“Wrap your arms around it.”
Another howl sounded, this time from down the road. They’d already cut off our exit.
“I’m going to carry you, okay? Don’t panic. I won’t drop you, I promise. Your job is to hold the egg.”
Her throat worked, and she managed a single, “Okay.”
The sound of a branch breaking had me turning to the woods where several eyes shone back at me, reflecting the lights set at the barrier. We had to go.
Gathering her into my arms, I gave one more look around before leaping into the air.
Chapter 9
Meera
Thegroundtiltedbeneathme, and the world tilted with it. Arms of steel wrapped around me and held me to his chest as the ground disappeared beneath us.
My fingers scrambled for purchase around his neck, but all I felt was stone. No, not quite stone. There was a little give, like the stone was alive beneath my fingertips. The texture was rough but warm.
I looked up.
Graham’s glamour had shattered like glass, revealing the truth beneath as his wings—yes, actual goddamn wings!—unfurled, massive and leathery, catching the beam from the headlights. I guessed that the juxtaposition of illusion and reality was too much, and the glamour had given up the ghost. I was able to see exactly what he was.
A tiny part of my brain knew I should be more worried about the fact that I was flying through the sky, but all I could focus on was the monster that held me. I mean, I’d already known he was a gargoyle, but nothing prepared me to actuallyseehim.
He still had that handsome face, but different. The cheekbones were more severe, as if they were carved with a chisel. His irises were more silver and a little lighter than his green-gray skin. There was an iridescence to his skin like mica stuck in rocks. It was visible even in the moonlight.
Two massive horns curled from his temples. There were ridges on his shoulders and back, almost like armor plating.
I gasped, staring in awe.
He was primal and beautiful. So beautiful that I found it hard to breathe.
Sparing one hand, since it didn’t feel like I was falling, I reached for his face, brushing my fingertips over the angular lines, completely distracted now from all the sore muscles in my back and neck.
Graham’s eyes, which had been scanning the world below, met mine.
“Don’t be afraid. I won’t hurt you.”
“I know.” I licked my lips. “I’m not sure what’s more shocking. You, or the fact that we are flying.”
A low sound rumbled in his chest, amusement perhaps. “You’re taking this awfully well for someone who just saw her first gargoyle.”
I scoffed. “I’ve seen too much today. This is just another drop in the bucket. I don’t have any more fucks to give. Maybe tomorrow all this will catch up with me and I’ll have a nervous breakdown. But I’ll deal with that then. If you wanted to shock me, you should’ve waited until tomorrow.”
“Technically, it’s already tomorrow.”
He changed directions, aiming us down, and I tightened my arms around him again as the stars above us, the only points of reference I had, spun. Darkness rushed up to meet me.
“Breathe. You’re fine. Don’t you dare pass out on me.”
We landed in a small clearing surrounded by trees, or at least that’s what I could see with just the light of the moon and the stars. The moment my feet touched the ground, he relieved me of the backpack and the egg. Then his hands were on me, skimming over my arms, my ribs, my sides. The touches didn’t feel sexual, but they were thorough and careful.
“What… what are you doing?”
“Checking for injuries. You haven’t yelped yet, so I don’t think anything’s broken.”
“It’s mostly just my neck. It’s a little stiff. Almost like I slept funny on it.”
