Page 21 of Scars Like Wings
ME
Still radio silent.
SIMONE
Are you okay?
I knew that was code for “should they be worried?” I loved my besties so much. I shook my head as I replied.
ME
No, I don’t have a reason to be worried. He’s probably at work. I’m sure he left a note or something for when we get inside.
The train announced my stop, and the doors opened. I gathered my things and exited. The Railway Station closest to my apartment sat on an open-air platform a few floors shorter than most of the buildings nearby. The breeze up here and after the train rushed on felt nice against my residually sweaty back from running earlier. It was uncharacteristically cold for Georgia’s False Fall, when Georgia teased autumn but had one more heat snap left in her. It had been kind of chilly for about a week now. Cleo, my smart crystal ball, said a heat wave was due next week, but I had gone ahead and pulled out my sweaters all the same. I loved autumn too much to miss an opportunity to wear my finest plaid and start enjoying pumpkin-flavored everything.
I climbed the stairs down to the sidewalk, my breath coming out in foggy puffs. I scanned the rune on my hand once more to exit. It was just a couple block walk to the entrance of my home. Well, technically,Uncle Everett’sand my home.
A luxurious top-floor penthouse condo that Everett bought for us when he took me in after Mom and Pops died, our house was located on a corner lot in the best apartment building thisside of Blackbell. The building itself screamed Great Gatsby in its red brickwork with white stone details. Plus, it was packed full of amenities, like a Manhattan apartment. Honestly, it cost about the same.
On either side of the stairs, before entering the building, sat a pair of gargoyle statues. They were crouched on a pillar and ready to take flight, with their massive bat-like wings tucked behind them. They both had large pointed ears, bald heads, giant snouts full of sharp fangs, lengthy talons on both their hands and feet, and large muscular builds that made them appear intimidatingly huge even while they were sitting. Both of them, along with the other gargoyle shifters, served as security guards, preventing anyone with bad intentions from entering the building. Of course, if they liked you, they could also be concierges, recommending the best places to eat and visit, as well as the best Byways to take to avoid traffic.
“Evening, Noctis and Rook!” I greeted them both with a smile. “How are my favorite stony shifters tonight?”
Slowly, Noctis, the one on the left with a missing fang and curling tail, shifted his head to smile down at me. Even seated like they were, they towered over my five-foot-one frame, not even including the pillars. Rook, the one on the right with horns, nodded toward me. Both of their movements sounded like driving on gravel. In his deep baritone voice, Noctis replied, “Good evening, Miss Pierce. You’re a little late tonight. We were beginning to worry.”
“Oh, the Evening Manager was late to relieve me. You know how she is.” I rolled my eyes.
“Yeah, a bitch,” Rook said.
I laughed. “She is, but unfortunately, I can’t be cloned. Have you guys seen Everett at all today?”
Noctis frowned. “I haven’t seen him leave the building today, but I just started my shift about an hour ago.”
Rook snorted. “Oh, he has beenbusyupstairs today.”
I raised my eyebrows. “Oh, really? Well, in that case, I’m going to head on up. My girls are on their way here. Do you mind sending them up when they get here? I should be done yelling at Everett by then.”
“Give ‘em hell,” Rook said, making me and Noctis chuckle as I climbed the stairs and entered the building. The gargoyles weren’t the biggest fans of Everett. It likely had something to do with both griffins and gargoyles being guardian creatures and thinking the other was infringing on their territory.
Then again, Everett could be an asshole, so it could also just be that.
Inside, the first floor of our building was just as posh as the outside. I walked across our expansive lobby to the elevator. I swiped the same hand from the Railways over the rune reader in the elevator to take me up to our penthouse, loving how runes could be layered in one spot for multiple uses.
Nervously, I checked my phone again while rubbing my obsidian pendant like a worry stone. Nothing new from Everett or the girls. Thanks to the gargoyles, my worry morphed now into curiosity. Aside from work, what could have Ever so distracted that he couldn’t text me back? I shot the girls a message in our group chat to have the gargoyles let them in when they arrived since Everett was home,apparently. I had only enough time to read Simone’s text full of question marks before the elevator door dinged and opened to the foyer hallway.
Three things hit me at the same time:
One, the house smelleddelicious. I smelled it from the lower floors, but I assumed it was another floor that actually used their kitchen for something other than wine and snack storage.
Two, the music was absolutely reverberating through the walls, and I knew immediately it wasn’t Everett playing it. My Uncle’s tastes in music were more alternative and soulful, likeTeddy Swims, Sam Smith, Earth Wind & Fire, Luther Vandross, and the like. This was more poppy, rave-y, and very, well, gay in its beats and lyrics.
Three was my cat, who I felt and heard plop from a barstool to run to me. Dinah was my long-haired black cat that I had adopted when I had first moved in with Everett. She yowled loudly and excitedly over the music as she approached, her cute, fat, and fluffy sides jiggling in her stride. I bent down and took her up in my arms.
“Din-din! Did you miss your mama?” I held her just like the baby she was. Dinah—or Din-din, when she was being a sweetheart and still had her name privileges—was a rare breed of cat that not only let me pet her stomach, but loved it. She could hold a meow for over a minute easy, and her meows were so loud I just had to name her after my favorite superheroine, the Black Canary and her sonic scream. As I showered her in kisses, she was purring like an old motorcycle with her jade-green eyes closed, her vibrations racing throughout my body. I exited the foyer, still holding Dinah, and entered the Great Room.
The center of the penthouse, the Great Room was a dramatic space with vaulted, sky-lit ceilings. The layout was open concept with the living room space being on my left and the dining area and huge-as-fuck kitchen being on the right. Floor-to-ceiling windows took up the entirety of the far wall and opened onto a private rooftop terrace with the best views of Little Salem. Even at night, the mirroring view of the stars and the city of Blackbell stunned me. But that was not what stopped me so short tonight that I jostled Din-Din, eliciting a grumble-meow from her.
The expansive counters were full of food. It was more food than had ever sat on the polished marble slab countertops. There were plates upon plates of pasta—spaghetti, fettuccine, penne, rigatoni, rotini, cavatappi, vermicelli, and even lasagna—of all kinds with all sorts of sauces—meat, marinara, basil, Alfredo,garlic butter, and more. Perfectly cooked steak, seasoned chicken, blackened shrimp, sausage with peppers and more were plated nearby. Bowls of various kinds of salad also sat on the countertops, with enough tiny pitchers of dressing to rival a grocery store aisle. There was evenbread—garlic, cheesy garlic, and bruschetta. The smell of it all would make an Olive Garden weep with its inadequacy. There had to be enough food to feed me and Everett at least three times over, and we both had enormous appetites. My roaring stomach reminded me I hadn’t eaten since breakfast around eight this morning. I wasstarving.