Page 30 of Let Go My Gargoyle
The air crackled with unspoken emotions. They whispered around the room like fog. Even her dragon simmered down as the silence lengthened, and she finally turned back to face him.
He stared for a long time at the French doors that led out onto the second-story wraparound deck. “I wasn’t raised as a gargoyle,” he finally said.
“What do you mean?”
He lifted both hands, palms up. “I was abandoned as a child. I was about the age Penelope is now. I have vague memories of my mother, so shadowy that I’m not even sure if they are real or pictures I’ve formed in my head based on what I’ve been told.”
“Why did she abandon you? Where was your father?”
“I’ve never told anyone this story before.”
She reached out and laced her fingers with his. “Please tell me. I want to know. I want to understand you.”
He lowered his arms but did not release her hands. His gaze on her face was so intense that her breath caught in her throat. “You understand me better than anyone else in my life ever has.”
“Tell me,” she whispered.
“My mother is human. I presume she did not know my father was a gargoyle. I’ve never met him. I have no idea who he is or if he is in this country or Canada or somewhere else entirely. Before you judge, you should know that it is not typical for gargoyles to engage in long-term relationships. Especially with a human. It is very likely that she was a fling, and he had no idea she was pregnant when he left.”
“I’m not judging.”
“Since I didn’t realize I was anything other than human, when my magic started to manifest, I did not understand what was going on. When I asked my mother about it, she panicked. She was convinced I’d been possessed by the devil. She took me to a church and left me there.”
“That’s terrible.”
He nodded, his gaze dropping to their clasped hands. “The church ran an orphanage, and it wasn’t a bad place, actually. Except I still didn’t have an answer to the magic coursing through my veins, and it was getting harder and harder to suppress it. As I’m sure you know, not using our magic is not really an option. Sooner or later, it’s going to show itself. It’s the nature of the beast.”
She nodded her agreement.
“Luckily, it was just me and one of the nuns the first time I shifted into my gargoyle form. She handled it better than my mother did, but she was also concerned for the other children’s safety. She was willing to accept what I was and believed that gargoyles were creatures created for the greater good, but she, of course, did not fully understand what it meant to have one in her care. So she told me I must hide my magic from all other humans, and then she took me to a social worker and asked that I be placed with a family that had no other children. And so I became a product of the human foster care system.”
His shoulders drooped, and Sofia wanted so badly to hug him, to console him, to assure him that she did not think any less of him for having shared this story that her arms wrapped around him before she even fully realized what she was doing.
His body stiffened for only a few seconds, and then he hugged her back. She sank into his warmth, and it felt so natural, as if this were something they did all the time.
“Why did you say you were being selfish earlier?” she asked, her cheek resting against his chest.
“You’re going to make me spell it out?”
She lifted her head to look him in the face.
He groaned. “I was attracted to you, Sofia. More attracted than I’ve been to another woman at any point I can remember. It wasn’t just that I sensed you were the right person to raise Penelope, it was…there was something else too.”
“My dragon senses it too.” The beast wanted to feel his touch again, and she wasn’t taking no for an answer.
She glanced out the glass doors. Ketu and Antoinette were sitting on a cushioned bench in the gazebo while Henri and Penelope were on the swings, clearly trying to see who could kick the highest.
“Oh yeah? What about you? What do you feel?”
She blew out a steadying breath. “I’m beginning to think my dragon is right.”
“That’s kind of sexy.”
A giggle burst from her mouth. “Don’t get used to it. We tend to disagree on a lot of things.”
“Except me.”
“She was far more willing to get over the fact that you left us than I was.”
