Page 7 of The Gargoyle and the Maiden (Nightfall Guardians #1)

Idabel

S he couldn’t breathe. Her lungs were somewhere in the pit of her stomach. Even with Brandt’s tail holding her fast against his powerful form, it felt like she was falling out of the sky.

He dove steeply, his wings barely slowing their descent toward Maiden Hall. She shut her eyes against the inevitable crash, but he landed on the plinth just as noiselessly and gracefully as he had the first time they met.

He peeled her off his front and, holding on to the back of her bodice, dangled and then deposited her onto the balcony. Her knees wobbled like she’d been at sea, and her whole body pulsed in protest of his absence.

He handed off her bucket of rags and was gone before she could even give her thanks. He didn’t want to be discovered, she supposed. And of course, he had things to do if he was a commander. Still, she would have liked to thank him.

“Told you,” Betje crowed when she related the story. “Soft as a kitten, that one is.”

Idabel shook her head, laughing as she rinsed out bottles in a basin and set them to dry. “Hard as stone, too. I think he just wanted to get rid of me with the least fuss possible. He was terribly fierce until he realized I had provoked him on purpose.”

“Too bad he didn’t bite you before he caught on.”

Idabel nodded slowly, remembering the way his whole posture had shifted. How his menacing glare has softened into compassion. “I’m not sure it would have worked, anyway. He said they don’t bite except to kill.”

Betje sobered, leaning on the workbench. She drummed her fingers on the worn wood. “You’ll have to try a different one.”

“I’m not sure I want to anymore.” Idabel busied herself in the work room to avoid Betje’s curious gaze.

When the apothecary’s silent inquisition didn’t end, she shrugged helplessly.

“It doesn’t feel right. If you had to look a gargoyle in the face and know that he would be punished for something you did, you’d understand.

I mean, put yourself in my shoes. Would you do it?

If you had a ring of keys that let you into every room of the Tower, would you play a god and pick one to ruin their life? ”

Betje grimaced. “I don’t know that it would be easy, but it’s not easy being fae-born in Solvantis, either.

I could have my business taken away at any moment.

My home and livelihood destroyed like your garden.

If I unintentionally tap into magic, I could be jailed or hanged or worse.

And don’t think your soft gargoyle would have mercy on me .

So yes, I would pick one to be the example. ”

She was right. Betje was as vulnerable as Idabel.

Her thriving business and unrivaled skills as an apothecary would mean nothing if she were suspected of using her magic to gain them.

And unlike Idabel, she was born here in Solvantis, and she should have the right to live here openly.

To use her natural gifts for the benefit of her community.

Ashamed of her own cowardice, Idabel’s shoulders squared. “I’ll try again.”

Betje put a kindly arm around her. “I’m not asking you to do anything that pricks your conscience. But I won’t tell you not to, either. It would mean a great deal to me and a lot of other people.”

“To me, too, if it means I’ll finally convince you to take me as an apprentice,” Idabel joked.

Betje laughed and squeezed her shoulders, rocking her in such a maternal way that a lump formed in Idabel’s throat. “In a heartbeat. I’d do it now if I could afford the guild fee.”

Idabel hugged her back. “I know you would.”

The rest of the night in the work room, she told herself that she could do this for Betje.

She wouldn’t sneak into another gargoyle’s rooms. It had been too intimate by far, seeing Brandt’s private space.

It should have been humiliating, being restrained by him and backed into the wall.

Instead, it had been something else. Something unfamiliar and overwhelming that made her insides clench.

At first, she was frightened, but when he’d shoved her behind a dusty old tapestry and shielded her with his body, she got warm all over. Blood had rushed to her lips until they tingled, and she felt like biting someone herself.

And when he carried her in his arms, their bodies pressed together as they hurtled toward the ground…she’d tingled all over , inside and out.

She wasn’t some ignorant. She was old enough to know what happened between men and women and how all the parts fit together. She’s seen animals at their mating and heard the stories from the others in Maiden Hall, most of whom were not maidens at all. But she hadn’t understood the appeal until now.

Now, she understood it. Why people would do the stupidest things to have it. Part of her—not a small part—wanted to creep into his rooms again.

That’s part of what made this all so confusing.

She didn’t like Brandt. She didn’t like any of the gargoyles, and he was the one who’d literally crushed her dreams underfoot.

But her body seems to like him very much.

And unfortunately, he seemed to be decent and kind under his stony facade, so her mind wasn’t very far behind.

“You’ve been stirring that dirty dishwater for fifteen minutes straight like you’re trying to See into a dragon’s hoard.” Betje nudged her with an elbow. “Something on your mind?”

Idabel jumped and blushed and hurriedly dumped the washtub down the drain, drying it vigorously with a linen towel. “Just thinking about which gargoyle to try next.”

“A young one,” Betje suggested, grinning. “A bitey, impulsive one. There are a lot of new recruits in the Tower who are preparing for war and ready to sink their teeth into some goblin flesh, right?”

“Too bad I’m not a goblin,” Idabel quipped. “Then this would be a lot easier.”

Betje tilted her head thoughtfully and made a contemplative noise. “Now that you mention it....”