The Wondrous and the Wicked (42 page)
Read The Wondrous and the Wicked Online
Authors: Page Morgan
He stepped away from her, his heels treading on a couple of tumbled books. He stumbled but held out his hand to signal Ingrid to stay back. She stood still, and Luc felt a queasy churn in the pit of his stomach.
He hunted for the trigger inside his core, the one that had always given way to the command to coalesce. Whether he coalesced willfully or under compulsion, pulling that trigger, changing from man to monster, had become as natural as breathing.
It wasn’t there.
The trigger, the catch inside of him that had never failed to mutate his body, was gone. He couldn’t find it.
Luc’s breathing came faster. An edge of panic crept in. He couldn’t shift. He couldn’t see in the dark.
“Say something, Luc,” Ingrid pleaded in a small, uncertain voice.
“I think—” Another queasy growl churned his stomach, and he remembered a feeling like it. He’d felt it before, long, long ago. He was
hungry.
“I’m human,” he said, so soft the words barely reached Ingrid’s ears. She turned her ear.
“What did you—”
“I think I’m human,” he said louder than before, his confidence rising as he tried, and failed, once again to locate the trigger that had centered him.
“Coalesce.” Disbelief lent urgency to Ingrid’s demand.
A solid knot bound up his throat as he shook his head. “I can’t.”
A hand muffled her cry and then Ingrid surged toward him. His knees gave out as she reached his side and they fell together to the floor, a tangle of laps and legs and arms. She clung to him, her hands running wildly over his cheeks, through his hair, smoothing down the front of his shirt.
“Is this real?” she gasped.
“I don’t know what else it could be.”
It wasn’t just his faultless sight or his ability to coalesce that had fled him. Hôtel du Maurier itself had gone mute. His connection to this territory had completely disappeared from his senses. Everything around him felt quiet and still, except for the rapid-fire beating of his heart.
Irindi had said it was a gift, but that word … it was too small, too insignificant, to describe what this was. Even
miracle
didn’t measure up.
He didn’t know what to think. Once again the angels had left him with more questions than answers. All he knew, as Ingrid lowered her lips to his, was that he wouldn’t have to push her away. He’d been granted a second chance. A second life. Luc gathered Ingrid closer.
He wasn’t going to waste a moment.
CKNOWLEDGMENTS
The idea for this series came from a picture of a Notre Dame gargoyle looking out over the city of Paris. It’s amazing what can happen in just a handful of years. I feel incredibly lucky to have been given the chance to tell that gargoyle’s story, and to write this trilogy. There are many people to thank for believing in these books and, ultimately, in me: my phenomenal agent, Ted Malawer, who was there with me every step of the way; the entire Random House team, including my editor, Krista Marino, and publisher, Beverly Horowitz, who have worked so hard for this series; my fabulously talented critique partners, Maurissa Guibord, Dawn Metcalf, Cindy Thomas, and Amalie Howard; Charley, my mother-in-law, who picked up my youngest daughter twice a week to give me some uninterrupted writing time; and of course, every reader who has followed this series from the beginning—your support and enthusiasm mean more than I can ever explain.
When I was growing up, my parents not only taught me to love books, they also encouraged me to go for my dreams. Writing has always been my dream. Thank you, Mom and Dad, for believing in me.
And finally, to my husband, Chad, and our three beautiful girls, Alex, Joslin, and Willa—there are a hundred different things you do every single day that bring me joy. I love you all so much.
BOUT THE
A
UTHOR
Page Morgan has been fascinated with
les grotesques
ever since she came across an old black-and-white photograph of a Notre Dame gargoyle keeping watch over the city of Paris. The gargoyle mythologies she went on to research fed her imagination, and she became inspired to piece together her own story and mythology for these remarkably complex stone figures. Page lives in New Hampshire with her husband and their three children.
Look for the first two books in the Dispossessed trilogy,
The Beautiful and the Cursed
and
The Lovely and the Lost
, available from Delacorte Press.
Read the first two books in the Dispossessed trilogy.
