Page 4 of Hated By the Gargoyle

After all, it would not defy tradition, would it?

I had made a simple mistake, one I would rectify. Everything would be set to rights, so long as I stole away the correct bride and left this human alone. Everything would be fine, so long as this human and I did not complete the mating ritual.

She was not my wife.

Not yet. Not ever.

I just had to go back to the human world. To do that, I would replenish my magic. I would open a portal and find her.

But there was the matter of this creature first…

I looked down at her, peeling my lip back with a disgusted snarl.

Taking her would be dangerous. Any more time in her presence would create a tether between us that would be difficult to sever. And I did not want her. I could not want her.

No.

I decided.

I would leave her here and go find my true bride.

Just as the thought formed, I stepped away, walking backwards as my wings snapped behind me.

I gave her a long glance, waiting to see if she would stir. When she did not, I bent at the knees and jumped, taking flight towards the sky until the ground disappeared beneath me and I was surrounded by nothing but darkening clouds and harsh heat.

I flew away until she was no longer visible.

She will die.

The thought invaded my mind, causing my wings to falter. I bobbed in the air, righting myself, pausing.

She will die.

I took a breath. Whatever happened to her was no problem of mine. It was her own, for meddling where she was not wanted. For jumping into my arms and stealing Carlota’s place, for trying to keep my true bride away from me.

Even with that determined thought in my head, I could not help but turn back in the direction where I had left her.

And I chewed my bottom lip in contemplation.

No, I told myself. I will not go back for her.

I jolted awake with a gasp painfully constricting my throat. I rolled over, dry coughing over and over again as if something would eventually come out of my lungs and fresh air would invade. It took me several moments to calm down, and it wasn’t until my breathing sawed painfully in and out of my chest that I took stock of my situation.

Harsh sunlight pressed down against me, clawing against my skin. Already I felt my face burn and my nose peel from the heat of it. My lips felt cracked and dry and in desperate need of water. With a heavy tongue that I peeled from the roof of my mouth, I swiped it along my bottom lip, but it did little to ease the ache.

My body was sore all over. It made sitting up hard, but I managed to force my aching muscles to comply. I sat up, peering at my surroundings, fear biting holes through my insides.

Everything came back to me with as much force as it had taken that monster to ram into my body. We’d flown up to the sky, a portal of some kind had opened mid-air, and I’d fainted just as he brought us through it.

I jerked my head from side to side, wondering if the monster was there, waiting for me to awaken. But…

There was nothing. Nothing but a vast desert that expanded for miles and miles. A foggy line of heat just along the horizon, sitting on the line where the dark sky met the scorched earth.

I was in some hellish landscape. Fuck, it wouldn’t really surprise me if I was in hell. There was nothing but rocks and dead trees.

No one else.

No humans.