Page 3 of The Rhino's Rose

My father blocks him with an outstretched arm, but Nicolo brushes it away, like an annoying fly from a dinner plate. And my father lets him. He lets this, this, would-be child molester move closer.

“I’m not going with you,” I shriek, edging backward until I bump against the concrete railing.

“No?” Nicolo mocks. “Then where are you going? Does my little bride think she’s a bird that can fly away?”

“I willneverbe your bride, and I can’t fly, but I can die. And I choose death over a life with you.”

Nicolo scoffs, his eyes opening wide when I yank the hem of my nightgown to my hips, then hoist myself over the railing, where I cling to the other side, my toes barely gripping the narrow concrete ledge. “Enough of this foolish, bratty game. Get in here before you scrape yourself. If there are to be any red marks on you, they’ll be from my hand when I put you over my knee for this unacceptable show of disrespect.”

Inside the room, my father and Isabella watch insilence. Nobody is coming to my rescue. There is truly only one way out of my father’s deal.

“You can spank my cold, dead ass,” I say, then spit on the balcony and let go of the railing.

Screams and hollered words fill the air, along with a thunderous, inhuman roar. My hair whipping upward around my face isn’t enough to block the impossible sight from view.

The creature from my childhood night terrors comes to life in that instant. His gray, stony body breaks free from the side of the house, quadrupling in size right before my eyes. Massive wings wide, he swoops down, catching me before shooting high into the night sky, with me in his thick, humanlike arms. Saving me? Whisking me away for a worse fate than I jumped to escape?

Or maybe I’m lying dead on the flagstone patio, and this is a dream. The last one I’ll ever have. If it is, at least it didn’t end with Nicolo dragging me away and doing disgusting things to me. No matter what the huge, gray, flying creature does, I’d choose this monster from my imagination over that real-life man. Even so, a scream rips loose when the last dots of light on the solid land below us disappear from view, replaced by endless darkness.

“You are safe now, Rosa. No harm will come to you.”

The monster is speaking to me. Addressing me by name.

My shrieking morphs into maniacal laughter. “I really am dead, and you’re an angel.” My next breath comes out as a sharp gasp. “Will my mother be there,wherever we’re going?” Just thinking about seeing her breaks open the dam inside me, the tears flowing as sobs rack my body. “I don’t care that I died if I get to see my mother.”

The monster’s arms pull me closer against his cool, rough skin. “I’m sorry, Rosa, but your mother is not waiting where I’m taking you. She died eleven years ago, and you are still very much alive.”

“How do you know when she died?” The night’s cool wind dries my tears as quickly as they stream from my eyes, causing tracks of tight skin down my cheeks.

“I was there. I have always been there, since long before you were born.”

“By ‘there,’ you mean on the side of the house? That concrete statue outside my room?”

“The specifics of ‘there’ have varied, but my place has always been at your family’s side, and yes, that was my stone form.”

“Riiight. You’reactuallythe monster I imagined outside my window when I was little, and now you’re magically flying me off to safety somewhere.” More hysterical laughter erupts from inside me. “None of this is real. And it’s way too vivid to be a dream, so…what? I hit the ground and now I’m in a coma or something, and this is all subconscious brain activity?”

“I am not a figment of your imagination or a character from a dream, and you are not comatose. You are alive and awake, high above the Tyrrhenian Sea, on your way to a place where no one will ever find you or harm you or force you to do anything against yourwishes. My name is Garion. I am a gargoyle, and I have always been real. Those times you thought you saw me, you were correct. It pained me to remain in stone, listening while you implored your caregivers to believe you, doing nothing to validate your pleas. I am deeply sorry for my part in the loneliness you endured.”

Shifting position in the monster’s arms, I look up and find a pair of intense yellow eyes staring at me. “Whether I’m dead, comatose, or dreaming, this is way beyond anything I’ve ever imagined. I should be screaming my head off, but I’m not scared of you. I’m not even afraid you might let go and drop me into the sea. I’ve obviously had a psychotic break.”

“Neither your mind nor eyes are deceiving you, Rosa. You’re not afraid because inside, you know you have nothing to fear from me. I am your family’s sworn protector.”

“But you’re not protecting my father right now. And I assume you’re on his payroll, since everyone at the house is. Everyone does his bidding without question.” Betrayal stabs at my stomach as Isabella’s complicity replays in my mind like a scene from a horror movie that you can’t look away from, no matter how much you try.

“I am notpaidby anyone.” For a couple of seconds, Garion’s yellow eyes flicker white, speaking the wordpaidas if it’s repulsive. “My oath is to the Polizzi family.”

“That’s my mother’s maiden name.”

“I have guarded your family, her family, for many generations.”

“Did she know about you?” My whispered words arebarely audible over the steady beating of his wings in the night.

But he hears them. “Yes. But not until it was too late, when I was unable to save her.”

“But you tried?” I ask as fresh tears spill, blurring my view of my rescuer’s stoic expression.

“I did what I could.”

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