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I swallowed hard and tried not to smell like fear. Why was I so stupid? The books were going to get ruined if I didn’t pick them up, and I’d never find the gargoyle again. “I have friends coming,” I said, sticking my chin out at him.
He raised a brow and then grabbed my arm and hauled me down the alley with him. He walked past the body of the woman who, up close, looked like a vampire. What was I doing in Song at night when no sane person would go, even during the day? Going into an alley to help a woman in Sing was one thing, but in Song? Unimaginable.
I needed help, or my mother wouldn’t ever see me again. She’d look for me, wandering until she forgot what she was looking for.
I screamed as loud as I could, but he cut off the sound with one strong hand, grabbing my throat so I’d have bruises.
“Can’t have you attracting the really scary monsters,” he growled as I thrashed and kicked, struggling until he picked me up and threw me over his shoulder, which dug into my stomach and did more to cut off my scream than his hand. I stared at the brick alley floor while my heart pounded and panic threatened to swallow me. My heart beat faster and faster while I struggled upside down at his mercy. I bashed his temple with my forehead and almost knocked myself out. Reeling, dizzy, I bit him as hard as I could.
“Keep that up and I’ll keep you in a cage for a year,” he said, sounding cheerful.
He stopped short, and it was suddenly quiet, silent enough to hear the scrape of stone against concrete.
I bit his hand hard enough to taste his disgusting blood and then whipped my head out of his grasp and screamed as loud as I could, but it was interrupted as he threw me on the ground behind him. I landed on my back and the air went out of me in a gasp, leaving me unable to move or breathe. Poe took that moment to land on my chest, and then stone hit wet flesh and bone as the gargoyle came out of the night, knocking the werewolf back down the alley where we’d come from.
“Come quickly.” The gargoyle’s voice was rough, the words hard to decipher, but when he held out a hand to me, an honest-to-goodness gargoyle with stone dreadlocks and gray streaked skin, I inhaled sharply and grabbed his hand.
He pulled me against his chest, then with a sharp and terrifying grin, he launched us into the air while the monster snarled after us below. My bird spun around us while we flew, but I wasn’t looking at him or the passing scenery, not when I was touching a gargoyle, a real, actual, alive gargoyle. I had to memorize everything about him from the feel of his skin: warm, pliable in spite of the rough surface, to his scent: earth, wind, and old books. I pressed my face into the curve between his neck and shoulder and inhaled as deeply as I could, which wasn’t as deep as I’d like, considering that I was still trying to catch my breath.
He rumbled deep in his chest. I could feel it vibrate, the feel of flesh and stone absolutely unlike anything I’d ever imagined, but completely perfect. I touched his shoulders and neck, soaking in the feel of his breath, his pulse, his magic while we flew through Song. We spiraled up and around until we came out in the upper city, the cold wind swirling my hair around me. I raised my head for a moment to see the city lights through the scattered tangles of my hair while the wind stole my breath.
“Are you cold?” His voice rumbled through me, sending waves of rippling chills through me until I shivered. I was flying with a gargoyle! He was talking to me! I started breathing too hard, too fast, while my head spun and everything about the moment seemed so impossible. This must be a dream, the most beautiful dream that anyone had ever had.
The moon spilled around us and I saw the color in his eyes, flecks of green and silver peeking through the gray. I wrapped my hands around his neck, closed my eyes, and tried to memorize that moment, to preserve it for all time.
Music wrapped around us and I opened my eyes, seeing the music come to life as it surrounded us, buoying me up until I felt like a feather in his arms, music that lit the sky with all the hues of the rainbow. Mist gathered, softening the moon’s rays while the rainbowy music played louder. I broke his grip to spin in his arms, my boots balanced on his large stone feet. I should have been solely focused on the gargoyle, on everything he was and felt like, but I couldn’t not dance, not when the world was alive and Singsong City’s music compelled me.
The dance should have been awkward and clumsy, because I wasn’t the greatest dancer even when I was on the ground, but it felt completely natural to spin and kick from one stone foot to the other until with a show of his fierce fangs he danced with me, sweeping us around in great arcs at the same time that he held me securely in the circle of his arms.
Happiness rippled through me, wave upon wave until I was laughing and hyperventilating at the same time. I was dancing with a gargoyle! In the air! Maybe my father was a fairy. Maybe I’d sprout wings and be able to hunt down gargoyles more effectively. I spun and leapt, falling away from him for a breathless moment before he caught me and spun me into his chest.
We danced like dragonflies cutting through the air, softly fluttering and gliding on the wind currents as we shifted from one position to another, then came back chest to chest, nose to nose.
The music rose higher then faded out while we stayed there, staring at each other, our breaths mingling with the cool night, my whole body trembling while I balanced on his toes and tried to hold on to that moment with every fiber of my soul.
We landed with a thud that jarred my teeth and knocked me off his feet. My left foot came down on a sharply slanted roof, and I spun to see how high we were. Very high. We were on the highest tower in Singsong City, the old water tower towards the east, near the river. I could look east and see the glittering bridges stretching over the water, the bright moon reflecting in the waves past the city’s wall. To the north, west, and south spread the broad expanse of the city, bright lights shining, held in the curve of the walls.
He held me by the arms while I looked out over the city, trying to catch my breath, or give up entirely and accept that I would never breathe normally again. We were very high, but I wasn’t afraid of falling, which goes to show how completely irrationally caught up in the moment I was. The city was so beautiful, but I closed my eyes and leaned against him.
We stayed like that for a long time, but not long enough until he carefully shifted and brought my hand up to the metal steeple so that I could hold myself up while he moved away from me, leaving space between us that I absolutely loathed.
I stared at him while he gripped the roof with his enormous clawed feet. They were very large feet, not even human feet, more like paws or some kind of bird.
“You should go home. You’re cold.” His rumbling, low voice was so unbelievably attractive. I shivered hard, even as I gripped the metal rod until it cut into my hand.
“No, I’m f-f-fine. Promise.” I smiled brightly to keep my teeth from chattering. It wasn’t the cold, it was him, the enormous gargoyle with his monstrous stone face and curved stone horns, right here, close enough to touch, so why wasn’t I touching him?
“You’re shivering,” he pointed out with one clawed finger.
“Not from cold,” I argued, because I could lose a few toes and it would be a worthy sacrifice for the opportunity to be here like this with him. “It’s from fear because of the scary guy who would have killed me if you hadn’t rescued me so bravely.” I batted my lashes at him. I was moderately pretty, Rynne said so, but I didn’t practice flirting, and probably just looked like I had something in my eye.
“Ah. In that case, I’ll leave you here to make your way home at your leisure.” He turned as if to go, and I lunged, grabbing his wrist, which was the narrowest part of him that I could reach.
“You’re going now?” I wanted to cry at the thought of him leaving before I’d learned anything about his kind. My chest tightened, and I scrambled to think of something to delay the inevitable. “You can’t leave me up here. If I fall to my death, that will make your earlier sacrifice pointless. I’d hate to waste your time for nothing.” I studied him hopefully, holding his wrist.
He scowled a gargoyle scowl that was somehow sweet and sexy at the same time. Was I attracted to him? Desperately. “You want me to fly you home like a taxi?”
“You could fly me to the ground if you’d rather not take me to center town. I mean, you could leave me here, you don’t owe me anything, in fact, I owe you everything for rescuing me.”
