Free Stone's Kiss by Lisa Blackwood Page A

She waved at the bounty. “Eat.”
    He didn’t obey immediately, so she lifted a second finger–length sausage off the tray and held it out to him. One moment he was sniffing at it, then she blinked and it was gone. The only clue he hadn’t used magic to make it vanish was the slight movement as he swallowed. Gran handed him his own plate and motioned for him to eat. The gargoyle didn’t need more prompting, and folded a pancake in half and shoved it in his mouth whole. A second vanished as fast as the first one. Gran smiled and turned back to Lillian.
    “I know you have questions. I’ll tell you all I know, and then we’ll see if we can get our new friend to tell us what he knows.” Gran graced the gargoyle with a calculating smile. He stopped eating long enough to bob his head in assent. She turned back to Lillian. “Good. First, no matter what you learn here, I want you to know you are my granddaughter in all ways that matter.”
    Gran paused, closing her eyes like she sought a memory she’d buried long ago. “You came to me at a time of great tragedy. It was a January night twelve years ago when I heard Jason’s screams. He was strong and cocky for his age, and very, very sure of himself. I’d never heard him cry out like he did that night.
    I had told him and his sister they could go play for a while as a break from unpacking. I should have gone with them … later your mother and I heard the cries for help. We ran. Your mother was faster and reached the lake first. By the time I caught up, she’d managed to rescue your sister from the water. There was no life left in her. Her young and vibrant spirit had already fled. Jason was still trapped on the ice, out of reach. I thought—” Gran broke off, the pain of old memories reflected in her pale face.
    Shock descended on Lillian like a blow. She never knew she had an older sister.
    Gran cleared her throat. “I thought I was seeing the death of both my grandchildren. Then the darkness shuddered and spat out a hulking shadow, a creature of immense berth and height—your gargoyle. He raced into the freezing water to save my grandson. But even the gargoyle could do nothing for my little Lily.”
    Lily. Her dead sister was named Lily. Her lost memories, a sister she didn’t know she had, her mother’s resentment—everything clicked into place. The dead girl who shared her name wasn’t a sister at all. Somehow she’d stepped into the life of a dead girl and made it her own. Horror cramped her belly. Breath came in great desperate gasps. Her eyes burned, but no tears came. The horror was too great.
    “My Lily was such a good girl.” Gran continued, too caught up in her memories to realized Lillian’s horror.
    Good, Lillian thought. Gran doesn’t need more guilt. Whatever comes of all this, I’ll remain strong for her.
    “In a way my little Lily saved her brother. For even after death claimed her, her spirit hovered nearby, and sensing the gargoyle, she sought him out and asked him to aid her family. The gargoyle saved Jason. He …” she paused, swallowing rapidly, like she was having to conquer her grief anew. “The gargoyle granted us another miracle. He gave us one more night with Lily, and made it so we could say goodbye. In return, he had one request. He ran off into the shadowy tree line and retrieved something. When he returned, he had another dark–haired child bundled in his arms—so like my little Lily, I thought it was her at first. Then he laid you in my arms. You were such a small thing for your age, just like Lily. He asked me to guide and protect you like one of my own. Giving my word was no hardship.”
    A numb, seeping cold held Lillian in its grasp. Her world was built on a hundred thousand lies. Who am I? She remembered the blood running down her tree, and the sensation of her life force weakening as blood leached from the wounds. What am I?
    “You called me Lillian after a dead girl—why? No wonder mother was so cold to