Just when I start to wonder what’s so interesting about the horse, Hudson shoves his hands deep into his pockets, shaking his head as he walks away. I think I hear him mutter, “Loser,” but it’s so faint that I can’t be sure.
Hudson has been in a weird mood since breakfast, and I refuse to let him ruin my focus again. I’m determined to not wait for Jaxon to take care of me anymore. I need to step up and figure out how to solve my own problems.
Jaxon piles the books on the main table, and I pick one up called The Myth and Mayhem of Gargoyles. I don’t know why I chose it, except for the fact that I like the idea of causing a little mayhem—me, Grace Foster, pretty much the most un-mayhem-like person on the face of the earth. As I flip it open, I can’t help but wonder for a second—or several seconds, if I’m being honest—what it would feel like to just give in to the havoc. To say whatever I want instead of always filtering it, to do what I want instead of what I think I should do.
Then again, now’s not exactly the time for that. There’s too much going on right now to shake things up just to do it. So I stretch out on Jaxon’s very inviting couch and start reading, while everyone else claims their own separate corner of the room.
Flint settles at the main table and flips open one of the laptops, announcing he plans to start researching the Dragon Boneyard—how to get there, the best time of day to go, and how to get out alive, because apparently not getting out alive is an actual thing. Yay.
Macy picks up a book on the magical nature of gargoyles, curls up in the comfy chair across from me, and dives in while nibbling on a giant stack of Oreos.
And Jaxon—Jaxon grabs the other laptop after offering it to me and settles down at the end of the couch to do more research on the Unkillable Beast.
I look around at my friends, all of whom are spending their Saturday cooped up inside looking for information to help me, and my heart swells. They could be doing anything right now, and instead they’re doing this.
Hudson can call me emotional, he can call me na?ve or overly sentimental or any number of other things, but I still have to blink back tears of gratitude that these people have found their way into my life. I came to Katmere Academy at the lowest point in my life, desperate, miserable, sad. I figured I would just get through the year and then get the hell out.
And while nothing here has been what I expected—I mean, a gargoyle, really?—I can’t imagine going back to a life without Macy’s enthusiasm or Jaxon’s intensity or Flint’s teasing （though his murder attempts I can definitely do without）。
Sometimes life hands you more than a new hand of cards to play—it hands you a whole new deck, maybe even a whole new game. Losing my parents the way I did will forever be one of the most horrible and traumatizing experiences of my life, but sitting here with these people makes me feel like maybe, just maybe, I’ve got a chance of coming out the other side of it.
And that is more, so much more, than I imagined just a few short months ago.
“Hey, look at this!” Macy sits up abruptly. “I think I just figured out why the glamour didn’t work on you this morning. It wasn’t me. It was you!”
“Why? Can’t do glamours on stone?” I guess, because that feels about right.
“No.” She shoots me a “you’re being a dork” look, then flips the book she’s reading so I can see. “It didn’t work because it says right here that you’re immune to magic!”
50
It’s Getting Crowded
Under the Bed
“Immune to magic?” Flint asks, closing his laptop and coming over to check out Macy’s find. “Really?”
“And to dragon fire, vampire and werewolf bites, siren calls—the list goes on and on. Basically, gargoyles have a natural built-in resistance to nearly all forms of paranormal magic. That’s—” She holds her hand up to her temple and mimes her brain exploding.
“No wonder Marise always had such a hard time healing you,” she continues. “We put it down to you being completely human, but it must have been the gargoyle thing all along.”
“She had trouble healing me?” I ask, because I don’t remember that at all.
“Yeah, she did,” Jaxon says, a contemplative look on his face. “The first time when she tried to break down my venom and also later, after what happened in the tunnels. With her help healing you, she thought you’d bounce back fast once you got the blood transfusion. But she couldn’t get her powers to work on you the way she thought they should. Everything took longer than it would have with—” He breaks off.