My eyes stayed locked with his a moment longer before setting him back down on the roof.
“Very well,” I said, some of my anger dying down.
Caleb moved with swift steps beyond the reach of both my arms and wings before turning to face me. “I mean, Marshall might be able to do some damage to himself if he, like, drinks whatever he mixes.” He looked to Marshall at the table. “You’re not stupid enough to drink any of those, are you?”
“You’re stupid enough to drink some of them,” Alexandra said, still at my side.
“Ouch,” he said, raising his hand over his heart, then turned to Marshall. “But seriously, try not to blow yourself up.”
“Are humans always this confusing?” I whispered to Alexandra.
To my surprise, her face was burning crimson, her eyes fixed straight ahead. “Don’t get me started,” she said, then leaned her head against me. “Good to have you back.”
“It is good to be back,” I said. “But I fear my freedom does not change much. When I went with my father months ago, it was to buy you time. Have you spent it well?”
Alexandra stepped away from me. “That’s a debatable point,” she said. “We’re certainly making progress. But you know Alexander. All codes and enigma!”
“Speaking of Alexander,” Aurora said, no longer keeping her pole arm ready for action. “I think we found something useful in the books at the Libra Concordia.”
“That would be a pleasant surprise,” Alexandra said.
“Libra Concordia?” I asked, unsure of the term.
“Just another group I freelance for,” Caleb said, joining us.
“They’d love to get their hands on you,” Alexandra said. “They’ve been looking for you since you rescued my father as a boy, when he had his whole religious conversion.”
I looked to Aurora. “What did you find?” I asked.
Aurora handed Alexandra a notebook filled with writing.
“Marshall and I started comparing notes from the books of Alexander Belarus that the Libra Concordia have,” she said. She pointed to a specific grouping of lines on the page.
Marshall called over from the table, busy reading the labels of several vials that filled his hands. “Your great-great-grandfather keeps referencing the Holy Trinity over and over in multiple books,” he said to Alexandra. “He talks about the secrets of the Holy Trinity again and again. We thought there might be some significance to that. It shows up too much in the books the Libra Concordia has acquired to be a coincidence.”
“Forgive me,” I said, all of the humans turning to me, “but Alexander was not a man of religion.”
“Stanis is right,” Alexandra said.
Aurora’s excitement died, replaced with confusion. “But he built all those churches,” she said.
“He built a lot of things,” Alexandra said. “Building office buildings doesn’t make him a businessman any more than building churches made him religious.”
Aurora smiled. “Then it’s even stranger he kept referencing the Holy Trinity, isn’t it?”
Alexandra returned her smile, which I did not understand.
“Why do you take pleasure in this knowledge?” I asked.
“Because,” she said, “if my great-great-grandfather wasn’t a religious man, then the Holy Trinity and its secrets most likely refer to something else. And I think I know what it is.”
Aurora stepped back from the notebook and looked up at her friend. “You do?”
Alexandra nodded. “I do,” she said. “At least, I think I do. Many of the books Locke has gathered reference the secrets of the Holy Trinity, you say. Now, maybe it’s just a coincidence, but I find it quite interesting that the Libra Concordia just happened to acquire one of Alexander’s long-abandoned churches, and that it just happens to be located on Trinity Place across from Trinity Church.”
Aurora’s eyes widened. “Alexander has some of his secrets there?”
Alexandra turned to Caleb. “What do you think?” she asked.
“It’s possible,” Caleb said. “It is one of Alexander Belarus’s buildings. And I agree with your theory about why they bought the church in the first place. A church would be a perfect hiding place. No one tears churches down these days.”
“We need to search that building,” Alexandra said. “But we won’t get too far with Desmond Locke watching us like a hawk every time we step out of the research room. If we’re lucky, there will be more than just the secrets to Kimiya. I’m hoping we’ll find out the deeper secrets of the Spellmasons, so I can raise our own army of stone fighting men.”
“Desmond Locke?” I said. “Your father’s spiritual adviser?”
Alexandra laughed. “It’s been a long six months. We’ve a lot to catch up on.”
Marshall came to us, a small glass container full of liquid in his hands. “I think I’m ready,” he said.
Caleb looked down at it. “Ready?” he asked. “I don’t think so. That’s not nearly enough.”
Marshall’s eyes went to the mixture and stayed there. “I—I think it is,” he stammered, a lack of confidence. “Besides, there was barely enough Kimiya to make this. It will have to do.”
Caleb laughed, but there was derision it. “You can try,” he said, “but you’re not going to free him, I’m telling you. There’s no way you’re going to affect the stone of the roof deep enough to get Stanis loose.”
The tone of his voice awoke something hostile in me, and I brought my clawed hand down on his shoulder. “Let Marshall try,” I said, squeezing.
Caleb hissed. “Suit yourself,” he said, and pulled himself away from the rest of the group.
Alexandra looked to Marshall. “You sure you’re up for this?” she asked.
He nodded and looked up at me, but his eyes were uncertain.
“You can do this, Marshall,” I said. “I have faith.”
He did not respond but instead circled around me as he judged the amount in the container and began pouring it.
“That’s not nearly wide enough,” Caleb said, crossing his arms. “You’re not going to free him that way.”
“Shush,” Rory shouted out at him.
Caleb shrugged. “Just trying to help,” he muttered under his breath.
Marshall was on his knees by then, pouring in a tight circle around me.
“I don’t need to go wide,” he said. “I need to go deep. I only need to free up the area around him.”
The stone around my legs began to transform. It loosened around the lower part of my legs to the point where I could move them. Stretching, I pulled one foot free, stepping up and onto the solid part of the roof. The other foot, however, was still stuck in solid stone. Marshall’s concoction had not gone deep enough indeed.
Still, I did not wish to give Caleb the satisfaction of being right, so with all my strength, I put all my weight on my freed foot and pulled. The stone immediately around my trapped foot did not give, but the rest of the roof did. My foot came up and out of the liquid stone with a chunk of jagged rooftop surrounding it. Marshall gave a victorious cry, and he and Aurora slapped their hands together. I stepped onto the roof, walking away from the hole and bringing my foot down hard enough over and over that the rest of the stone fell away piece by piece.
Alexandra rushed over, throwing her arms around me. As the heat of her skin against me set in, the world and everything around us seemed to melt away. My stone arms wrapped around her, the jagged rise and fall of her chest beating against mine as I felt her tears hit the coolness of my carved skin.