Antoinette glanced at the ceiling. “Is she seriously still sleeping?” She stormed across the room to the stairs. And returned a few moments later. “She isn’t in her room. Where the hell is she?”
“With her latest hookup?” Delilah suggested.
“She’s probably right,” Ketu said. “So why don’t you stay home with Henri and we’ll—”
“No. I’m reeve of this colony. He took that child out of my yard. He was in my house. I need to ensure that man does not harm another soul.”
“So what are we going to do? Take Henri with us?” Ketu asked hotly.
“We could drop him at your parents,” Antoinette suggested.
“That’s totally out of the way.”
Oliver raised his hand and cleared his throat. “I will stay with the boy.”
Griffin stared at him. “Seriously?”
Oliver smiled at the young dragon. “I like kids. We’ll be fine. Go, rescue the Daughter of Light. Future generations of witches depend on your success today.”
And with that, Oliver clapped his hand onto Henri’s shoulder and pulled him out of the cluster of people.
“Are you okay with this?” Ketu asked Antoinette.
Antoinette turned to Sofia. “Would you trust him with your daughter?”
Sofia studied the other gargoyle and slowly nodded. “Yes.”
“Then let’s go find this bastard and finish this, once and for all.”
Chapter Sixteen
“Five minutes,” Antoinette shouted, all business. “We leave in five.” The gathered group dispersed like fire ants from a disturbed nest.
Sofia rushed upstairs to grab her sneakers, which seemed the best footwear option for this particular challenge. She could hear someone hot on her tail. At the top of the stairs, she turned around, and Griffin barreled into her.
“Sorry,” he said, grasping her arms to keep her from falling over.
“Why did you come back last night?” she asked.
“You want to talk about this now?”
“My dragon thinks you’re our mate,” she blurted.
His eyes flared as he became as still as a statue for long seconds. And then he touched her face, his fingers lightly brushing her skin. “I wish things were different, Sofia. I used to wish I’d never met you. Now I wish I had stayed that first night. Our lives would have been so different.”
“How so?”
“We could have been together.” He dropped his hand. “Now that I’m part of Oliver’s brethren, we can’t.” He shook his head. “I’m so sorry.”
She’d finally confessed the truth about her father, they were going to confront Darius, and when this was all over, she would have her daughter back, except then she’d have to give her over to the gargoyles to train to be a killing machine. Oh, and she’d apparently found her mate, except he was forbidden from actually becoming her mate.
“It just isn’t fair,” she muttered, turning away from him to stride down the hall toward her bedroom. She had a lot to mull over, but her priority at the moment was to get Penelope back.
It was frustrating as hell that Darius had taken the extra step to steal Penelope away after leaving a note implying that he’d kill Sofia’s mother. Or maybe his threat in the note had been to Penelope and not to her mother after all. Except their contract had always been about hurting her mother. He’d always resented her for getting knocked up and giving him a sibling he didn’t want.
It didn’t sound like he’d treated his other half-siblings in the same way, but then again, they weren’t his father’s children, so therefore not in line to become reeve.
“He still believes he’s going to become reeve someday,” she blurted as she reached for the knob on her bedroom door. Before she could grasp it, the door opened for her, and Maria stood on the other side.
“What are you doing in her bedroom?” Griffin demanded from behind her.
Maria pretended to buff her nails against her shirt. “Cleaning.”
Sofia glanced at Griffin, who narrowed his eyes. “I thought you didn’t do anything that might break a nail.”
Maria lifted one shoulder and let it drop again. Griffin suddenly reached out and grabbed her arm. “How did you know Sofia was a waitress in a bar that caters mostly to dragons?”
Sofia stared at him. “Why are you asking her that?”
He gave Maria a small shake. “Because she made that exact comment to me yesterday. I didn’t think anything of it until now. But I’m willing to bet that you and Maria here had never met until yesterday.”
Sofia shook her head. “Nope, we haven’t.”
“Which means she should not have known anything about you. And yet she knew you worked at Mitch’s.”
Something clicked in her brain, like puzzle pieces finally fitting together after frustrating hours of trying to find the right connection. “He didn’t get in the house at all. You left that note on the counter.” She stabbed her finger at Maria, who lifted her chin defiantly.
“And last night, when Darius was out in the yard—”
“Darius was in the yard?” Griffin interrupted. “You saw him?”
Sofia nodded. “I went out to the gazebo, and he was there.”
“How did he know you were here?” Griffin asked. “And how did he get past Antoinette’s guards?”
Sofia shook her head. “There weren’t any guards, at least not for a few minutes. Antoinette and Ketu and the kids had all gone to bed, and no one else was around. And Trennon and Delilah had gone out—although someone drugged them while they were out, to ensure they stayed away too.” She looked at Griffin and snapped her fingers. “Trennon can sense Darius’s presence, so Darius had to make sure he wouldn’t be in the vicinity.” She whipped back around to face Maria. “And I bet you set the whole thing up for him.”
Sofia sensed someone else coming up behind them, and then Ketu’s voice said, “You’ve been spying for him? Are you
