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“Everything.” I shouldn’t have said that. My stomach tangled into knots while I yanked the shawl tighter around me, hurting my shoulders.
He laughed, a low rumble that warmed me even as the wind swirled my hair around and made the tasseled edges of the shawl flutter. “Why don’t we trade? You answer one of my questions, and I’ll answer one of yours. Deal?”
I nodded eagerly. “Deal.”
“Why do you smell of brimstone and sulphur?”
I combed my hair absently, opened my mouth to answer, then shut it because I couldn’t answer that question. “Try something else.”
“Why are you so interested in gargoyles?”
I had to be very careful how I answered this so that I didn’t sound like a crazy obsessive stalker of his entire species. “They were the guardians of humanity even before the war, because they are noble and upright, never running, always standing for good.”
“I see. That’s good to know that’s what we do. All right, your turn.”
I turned on my phone and scrolled down the list, trying to find something that wouldn’t be too weird, personal, or implicating. “What do Gargoyles bleed, or do you bleed? Do you have a heart, or lungs, or livers, or any kind of other organs, and how do you reproduce? Is it a curse that spreads or a spell that animates an already created sculpture, mingling with a human soul?” And I was going to start small.
“We’re the guardians of humanity, noble and upright, never running or hiding, always standing for good, at least that’s what I’ve heard. How would it be good to be involved in curses or stealing human souls?” He looked away into the distance.
His answer hadn’t been very straightforward, but neither had mine. I mean, if I wanted honesty, I’d have to be honest. I sighed heavily. “Your turn.”
He spoke very softly. “What are your greatest ambitions?”
This. This was my greatest dream, ambition, all of it, and I was so tongue-tied and awkward, I could hardly enjoy it. Could I admit such a stupid thing to him? If I gave him another safe answer, that’s all I’d get from him.
I licked my lips while my heart beat faster and faster. “Honestly, I don’t have a lot of ambition. I’m a good student, but I have no magical talent, and I’m not even as good a healer as my mom. My one really intense interest that isn’t an obsession, no matter what Rynne says, is…” I took a few breaths, trying to calm down. “Gargoyles.”
“Gargoyles are your ambition? That’s why you wish to know how we reproduce, because you would become one of us?”
My heart physically ached at the thought of spreading my own wings and flying. I shrugged and shook my head. “Not exactly, just knowing more and meeting one has always been my dream. This is all completely surreal and magical and amazing to me. You’re amazing. Everything about you is magnificent.” I winced after the word was out. Who calls some guy magnificent? The idiot human over here, that’s who. Maybe the lightning could strike me dead, so I didn’t have to deal with the next few minutes of humiliation.
He leaned closer and caught my chin in his hand, his fingers so fascinatingly textured, rough, warm, solid, but almost spongy. I closed my eyes, memorizing the feel of his hand before I looked at him, searching out the mossy green in his eyes, staring and staring at him until my eyes ached with the effort. His face was so close to mine, I could see the subtle coloration of his skin, like marble, darker threads where his veins would be.
He was so beautiful, and he had his hand cupping my chin, physical contact that was beyond my most ambitious dreams.
I slowly, carefully raised my hand and touched his cheek, absorbing the feel of him, the texture and life of him. My fingers buzzed at the connection, and a flare of awareness went through me, until I realized that I was staring at his lips, stone lips that I wanted to taste. My mouth watered and I couldn’t look away.
“Do you have another question?” he murmured with only a hint of roughness.
“Do gargoyles kiss?” I gasped and raised my eyes to his, horrified that I’d said that out loud.
A crack of thunder brought the rain. I barely felt a smattering on my face when his wings snapped out over us, tenting us in with the flickering candle and the small table that was not small enough.
“Shall we see?” He leaned closer, guiding my face towards his until my ribs were pressed up against the table. My breathing was erratic, like my pounding heart, but I nodded and then leaned closer, closing my eyes until our lips met and everything went quiet.
All the noise in my head and the world vanished into silent stone, cocooning me away in perfect, delicious peace. I sank into him, welcoming the stillness like I’d been craving it my whole life without realizing that’s what I was looking for.
I soaked up the silence and pressed against him, held in that delicious moment for an eternity that stretched and swelled, until my beating heart broke the peace, one slow, throbbing beat at a time. His lips shifted on mine, pulsing with blood, heat, life, as pliable and soft as me. I sank into that softness while my heart beat faster and faster, time and life racing through my veins with every increase in pressure. He brushed my cheek with soft fingertips, human, alive, fascinatingly transformed, blood racing through his veins in sharp contrast to the stillness of before, dizzyingly rushing blood that left my lungs straining for oxygen, but I’d pass out before I broke the kiss for something as unnecessary as breathing.
The kiss deepened, becoming almost painfully sweet as I clung to him, tentatively moving my lips until I tasted him and his humanity. My heart soared as completely as if we were dancing in the sky. More, with his breath and life sealed against me, taking me out of myself and wrapping me in happiness as pure and complete as any misery I’d ever known. And then a flash of agony went through me as consuming and bitter as had been the ecstasy.
I twisted and pushed against him, struggling out of his grasp, but his hand was strong, curved around my neck, holding me in place while his lips burned against mine for another beat of excruciating agony until he released me, lowered his wings and then launched up into the pouring rain, leaving me gasping, and reeling, staring up into the rain until I was soaked through and mostly blinded.
Only one thing was clear in that moment of overwhelmed senses. I needed to go to bed.
Chapter
Four
