“Okay.” I hold onto him as he scoops me up, and I forget about his wound until my cheek rubs against the gauze. He doesn’t seem to be in pain, and he definitely was more than fine a few minutes ago. He lays me down in bed and gets in next to me.
“If this is what being cursed feels like,” he whispers, folding his arms around me, “I’ll stay cursed forever.”
Smiling, heart so full, I close my eyes and drift off to sleep, waking a few hours later. Sunlight glows on the horizon, and I hurry out of bed to get dressed and use the bathroom.
The guys are all in the library, holding their runes. It makes me a little sad to know they’re leaving me, but the sense of family I’ve been missing since the day my parents died is starting to come back.
I go right to Hasan and throw my arms around him. Wrapping me in a bear hug, he lifts me off the ground.
“Thank you,” I say once he sets me down.
He kisses my forehead and tips my chin up to his. “You’re worth it, Ace.”
“You’re going to make me cry again, and I hate crying,” I say with a laugh. Looking out at the others, I start to get nervous. “If this doesn’t work, will you know to get to your spots outside in time?”
“I think so,” Hasan answers, but doesn’t sound certain. “I don’t feel compelled to go onto the roof, and I usually do.”
“Same with me,” Thomas and Gilbert answer at the same time.
Nodding, I try to push the nerves away. “You should probably spread out. You guys, uh, take up a lot of room when you’re in stone.”
“Way to make me feel dehumanized,” Gilbert teases, and Thomas elbows him.
“Like you can feel human with those things on your back again.”
“Next time you guys wake up, I’ll have concealment charms for all of you.” I take a step back, looking at the time on my phone. I looked up the exact time of sunrise, and we’re only a minute away. Having the guys inside during the day saves us from a world of possible issues, but having them randomly placed around the library is going to look weird too. They’re heavy as fuck, though not impossible to move.
I direct them each to stand in a corner, making it look more deliberate once they’ve become statues. My heart speeds up and I count down the remaining seconds. I’ve seen them turn to stone before and find it fascinating to watch the transition.
Sunlight streams through the windows behind us, and slowly, their humanity is stripped away as they turn to stone once more. I stand rooted to the spot for a good minute, making sure they don’t crumble apart or start cracking.
They don’t.
“It worked.” I’m beaming, laughing out loud at my disbelief. They’re inside, safe with me. I gather up the stones, intending on safely stashing them with my grimoire. And then it hits me, and the joy is stripped away.
If someone were to get ahold of the runes, they’d have some control over my gargoyles. I have to make sure that doesn’t happen, no matter what.
20
Idon’t wake up until eleven-thirty. For the first time in a while, I don’t feel overwhelmed or anxious to start the day. My thoughts aren’t consumed with work and murder, but rather with the guys and everything that’s happened between us. I lounge around in bed for a while, enjoying doing nothing, and then get up and make a cup of coffee.
Taking it onto the back porch, I drink it in silence, admiring the nature around me all in its natural habitat, which is a better way of saying I’ve done shit to the yard. Having lived in apartments my whole adult life, I’m pretty clueless as to what to do with gardening, and I don’t know how to put in any sort of landscaping. The lawn is in desperate need of being mowed, and now that the guys are safely inside, I can call someone out to do it until I get a lawnmower myself.
It’s nice and sunny out this morning, and after I finish my coffee, I bring the grimoire out with me and spend an hour or so studying and practicing magic. Then I fill the rest of the afternoon doing adult things I don’t really want to do but have to anyway, though today I don’t mind grocery shopping, paying bills, and cleaning the bathrooms as much as I usually do.
I’m putting groceries away when my phone buzzes on the counter with a text. I grab it, a little afraid it’s work. I’m enjoying my time off and don’t want to leave when it’s getting closer to sunset. It’s Gemma, and I remember we had plans for tonight.
Gemma:Hey, lady! What movie do you want to see?
Me:I don’t even know what’s playing. You can choose. I’m not picky.
Gemma:What aboutFirst Comes Love? It’s a romantic comedy and Aidan Shepherd is in it. I’ll see anything with him in it.
Me:He is easy on the eyes LOL
Gemma:You can bring your boyfriend. Boyfriends? I don’t want you to think I’m judging you or anything! I’m actually jealous. You’re dating hot identical twins…seriously not fair.
Thomas and Gilbertwould love to go, and will be thrilled to go out two nights in a row. Is it rude to bring them, though? I’m new to this whole having a female friend thing. We were supposed to go to a movie just the two of us for girl bonding or whatever.
