The Oath by Apryl Baker

Author:Apryl Baker [Baker, Apryl]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Juvenile Fiction, Paranormal
ISBN: 9781502393081
Google: PobYoQEACAAJ
Publisher: Createspace Independent Pub
Published: 2014-09-25T23:00:00+00:00

Chapter Sixteen

~ Truths ~

Xavier made us ham and cheese hoagies. Once I had food in my empty stomach, I calmed down a bit, but not much. I still didn’t think it was fair of him to ask me to throw my sister’s death to the side and ignore what happened to her. I could also see his side now that I wasn’t blinded by anger. In his eyes, he was trying to save everyone. There were still questions that needed to be answered too, like how I was supposed to set his people free. No clue on that one.

“Feeling better?” he asked when I shoved my plate away.

“I will once you take me home.”

He rolled his eyes, which only served to piss me off again. “I used to think your temper tantrums were cute.” Before I could say anything, he put a finger over my lips. “No yelling. We still have stuff to talk about.”

He took our plates to the sink and then came back over to sit beside me. “Knowing you like I do, I’m sure you’re full of questions.”

“Tell me about Gargoyles,” I said, trying not to let my anger go because he was smiling crookedly at me.

“My people have existed since before the Earth was born. We lived in a different plane of existence parallel to this one. It was called Argoylia. We named ourselves Gargoyles after our home. Before, we had no names, we just existed. It wasn’t until we began to messenger back and forth between planes that we even needed names. Our outer skin allowed us to travel between worlds.”

“Wait, what do you mean?” I interrupted him. “How did that let you travel?”

“In order to breathe in some worlds, a person’s genetic makeup had to be of that world. Some places had toxic gases, some had no air at all. Because we can turn ourselves into stone, that didn’t bother us. We don’t need to breathe in that state, and stone is immune to toxic gas.”

“But wouldn’t that be hard to do?” I asked. “I mean, if you’re stone, then doesn’t that make it difficult to hold things, to talk even? Stones seem…well, they’re hard and immobile.”

“Don’t freak out again,” he warned and showed me his hand. It started to change. At first it elongated and then it got bigger, like he was morphing into the Hulk or something, but instead of turning green, it turned a dark gray color, closer to black. “Touch it,” he urged.

I took a deep breath. This so wasn’t on my bucket list. My fingers grazed the top of his hand, and I gasped. It didn’t feel like stone. Well, it did, but it was softer, almost leathery. I looked up and Xavier had his eyes closed. I couldn’t tell what he was feeling, though. His face was still pretty closed off. I’d hurt his feelings earlier, and I didn’t think he’d recovered from that yet. He was being cautious.

“It’s so soft,” I whispered, taking his hand in both of mine.

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