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He should have said no and made excuses, but instead, he looked at me, because I’d specifically told him not to contradict and correct. Karma will kill you.
“He has, um, studying to do,” I said, lamely.
“He can study here with you while we eat and watch,” my mom said with a smile that hid her shark teeth. I’d never brought a guy home before, and here I was, baking cupcakes for hours, so the least I could do was let her properly horrify him.
I swallowed hard while my stomach went queasy. “We could all eat cupcakes for dessert?” I glanced at Percival, who nodded politely.
I squeezed my eyes tight and then exhaled in defeat. Fine. You couldn’t have a day be completely good, or you wouldn’t appreciate it. This morning I learned that I had magic and that I could turn into a gargoyle, the secret fantasy that I’d never let myself seriously indulge because it was so fantastical, so if that came with the world’s most awkward dinner in front of the tv with cheap Chinese squeezed in between my mom and Percy of No Mercy, then so be it.
Chapter
Eleven
Iwatched him walk through the lamplit courtyard shamelessly. No, I had plenty of shame, but I couldn’t seem to help myself. He’d been so nice, never flinching at the sight of my mom’s face, never criticizing anything I did, and choosing his preferred bride just like me and my mom did, without any hesitation before joining the madness. The bride wars were seriously epic battles for reality tv, and I did my best not to get a shift at the restaurant on Tuesday nights if I could help it so I could bond with my mom.
When Percy’s bride won, he was off the couch in a roar of victory while me and my mom threw ourselves back in anguish. It was as epically ridiculous as the bride on the screen, smearing her frosting on the other bride’s faces.
Which reminded me of the frosting in his hair that had taunted me through the entire show, but not enough to stop me from investing emotional attachment to the bride who should have won.
He had a plate of cupcakes with him, and was eating one as he left, a molten chocolate cupcake while I nibbled on an apple jam one. He had really good apples. I stood there long after he’d disappeared from sight, and then I grabbed my board and headed out. I didn’t have a late shift at the sushi place, but my mom didn’t know about that. I did have this weird guilt twisting around in my stomach after spending so much time with Percy, although I wasn’t sure why I’d feel guilty about enjoying a pleasant view when a certain gargoyle had only kissed me to distract me from the healing spell he was doing on me. Why would he bother healing me in the first place? Being the protector of humanity only went so far, and I think that kissing would certainly cross that line, but what did I know?
I sped through the night on my board, faster and faster as I headed for the tower where I’d hopefully find my gargoyle. I needed to clear my head, and get some unbiased information about my dad, and the turning into a gargoyle thing, or maybe I just wanted to tell him that maybe I’d be like him, so maybe we could date. Is that what I really wanted? Yes, even though I’d never admitted that to myself, even silently.
Poe flew along with me, keeping me company, but not interrupting my thoughts. When I got to the building, it didn’t take me long to go up the service drive and start climbing. It helped that I was well-rested and full of energy that needed an outlet after being trapped in my tiny kitchen with Percy for hours. And then pressed against him on the couch. It would be unnatural for me to be unaware of him, and I definitely didn’t owe loyalty to the gargoyle after only one kiss, but it still felt like a thing.
When I pulled myself over the edge of the roof, I searched the night sky, but of course, I couldn’t see anything. I settled down to wait, pulling up my hood to protect from the cutting wind.
I was there for three hours when the sound of beating wings brought my head up, but it was only Poe.
What are you doing here with all the stone angels?
“What do you mean, stone angels?”
They’re watching you, half a dozen flying in protective pattern, hard to get through, maybe watching out for demons.
“Oh.” A rush of painful self-hatred went through me at my own stupidity. My dad had declared that I’d have bodyguards, and he was a super elite gargoyle, so there was no way my gargoyle would come and hang out with me now that I was some princess. Knowing that I was being watched, even if it was for my protection, was incredibly depressing and irritating.
Just as well. I had to hurry if I was going to make it to work on time. And to think I could have been sleeping. I shouldn’t let the fact that I hadn’t been able to see my gargoyle and tell him all my big news get me down, because I’d get to do real magic at an elite magic college, but it didn’t feel real, and I wasn’t sure what good going to a magic school would do for me. Sure, it was good to have more options, but if I changed majors, which I probably had to, because accounting at Gray College? Not likely. So what was I going to do now? Gray College probably had amazing counselors. I’d figure something out.
I climbed down and rode to work/school, the place I was going to spend a lot of time from here on out. I needed to have a talk with my father about his overprotectiveness. He couldn’t suffocate me after nothing for twenty years. I was an adult who could handle herself and would meet as many mysterious gargoyles as I wanted, or we would do some rearranging, because no one was getting between me and my obsession, except that my dad was a gargoyle, sending gargoyles to stand between me and my gargoyle, which was all basically my obsession, so maybe I had no idea what I was talking about, but I had a lot of time to mop angrily about it.
The next morning, the knocking on our apartment door woke me up before the sun came up. How many hours had I actually slept between mop buckets and head meets pillow? Not enough. When I came down, my mom was talking to Miss Tertrue in a low voice, probably so I wouldn’t wake up. What was she doing here? Had I agreed to this? No. I’d passed out before I’d gotten to agree to anything, and she’d just dumped me into Percival’s limo. He could have done terrible things to me while I was unconscious, like the time I’d fallen asleep at school on a bench and woke up with my hair tied in knots.
“Hey Miss Tertrue. What are you doing here?” I yawned and scratched my head. I needed to wash my hair to get all the product out of it the people had put in for the dance.
“You know this person?” my mom asked, eyes narrowed suspiciously, like she’d have Peter feed the lawyer acorns if she was a bad guy. My mom was so cute when she acted all protective. “She said that she works for your father.” She raised a brow with shock and confusion in her eyes.
Panic went straight to my heart. What to do? Should I deny that I went to find him like I wasn’t happy enough without him, or acknowledge it? She would probably have to know about the gargoyle issue, and that there was no way I’d want anything to do with the guy who’d knocked her up and walked away if it hadn’t been life or death. I glared at Miss Tertrue. “Did she say that?” She had no business being in my house, talking to my mother, not when the father in question hadn’t done anything for me or her my whole life. Maybe I’d take the scholarship he offered, but this was my life, and no one was going to mess with my mom.
Speaking of my vulnerable mother, she crossed her arms and tilted her head, lips pressed firmly together. That was her serious I-might-kill-you-except-you-already-broke-your-arm-for-the-third-time-doing-stupid-tricks-at-the-skate-park look. This wasn’t going away. “You found your father, or he found you?”
If I lied, and she wrote it down, and then later the truth came out, and she wrote that down, she would feel so betrayed and hurt. Ask how I knew about that. Messing with her memory was hugely hurtful. I exhaled a long sigh, and shot Miss Tertrue another frown. If she was going to come here at the crack of dawn to interrupt my sleep and my serenity, then I was going to be honest about the gargoyles, whether their secret society wanted me to keep it secret or not. “I found him. See, I was turning to stone, and so I thought I should get that taken care of before you had to worry about it.”
“You were turning to stone and didn’t think that I should worry about it? You’re saying that your father is a gargoyle?!”
She wouldn’t remember this conversation tomorrow, but that didn’t help me today, and she’d write it down, and probably yell at me about it for a week until it settled into her consciousness. “Um, I guess?”
“Mrs. Doe,” the lawyer said, tone super soothing as she came in closer.
