Page 35 of The Gargoyle's Captive

“Don’t be. I’m still alive. No one else is.” My breath shudders out. “But I’m the last one left. To continue the family legacy would mean having kids for the sole purpose of turning them into hunters. Of breaking them before the world can so they will be the most efficient killers possible. I... I can’t do it. I don’twantto do it. I think I want kids, but I’m so afraid some switch inside me will flip and I’ll turn into my parents. They loved me, but they hurt me and told me it would make me stronger.”

“Strength isn’t worth the cost of everything else,” he says softly. “But you are not your parents. You’re already making different choices than they did.”

That’s what’s so scary. My map for life has gone up in flames, and every step I take, I’m worried the ground will give out beneath me. “I don’t know how to be someone who isn’t a hunter. I don’t know how to deal with the toxic combination of guilt and relief that I feel when I think about leaving it all behind.” There are other families, and other hunters, but it’s always been drilled into my head that Jaegers were a cut above the rest. That no one else can compare.

“I don’t know how to be someone who isn’t cursed.” He brushes another kiss to my temple.

All my training, all my experience, screams that this is a terrible decision. I came to the demon realm with one purpose and one purpose only. But, as much as I don’t want to face it, Bram was right when he said that finding out the truth of my mother won’t ultimately change anything. It won’t bring her back. It won’t make me feel less alone.

I lean back, and Bram lets me. There’s nothing but open honesty on his face. His aura has a tentative thread of hope. He smiles briefly. “Why don’t we find out who we are without the shadow of our parents... together?”

Together.“This is too fast. You don’t know me. I don’t know you.” I’m grasping at straws, and yet, at the same time, these are perfectly reasonable statements.

“Maybe.” He shrugs. “I don’t know your favorite color. I don’t know your parents’ names or a number of relatively important details. But, Grace.” He cups my face with one large hand. “I knowyou. I’ve known you from the first.”

I lift my brows, instinctively striving to ease the moment. “The first?”

“Well, not the very first. But the moment you ran and then didn’t flinch at the anger I brought, when you met me at the line I drew in the sand and forced me to do the same... I knew you then.”

Part of me wants to push back against this knowing, to protect the inner soft parts of me that are far too easily bruised. No one has gotten as close as Bram, and he’s right—it’s not a matter of time. It’s a soul-deep recognition that feels like magic yet is something much more mundane but no less a gift. We’re two survivors, cast adrift in the choices those around us made. We can spend the rest of our lives being tossed to and fro in the waves of others’ making...

Or we can choose a different path.

“I suppose that’s how life works.” I speak slowly, feeling my way. “It’s filled with people making the best of each day, no matter what it brings.”

Bram’s smile warms. “That’s what I hear.”

“Are you done with the letters?”

“I just need to hand them off to be sent.”

I ease off his lap and take a careful step away. “You should do that. Right now.” I trail my hand over my collarbone and keep moving back. “In a hurry.”

His pale eyes heat. “What will you be doing in the meantime?”

“Waiting naked in your bed.” It’s so incredibly gratifying to see his wings flare. With time, I think I’ll get as good at reading his body language as I am at reading his aura. I smile. “I have my bargain to fulfill, after all. I promised that you could have me any way you want me.”

“You did, didn’t you?” He hasn’t moved, but he watches me so closely, I have the feeling he could cross the room in a single bound and pin me to the wall. If I tell him to chase me, he will. I’m sure of it.

Another time.

“Yes,” I finally manage.

He nods. “What I want is justus. No games. No power plays. Just you and I.”

Somehow that’s scarier than anything we’ve done so far. Except that’s not entirely true. We just cut open our chests and showed each other our bleeding centers. Having sex without any scaffolding isn’t much different than that. I lick my lips. “Okay.”

“I’ll see you shortly.”

I back slowly out the door and head through the halls to the staircase that will lead me to Bram’s room. I’m cautious. It’s not that this situation feels too good to be true—it’s far too messy for that—but this is the first time in my life that I’ve allowed myself to be fully vulnerable with another person. I can’t help waiting for the other shoe to drop and take me out in the process.

No. I’m not doing that. I’ve spent my entire life being vigilant and keeping people at a distance. I can afford to change that this once, to allow Bram close. It might not be an easy path, but with him I might have a chance at true happiness...

21

BRAM

Ifind Grace exactly as promised—naked in my bed.

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