His knot loosened. Easing her off it, he lit on a tumble of boulders not far from the cottage. He held her up until her legs could bear her weight. Then, nerves still sparking through his cock, he resisted the urge to bite her and tied his breeches instead. Biting was for mates. A bite would bind their minds andhearts irrevocably. She’d promised him a proper goodbye, not a whole life together.
“You fucked me so well, I lost one of my shoes.” Maggie grinned up at him as she adjusted her skirts, smoothing them over her temptingly plump thighs. “I hope it didn’t land on anyone. Can you imagine being kicked by an unoccupied shoe?”
He chuckled, tucking a lock of her wind-tousled hair behind her ear. How tangled her amber locks had become. Frowning, he ran his claws through her hair until he was satisfied with the smooth waves. It soothed him to groom her this way, as she had groomed him. “Wait here, Maggie.”
He pushed in the direction of the village. He meant to retrieve her cart and kitten, but he scanned the area for her missing shoe on the way, though he didn’t expect to find it.
Improbably, he spotted it caught in the high branches of an elm. He swooped down to collect it before visiting the village gate.
The moths were still there, giggling when he landed in the dirt for the third time in a single night.
“Why does he have a little shoe? It won’t fit him. He’s got feet the size of barrels.”
“I saw him kidnap a human. Snatched her up and flew off with her.” A second moth dusted the air with silver from its wings as it careened around the lantern, smacking into its glass panes before spiraling dizzily away. “Now she’s gone. I suppose he ate her.”
“Maybe he dropped her bones into the sea,” a third suggested, tittering.
“I did,” Evrard growled, making them all howl in their mothish way. “The shoe is all that’s left of her. Now go spread your tales about it somewhere else.”
They ignored him, of course, so he returned the favor, turning his attention to Maggie’s cart. He lifted the canvas cover,relieved to see the little orange kitten yawn and bristle at him. She would be happy to have her creature back. He tucked her shoe beside it and covered it up again so neither shoe nor kitten could escape.
The cart, though… its casks and barrels empty, it was light enough for him to lift, but the shape and size made it too unwieldy to carry while he flew. He would have to pull it like a beast of burden if he wanted to return it to her.
It was a dishonorable task, one a tower-born gargoyle would not stoop to perform. He’d never be granted an eyrie if any of them saw him dragging a load through the mud on behalf of a human. It was too low, too slavish.
Gargoyles might be bound to protect their kind, but they were not bound toservethem. The concept was repugnant. Oddly, he didn’t mind doing it for Maggie. For one, she had not asked it of him. He had volunteered. And some part of him was honored to help her this way. He was returning her livelihood. Her pet. The things she held dear.
He put himself in the traces as Maggie did every day and hauled the cart to her seaside cottage on foot, each step driving the dirt under his claws. A journey that would take him minutes by air took more than half an hour, crawling on the earth like this.
He expected she’d have given up on him and gone to bed by the time he returned, but when he reached the cottage, she was on the boulder where he’d left her, staring out at the sea.
She turned at the clatter of the wooden wheels on the stones and smiled when she saw the cart. Smiled even more when he produced the kitten from under the canvas and laughed aloud when he handed her the shoe as well.
“I can’t believe you found it.” She hopped on one foot while she put it on, neglecting the laces, and then took the kitten fromhim. It curled up on her shoulder, purring loudly. Seeing them reunited made him want to purr, too. “It didn’t land on anyone?”
He shook his head. “Tree.”
“Good. I’m glad to have it back. Otherwise I was prepared to stuff the toes of my father’s boots so I could wear them. He has no use for them anymore.” She sobered, gaze slipping to the horizon again as she stroked her kitten. “Thank you. For everything.”
He flexed his wings, unsure what came next. For so long, nothing had happened, and now it seemed everything was happening at once: He was leaving. He was going to fight an unwinnable war. And he was falling in love with a human.
Chapter 9
To Hell with Men
Maggie
This was supposed to be a celebratory send-off before Kaspar inflicted a second proposal on her, but she’d cocked it up. Instead of enjoying a filthy little fling, she was having feelings. If only Evrard had been less sweet, less strong, less generous. Less well-endowed. Less kind. Then her heart wouldn’t be stinging at the thought of never seeing him again.
“Are you off?” She cupped her hands around the kitten, grateful to have someone to hold.
He grunted in the affirmative, and her stomach hollowed. Why did his answer disappoint her when she knew it before she even asked? Maybe some silly part of her was hoping he’d changed his mind. Like one dip into a human cunny was going to weigh in the balance.
She kept her eyes on the waves and swallowed hard, holding back her silly tears. “I wish you well with your time in the watch. Please, try not to die.”
“Maggie.” He rasped her name in a way she couldn’t resist. When she turned, he said, “I’ll come back.”
She gave him a sad smile. If he survived the war, if he made it back to Brinehelm unscathed by goblins and their war-bats, it would be too late. She’d be married. Scrubbing the floors in Kaspar’s house. Carrying his child if she was lucky.
