Page 28 of Fated to the Gargoyle

He glares at me next, though his heat says he’d rather be anywhere else. “You may work here, but it’s still my diner. I get a say in who sits in it all day.”

She rolls her eyes. Andy’s gold wavers my way one more time, and then he storms out into the evening with his keys jangling.

“It’s okay, Soren.” She runs her fingers over my face, and her warmth soaks through the stone. “I’m gonna go buss these tables down.” She glances at the curtained windows. “You should be waking up soon, huh?”

Soon, I answer, though nothing in this body can say it yet. She doesn’t wait on a reply she knows isn’t coming.

She crosses to a corner booth and breaks the table down. The cook comes out with one of the gray tubs she’s been calling a buss bin all night and sets it on the table to help her load the dishes.

“Here to try again, huh?” She stacks plates without looking at him. “One thing I can say is you’re persistent.”

“I already have the perfect date lined up,” Lamar says.

I test the hold one more time, and it doesn’t give, which is lucky for him.

She props a hand on her hip and tilts her head at him. Her red flares with the first real irritation I’ve read off her all day. “I’m not dating you, even if you take that other job.”

“Why?” Lamar sets a plate in the bin and waits on his answer.

The sun drops behind the mountains first, and the stone lets me go.

It leaves my claws, then runs off the rest of me, gray thinning away until my skin is my own again.

I blink awake and stand to my full height, keeping my wings folded close behind my back. There are still a few humans finishing their plates, and this town has yet to run from me. No sense giving it a reason to start.

Forks pause at the last few tables. The couple in the corner booth stares, a woman aims her phone at me, and the old human by the window lifts his coffee mug my way and goes back to his eggs.

Eggs and coffee at sundown. Every human I have ever watched eats that meal in the morning.

“Oh, shit,” Lamar breathes, a plate stopped halfway to the bin.

Treasure lights up, and then she’s crossing the room to me, quick. “Hey.”

I look down at her, and I do what I’ve been waiting to do since she leaned on that jukebox. My claws close careful around her waist, and I lift her clean off the floor.

“Whoa⁠—” She grabs my arm and blinks up at me.

I smile and lean in, pressing my forehead to hers. She doesn’t pull away. Her hand comes up and rests against my face, small and warm along my jaw.

“I guess this is good morning for you,” she says, her thumb moving soft.

“Ah, fuck.” Lamar’s voice cuts in from the booth. “You’re fated to that thing, huh?”

I lift my head from hers and give him a look with nothing warm left in it.

“Yep.” Treasure pops the P on it and kicks her feet.

“No.” I keep my eyes on the cook. “Your feet are sore.”

“I still have a shift to finish. I need to make money so I can pay for⁠⁠—”

I face her then, her legs swinging while she tries to wiggle out of my arms and gets exactly nowhere. “If it’s money that concerns you, Treasure, I have plenty. I’ll see it delivered to you tonight.”

Her legs stop swinging, and she settles into my arms. “Oh, really?”

I turn back to the cook and give him all of my attention. “I have listened to you pursue my mate despite her every attempt to decline.”

Lamar’s hands come up fast. “I didn’t know⁠⁠—”