Witch In Charge - Celia Kyle Page 0,40
He leaned forward with wide, interested eyes. He actually cared about her answer.
“Better. I got to break my first curse.”
“Hey, that's great!”
He seemed genuinely happy for her, but at the same time, she thought she saw a flicker of sadness in his eyes. She had a strong urge to reach out and take his hands, to search him with her magic. It was all she could do to keep her hands to herself. She wanted to help him so badly.
Instead, she shrugged and poked at her abandoned sandwich. “I guess. It was a pretty simple curse, to be honest. No big deal.”
His voice grew thoughtful. “I bet the person who was cursed wouldn't agree that it was no big deal.”
He was right. The shifter she'd freed hadn't left her home since her ex had cursed her. To her, the lifting of the curse—as simple as it may have been—was life-changing.
“Would you tell me more about your curse?” she asked softly.
He looked away immediately and Kelly felt the intimacy of the moment shatter. When he met her eyes again, he looked sad. Almost tortured.
“My ancestor, Prince Erodicus, was a selfish and tyrannical gargoyle. I don’t know everything about him, because it’s been passed down over the generations and all of the stories are almost certainly far from accurate. I do know that he considered himself to be more powerful than any others, especially witches. He attacked a powerful witch while he was in his gargoyle form, and obviously thought he was stronger than her.”
“Whoa,” Kelly whispered.
Ronun nodded. “Yeah, sounds stupid, doesn’t it? She didn’t just curse him though, she cursed his entire bloodline. His arrogance punished every single member of our family all the way out to the most distant cousins. Forever.”
This was Kelly's chance to find out more about the curse. If she really wanted to break it, she needed more information.
“What does it feel like? Is it always the same each day when you turn to stone?”
“Yes. I start to feel cold and heavy, and then I can’t move. I’m frozen in whatever position I'm in when the sun breaks the horizon.”
“Are you aware of what's going on around you when you're in your gargoyle form?”
“Somewhat. Sometimes painfully so.”
“Oh.” She lowered her eyes, grimacing in shame. “Sorry about that.”
He smiled gently. “It’s not that big of a deal to be used as an enormous paper weight.”
Kelly giggled. “Does anything affect it? Have you ever felt like you could change anything about it?”
“Sometimes,” he said carefully. “Maybe. I’ve tried a lot, that’s for sure.”
“Hmm. What happens when you sleep?”
“Sleep?”
“Do you sleep as a gargoyle during the day or as a man at night?”
“A little of both, actually.”
Kelly stumbled, suddenly caught on the image of Ronun sleeping naked with a sheet twisted artfully around his muscular body.
I mean, come on. The guy is chiseled.
She cleared her throat loudly to banish the thought.
“Can you move at all?”
He wiggled his arms. She laughed loudly, shaking her head.
“As a gargoyle, dork. Can you move at all when you’re stone?”
He opened his mouth to answer, then stopped himself. A dark look quickly fell across his face. Before he answered, Owyn ruined the moment.
“Kelly,” he said in a hard tone. “Time to get back to work.”
She barely held in a groan. “Sure thing, boss.”
“You’ve been on your lunch break for over an hour now.”
“I’m sorry, I didn’t realize.”
Owyn dragged a hand across his face, frowning at her.
“How you have managed to master the dark arts when you apparently can't even tell time is a constant mystery to me.”
“Time is relative.” Kelly grinned.
To her surprise, Owyn returned her smile.
“Interesting,” he said. “You might be more ready for the next step than I thought.”
“Next step?” She stood up eagerly. “You mean, we’re actually going to do something fun?”
Owyn nodded, clearly happy to have made an impression on her.
“Oh my, yes. I think you'll really enjoy what I have planned. Follow me and let’s head up to one of the study areas.”
Kelly turned to wave goodbye to Ronun and, when he waved back, she felt like she had everything a girl could ever need. As if a sentient house and wicked powers weren’t enough, it now looked like she might actually have a stimulating job…and a smoking hot gargoyle who might just be her boyfriend.
I may have to stay on the straight and narrow. It seems that once I choose the even road, everything comes easily!
Sixteen
Owyn was quiet on the walk back to his office and Kelly resisted the