Her stomach shakes, rumbling mine with her sweet laugh. “I suppose you’re right.”
“We will figure it out. For now, you should rest.”
Ignoring me, she sits up, eyes brightening. “I’ve rested all day. That’s what I’ll do from now on, sleep during the day, dreaming with you, and at night I’ll be with you. I need to be with you. More. Always, if I could. With Adrial out there, wanting me, I even thought about sleeping in the museum, but that might be more than my parents can handle, especially my dad.” She breaks into another laugh, her gaze streaking across the antechamber. “I don’t know how I’m going to explain any of this to Hopkins, if he ever does show up.”
“I do not think Hopkins will return. Not until Adrial is dealt with.”
She palms her face, rubbing her brow. “So you think he knows—”
I quickly correct myself. “I know little about him, only that he is unusual, for a human who understands my purpose. However, I am certain he prefers to be neutral and uninvolved. His wards and absence are evidence of that, along with the few, real, exhibits with additional barricades.”
“The wards…” Her whole body tightens, fear tensing through her. “How long do we have untilhefinds a new host?”
“It may already be done.”
She blanches, lifts, and looks at me.
“More likely, it’ll take days or weeks. Perhaps longer. He must find someone to manipulate, and the amount of time he dedicates to this search will depend upon the shape of his next scheme. And in a small town like this? It might take him longer. I do not know the state of things.”
She nibbles on her lip.“When—”she says the word cautiously, testing it out “—when he does return, what should I expect?”
“If he can, he will choose someone close to you, someone you trust. If that doesn’t work, he will pick someone in power, who has money and resources he can tap into. Either way, he will approach you, advancing on you or your family or your friends. He’ll do it during the day when I am stone.”
“What about you?”
“He won’t come for me, not until he has my name.”
Her brow furrows. “How do we stop him?”
“Summer, I… I do not know. I had long given up hope of overcoming him. Though I vow this encounter will be different.” I sit up, leaning forward, and she shifts back until she’s straddling me, wrapping the sheet around her shoulders. “I never should have involved you in this. Never given you my name. Even if it was within a dream.”
She squints, her hand shifting closer to her brands. “Don’t say that. If you hadn’t given me your name, we never would have met.”
“I have been so lonely,” I whisper, lowering my brow to meet hers. “It’s a loneliness that may have swallowed me whole if you had not come along.” I pause, recalling how dark my world had become before she entered it. “That does not mean it was right, bonding with you. You could not have understood the risk when I—”
“Stop talking like that.” She grabs my hand and lifts it to her lips, pressing a tender kiss on my tough flesh. “You have a right to happiness too. Just because you’re a gargoyle, an anchor, that doesn’t mean you should have lost yourself to the darkness. And besides, things are different now. You won’t face Adrial like before. I’m here too, beside you. Maybe… You could use me, our bond?”
I growl. “It is too dangerous. You are too precious to me. I do not want to hurt you, to break you.”
“Break,” she echoes the word. Nodding solemnly, glancing at the scrolls, her gaze flicks to the many doorways. “There has to be something here that can help us. I haven’t even gone through half the texts. Maybe we just haven’t found what we need.” She looks back at me. “I’m not going to break. I’m part of this now, and unless we run—which I refuse to do—you’ll need me to take down Adrial.”
“I would prefer to find a solution that will not involve you. If I must…” I frown, hesitant to tell her.
“Must?”
“Now that I am awake, I can destroy myself, another failsafe.”
Her eyes widen and her lips part. “You can’t do that. Please, don’t even consider it. Iwillbreak if you do.”
“I would remove the brands before performing the deed, weakening our bond—losing me is a type of damage you can repair.”
Scrambling off of me, she stands, clutching the sheet protectively over her brands. “No! Don’t you dare. You will not destroy yourself.”
“You must understand, this is part of my duty. When a gargoyle ends itself, the angels send a new anchor. One who has not been cursed with stone. One who will hold their name close.”
Tears bud in her eyes. “That’s fucked. Did the angels create you to die?”
I shrug. “They simply created a tool to anchor demons, and I am as I have been made. And now, I will do anything to keep you safe.”
