Page 49 of Howl for the Gargoyle

I howled.

The sound trembled in the air and my eyes popped open, the cry ringing out, bouncing off the ceiling and snarling out of my amp. Kiernan fumbled the notes briefly and Mikey missed a beat, but we gathered ourselves back together a moment later, running steadily to the end of the song. My face was warm, and I wasn't sure if it was thoughts of Rafe or excitement, but I stood from the stool I usually rested on before Kiernan plucked out the last note.

"What the hell was that?" Kiernan laughed, eyes wide on me.

I shook my head. "I don't know!" But I did know one thing—it had sounded good.

"Werewolf," Kelsey said, shrugging.

Mikey and Kiernan blinked at her and then at me.

"I've heard it before," Kelsey said, "Although it was in a screamo band. But I was kind of expecting it all day."

Kiernan and I gaped at one another. "Could you do it again?" he asked me.

I opened my mouth to say I wasn't sure and then shut it briefly. I felt wild when I thought of Rafe, and that wasn't hard to do. My head tried to circle back to him more times in a day than I was even entirely comfortable with.

I swallowed and thought of a lyric in one of our songs, a place where I stretched my voice as far as I could.

The sound poured out of me again, resonant and sharp and full, banging its way around the room, echoing and ringing darkly. And it was so easy. I shivered and gasped in the wake, alive and aroused and excited.

"Holy shit," Mikey murmured. "Crowds will flip."

"You already had a beautiful voice, but that certainly won't hurt," Kelsey said, with her first faint smile.

I answered it back with a grin and then turned to hide my expression for a moment. I wanted to sing. I wanted to belt. I wanted to know this sound I could make and claim it and perfect it, and I wanted to sing. I hadn't shared the new song I'd started playing with yet, but already I was running it through my head, searching for places to howl.

"Huh, weird," Kiernan said, but he wasn't looking at me. He was looking at his phone. "We've got…a gig offer. More like a gig demand?"

My eyebrows rose. "A demand?"

"Kind of. 'Name your price,' it says," Kiernan said, a puzzled smile twisting over his lips. "It's at a local bar. Nightlight?"

Kelsey whistled, and it was a pretty, crystalline sound, her harpy genes at work. I cataloged it for later. A whistle would be another beautiful new sound in our band's arsenal if we wanted it. Fuck, I was excited. And I was so happy to be excited that I wanted to cry and also maybe run circles around the room.

"That's owned by the moth," Kelsey said.

"By the…moth?" Mikey asked.

Kelsey stared at me, expectant, and I shrugged. She sighed. "Elias, he's a moth fae. He's…notable. And he owns Nightlight. It's a bar that mostly…our kind hang out at." She was still staring at me as she said it, the meaning delicate but obvious. Our kind. Not humans.

"He says he has friends who are fans of ours," Kiernan said, staring at me.

"We could use a local event to run out any kinks," I suggested, bouncing on the balls of my feet, eager energy crackling through me. Kelsey was still new, and we had a tour coming up. She was catching up quickly, but it would be better to test out the live experience with her a few times before we were on the road.

"What's a moth fae like?" Mikey asked Kelsey.

She shrugged. "Big, fuzzy, ridiculously snobby, I think. It's a big compliment for him to be interested."

"It's a good offer," Kiernan admitted.

"Name your price" was a ridiculous offer, even if we were picking up some success lately. But it wasn’t the money that made me curious.

"What kinds of species hang out there?" I asked Kelsey.

"All kinds."

Gargoyles? I wondered. And what else? Rafe was right—I'd been clinging to my humanity ever since I was attacked. But there was a whole world out there I belonged to that I hadn't explored yet.

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