Page 70 of Monsters in Love

He gazes back for a moment and then lets out a slow breath. “All right. If you think it’s important. As your friend, I will accompany you. But if we’re doing this, you need a flashlight and I need a machete.”

“Uh, do youhavea machete?”

“I’m sure there’s one in the garden shed,” he says.

“Right. Of course. Because that’s normal.”

We head downstairs, grabbing two flashlights out of the utility closet—better safe than sorry—along the way. Despite Luc’s pronouncement that he can see in the dark, I’m not taking any chances of tripping over a root and breaking an ankle. We head outside and Luc leads me around the back, where sure enough, there’s a dilapidated shed that’s sure to be infested with tarantulas or corpses or something awful.

“I’m not going in there,” I say.

He rolls his eyes, looking surprisingly human for a moment. “Fine. Wait here.”

He returns a few minutes later, rusty machete in hand. “Hopefully this isn’t too dull to cut through a hedge.”

I glance at his talons. “I suspect you could just tear your way through if you wanted to.”

His eyebrows shoot up. “That had not occurred to me.”

“You know,” I say, “for someone who is essentially a monster, you’re awfully benign.”

“I’m not a monster!” he says, utterly indignant. “I’m simply a different species. No more monstrous than a tiger or a vulture.”

I think about that. “Okay, that’s a fair point. I apologize if I offended you. It’s just that gargoyles are sort of monster lore for humans, and until a few days ago, I had no idea your species was real. Anyway, I didn’t mean monster in a negative way.”

“Is there any other way to take it?” He still sounds huffy.

“For what it’s worth, I like monsters. Horror movies, haunted houses, spooky books—those have always been my jam. I love Halloween. As long as they aren’t spiders, monsters are cool to me.”

He looks a tiny bit mollified. “Well, I suppose that’s good. Not that it matters, as I amnota monster.”

“Okay, okay, comment withdrawn. Now can we get a move on?”

“What’s wrong with spiders?” he asks as he leads me to the entrance of the maze.

“What’s right with them? So many eyes and legs, and they scuttle. And lay egg sacs that erupt into thousands of baby spiders. And sometimes I see news reports of people who have spiders living in their ears, and I swear to everything that is holy, I would kill myself if that happened to me. I cannot think of a more horrifying thing in the world.”

He glances over his shoulder at me, a “you are strange” expression on his face. “There are so many worse things in the world, though. Crime, murder, rape.”

“Yes, thank you for filling me in on all the things women must fear. I’m aware of these horrors, you know. And for your information, I’m street savvy, I’m a witch, and I can defend myself. But not against spiders.” I shudder. “They’re soscuttly. And sneaky. Just waiting in the dark to crawl on your face and bite you. Ugh.”

We reach what Luc insists in the entrance to the maze, although it could have fooled me. I guess, if you look closely, there’s a spot where the hedge is slightly thinner. But it doesn’t count as an opening.

“Have you been in the maze before?” I ask him.

He nods. “Not in a long time, though.”

“How long?”

He shrugs. “More than a hundred years, I think. Back when Rose owned the manor. Celeste maintained the maze for a while once she took possession, but eventually she let it go to seed.”

“Super. So you probably don’t have the route memorized or anything.”

“No, of course not. Besides, wouldn’t you consider that cheating? It’s not so different from flying to the center.”

“Yeah, I know. I was just checking.” I wish I knew why I felt so compelled to do this. Hacking through bushes in the dark is just dumb. But I can’t back down now. Every fiber of my being insists that this is important.

He lifts the machete and chops his way through the opening; I follow close at his heels. He notices immediately.

---