Page 98 of Death Makes the Heart Grow Fonder

I gave him a pointed look. “You do not.”

His mouth twitched. “You are stubborn. You run toward trouble. You pretend sarcasm is armor. You do not trust easily, and you have good reasons for that.”

My throat tightened. The words were too accurate to dismiss.

“People hate what I am,” I said, voice rougher than I intended. “Even witches. Especially witches. They look at my power and see an abomination.”

Cal did not flinch. “I know.”

“You know because you have heard gossip,” I said.

Cal’s eyes narrowed. “I know because I have seen the way Lucinda treats you. It’s uncalled for.”

That should not have made my chest ache. It did.

I forced myself to sit up a little, keeping the blanket clutched like a security shield. “You said you could not stay away.”

Cal’s gaze lowered, then returned to mine, steady and honest. “I did not think I could bond with anyone again.”

The room felt suddenly quieter, as if even the air leaned in.

“My mate died when I was young,” he said.

I blinked. Young for him could mean a century. Or five. He was thousands of years old. Time was elastic for creatures like him.

“What happened?” I asked, softer.

His jaw tightened. “Violence. A mistake I still replay when I close my eyes.”

His hands rested on the blanket between us, not touching me, but close enough that I could see the texture of stone under his skin where his human form never fully hid the truth.

“I was not strong enough to protect her,” he said.

I hated the way guilt sat in his voice, like a weight he had carried so long it had left scars.

“It is not your fault,” I said automatically, then caught myself. Trust did not come easy, but compassion did, even when it hurt.

Cal’s eyes flicked to mine. “You do not know that.”

I exhaled. “I know what it looks like to blame yourself for things you could not control.”

His expression shifted, like he understood that statement on a personal level.

“I told myself I would never bond again,” Cal said. “It is not just grief. It is what gargoyle bonds are. They are not casual. They are not temporary.”

My chest tightened. “And now.”

Cal’s gaze slid to my mouth for half a second, then back to my eyes. “And now you are in my head. You have been for a long time.”

I went very still. “A long time?”

He nodded once. “Before the egg. Before this chaos. I noticed you. I liked the way you keep moving even when people try to make you smaller.”

My pulse kicked hard.

I tried to speak. Nothing came out the first time.

When my voice finally showed up, it sounded too small for how loud my body felt. “I have been attracted to you, too.”