Page 38 of Fire in Stone

It shouldn’t matter how it looked. I got these clothes for functionality, not style or appearance. But, dammit, the sweatpants hung so pleasantly low on his trimmed hips and the t-shirt stretched so nicely over his chest and around his biceps, I couldn’t help but admire it. I’d chosen right. The red color suited him well.

“Stunning,” I said, striving for sarcasm and failing. The genuine appreciation filtered into my voice. “You look gorgeous, Elex. Always do.”

“Thank you.” He beamed at me. “For both the clothes and the compliment.”

“Alright. Well… Are you hungry?” I plopped down on the ground near the tree he’d been resting under, then searched in my backpack for the cold-cut sandwiches and bottled water I’d bought.

“You eat first,” he said, taking a place next to me, too close for my comfort. “I can last a long time without food.”

“Doesn’t mean you don’t get hungry, you said. Here.” I shoved a sandwich into his hands. “I got enough for both of us. There’s no need to ration.”

“Thank you.” He unwrapped the focaccia bread with cheese and salami, then took a bite. “It’s good.” His eyebrows shot up in surprise.

“You didn’t expect that?”

“When it comes to the human world, I’ve learned not to expect anything at all. Nothing is consistent here.”

“Exactly how long have you been here?”

He wrinkled his brow in concentration. “Over a decade, at least.”

The bite of my sandwich stuck in my throat.

“That long? Were you in the menagerie all this time? A statue?”

“Yes. Ghata let me shift once, the day after thebracksdelivered me to her, to tell me her terms of my working for her.”

But he never agreed to her terms, choosing to spend years as stone, instead.

I thought about what that must’ve been like. Frozen as a rock, for over ten years. Completely immobile. Hearing and seeing everything around him but unable to express any reaction to it.

How did he not lose his mind?

He finished his sandwich and took a drink of water, staring straight ahead.

“It was torture not to be allowed to shift. Unnatural. No gargoyle I know has ever spent that much time in stone form. We’re living beings, meant to move, fly, touch…” He stroked the withered grass under the tree, running his fingers through the slim blades, then pointed at the lizard ring on my finger. “No matter how priceless that stone is, Amber, I fear my debt to you for freeing me could never be repaid.”

Releasing him had been the right thing to do, the only thing to do. I felt bad for taking any payment for that at all. If money didn’t mean a life-or-death situation to me, I would’ve never accepted the ring.

“I didn’t do much,” I mumbled, turning my hand to hide the ring from sight, not because I was afraid Elex would take it back but because of the guilt I still felt when looking at it. “I just put the smoke out.”

“You freed me from that place.”

“Istoleyou, Elex,” I said, with a self-derisive laugh. “To sell. For money. Please don’t make it sound noble or kind. It was nothing like that.”

“Maybe at the beginning it wasn’t,” he argued. “But you had no idea what you were dealing with, had you?” He leaned toward me, staring straight into my eyes. “You got me away from Ghata. You helped me bemeagain. You’re taking me back home. Do not minimize your actions, Amber, or what they mean to me.”

I could argue thathewas the one taking me home, not the other way around. But I bit my tongue. I was no hero, but the appreciation in his eyes made me feel like one. It was nice to think that I did something meaningful. His admiration made me feel better about myself. It made me want tobethe person he admired.

He leaned my way, and I didn’t move away even when he was so close, our breaths mingled.

“It was my pleasure…” I whispered, “…freeing you.”

True to his promise, he couldn’t come any closer. If he touched my lips with his, he’d die.

So I did it for him.

I closed that tiny, hair’s breadth distance that separated us. The moment my mouth was on his, my defenses shattered like glass with a burst of emotion. It flooded my chest, spreading through the rest of my body in a thick, warm swell.

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