Ever After (Rachel Morgan)

to life and were here to drag me to eternal torture for betraying my friends.
    “You didn’t lie to them,” Quen said as I fumed. “I’m not going to risk Nick escaping.”
    My protest faded, and I almost fell off the step trying to see up to the top of the churchwide spell. “How long?” I said, my face cold, and he took my arm and turned me around.
    “Sunup. Now: I’m doing this to save Trent. You’re doing this to save the world. Yes?”
    Sunup. If I didn’t have this done by then, it wouldn’t matter. Nervous, I stuck out my hand, wishing I had my other coat. This one completely ruined the sophisticated air I’d been going for, but it was hard to sling spells when your muscles were stiff with cold. “Deal.”
    We shook, and then together we went down the stairs to go around the front for his car. A hulking shape waited just inside the gate, and I gasped, almost running into a gargoyle. “Etude!” I said, flushing. It was obvious we had spelled the church.
    “And you wonder why I refused to rest on your church,” the gargoyle said, his voice incredibly low but holding a hint of amusement.
    “Ah . . .” I stammered. “We, ah, need to get to Loveland Castle,” I said, looking behind him at the rows of red and yellow eyes. “Are we too heavy for you, by chance?”
    Etude grinned, and I shivered at the long black canines. “No. I don’t think you are.”

Chapter Twenty-Six
    I f a horse could jump and never land, it might come close to the feeling of flying atop a gargoyle. My knees hitched over the base of Etude’s wings, and I crouched low, the wind beating at me so hard my eyes were mere slits. Glory sang through me, the chill air streaming through my hair in a rushing sensation of silk. It almost felt as if I had wings myself, reading the air currents and leaning with Etude to take advantage of the rising air above massive parking lots and the ribbon of the expressway we now flew over.
    My stomach lurched as Etude beat his wings in three quick successive beats, and my legs tightened around him, making him flick his ears back to ensure I was still seated firmly. We’d had some trouble gaining altitude without the usual drop from a church tower that gargoyles were used to, but Etude had managed.
    Closing my eyes, I leaned forward until I was almost lying atop him, the wind tearing over my back and my head surprisingly close to his ears. Etude banked suddenly, and my arms sprang around his thick neck. His entire body shook with laughter, but I didn’t care. This was beyond description. To fly between the dark earth and the black sky when the waning moon rose was surely the pinnacle of existence: the power, the strength, the unsurpassed beauty. If riding a horse was freedom, this was heaven on earth.
    If I survive this, I’m going to mend Belle’s wings, I thought, exhaling as Etude shifted and we again came in line with the gargoyle who was carrying Quen. To have had this and lose it would break me. Fairies were made of sterner stuff than I.
    Still holding that thought in my mind, I rested my head against Etude’s warm neck. Quen looked tense, his brow furrowed as he sat almost upright against the wind atop the equally large gargoyle who had agreed to take him. He was riding him like a horse, probably with a much better seat than I had but creating far more drag.
    Quen smiled grimly as I caught his eye. Etude’s ear flicked back, changing the air currents racing over me, and my grip loosened when the gargoyle leveled his flight. I looked down to the ribbon of lights on the expressway. Traffic was heavy this time of night. “Do you always follow the expressways?” I called out to Etude, his tufted ears turning to catch my words.
    “No.” He swiveled his head without changing his flight, one red eye finding me, his deep words seeming to reach me despite the wind ripping past us. “We fly as the arrow, but I’m not sure where Loveland Castle is. Normally I’d follow the resonance of the line there, but it’s so discordant right now, it’s hard to locate. I had one of the kids at the basilica look up directions online for me.”
    “Sorry,” I said, then grimaced, thinking I needed to stop saying that.
    A lumpy shape loomed out of the thin moonlight and dark trees, a ribbon of light trailing beside it where the river was. “There!” I said pointing, and Etude nodded, his ears going flat to his skull when he shifted smoothly to put it directly ahead. The second gargoyle