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Sydney still had a small amount of trepidation about seeing Adam and being alone with him, but her talk with Birdie—and everything that had followed after it—had helped.

She wiped at her eyes, hoping the dark would hide the fact that she’d been crying.

He landed with a soft thud, crouching down as he touched the earth, maybe to lessen the impact. Before righting himself, he put Sugarbelle down.

She ran straight to Mackie.

He pushed up slowly, staying where he was. “Hi.”

She lifted her hand. “Hi. You, uh, just get home?”

“A bit ago. You couldn’t sleep?”

She shook her head. “Too much on my mind, I guess. Finally got up and decided to come out here.”

His brows bent, the pain on his face evident even in the dim ambient light. “I really am sorry. If I could erase the whole thing, I would.”

“What happened isn’t the only thing that’s been on my mind.”

“No?”

She gestured toward the steps. “You want to sit?”

“Sure.”

As he walked toward her, she took a seat, inching over as far as she could until she was practically leaning against the railing. Probably farther over than she needed to be. He was a big guy, but the steps were wide. She wanted the room. A little buffer. Just in case.

Which was stupid. Adam was not going to hurt her. She knew that. And yet, she still couldn’t stop herself.

“Beautiful night, huh?” He sat, his shoulder touching the opposite railing.

He’d moved as far away from her as he could. He’d seen what she did and responded to it, trying to be understanding. That was just who he was.

She nodded. “It is. I love seeing the stars. Never knew how much until I got here.”

He looked up, an easy smile on his face. “Nothing like a clear night sky.”

She looked at him, remembering his other form. “You mean … for flying.”

His mouth hitched higher on one side, then he glanced at her. “I meant for stargazing, but it’s pretty spectacular for that, too.”

“Must be something. Being able to fly.”

“It is.”

A soft, playful growl got their attention. Mackie and Sugarbelle were wrestling.

“Easy, Mackie.” Sydney spoke in a loud whisper, trying to keep her voice down because of the hour. “She’s not a hooligan like you.”

A minute or two passed without either of them saying anything else. Sydney wasn’t sure what to say next. Or how to say it.

Adam beat her to the punch. “You said you aren’t okay. Anything I can do to help?”

She picked at her cuticles, a terrible habit. She stopped and wound her fingers together. “I don’t know. I found something out today. Something I wasn’t expecting at all. It’s sort of thrown me.”

“You seem like a very capable person. I’m sure whatever it is, you’ll find a way to deal with it.”

“I don’t know.” She sighed. “I’m a nymph.”

He looked at her, eyes narrowed. “You’re a what?”

“Not much of one, but I apparently have both nymph and dryad bloodlines in me.”

He shook his head. “I have so many questions.”

He had questions? She wasn’t expecting that. “Like what?”

“For starters, what exactly are nymphs and dryads? And how did you find this out?”

“A nymph is a sort of nature goddess. Some of them have healing powers. Some of them can even shapeshift. A dryad is a specific type of nymph associated with trees. Usually oak but not always.”

“Okay. Interesting. And you found out how?”

“Oh, that. Right. Birdie stopped by earlier. We had a long talk. A long, hard talk.” She blew out a breath. “Did you know Birdie was a werewolf?”

“I did.”

“So are both of her nephews and her niece.”

“Pretty sure that’s how it works with families.”

“Well, I didn’t know that. I thought you had to be bitten to be turned into a werewolf.” She held up her hands. “Actually, I thought that’s how it worked in movies. I didn’t actually think werewolves were real.”

“I can imagine.”

“And get this—the deputy who drove me home last night? She’s a valkyrie.” Sydney leaned forward to emphasize her next words. “They carry a magical sword on their backs, like a tattoo, but they can make it real whenever they need it.”

“That’s pretty cool.”

“And then, of course, there’s you.”

His brows lifted slightly, but he said nothing.

“I mean, you turn into a gargoyle. Which, let’s be honest, is crazy.”

“Not to me it isn’t. And technically, I turn into a human. The gargoyle part is my true form.”

“Really?” She moved slightly closer, brow furrowed. “Is it hard to maintain your human form?”

“No, not at all.”

“You don’t mind me asking questions? Even dumb ones?”

He smiled. “No, I don’t mind, and I don’t think there are dumb questions when you’re learning something new.” He paused a second. “You still didn’t tell me how you found out about being a nymph.”

“Oh, right. So Birdie and I had a long talk, and she told me all about the town and how many supernaturals live here, which was shocking, but then she said most people have some supernatural genes and don’t even realize it.

That got me thinking. I asked how someone would find out, and she said she knew some witches that could help, which I was immediately against. But she told me they were nothing like Veronika, so we went to see one of them, actually the same woman who was my Realtor, Pandora, and she did some magic and figured out the nymph and dryad stuff. ”

He blinked. “You went to see a witch. After everything that happened?”

“I did.”

He snorted. “You’re amazing. That took courage.”

“Well, I don’t know about that. I had Birdie with me.”

“Oh, so having a werewolf with you made visiting a witch all right?”

She laughed. “When you put it that way…”

“A lot of people would have packed up and left town after what you went through.”

She nodded, exhaling. “I almost did. Thought about it. I wasn’t sure how I could stay here after—you know.”

“Right. So, uh, what did you decide?”

She stretched her legs out to reach the step below and crossed her ankles. “I’m going to stay.”

“Really?”

“Yeah. I mean, learning what I did about myself today kind of shook me, but I guess this is where I belong.”

He hesitated. “I wasn’t eavesdropping, at least not on purpose anyway, but earlier it sounded like you were crying.”

“I was.”

“Can I ask why?”

“Just the weight of everything, I guess. Today was a lot.”

“Last night was a lot.”

“That, too.” She squeezed her hands together.

“I’m still not where I need to be with all of this.

That’s definitely going to take some time.

But one thing I learned in modeling is that you have to adapt quickly, or you won’t get booked again.

If something happens on the runway—you break a heel, the music stops, protesters jump on stage, whatever—you have to keep going.

You have to do what you were hired to do.

Same thing with a shoot. If the artistic director says, ‘Hey, let’s take the snake out of his enclosure and put him around your neck,’ you suck it up and wear a snake around your neck. ”

Adam’s eyes widened. “Did that actually happen to you?”

“It did. Well, I didn’t wear the snake around my neck. I was lying down, and the snake was draped over me. The snake was fine. He’d just been fed, so he had no interest in me.”

He laughed, then made a face. “Still.”

“Don’t like snakes?”

“I can’t say they’re my favorite.”

She shifted positions again, putting herself closer to him. She stared into the yard, where Mackie and Sugarbelle were still playing. “They really do like each other.”

Adam nodded. “They do.”

As he watched them, she studied his profile. Nothing that had happened diminished his handsomeness. In fact, now that she was getting comfortable with who and what he was, she found herself even more drawn to him.

How could she not be? Like Birdie had pointed out, he’d saved her life. Something she had yet to thank him for.

She reached out and laid her hand on his arm. He looked at her immediately. Her heart beat faster as she began to speak. “Thank you for saving my life. Birdie told me what you did. That you picked me up, and Sugarbelle, and flew us to safety.”

“I wasn’t going to let her hurt you.”

“I know that now. I didn’t really understand that at first. I was mostly just afraid.”

“Who wouldn’t be? I know what I look like in that form.”

She took her hand away to scoot closer, not stopping until her shoulder touched his. “You’re pretty intimidating in that form.”

“Yeah. Kind of the purpose, though.”

“Oh. I’m sure it is. I never thought about it that way.”

“Gargoyles are warriors. Meant to protect.”

“And that’s what you did. You protected me. I owe you.”

“You owe me nothing.”

But she felt like she did. She felt like she at least owed him her friendship.

There was no point in more than that since he was leaving, but they could be that much to each other.

“I wish now that I’d woken up while we were in the air.

I probably would have freaked out and caused all sorts of problems, but it would have been something to see, I’m sure. ”

He turned his head to see her better, the look in his eyes something she couldn’t quite interpret. “Yeah, the view is great, but if you’d freaked out and I’d dropped you…” His brows lifted as if to say what a nightmare that would have been.

She gasped, amused. “You would not have dropped me.”

He grinned. “Not a chance. For one thing, I’m a lot stronger than you. For another, I’d never let anything bad happen to you.”

She knew that.

He kept looking at her.

“What?” she asked.

“We could always go up again.”

“You mean flying?”

He nodded. “If you think you can handle it.”

“You’re talking to the woman who had an albino Burmese python named Baby draped over her body to sell sunglasses. I can handle it.”

He grinned. “All right then. When do you want to go?”

She took a breath. She needed to do this. To prove to herself that she could. That he was safe, that she was going to be fine, and that there was nothing to fear about this new world she’d become part of. “How about right now?”