Gates of Thread and Stone(43)

I repeated his words in my head. It’s okay. They’re tame. No eating humans. I think. I imagined my fingers skipping along the threads, just in case.

One gargoyle slipped from the pack. Its tail swept in an arc across the stone as it neared us, its head raised and its eyes looking straight at me.

“Say hello,” G-10 told me.

“Can it understand?” I inched forward. They were obviously intelligent creatures.

“Irra says they can.” He moved past me and offered his hand to the gargoyle.

The gargoyle touched its nose to G-10’s knuckles, and then bobbed its head, its tongue flicking out to lick his fingers. It was almost . . . cute.

G-10 laughed, his whole face lighting up. “No, I didn’t bring you any scraps today. Just wanted to show Kai the nest.”

When G-10 smiled like that, his sandy hair blowing across his forehead, he could’ve been just another boy from the Alley instead of a trained sentinel. How old had he been when Ninu put the collar on him?

The gargoyle snorted, sounding disgruntled. I noticed something on its neck, half hidden behind its frills: a series of red lines carved into the leathery skin.

I reared back. “It has a collar!”

G-10 nodded. “It’s not like Ninu’s collar. It just allows Irra to communicate with them.”

“How do you know he’s not lying?” I looked around at the gargoyles sprawled across the rooftop. “How do you know he’s not putting his own brand on you when he removes Ninu’s?”

G-10’s eyes grew hard and distant. “I know what being controlled feels like.”

I pressed my lips together to keep from arguing further. Irra’s hollows certainly didn’t act as if they were being controlled. But did that mean the same for the gargoyles? How could you tell with animals?

G-10 pointed over my shoulder. “The nest is in there.”

I looked. A tall structure rose over the rooftop, its large opening spilling heaps of straw. Inside, sleek figures rustled about. They seemed tame, but whether that was a result of the collars or not, I still didn’t feel like getting any closer.

“Want to see more?”

“I’ll pass.” I slipped back into the passageway. The gargoyles were fascinating, and I liked seeing G-10 interact with one. But I still had the image of them stalking us through the forest.

As we headed for the stairs, I glanced at the back of G-10’s neck. “Could I . . . maybe look at your collar?”

He turned to face me. “Are you flirting with me?”

The laugh that burst from my mouth surprised me. “I wouldn’t know how.”

“And here I was hoping ‘collar’ was a metaphor for—”

“Hey!”

His smile was devilish as he said, “Kidding.” He presented me with his back. “Have at it.”

Rising to my toes, I braced my hands on his shoulders and peered at the tattoo. Reev had never allowed me such a close inspection.

The tapered rectangle shape wasn’t actually outlined. Instead, the overall design was created by tiny symbols. Geometric shapes with lines or arcs cutting through them. Half circles. Swirls and dots and sharp angles that twisted in all directions. The shapes must have been sigils or runes of some kind, but there was no pattern and no meaning that I could discern.

I brushed the pads of my fingertips against the tattoo. The raised skin felt unnaturally smooth.

“Weird, right?” G-10 said, his voice soft. He rocked on his feet, and my fingers tightened on his shoulder, feeling the lean muscles shift beneath my touch.

Suddenly, I realized how close we were standing. My breath rustled the hair above his collar. I stepped away, lowering my hands awkwardly to my sides. G-10 looked back at me.

Before he could say anything, I hurried past him and asked, “What’s Irra doing with all these gargoyles? And you guys? I mean, I know, revenge and all that, but why is he even here? Doesn’t this contradict the whole ‘don’t interfere with humans’ thing?”

G-10 followed me, and we began the long descent down the stairs. “I asked him the same thing when he offered me a place here. He said this was only temporary—just until Ninu left the humans and restored balance. He said that”—G-10 rubbed at the side of his collar, his footsteps light as we descended—“interference with the humans isn’t necessary because, eventually, we’ll find our way to the Infinite. All things wither with Time.”



G-10’s words stayed with me after he left me at the bottom of the stairs.

All things wither with Time.

It was kind of depressing, and I didn’t know what to make of it or what it meant about Irra’s decision to help us. I wished I could be certain of his intentions instead of relying on faith.

Either way, I didn’t want anything to do with Irra’s revolution. I would prove my determination to him, but once I saved Reev, my only concern would be how to keep him safe.

I made my way through a dim corridor, smiling politely at a hollow who passed. I’d memorized the paths around the mess hall and the dorms. Apparently, once the new additions to the fortress settled in, they stopped changing.

As expected, I found Avan in the courtyard.

“So what did Irra want?” I asked, dropping onto the grass beside him.

“Where’d you go?”