his hand to get his attention. “Hey, we can’t head to your rooms. I need to stop by mine for a few minutes; then I want to take a quick shower and grab a granola bar before heading to class.”
“Class?” He looks shocked. “Wouldn’t you rather rest today?”
“I’m pretty sure I’ve been ‘resting’ for the last four months. What I really want to do is get back to class and catch up on what I missed. I’m supposed to graduate in two and a half months, and I don’t even want to think about how many missing assignments I have.”
“We always knew you’d come back, Grace.” He smiles down at me and squeezes my hand. “So your uncle and teachers already have a plan in place. You just need to set up appointments to talk to them about it.”
“Oh, wow. That’s awesome.” I give him a tight hug. “Thank you for your help with everything.”
He hugs me back. “You don’t need to thank me. That’s what I’m here for.” He pivots, and we switch directions and head to my room. “Mrs. Haversham should have emailed your new schedule by now. It changed at the semester, even though…” His voice trails off.
“Even though I wasn’t here to change with it,” I finish, because I’ve just decided that I’m not going to spend the rest of the school year tiptoeing around my new reality. It is what it is, and the sooner we all learn to live with it, the sooner things will get back to normal. Myself included.
I’ve got a long list of questions to ask Jaxon and Macy about gargoyles. And once I get the answers, I’m going to start trying to figure out how to live with it gracefully. Tomorrow. On the plus side, the fact that I don’t have horns should make the graceful part a lot easier to bear.
Jaxon stares down at me, and I expect him to kiss me—I’ve been dying to kiss him from the moment he walked into my uncle’s office—but when I lean in to him, he subtly shakes his head. The rejection stings a little, at least until I remember just how many people were staring at me when I was walking through the halls earlier.
That was more than an hour ago. Now that word has probably gotten around that the resident gargoyle is human again, I can’t imagine how many people will be watching us—even though class is supposed to be in session.
Sure enough, when we turn the corner into one of the side hallways, people are everywhere—and every single one of them is looking at us. I can feel myself tensing up before we’ve taken more than a step or two. They drop their eyes when Jaxon walks by, though.
Jaxon wraps an arm around my shoulders, then ducks his head until his mouth is almost pressed against my ear. “Don’t worry about them,” he murmurs. “Once everyone gets a look at you, things will settle down.”
I know he’s right—after my first couple of days here, no one paid any attention to me at all, unless I was walking beside Jaxon. There’s no reason to think that will change now. Thankfully. Notoriety isn’t exactly my speed.
We book it to my room, turning what’s usually a ten-minute walk into one that’s closer to five or six. And still it isn’t fast enough. Not with Jaxon beside me, his arm around my shoulders. His long, lean body pressed against my side.
I need him to be closer, need to feel his arms around me and his soft lips on mine.
Jaxon must feel the same way, because once we hit the top of the stairs, his quick walk turns into something closer to a jog. And by the time we get to my room, my hands are trembling and my heart is beating way too fast.
Thank God Macy left the door unlocked, because I’m not sure Jaxon wouldn’t have torn the thing off the hinges otherwise. Instead, he pushes open the door and ushers me through it, hissing only a little as Macy’s enchanted curtain brushes against his bare forearm.
“Is your arm okay?” I ask as the door closes behind us. Jaxon is too busy pushing me up against it to answer.
“I missed you,” he growls, lips barely an inch from my own.
“I missed y—” It’s all I manage to get out before his mouth comes crashing down on mine.