Page 45 of Petrified

“I noticed the claws when they went into me.” I let him inspect the damage because Amand is already giving me the look that means I'm not winning this argument. “It hurts, but it's not stone, and I'm still breathing. I'm counting that as progress.”

“That is an appallingly low standard.” Lev presses his palm near the wound without putting pressure directly against it, while Medusa moves several feet away and begins checking the snakes on her head one by one.

The one the gargoyle almost cut curls around her temple and presses close against her cheek. Medusa closes her eyes for a moment, fingers moving carefully over its scales before she checks the others.

Amand crosses to her while I keep Lev within reach. “How bad are you hurt?”

“My head hurts, my wrists feel worse than they look, and every snake on my head is pissed enough to bite somebody.” She touches the blood dried along her temple and winces. “So I would give us all a little space until they decide the emergency is actually over.”

“That seems fair.” Amand looks toward the gargoyle’s body and then back at her. “Anything else?”

Medusa follows his gaze and lets out a short, ugly laugh. “He really thought he could do it again. He thought if he cut another one off, he could start the whole thing over.”

Lev glances toward her while keeping one hand against my shoulder. “Apparently having the last severed snake eaten didn't inspire the personal growth I was hoping for.”

Medusa stares at him for a second before a real laugh finally breaks through. It doesn't last long, but some of the tension leaves her shoulders when it ends.

I wrap one hand around Lev’s waist and pull him closer before he can wander off to inspect something else. His camouflage has faded completely, but a faint tremor still runs through his fingers where they rest near my shoulder.

“You all right?” I ask, keeping him close enough that he cannot avoid the question by moving.

Lev gives me a look that would be more convincing if his hand weren't still shaking. “You got thrown through stone twice and had claws put through your shoulder. I feel like priorities have become very confused.”

“That wasn't my question.” I slide my hand farther around his waist when his mouth tightens, and Amand comes up behind him to settle a palm against the back of his neck.

Lev leans into Amand without thinking, and I feel the tension in him ease before he finally answers. “I’m fine. Holding myself still that long while every part of my brain wanted to chase movement around the room was just harder than I expected.”

“You found him,” I tell him, because I already know where he is going with this.

“I found something that looked wrong.”

“You found him because you knew what wrong looked like.” I keep my gaze on his until he stops trying to shrink what he did into luck. “Amand and I would have walked right past him.”

Lev’s eyes lift to mine for a moment before he looks away, and Medusa moves closer while rubbing carefully at one wrist. “He knew you were figuring him out by the end. You could see it every time he tried to blend again and you called the position before he finished.”

Lev glances toward the body. “Not soon enough for him.”

“No.” Medusa’s expression flattens when she follows his gaze. “Definitely not soon enough.”

Amand crouches beside the gargoyle and checks him himself, because none of us is trusting a dead creature whose entire designation revolves around becoming indistinguishable from stone. He checks for movement and waits long enough to be certain before rising again. “Nothing. He isn't pretending.”

That should be the end of it, and for a few seconds, it actually feels like one. Medusa is alive, every snake is still attached to her, and the gargoyle is finally dead instead of somewhere else in the city waiting to become another wall. Lev found what none of us could see, and this time the bastard didn't get away.

Then engines rumble somewhere above us.

I turn toward the corridor while Amand straightens beside Medusa. Lev tilts his head to listen and mutters, “Please tell me this quarry suddenly offers valet parking, because I would really appreciate one harmless explanation today.”

Nobody gives him one. More than one engine cuts off above us, followed by several doors opening in quick succession, and my hand closes around Lev’s waist before I consciously decide to move.

Medusa looks toward the passage. “Did one of you call anyone?”

“No.” Amand checks his phone anyway and swears under his breath when the screen shows no signal. “And nobody should know exactly where we are unless they were already tracking us.”

Footsteps begin carrying through the stone corridor before any of us can answer. There are too many for one person and too much consistency in the way they move for whoever is coming to be wandering into the quarry by accident.

I step in front of Lev automatically, and he catches my arm before I can move farther. “You don't even know who it is yet.”

“I know enough to dislike the number of boots coming toward us.” I keep myself between him and the corridor while Amand moves to Lev’s other side.