mouth gets within range, my entire body stiffens of its own accord. My heart starts beating fast—but not in a good way—and my stomach starts to churn.
I try to hide it, but this is Jaxon, and he’s always seen more than I want him to. So instead of kissing me the way I know he wants to, he shifts a little and presses a soft, sweet kiss to my cheek.
“I’m sorry,” I tell him. I hate what’s going on inside me, hate that we can’t just pick up where we left off four months ago.
I hate even more that I’m the one driving this wedge between us when Jaxon has been nothing but wonderful.
“Don’t be. You’ve been through a lot. I can wait.”
“That’s the thing. You shouldn’t have to.”
“Grace.” He brings a hand up to cup my cheek. “You spent one hundred and twenty-one days frozen in stone to keep all of us safe. If you think I can’t wait as long as it takes for you to feel comfortable being back with me again, then you really don’t have a clue how much I love you.”
My breath catches in my throat, along with my heart and, quite possibly, my soul. “Jaxon.” I can barely get his name past the huge lump right above my vocal cords.
But he just shakes his head. “I’ve waited an eternity for you, Grace. I can wait a little longer.”
I lean in to kiss him, and just like that, the sweetness between us turns to something else. Something that has my palms sweating and fear coating my throat.
14
She-Nanigans
My stomach bottoms out, tears well up in my eyes, and I forget how to breathe.
Because it’s not how long Jaxon will wait that I’m worried about. It’s whether or not I’ll ever be ready for him again. Whether I’ll ever find my way back to this beautiful boy who stole my heart so easily. So completely.
And I can’t help but wonder exactly what it is inside me that’s making me feel this way. Sure, there’ve been times before when I heard a voice, warning me of danger, telling me what to do in situations where I was completely out of my depth. Situations that I’d never before imagined being in.
Back then, I’d been so sure that the voice was just random thoughts, things picked up on subconsciously that my conscious mind hadn’t quite registered until that moment. But now I wonder, could it be my gargoyle voice? Flint mentioned once that his dragon was sentient, that it had thoughts separate from his human form. Is it the same with gargoyles?
Out of nowhere, an irrational anger wells up inside me. At the gargoyle inside me. At Lia and Hudson. At fate itself for orchestrating everything that’s brought us to this point.
I open my mouth to say I don’t know what—something, anything that might explain to him the weird feelings rioting inside me—but he shakes his head before I can get so much as a word out.
“It’s okay.”
“It’s not—”
“It is,” he answers firmly. “You’ve been back all of four hours. Why don’t you cut yourself some slack?”
Before I can say anything else, the chimes go off again.
Seconds later, students in purple-and-black uniforms flood the common areas. They give us a wide berth—Jaxon’s with me, so of course they do—but that doesn’t mean they aren’t staring at us. Aren’t whispering behind their hands as they pass by, gawking at the two of us like we’re mannequins on display.
Jaxon reluctantly pulls away. “What’s your next class?” he asks as he drops my hand.
“Art. I was going to run up to my room and change so I could take the trail outside.”
“Good.” He steps back, his dark eyes filled with understanding. “Let me know when you do plan on taking the shortcut. You shouldn’t have to do that alone. At least not the first time.”
I start to tell him it’s no big deal but stop myself. Because it is a big deal.
And because I don’t want to go down there alone right now, don’t want to walk by the doorway that leads to the place where I almost became an actual human sacrifice, courtesy of the murderous Lia and her even more murderous boyfriend, Hudson.
So instead of protesting, I just say, “Thank you,” and stretch up on my tippy-toes to give Jaxon a kiss on the cheek.
A huge screech sounds from several feet away that startles us apart.
“AHHHHHH! GRAAAAAAAAAAAAAACE!”
Because I’d know that screech anywhere, I shoot Jaxon a rueful smile and