“Afraid of a little fox-fire?” I taunt.
“Afraid I ate your friend, and she’s in my gullet?”
Gargoyle. Stone. Dragon. Fire. How can I defeat this monster? Is there a way to? Because if she did eat Valerie, if Valerie is dead, maybe we should kill her.
Just then, a fiery bird appears. A phoenix. Lucent! He flies around and loops to spin around and face Lapis Draca.
Yes! We’ll fight fire with fire!
I open my palms on the gargoyle’s back and do all I can to heat my palms, to conjure my fire. Lapis Draca just laughs and makes a loop around the orphanage. The others hold up their weapons, and I jump off, rolling as I land on the roof, and they let loose their projectile weapons.
Each one bounces off, and she’s heading for Lucent.
Damn. We need another plan and fast!
I jump to my feet and rush over to Darius. “Any headway on what her motivation is, what she wants?”
“I can’t break through,” he says. His face is white, and a drop of sweat trickles down the side of his face. “Her mental walls are stone, just like everything else about her.”
I reach deep into her mind, only her walls are almost physical, and I stagger back.
“Told you,” Darius says with a smirk.
“Get Lucent to bring her back around,” Miyako says desperately. “Let me try again.”
“Your light didn’t work,” Darius says.
“Maybe my lightning will.”
“Electricity,” he mutters. “Fine.”
I only have my sword, which will only help possibly if she lands. I hadn’t even thought to stab her while on her back, but I had been flying, and if she had veered suddenly because of a blow, I could’ve fallen hard and fast, possibly too fast for me to use my wind to prevent me from breaking bones.
Lucent belches fire a few times as he zigzags his way back toward us. Lapis Draca is trailing after him, sending out her own blasts of fire. Again, the others try to attack her, but she shifts from one side to the other, avoiding most of them, the two that do hit just glance off. She does not seem amused.
Did I honestly think I don’t have a projectile attack? My fire clearly isn’t hot enough, but that’s not all I have.
I wait until Lucent gets her to turn around, and I send out a stream of water. At the same time, Miyako blasts the gargoyle with her electricity. A direct hit! But when the lightning strike dies, the stone dragon gargoyle appears unharmed, and she flies away, the phoenix trailing after her.
“We’re running out of options here,” Malak mutters.
“I hate this idea. I do. I really do. If you tell anyone about this, I will hunt you down…” Riran points at each of us and then nods to Darius. “Tell Lucent to get her to land. I don’t care how he does it, but he needs to. Vothos?”
“Yes, minotaur princess?”
“I am not a princess,” she growls and then snorts. “When she lands, pick me up and bull rush me into her.”
“You want to headbutt a stone dragon,” I say slowly.
Riran nods.
“That’s insane!”
“Insane would be allowing her to live.”
“But you could get a concussion or a brain bleed or die!”
“You two both have arcane magic, right? One of you should be able to heal me. If not, Lucent just needs to cry over me.”
Ah, yes, tears from a phoenix is supposed to have miraculous healing powers.
“If you hit her hard enough, it might disrupt her mental walls enough for me to get in,” Darius says grimly.
“Are you sure about this?” Miyako asks. “It’s dangerous.”
Riran touches her horns. “I was born for this.”
“You headbutt and then I’ll go into berserker mode,” Nea says, stepping forward.
“Umm…”
“Is something wrong, Mirella?” Nea asks sharply.
“N-No.”
“I have control over my berserker state.”
Malak catches my gaze. “Limited,” he mouths, staring at Nea.
Great. Just great.
“I’ll hold her down,” Vothos adds.
“And we can add psychic blasts,” Darius suggests.
Malak has his battle-axe out. "What is Lucent waiting for?"
Darius grimaces. “He’s doing the best he—There they are!”
Lucent and Lapis Draca keep trading blasts of fire, neither hitting or if they do, neither are affected detrimentally. The phoenix makes for a wondrous sight against the backdrop of the nighttime sky. He’s literally a massive bird on fire, his flames flickering, licking the air around him, oranges and reds streaking through the black of the sky.
He tries to land on the gargoyle’s back, but she won’t have that, flying lower, lower…
The second her feet hit the ground, Vothos tucks Riran in the crook of his arm and literally has the bull bull rush the gargoyle, aiming straight for the stone ribcage.
The two collide, horns against stone. Sparks fly. Riran trembles from the aftershock of the impact. Vothos does too, and they collapse to the ground.
Nea’s up next. Her face turns a deep red, and her muscles seem to double in size. She wields a halberd and a spear, and she attacks the gargoyle with a viciousness that is incredible and intimidating.
But the gargoyle seems fine, ready to launch back into the air.
Not so fast.
I nod to Darius, and we hurl ball after ball of psychic blasts at the gargoyle. The blasts send electricity throughout her body, each blast congealing with the other ones. Soon, her body is covered by our arcane magic.
But even that cannot contain her, and once again, Lapis Draca starts to fly off.
How can we defeat this monstrosity for good? Is it even possible to?