Page 14 of Heartsong
And so it was, the two of them watching over Anna and her dwelling. In the quiet, Frey watched—and listened.
5
Anna awoke to a medicine hangover and two paws concentrating roughly a million pounds of weight on her left cheek. Groaning, she put up a hand in self-defense as Captain’s purr vibrated in her ear.
“Good morning,cân fy nghalon.”
“FUCK!”
With a gasp, Anna lurched upright, sending Captain springing away in a huff.
Anna’s mouth fell open to see the gargoyle, Frey, standing close by, almost blending into the colorless light of predawn. The weak light caught on the sharp angles and contours of his face, the pointed curves of his horns, and the meaty thickness of his shoulders. His wings were laid almost delicately across his back in something of a cape, fastened below his throat by his hooked wing claws.
He wasn’t a dream. Or a nightmare.
Her head fell into her hands and she groaned.
Why? Why why whywhywhywhy?
Things were just going too smoothly.
After scrubbing her palms across her eyes, she looked up to find him still there, still staring at her with those fathomless gray eyes, bright and glittering like polished steel.
“You’re real,” she finally croaked.
“Most assuredly, yes, I am. It is early yet. You may go back to sleep if you wish, I will continue to keep watch.”
“Oh, ah…no, I should get up.” She went to stand but realized she’d gotten herself tangled up in a blanket—one she didn’t remember pulling out of the basket. Anna had vague memories of dozing off while sitting listening to him recount his story.
“Did you…?” She held the blanket up.
He nodded. “Your comfort is second only to your safety.”
Blinking and blushing, Anna occupied her hands with folding up the blanket. “Thank you,” she said, not quite able to keep his gaze. “Sorry I fell asleep on you.”
“It was a full night,” Frey said with what she thought must be a rueful smirk. It eased some of the hardness of his face, though she couldn’t say it softened him. He was all hard angles and planes.
Anna stood and stretched, keenly aware that he watched every movement rapturously. It was kind of unnerving how his eyes followed her to the kitchen. It was as if he was just waiting for her to ask or say something, but she didn’t know what.
His stare wasn’t threatening, but it still felt better to put a bit of space between them.
“I have to go back to work this morning,” she told him as she poured milk over some cereal. “I can leave the TV on or—”
“You willnotgo back there, today or ever.”
This again.
“Yes, I am. It’d look suspicious as fuck if I didn’t come in. I could lose my job.”
“Then you shall find another one. Somewhere that is safer,” he insisted, marching into the kitchen to press his point. Although, unlike last night, he was careful to leave his arms folded behind his back, tucked under his wings, which she was grateful for.
“It’s not that simple, and it’s not your call. I love this job. It was perfectly safe until…” She cleared her throat.
“I won’t allow you to risk yourself.”
“Again, not your call. And the other statues are there. They’re…” The few bites of cereal she’d managed sunk like a weight in her stomach. “They’re all like you, aren’t they? Cursed, frozen in stone?”
Frey’s mouth turned down in a grim line, face gone stony as a mountainside. “Yes. There were many of my kin in that place, I sensed them. Which is why you cannot go back—it is saturated in fae magick.”
