Curse of the Gargoyles (Gargoyle Guardian Chronicles Book 2) Read Online Free PDF Page A

magic against a powerful weave that had nullified its creator, especially with a gargoyle’s life on the line.
    Seradon ignored Kylie’s outburst and spoke to me. “This monstrosity is dangerous and getting more so—”
    “Definitely getting more so,” Winnigan said, her voice strained.
    “Dormant or not, the gargoyle can’t withstand much more of this,” Seradon continued. “I’ll back you up, but you should lead the magic. You’re the healer.”
    “She said no,” Grant said, turning away from Kylie’s glare.
    “She’s scared,” Velasquez said.
    I broke my stare with the gargoyle’s dead eyes to look at him. He held my gaze while continuing to speak as if I couldn’t hear him. “Give her a second to warm up her courage.”
    He winked.
    I blinked and looked away. Fear clogged my throat. Nullified. No healer had ever cured nullification. If I tried and failed, my ability to use magic could be permanently amputated.
    “Captain, I need to be free to help with the shield,” Seradon said. “If this thing unravels—”
    “No. No,” Elsa moaned, rocking faster. Kylie took a step toward her but stopped when Elsa looked up. Tears streaked the inventor’s face, and her eyes darted wildly and unfocused.
    “You’re wrong! You’re all wrong.” Elsa burst to her feet and rushed the captain. He thrust Kylie behind him before catching the wild-eyed inventor and holding her at arm’s length.
    I touched Kylie’s arm and pulled her farther to safety.
    “If I could just . . .” Elsa wiggled her fingers, then clenched them into fists when nothing happened. Contempt twisted her features. “You’re useless. You’re all useless ! FSPPs don’t deserve the power they have. They don’t deserve to be the only people gargoyles favor. Power should be distributed by intelligence, not birth and not based on the decision of an animal with a rock for a brain. My purifier was going to fix it all and you’d have nothing to be so goddamned arrogant about.” Elsa included me in her scathing look, lumping me in with the full-spectrum elementals. “Can’t you idiots see? You’re wasting time. You can’t contain it. You have to crush it. Now, before it kills us all. I tried. But I . . . but I . . .” Elsa wiggled her fingers again and a laugh more sob than mirth crumpled her.
    The captain released her, his face a study of neutrality. “Someone needs to get her out of here.”
    “You can do this, Mika,” Kylie whispered. “This gargoyle needs you.”
    Doubt ate at my stomach lining even as I longed to help the stone-still gargoyle. He had to be under enormous strain, and the longer we talked, the worse he faired.
    “If we suppress the magic while that invention is embedded in the gargoyle, he’ll die,” Seradon said, shaking her head. “We can’t—”
    “You can. You have to. ” Elsa clutched the front of Grant’s uniform, her eyes feverish. She might have tried to shake him, but he didn’t budge. “It’s ripping the elements apart—it’ll rip apart the city—and the gargoyle is the problem. I wouldn’t be . . . be . . . I would be whole if the gargoyle wasn’t broken. It’s not moderating its boost. You have to snuff out the gargoyle to break the purifier or we’ll all die.”
    Broken . Not sick . Not injured . Broken. Like the gargoyle was a tool, not a living creature.
    Fury bubbled through my blood. I didn’t know how Elsa had convinced or trapped the gargoyle into her horrifying machine, but it was clear she saw him only as a means to an end. It was the curse of gargoyles: Their giving nature made them the targets of greedy people who had no qualms about using and abusing them for a nonconsensual magic boost. That Elsa had tortured the gargoyle in her quest to mimic his ability to enhance magic only made it worse. She wanted to steal one of the facets of his very nature, and she thought nothing of killing him in the process.
    Grant pried Elsa’s fingers from his shirt and I shoved in between