Stone Angel Read Free Page A

window right about now.
    She wouldn’t really blame him. But she
couldn’t blame herself, either. “And to ensure my compliance,
Sophia would be kept frozen, a statue in the Sculptor’s home.” She
choked on the last words.
    “That’s … horrible.” Samuel’s dark eyes were
wide and appalled, and he reached for Isabelle’s hand and held it
as if he needed support, or wanted to assure himself she was still
there, and with him.
    “Frozen? In his home?” Genny looked as
horrified as Samuel. “She’s still a kid. This is the most
heartless…” She seemed to struggle for words.
    John hugged her shoulders.
    And as Amanda looked around the room, she
realized that, although they didn’t know her sister, the horror of
it hurt them all. After so much anguish and secrecy, the knowledge
that they shared her loathing for the Sculptor and his despicable
actions allowed her her first free, full breath in two months. “The
Sculptor will keep her prisoner for as long as it takes for me to …
to…”
    “Deliver me into their hands?” Irving
asked.
    “Yes.” Amanda looked apologetically at
Irving, slumped in his wheelchair and chilled even with the heat
from the fire washing over him. “I’m not even sure why the Others
want you. You’re not someone they should be frightened of.”
    “And yet they are. What does that tell you?”
John looked grimly satisfied.
    Irving saluted John. “Thank you, my boy. And
Amanda — old and sick as I am, I have knowledge the Others wish to
gain, and strength the Others wish to emulate.”
    “If only they had your courage.” John
half-smiled, and saluted Irving in return.
    “The Others wish to take the heart out of us.
For what would we do without our mentor?” Charisma moved forward to
gently squeeze Irving’s arthritic hands.
    “So the Sculptor is your contact?” Caleb
watched Amanda intently, and his eyes were several degrees chillier
than anyone else’s.
    “ No. I
report to Liam Gallagher.” Amanda tasted the slow, familiar burn of
fury and humiliation. “He’s an Other. The Other. The one who romanced me. The one who betrayed my
sister’s location to the Sculptor.”
    Charisma snorted. “Nice to see this Sculptor
fellow has a sense of humor.”
    “Yes, because humorless bad guys are just the
worst,” Aaron said sarcastically.
    Irving waved them into silence.
    “What information have you told them?” Caleb
asked.
    Amanda tried to contain her rising fear that
the Chosen, normally so reasonable, would hurt her now. After all,
they had trusted her with Irving, their source of wisdom and
support, both financial and emotional.
    Yet surely they understood the bonds of
blood, kin and sisterhood. Surely they did.
    “I tried always to tell the Others the truth,
although never a truth that could do you harm,” Amanda said. “I
told them that Isabelle and Samuel had chosen each other as mates,
but I supposed they would know that anyway since you went to
Osgood’s building. I’ve kept them apprised of Irving’s
rehabilitation, and done whatever they’ve suggested to ease his
pain and hasten his recovery. They are anxious for him to get well
enough to leave the mansion. I suspect they intend to snatch him
the first time he goes outside.”
    “And you wouldn’t stop them because they
would retaliate by killing your sister,” Genny added the part
everyone was thinking.
    “Yes,” Amanda agreed.
    Silence descended.
    The fire flickered.
    Martha tapped on the teapot.
    Finally, Charisma broke the silence.
“Blackmail is a bitch.”
    Nods and murmurs of agreement circulated
around the group.
    Amanda let out a little of the breath she’d
been holding. Maybe they wouldn’t kill her for being a turncoat
after all. She steeled herself and gazed at Irving, who had been
mostly silent, staring into the fire, thinking.
    Leaning close so she was face-to-face with
him, she said, “Irving, I’m sorry I lied to you and betrayed your
confidential medical information. I am so