The Gargoyle and the Maiden: A Fantasy Monster Romance (Nightfall Guardians Book 1) by Sara Ivy Hill

Author:Sara Ivy Hill [Hill, Sara Ivy]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: anonymous
Published: 2025-10-02T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter 20

Brandt

The mason’s tools gleamed like weapons in the lantern light. Brandt watched Aalis approach, armed with them, and felt his jaw clench as she lined them neatly on a tray beside his perch on the eastern balcony.

“Not tonight.”

She paused, frowning. “You agreed to endure nightly treatments.”

“I agreed to visit nightly. I’m here.” He folded his wings tight against his back. “I’ll take my tonic. But no picking at my skull. I need a break.”

“You will stymie your progress,” she warned.

He snorted. “I fought for years to get here. What are a few more days?”

The mason’s tail lashed irritably. “I’ll have to report this to the Zenith. I could remand you to our custody and compel the procedure. Without continuous treatment, you risk—”

“Riskier for me to lose control,” he interrupted. “Riskier for you, I mean. But by all means, you are welcome to try it and find out.”

He could see her weighing her options. She could have argued. Could have called for guards, had him restrained. But she seemed to accept that his partial compliance was a concession, so she made one of her own. Sighing deeply, she produced a bottle of the golden tonic from a cloak pocket, measuring it carefully before offering him the spoon.

“Half measures are unwise,” she chided as he swallowed it.

“So is war.” The medicine spread through him like candlelight, easing the dark pressure in his skull. “Yet here we are. Put that in your report.” He dove from the roost before she could respond.

In his eyrie, he found Ghantal anxiously stripping leaves from a sheaf of birch and walnut branches to replenish the terrarium where her moths bred and laid their eggs. She looked up from her task when he entered. “How was it?”

“I didn’t let them touch me. Just took the medicine.” He moved past her to his nesting chamber, where he paused in the doorway to drink the dregs of his mate’s scent. He would not wash the furs until he found her.

She nodded. “I hope it will ease your mind to realize that their treatments are designed to help.”

“Are you sure of that?” He turned to face her. “Every time they chip at my walls and patch me back up, I lose something. But when I’m alone, things come back.”

“What reason do they have to hold back your progress?” When he struggled to answer, she nodded sadly. “It may feel that way. Perhaps they do as much harm as good. Or perhaps it is the uneven nature of healing. Only time will tell.”

He couldn’t convince her, but at least Ghantal wasn’t dismissing his suspicions entirely. For the rest of the night he sat in his nest, breathing in the faint scent of his mate, and let his mind wander without forcing it. His thoughts skimmed the walls, feeling for cracks rather than trying to pull them down.

He was glad he’d taken the medicine. It made everything gentler and less painful, like having a lantern in the pitch dark.

A memory surfaced:

Driving a goblin horde away from a vulnerable village.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.