Stone Cold Witch

by Lori Woods

  “Dirty little secret!” I exclaim. “Are you kidding me right now? You’re acting like gargoyles are some sort of monsters! I met them tonight, Granny. They’re wonderful! They’re beautiful! They’re smart and kind—they run the city orphanage even though their kind rarely wind up in there. My brother is the only gargoyle in the orphanage. How could you talk like this is some sort of mark of humiliation?”

  “Because that’s the way things are, Suzy!” my grandmother exclaims. “Suzy, I’m sorry. Things have changed dramatically since I came into this chalice. Gargoyle’s relations with other creatures has improved drastically—same with many of the creatures living in Safe Haven. Safe Haven is called Safe Haven for a reason, Suzy. It was where all of those sorts of creatures were rounded up and forced to live because they were monsters! Things have changed though; they’ve become more enlightened.”

  “Have the creatures of Safe Haven become more enlightened or has everyone else just become more accepting?” I question. “I’m part gargoyle. That is a part of me, Granny, whether you like it or not. And I’m no different from Peter. He’s your grandson! How did this even happen?”

  I hear her sigh before she begins to explain herself. “I did not know that your father was part gargoyle until you and your brother were born. They came to me because Peter was sick. He was sick because he was essentially a little gargoyle—even more so than his own father. Gargoyles need to remain in their stone eggs to fully develop. So I created a spell. The plan was to leave him in the stone egg for a few years, which devastated your mother. Your father, though, he was a bit more used to this sort of thing, though he obviously had never placed a child into an egg. His kind would just keep the eggs out of the moonlight if it was born with any problems so as to help the baby overcome any deformity or illness. I will say this; your father was incredibly supportive of your mother during that time. Made her feel like it was… normal….”

  “It was normal!” I snap. “We were gargoyles! If he needed an egg to survive, then that’s what they had to do.”

  “Yes, I suppose you’re right,” she says. “Your parents never told the community about your father having gargoyle blood. Most people in town had never actually seen a gargoyle up close in those days, so it’s not like anyone could look at him and automatically tell. They knew once Peter hatched, it would come out. But for the time being, they continued to keep the secret. Everyone just thought your mother had given birth to you—a little girl. So when Night Shadow attacked your home, he only came looking for the three of you. Your brother’s egg had been kept in a storage closet that your mother made up to look like a nursery to keep him from coming in contact with the moonlight. Your mother used a spell on you to turn you into stone, and not even Night Shadow could do such a spell… neither could I, Suzy. Your mother, although she was not a Spell Master, was a powerful witch indeed. At least when it came to things that interested her. I was able to change you back, but that’s when I took you to the orphanage on the other side.”

  “And then Peter…”

  “I came back for him. I may have strong feelings about gargoyles, Suzy, but I was not going to leave my grandson,” she says. “I knew I couldn’t take him to an orphanage on the other side. I didn’t know much about gargoyle eggs, so I wasn’t sure if it was safe to bring him out in the moonlight yet. I covered him in a cloth and took him to the orphanage in Safe Haven. I told them not to let it out into the moonlight until I returned for it… but after Night Shadow killed me, I’m sure my spell that created the stone egg must have broken, and he hatched.”

  Now for the real uncomfortable part of this conversation. My hands turn to fists, but I try to relax. “Granny, why didn’t you tell me about him?”

  She takes a deep breath. “I thought it was best for him to remain with the gargoyles, Suzy. He looks like them. You, you don’t take after your father’s gargoyle side at all. But your brother, I saw him before I placed him in the egg. I decided to let him stay with his own kind to help you both avoid any hurt.”

  “But he’s not with his own kind!” I exclaim. “He’s with complete strangers. My father’s clan had no idea where he came from, so they didn’t take him in! He’s growing up in an orphanage where he’s the only child of his kind there. And I’m going to change that. He’s my brother; I’m going after him.”

  “Suzy! No! Don’t you do that!” my grandmother cries out. “You bring him to Nightshade, and he will be an outcast here.”

  “Being with family would be better than being raised in an orphanage the way I was,” I say. “He’s my brother, Granny! I know what it’s like growing up with people who just don’t love you; growing up thinking the whole world just abandoned you! I don’t want that for him anymore than I wanted it for myself!”

  “Suzy!” she exclaims when I stand up, intending to leave. “If you insist on going to get your brother, will you please do me one favor?”

  “What?” I snap, not feeling like I owe her any favors at this particular moment.

  “Get some rest, for crying out loud! You’ve been awake for nearly two days! Please, do not fly out to Safe Haven until you get some sleep,” she says.

  Well, I suppose she’s right. “Okay,” I say, somewhat reluctantly.

  I don’t feel like leaving the library and facing anyone after the storm of fury I had had on my way into the library, so I hide out in my office and take a long snooze. It’s early afternoon by the time I wake. I know by the time I reach Safe Haven it will still be daylight, and most of the creatures there are not up during the day. But I can’t bring myself to wait. I tell Snowball that I’ll be back tonight; I don’t think I’m even ready to tell her the truth yet.

  I fly out to Safe Haven on my own this time. I take my time, knowing that with the sun up, the gargoyles who run the orphanage will be stone, so it’s not like I’m going to walk off with Peter without giving any of them a heads-up. I’m sure there’s some sort of process to this—paperwork I have to sign or something. I arrive outside the orphanage and I tell Broom Hilda to hang out and not to get herself into trouble before I head inside.

  The entire city is asleep; a weird sensation for during the day. I glance into rooms. There are gargoyle statues everywhere. I glance into a few rooms where there are rows of beds—children of various creature-sorts all asleep soundly in dark rooms. I do see a minotaur adult present; I suppose an orphanage entirely run by gargoyles wouldn’t work very well if the children did not also turn to stone during the day; they’d all be up running around the moment their guardians went into their forced sleep!

  As I continue down the hall, I suddenly hear crying. My hair stands up on end. Something about a child crying makes me irate, and frankly, my nap earlier only did so much to better my mood. I come to this door that is heavily locked, and based on the slight glow to the door, I realize magic is being used to keep it shut. There is a window in the door, and I peer inside. There’s Peter. Not as a statue—apparently that much he did not inherit from my father’s family. He’s just sitting there in the middle of a room, attempting to wipe away his tears. He looks tired and frustrated all at once.

  It takes me a minute to piece together what’s happening. Peter probably has a hard time sleeping during the day because he’s only one-fourth gargoyle, but everyone else in Safe Haven sleeps during the day. They lock him in a room during the day to keep him from disturbing everyone else on those days he has a hard time sleeping, and that makes me so angry. But if there’s one thing I learned from growing up in an orphanage myself—orphanages are always understaffed and underfunded. The adults running this place probably don’t have much of a choice. I imagine he tries hard to sleep during the day because everyone else keeps him up at night; he’s probably always tired.

  I knock on the window and he looks up quickly. He looks embarrassed to have been busted crying, and he darts to a corner of the room so that I can’t see him from the window. I close my eyes, thinking of an opening door spell, and immediately see the runes rearr
ange themselves. I mutter the words, and the next moment, I pass through the solid door. “Whoa,” I say, pleasantly surprised. I’m getting the hang of this. “That’s a new one.”

  He’s staring at me from a corner, and I get a good look at him. Very human looking, but his skin is bright orange. He has a large set of gargoyle wings—very bat looking. He has a long orange tail that reminds me of a tiger with the little poof of brown fur at the end. His eyes are bright green, though, like mine and our moms.

  “How did you do that?” he asks. He’s got a sweet little voice.

  “I’m a witch,” I say.

  He grins. “Me too… I mean…warlock… well, I know I don’t look it, but I am.”

  “Oh, I know,” I say. “I saw you messing with those troll boys last night on the swings.”

  He grins. “That was funny.”

  “Yeah, it was,” I say with a wink. “I heard you crying. Are you all right?”

  He frowns, obviously embarrassed. “I’m fine,” he insists. “I’m just really tired, and I’ve been up all day. I can’t sleep.”

  “I can’t sleep during the day either,” I say.

  “Yeah, but you’re a witch,” he says. He stands upright. He’s so little. He barely comes up to my chest even if you included the giant wingspan. He comes over to me slowly. “Why are you here? Are you a new staff member? They don’t really get a lot of witches around here.”

  “No, I’m not a new staff member,” I say. “I’m hoping to adopt today.”

  “Oh,” he says. “The headmistress will be up soon.” He rubs his eyes, exhausted. “She can help you with that.”

  I smile at him. It’s sad because I can tell he has already assumed I’m definitely not talking about adopting him. I wonder how many children he’s seen come in and out of this orphanage? After being here for eleven years, probably quite a few—and no one has ever come to take him home. I wound up sitting down with him for a while, just talking. I made him smile and laugh a few times. By the time the sun has set, he looks near ready to fall over. “Why don’t you lay your head down?” I suggest to him.

  “They’ll just come and wake me up,” he moans. “They always wake me up at night so that I’ll sleep through the day.”

  “Well, try to close your eyes for a few minutes, at least,” I tell him, and suddenly he’s out cold with his head on my shoulder. Slowly, I move him down until his head is lying down on the ground. Poor kid, I think to myself.

  I hear someone outside of the door, and before they can open it up and wake the poor kid up, I phase through it again, startling the minotaur man I had seen earlier. “Hello,” I say. “Let him sleep. I’m going to be taking him home with me today. Let him sleep because he’s got a long journey home.”

  The man looks stunned. “Um… okay? Uh… why don’t you come with me? The headmistress is going to want to speak to you?” He’s so confused—how fun!

  When the headmistress sees me, she smiles. “Back again so soon?” she asks me as I enter into her office. She waves the minotaur away.

  “I want to take Peter home with me,” I say. “You’re right. He is my brother; I confirmed it with my grandmother. I don’t want him to have to stay here anymore.”

  She smiles. “You have no idea how glad I am to hear you say that. It’s time that boy found a family.”

  As I figured, there is paperwork. And lots of it. She even gives me a book on raising gargoyle children, and I thank her for it because I’ll probably need it. At the beginning of the week, if someone had told me that by today I’d be adopting a gargoyle child, I would have laughed.

  The headmistress sends someone to go get Peter. When they bring him into the office, he looks like he thinks he’s in trouble. “Peter, this is Suzy Maycomber,” Headmistress Stone says.

  “Yeah, I met her earlier,” he says. “Did I do something?”

  Both Headmistress Stone and I grin. “No, Peter, you’re not in trouble,” she says. “Ms. Maycomber has come here to adopt you.”

  I watch his expression. His eyes widen. I think he’s more shocked than anything. “Adopt me?” he asks, and his voice quivers a little bit. I never had this moment as a kid, but I definitely dreamt of it. I grew out of the foster care system back home. By the time I had reached Peter’s age, I had been pretty sure it was over. I was getting too old for someone to want me.

  I stand up, and as soon as I’m standing he’s suddenly right there, with his little arms wrapped around my waist. “You ready to go home, Peter?” I ask him.

  He nods, hardly able to speak. “Yes,” he manages to mumble.

  I kiss his forehead. I decide to wait before I tell him we’re related. That we’re siblings—that we’re really twins. It’s a lot for a kid to take in; I’m going to let him have this moment for now. It’s weird. I hardly know him, but I don’t think I’ve ever loved anything so much before.

  Chapter Twelve

  “So…” Snowball says under her breath as Peter and I arrive back at our home. “You adopted a gargoyle?”

  “Your cat talks!” Peter exclaims, crouching down on all fours like I’ve seen a few werewolves do when they’re really excited.

  I was actually surprised to see Snowball back at the house tonight; I had left her at the library, after all, but apparently Alfie had been kind enough to walk her home after the library closed down for the night. I’m sure I’m going to have to explain to everyone tomorrow morning where I’d been. “Yes, Snowball, I adopted a gargoyle,” I say with an eye-roll. “Come on inside, Peter. Let’s get you settled in.”

  “Okay, that was more of a question than a statement,” Snowball says, chasing after us as we head up to the house. Peter keeps looking around excitedly – exploring his new home with the sort of enthusiasm you would expect from an eleven-year-old boy. “Why did you adopt a gargoyle?” she reiterates, but I ignore her for the time being.

  We head inside, and I realize I have nowhere for Peter to sleep. I have a spare bedroom, but it’s full of granny’s junk, and it’s not like there is a bed in there. “Tonight, Peter, you can sleep in my bed, and I’ll take the couch. But tomorrow, after I get off work at the library, we’ll go buy you a bed and start working in turning my guest room into your room. Does that sound good?”

  He looks at me questionably once we enter the house and I lock up behind me. “I…you, I mean, you want me to sleep at night?”

  “Well, you obviously aren’t doing that well at sleeping during the day, right?” I question, and he nods embarrassingly. “You’re only part gargoyle, Peter. Let’s do what makes you most comfortable. Besides, I tend to do most of my sleeping at night anyways. Makes sense for us to be on the same schedule. Plus, you look exhausted.”

  “I am exhausted,” he admitted.

  “Are you hungry or anything? Is there anything I can get you before bed?” I ask.

  “Not really. I’m just tired,” he says, rubbing his eyes.

  I walk him back to the bedroom, and he gives me this huge hug. I pat his head. “Peter, I hope you are really happy here with me.”

  “I know I will be!” he exclaims, pulling away from me. He looks embarrassed and is unable to make eye contact with me as he speaks. “I never thought I would actually be adopted. I mean, I wanted to be, but I never thought it would actually happen. And, you’re really nice and funny. I had fun on our flight home. I’m a little nervous living somewhere other than Safe Haven. I know I’m going to be the only gargoyle around here, but that’s okay. My new mom is a Spell Master. That’s really cool. I’ve never met a Spell Master before. Headmistress Stone told me an old Spell Master saved my life once. I’ve always wanted to meet one.”

  “Well, now you have,” I say, placing a hand on his shoulder.

  He looks up at me and grins. “Yeah, but I never expected to be adopted by one!” He is legitimately excited by this. “Will you be able to teach me magic? I don’t know much, but I did get some magic from my parents. That’s how I know I’m part warlock. But I don’t know ve
ry many spells.”

  “Oh, don’t worry. Your new mom works at a library. There will never be a shortage of learning materials for you, I promise. You get to come to work with me tomorrow, and you can explore the library and see if there are any books you want to check out, okay?” I say to him, and his face lights up.

  So far, this mom thing is going pretty well. I’m still not sure about telling Peter exactly who I am to him. I know I will eventually, but this is going to be difficult to explain. He gives me a big hug again before crawling into bed. I shut the light off, and I’m pretty sure he is asleep before I leave the room.

  When I get out into the living room, Snowball is sitting up on the couch, giving me this judgmental stare. “Wipe that look off your face,” I warn her.

  “You spontaneously adopted a small child.”

  “There was nothing spontaneous about it, Snowball.”

  “Were you considering adoption before this week?” she asked.

  “Well, no.”

  “Then it was spontaneous. What’s going on, Suzy?” she asks me.

  “Okay, fine,” I say, plopping down on the couch. “Can you please promise me to keep a secret and not be a total blabbermouth? I mean it, Snowball; if you tell anyone, I will never give you unicorn milk again.”

  “Understood!”

  “So, it’s a bit complicated, but that little gargoyle is my twin brother.”

  “Okay, Suzy, I know I’m a cat, but I’m not stupid,” she says.

  “There was magic involved. That’s why he’s younger,” I say and then basically launch into the whole explanation my grandmother and the headmistress of the orphanage gave me. When I’m done, Snowball looks satisfied with my explanation.

  “So, does he know?” she asks me.

  “No, he doesn’t. And until I talk to Peter about it, I don’t want everyone else in the world to know,” I say. “I just want to give him some time to adjust to being in Nightshade first. One big event at a time. Once he’s a bit more settled in, I’ll tell him about our parents and where he came from and all of that good stuff every orphan wants to know about. But for now, please don’t tell the whole world about this.”