Page 26

N ext time Xaniban woke me up, it was with a kiss on my upper lips. His intentions were innocent: he wanted me to see the sunrise over our homecloud.

We watched it through the balcony door while sitting on the lush carpet, my back to his chest and my legs outstretched between his. It was a magnificent view–both that of the sunrise outside and of the muscular blue thighs inside. I gazed at the former and caressed the latter. Mmm.

The fire-red color of the clouds above the city–which, as I had learned, served to keep the homecloud hidden from enemy eyes while also providing a stable, favorable climate–reminded me of blood.

I know: what normal person thinks of blood in such a romantic setting?

But three days in heaven couldn’t make me forget the situation on the ground.

While I thrived in the safety and comfort of this magical world and its king’s embrace, my community was still in the nightmarish reality.

It was high time I did something about that.

“Xan, can I ask you something?… Somethings ?” I hugged my knees to my chest and turned until I could see his face.

He had a languid smile on. “Anything and anythings .”

His tail went around my waist and his arms pulled me closer until I was as snug as a bug against his chest but could still see his face. He must have felt I was nervous to talk. As always, his body radiated such heat that I didn’t need anything on my naked skin but him.

“You killing the flesh eaters’ king… It’s a huge victory. You succeeded where your ancestors failed, despite the fact that they weren’t facing a full-blown zombie apocalypse.”

“That is true.” He patted my hip. “But it is not a question.”

I took a deep breath. “What happens next?”

The tips of his wings rose in a shrug. “We celebrate.” Then he specified with a fangy smile, “We feast.” After he got from me the blush he had most certainly intended, Xaniban added, “The head of the king will be added to my ancestors’ trophy room, right next to the head of the blood suckers’ king.

Have you explored that part of the palace yet?

Or were you too busy reading certain scrolls in the library? ”

I rolled my eyes and poked him in the pec. “Stop teasing me, Your Majesty. It’s not like you don’t benefit from my reading preferences.”

He grinned and flapped his wings once.

“Luckily, I missed the trophy room during my stroll yesterday.” Imagine biting into a cheese slice a moment before you come face to head with taxidermied Dracula. I preferred the fridge magnet version, thank you very much. “I meant what happens now, as in the grand scale of things?”

Xaniban brushed his knuckle along my jawline. “You are my mate. You do not deny that anymore.”

I nodded. My scientific brain demanded more evidence that such a thing as a mate bond existed, but there was no denying my feelings for the gargoyle I had yet to get to know, but felt as if I already did. In his arms, I was protected, happy, loved. Home.

“You are also my queen,” he added. “You are no longer denying that either.”

I made a face. The moment I had shown up among Xaniban’s subjects in diamond-covered nipples, I had sealed my fate. Not that I knew what being a queen up here entailed, but that was a topic for another conversation.

“Then you know what awaits us, little blessing.” He cupped my face to ensure I met his gaze.

Those midnight-blue eyes, so beautiful in their alienness, shone with love.

“I will care for you, keep you safe, and cherish you until my last breath. Afterward, I will wait for your soul in the Great Beyond so that we truly become one, beyond the death of our mortal bodies.”

My breath faltered. Xaniban’s words might sound cheesy, but I knew he meant every word. I felt it with every fiber of my being.

I placed my palm over his heart. “I’ll love you right back, animar .”

His wings fluttered and his tail tightened around me. “Will you give me many pips , too, when you are ready?”

I raised a brow at him. “Do I actually have a say in the matter?” His tone suggested he was not asking a question but stating a fact.

“Of course. You determine when you are ready for the first pip and at what number to stop after the third pip .”

My eyebrows reached my hairline.

Xaniban smiled confidently and patted my thigh.

I shook my head, incredulous. “Whoa. Such a generous king you are, to give me the freedom to choose past baby number three.”

His dark brows knitted together. “You want fewer than three?”

Poor Xaniban sounded so confused by the possibility of a woman not wanting to birth a small kindergarten. How many children did a Gargoylish family have on average? That was a question I suspected I would eventually find the answer to, most probably by becoming part of the statistics myself.

I caressed his chest until his frown disappeared and a pleased rumble escaped him.

“I haven’t thought about kids before, so I have no idea, honestly.

I had lost hope in finding a good man to raise a family with.

” And I hadn’t found an actual man, had I?

All along, the one I had been searching for had been waiting for me amid the clouds.

“Anyway, I believe the matter should be left in the hands of God–er, Gods. I mean, I might already be pregnant, with us getting carried away for days and all.”

Xaniban chuckled. “ Anima , you can’t be carrying a pip yet.

I haven’t willed it so.” My eye roll made him squint at me.

He patted my belly with the tip of his tail.

“When I fill you up with fruit-bearing seed, you will know. Because you would have demanded it of me, once ready. The decision on the first pip is yours to make, not mine. That is the law of the Gods.”

“Okay…” I guess? It might be time to suspend all disbelief and simply roll with the impossible. My gargoyle could will his swimmers to become fruit-bearing ? Sure. Of course. Next.

“Are you saying you are ready now?” Hope and yearning were clear to hear in his voice.

I gave a shaky laugh. “Down, boy. I’m not ready to go there with you yet.” Feeling his tail droop around my waist, I quickly added, “ Yet , Xan. I will be someday. Just give me time.”

The smile returned to his face. “I will wait patiently.”

I pulled him down for a kiss to let him know how much I appreciated his patience. Then it was time to ask the big question, this time without leaving space for misinterpretation.

“What happens with the ground now? With the zombies soon to be out of the picture and the vamps disorganized once more, will you do something about the other threats to humanity? You want to save humans, don’t you?”

Xaniban exhaled loudly through his nose–a sigh, I now knew. He shifted until he was sitting more comfortably with me on his lap.

“Any family members of yours are my family, too, and are welcome here. Individual humans who agree to come to the homecloud once approved, I can save. Humankind… is beyond my abilities to save, anima . Even if all homeclouds were to unite–which has not been done in centuries–it would still not be enough. The hope was lost the moment the aliens approached Earth, and the human leaders chose not to fight, too greedy for the technologies offered. They chose to stand disunited, unwilling to share those technologies with other kingdoms.”

I went slack-jawed. “You’re saying that some governments knew the aliens were coming but decided to keep it a secret?”

Wait, why was I so surprised? Then again, in movies the humans always chose to fight when aliens showed up, even when the extraterrestrials were peaceful. Why hadn’t humanity acted like that now? For once, it wouldn’t have been a dumb move; the third apocalypse might have been averted. Dammit.

“I had my informants on the ground,” Xaniban told me, “so I knew the human leaders were keeping more than the contact with the aliens a secret from each other. They were also planning to use the alien technologies against other kingdoms. Humankind was divided and vulnerable, and its incoming fall was foreseen by all shadow kinds with informants of their own. It just so happened that the flesh eaters’ king was the first to take advantage of the situation. ”

“He wanted to take over before the aliens did,” I thought out loud. “But what do you mean by shadow kinds ?”

Tracing soothing circles up and down my arm, Xaniban explained.

“The kinds who used to live in hiding from humans. They chose to come into the light before the alien ships infested the skies. Many of the shadow kinds perceive as theirs what humans call their own, and they finally saw a chance to take it back.”

“Like the Elves?” Everything I’d seen and heard lately was starting to make sense now. “They want the green territories of the world for themselves, like forests and parks.”

“Yes, it is so.”

“And those predatory mermaids have taken over the rivers, lakes, and seas.”

“There are also those who want control over the ground for its resources. The moon-cursed and the pixies, to name a few, need humans to replenish their numbers.”

I fell silent. Gargoyles, as romantic as they were, were also among the shadow kinds Xaniban was talking about. They needed women to survive, and so they were part of the war for Earth themselves. But if there was such a thing as good guys in this war, it was the Gargoyles.

I had been unbelievably lucky to find myself in the arms of one.

And one hell of a gargoyle, at that. Which made me decide that if Carson had made it back to the bunker in one piece, I wouldn’t kill the coward.

I would thank him for forcing me to stay in that monster-infested building, thus helping me find my Xan.

Only then would I beat the crap out of Carson for leaving me behind to die.