Page 15 of When the Weaver Met the Gargoyle (Leafshire Cove Monsters #1)

Chapter 15

Laini

B ack at the party, Tully is the first to approach us. Plenty are staring, though, mostly other women and female creatures openly gawking at my handsome date. I don’t blame them one little bit.

Tully reaches up and smoothes my hair. “Been enjoying the dark forest, have we?”

“I’m going to look for Rustion if that’s all right with you, Laini?” Rom says, his eyes soft and seemingly still hazy from the moonpetals that made us so insane back there.

“Of course. Find me if the contest is starting,” I say.

Rom drops a kiss on my temple and nods to Tully, his gaze as steely as she deserves from her tea trick. He strides off, and I face Tully.

“What do you want?”

“Still angry?”

“Yes.”

“I don’t see how since you just had alone time with that specimen.” Her gaze slides to Rom’s back as he disappears into the crowd. His horns reflect the moonlight and the glow of the lanterns above the dancing rings of townsfolk.

A flush crawls up my neck and spreads hotly over my cheeks. I leave her, tired of her teasing. Trailing the path Rom took, I join the dancers. A reel I haven’t danced in years starts up, and I stumble a bit, attempting to recall the steps. Grumlin takes one of my hands, and Plum claims the other. Laughing, I let them all but drag me around the dancing area. The banners and their faces blur as I spin.

“I’m amazed I’m clearheaded enough to spin right now,” I say in Plum’s ear.

She grins. “Why?”

“Well,” I say, taking on a conspirator’s tone, “Rom and I ran into some moonpetals in the forest. Of course, things got a little out of hand.”

Her eyebrows lift, and we step side-to-side as the music rises with the piper trilling the crescendo of the song.

“What are moonpetals?” Plum asks.

I frown, thinking everyone knew about them, as Tully said. “Their pollen is magical. It acts like a love potion.”

“Huh. Interesting. I’m glad you had some fun.” Her grin and eyes are full of mischievous delight. She spins, and I echo the movement.

“Eh, Delixian?” Plum calls across our ring of dancers to the one beside us. Delixian is the town healer.

The blue male pixie lifts his head. “Aye?”

“You heard of moonpetals?” Plum asks.

My face is bright red by now, I’m sure of it.

“Nope,” he replies with a shrug. “Maybe Tully has?”

My lips part as I figure it out. “That nasty little witch. She lied.”

Plum kicks her right foot and then her left. “What did Tully do?”

“It’s becoming quite a list of foul activities, but this time, she merely lied to me.”

“She’s the one who told you about the moonpetals that maybe don’t exist? ”

“Exactly.”

“Why?”

“I have no idea.”

Tully is suddenly beside me doing a turn. “Don’t you?”

I focus on Grumlin as he and Plum cross the line of dancers.“I don’t want to talk to you right now, Tully.” I’m offbeat and out of position now, so I try to tune her out and speed up my feet.

“Because of my little tiny fib, you and Rom had a lovely time in the forest, didn’t you? And this time, I didn’t have to dose you with anything,” she says.

Grumlin and Plum trade a curious look. I can’t believe I wasn’t under the influence of anything out there. I’d let Rom do pretty much anything, and we were only a stone’s throw from all these people! I press my eyes shut and try to think of what to say. I stammer and begin to change the subject to talk about Spark, but Rom pushes into the crowd.

“You all right? I think Rustion is on his way down. He was up at the main house checking for an update on our new hire. Everything is fine at the tower and in the skies.”

“Good to hear. I’m fine, but…” I lean close to his ear, and we walk away from the dancing. “Tully lied about the moonpetals, and honestly, I’m just embarrassed we, um… ”

He takes my hand and tucks it into the crook of his big arm. “I feel intoxicated every moment I’m with you, Laini. We don’t need magical plants to improve the spark between us.”

“It’s true,” I say. “But I’m still angry with Tully.”

“Me too.”

I ease my head against his arm as we walk toward the cider cart. Tiny lanterns shaped like stars hang from the open window.

A slow clapping sounds to our right, and Leo walks up. My stomach drops to my knees, but I force my chin up. I look right into his stupid eyes.

“Leo, don’t ruin your father’s lovely party. Just leave us alone.”

Rom covers my hand with his, and he squeezes my fingers in support.

Leo snorts. “I’m not the one mating like wild animals just a few feet from a public gathering.”

My head goes light, and I grip Rom’s arm tightly. “It’s none of your business, Leo.”

“Fuck off, Leo,” Rom says.

A thrill shoots through my body at the sound of Rom’s menacing tone.

“This is my family’s manor, gargoyle. You are our employee. If anyone is fucking off, it’ll be you and your slut.”

The ground trembles and stones burst from the soil. Leo is suddenly wrapped in rock-like lines of heavy rope. He gasps and is pressed to the earth by the stone magic.

I can’t stop staring. Finally, I’m seeing Rom’s stone magic.

“Rom?”

His gaze is wide, panicked. I keep hold of his arm. “It’s all right. Just breathe.”

Rom swears, leaves me, and approaches Leo. He waves his taloned hand over Leo and whispers some barely audible words in a language I don’t know.

“He’s killing me!” Leo shouts as the stones shake and hold him fast. “Someone stop him?—”

A band of solid rock covers Leo’s mouth. The whites of his eyes show all around his tawny irises. His body shimmers, and then he shifts into his lion form, fur rolling down his arms and legs to replace clothing. Fully shifted, he is larger now, and he is even more tightly stuck in the stone magic formation.

The crowd rushes over to see, and the silence is horrible, broken only by Leo’s snarls. Several of us eye Tully because she is the most powerful magic worker in town.

Tully puts a hand on her hip and studies Leo. “ Don’t look at me, everyone. I’m glad you shut his gob, Romulus.”

A spot between my breasts tingles, and a scent like the sandalwood incense the spice merchant burns at her cart rises into my nose. I look around, my fingers going to my chest, but I don’t have time to wonder what it is because Rom makes one last hand movement, and the rock trapping Leo breaks into dust.

The crowd gasps as one, and I reach for him.

“Rom, it’s all right.”

“Meet me at my tower,” he says, then he takes off like an arrow shot into the night sky.

My heart stammers and squeezes. Magic glimmers over Leo, and he is in his human form again, his face flushed a dark red.

“He is a danger,” Leo spews. “We must drive him out of town.” He looks up where Rom disappeared into a cloud bank, and then he brushes debris from his tunic sleeves.

Harton runs a hand over his black and white head of hair. “Agreed.”

“A menace to Leafshire, certainly,” Tam agrees.

“Gargoyles can’t be trusted,” the mean old woman from earlier mutters.

I snap into action. “Everyone, you’re being ridiculous. Leo is fine.” I lift a hand toward the jerk. “He was the one who started the aggression.”

Leo’s gaze whips around to focus on me. I don’t cower as he steps closer to me.

“The opinion of the one rolling around in the woods with him isn’t worth a second of our time.”

Tully stands beside me. “Eh, Leo, that’s not how this is going to go.” She raises her wand.

Snarling, he faces her. “Bespell me, and I’ll have you out on your arse alongside that gray monster.”

“Good evening, all!” Rustion’s strong, warm voice pushes through the tension.

From the smile on his face, I’d say he missed Rom’s accidental demonstration of power. One of his staff members whispers in his ear, and suddenly, it is too much for me. Rom has to be incredibly upset, and he’s all alone in his tower right now. What is he doing? Will he try to leave? Leo and his sidekicks are muttering and growling and spreading more venom into the crowd. Tully threatens them again, describing spells as she hisses into their faces. Snippets of the gossip around hit my ears.

“She’s so desperate that she gave up her body to a truly dangerous male.”

“Pathetic. ”

“I don’t see how she even gained Romulus’s attention. He’s far better looking than her.”

Tully is at my elbow again in a flash of sparkling light. “Eh, don’t listen to Leo’s numpties. Most everyone here is just blabbing cute gossip about the two of you. Nothing bad. They’re not all stupid. And I am sorry for the tea trick and the moonpetal lie. I will never do that again. I swear it on my grandwitch’s memory.”

Her apology should shock me. I’ve never once heard her apologize for anything. But I’m drowning in all of this.

“I have to go.” I start pushing through the crowd, trying not to see the stares, the pointing fingers, the whispering lips.

“But what about the tapestry contest?” Tully calls out behind me.

I don’t even care right now. I just want to get to Rom. So what if he lost control a little? He didn’t hurt anyone, and he needs to be reassured of that. He is good; he isn’t a terrible monster. He is the most wonderful person I’ve ever met, and I need to tell him that now. He has to know.