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Her warmth soaked into my skin. She smelled of rain, mud and something faintly sweet. Beneath it all was the scent of her blood.

I pushed the thought away.

Cairn noticed where Robyn’s hand rested. His gaze travelled between us before returning to my face.

“So she is your mate.”

“She woke me. That does not make her anything else.”

“I said the same thing,” Georgie told Robyn.

“You did not,” Cairn protested. “I recognised you immediately.”

“You recognised me. I thought I was hallucinating after falling off a ladder.” She turned to Robyn. “I’m a stonemason and thought I was simply examining an ancient grotesque at Stirling Castle. I didn’t expect the statue to open its eyes and come alive.”

Robyn laughed softly. I felt the sound through the hand pressed against my back.

“Yes. I know the feeling.”

“Did he grab you and try to fly off with you?”

Robyn chuckled. Such a beautiful sound. “No. Luckily he crashed all by himself. Well, not luckily. I wish he hadn’t crashed at all. I might be a nurse but I have no idea how to treat an injured gargoyle.”

“Gharrgoil,” I corrected, but she only smiled at me.

My tail moved of its own accord. It slid across the wet grass and curled around Robyn’s calf.

She looked down. “Is your tail supposed to be doing that?”

I followed her gaze. The disloyal appendage had wrapped itself firmly around her leg, looking as if it belonged there.

“Yes.”

Cairn made an amused sound.

“Be silent,” I growled.

Robyn’s fingers moved slightly against my back. She was trying not to laugh too.

I untangled my tail, but it remained close to her ankle. Just in case. I didn’t want to turn back to stone. Or at least that’s what I liked to use as my excuse for staying close to her.

“How long have you two been together?” Robyn asked the other female.

“Just over two months, but it feels so much longer. Like I’ve known him for all my life. I’ve never had a connection like this.”

Cairn pulled her close and smiled at her. He was so relaxed, so at ease. And so very in love. I’d never seen him like that before. He’d always been in charge, carrying the weight of the responsibility, always knowing that any mistake could cost lives. It had taken crashing on an alien planet for him to find his peace. Maybe I could, too, one day. But there had been three of us on that ship.

“What about Hallr?” I asked. “Did he survive? Did you find him?”

Cairn’s expression darkened. “Not yet. We found you by searching records of unusual statues, but there’s been no sign of Hallr. We’ve widened the search beyond Scotland in case his pod carried him further away.”

Part of me wanted to say that there was a chance he’d been blown to pieces, or his pod had carried him back into space, or…

But there was no point. Cairn clearly had hope, especially now that he’d found me. I wouldn’t take that from him.

Robyn shifted beside me. Her hand slipped lower before settling on my waist. My body reacted before I could stop it. Heat gathered beneath my battle wrap, entirely different from the warmth keeping the stone away.

I took a slow breath.