Solid, like nothing has happened, in the same pose as always.
I run to him.
My hands brush his cold, rigid body, his wings, his chest, holding his right cheek above his scowl.
“It’s night. You can wake up now.”
I caress his frozen lips. I look into his stony eyes.
“Zuriel, I’m here. Come back to me.”
He doesn’t stir. My heart stills.
Tears beading, I collapse into him.
There’s a meow, and Ginny rubs her head against my shins. For a while I just stare at her, unable to let Zuriel go, my tears wetting his chest. She weaves between Zuriel’s legs, mewing at him.
Releasing him, I reach for her. “Hi, girl. Are you… missing him too?”
She rubs my hand, needing attention. Scritching her, I sit down with my back against the desk.
I look up at my gargoyle. “Was it real? Any of it?”
My mind is muddled, the last weeks becoming difficult to track. I was so sleep deprived, rattled by anxiety…
“Will you come back?” I whisper.
I told him I loved him. That I’d break if he died. I said that, right?
Or was everything just fumes and head bumps? Dreams and nightmares seeping into reality?
Maybe if—I could—
Jumping to my feet, I rummage in the desk drawers, finding a lighter and knife. I wave the flame over the blade, hoping it’ll be enough to sterilize, and after making a small cut on the tip of my middle finger, I’m satisfied when a drop of blood bubbles up.
I brush the blood on his lips. “Zuriel, I command you to wake.”
Ginny watches, as I suck in a long breath, anticipating.
Nothing.
There’s another moment and another. They add up until a minute goes by, until thirty. Nothing happens.
I kiss him. I smear my blood. I say his name.
“Please, please, wake up.”
Chapter29
The Long, Dark Nights
Summer
“Summer, there you are!”
“Ella?” My eyes are crusted shut with dried tears, and I rub them open.
She crouches over me where I fell asleep between the desk and Zuriel, Ginny curled into my side.
