“Ready for more?”
“So much more!” I shout. He grins with a very Alex gleam in his eye. Then whoosh I’m upright as he flies straight up and around doing a flip. He banks hard left and right in a zigzag pattern to rival any carnival ride. We ripple up and down like waves in the air. Then he corkscrews for what feels like a mile as the world goes topsy-turvy around me. It’s a rollercoaster of air and hoots and laughter. After a few minutes the fun needs to end as my stomach feels like it’s inside out. My eyes water at the speed and I close them.
“I think...I might...be sick!” I cry out in between loops.
He immediately slows and I wait for my organs to catch up with us.
“Sorry!” He grins at me. Then he moves me up to his chest and maneuvers me around so I’m facing him. “This should help,” he says softly. I place my palms and cheek to his chest and close my eyes. We ascend again but slower. I know we’ve gone out of town; I just don’t know where. The wind gets much colder and now I’m grateful to be so close to his brawny warmth. Finally, he turns us upright and I feel more than hear his giant gargoyle feet crunch onto rocky ground. He sets me down. The moon is lower, stars surround us. We are on a shale rocky pinnacle of a mountain. Next to us, I see the snowy top of Mount Baker white against the blackness of the night. Far, far below us on one side I see lights and the river and on the other, a darkened forest of trees. I breathe in the cold air.
Alex just watches me take it all in with a contemplative look.
“I... That was...” I turn to him. There are no words. He fulfilled a dream he had no idea I even had. “Thank you,” I say. I try to compose myself. This is no time to become complete mush; then he will have to scoop me up off the ground and form me into a ball in order carry me home, and that just wouldn’t be pretty.
“This is beauty.” He turns me towards the horizon. In the distance, I can just make out the ocean.
“Where are we?” I ask astounded.
“Sauk Mountain.”
“You mean the one in sight of the estate?”
“Yes. It’s a really common hiking spot for those without wings, but the reason for that is because the view is remarkable.”
“True,” I say as cold air fills my lungs causing me to shiver. I’m not exactly dressed for this occasion.
“You’re cold. Here.” Alex sits down on a rock and puts me next to him. He wraps his wing around me. “We can’t have our zoana freezing to death, now can we?”
I smile. “I sure hope not.”
“I never get tired of this view,” Alex says. “Of all of the places we have lived, I think Concrete is my favorite.”
I snort. “That can’t be true. This tiny town is nothing compared to all of the interesting places there are in the world. Greece, Italy, Spain? You’ve been to Egypt. There’s no way.”
“You know all of those places have tiny, seemingly boring towns as well. Full of people who just want to get out as bad as many of the residents here do. But here, this place, it makes me believe that at any moment I could look up and see the sun once again peek out over the mountains. Like something magical could happen.”
“You’re an ancient gargoyle who has lived like a zillion lifetimes and fights monsters with a line of magically imbued zoanas to help, how is that not magic enough?”
His eyes stare out at the night, the eyes of an ageless monster. “When time means nothing for so long, it can come full circle and mean everything once again. To a place where you hope for more magic than ever before to fix a broken thing.”
“What’s broken?” My heart skips at the sadness in his voice.
“Time. Time is broken...and I am.”
“What do you mean? Alex, you may be a gargoyle, but you are not who you once were. You’ve done so much good—” His massive finger covers my lips.
“I know the good and the bad I have wrought. I know the weight of them equally, for they are both heavy in their own way. What I had forgotten was the feeling of sunlight on my skin. I was cast into a darkened world where the likes of me belong, and how I longed for the old ways back. I longed for the sun and its flavor of freedom. We all did. So much that at some point, and I didn’t realize when at first, I stopped longing for that single solitary thing and started longing for more. Because something changed in me for the first time in many years. I shifted. Not from man to beast, to stone and back. I shifted in a way I couldn’t comprehend. It took quite a while for me to understand what has happened, and it finally came into focus that night on the river bank. You almost died. In that moment, I knew I had found my sun and it was about to be destroyed.”
My mind halted mid thought. “Me?”
Alex fully turns his eyes onto me. “Violet, you...” He shakes his head and groans. “Hold on.” He holds up a massive hand.
What is he saying? Is he saying he cares for me? “What?” I urge. My insides almost boiling with the wait.
“I can’t think of the words. I can’t believe this. Normally, I can say whatever comes to my mind but then you get here and words quit working,” he says smacking his head.
“What? You’re blaming me for your lack of articulation?” I huff at him.
“No, don’t get mad. It’s not like that. I’ve never made a... I’ve never done this, Violet.” His eyes plead with me.
“Done what?”
“Tell a girl that she is worth more than the sun to me. That she warms up not only my skin, but my soul. That just being in her presence is like being home in ancient times once again. Being young with possibilities everywhere. What I wouldn’t give to see her on a throne back then as a queen telling everyone what to do because she’s very good at being bossy. That she makes me want to find out time is a demon so I can battle it, that way I never have to worry that she will leave my existence again. That she makes me want to kick Achilles for being right all these years and kick myself for not seeing it. Achilles knew. He always knew you were our future. You shined to him from the beginning like you shine to me now. Only you don’t just shine, you glow and make everything around you glow including my rock-hard stone heart. I don’t know...I can’t even say it right!” His fist clenches.
My hand reaches out to touch his fist. “You said it perfectly.” He unclenches and I don’t know what else to do, so I throw myself at him in an awkward hug. He is rough against my human skin, but I don’t care. He is a beast that I would do anything for to make him feel better. He hugs me back gently. I could kiss him again. He’s so big and I’m so tiny; the first time I wasn’t thinking so it came easy. Now I’m thinking too much. Frustration at not knowing how to handle myself around monster boys makes me hug him harder. He laughs.
“No matter how hard you hug me, you’ll never squeeze sense into me.”
“I wasn’t trying to,” I say letting go. We just stare at each other for a minute.
“We should get back,” he says. “Sun up is soon.”
I open my mouth to keep the moment, but the fear of turning to mush stops me. Nothing I say can compete with what he just said. Any attempt on my part would be lame. He stands. Slowly, while staring into my eyes, he gathers me up in his arms. I place my palms and face on his chest, my mind a whirlwind of worry that come tomorrow’s dusk, he will no longer want to talk about this. We fly. I know he’s taking me home and it won’t take long, so I formulate a plan. A crazy plan brought to me by the cold wind breaking against me. I’m going to show him how I feel. We land at the estate, outside of the garden where the gargoyles sleep. He doesn’t put me down. Instead he cradles me into his arms and carries me to a nearby bench where he sits placing me on his lap. He just looks at me.