The Knight and the Moth (The Stonewater Kingdom, #1)

by Rachel Gillig

“If I were beside myself, there would be two of me, and the washing would have taken half the time.” He turned

“Is my voice too quiet?” He hauled in a breath. Shouted in my face. “Take me with you, Bartholomew!

“Didn’t that feel so delightfully ignoble?” the gargoyle howled, grinning madly as we scurried like rats down the alley.

“It is not like me to be the bearer of bad tidings,” the gargoyle said. “Bartholomew does not know how to swim. But worry not—” He looked up at me. Smiled proudly. “She has always excelled at drowning.”

“I have no use for stories.” My eyes grew unfocused behind my shroud. “Tragedy and desolation are right here with me.” “Yes.” He went back to humming to himself. “But I am here, too, Bartholomew.”

“For the sake of my sanity—” A dandelion seed flew up the gargoyle’s nose. He leaned back. Cried out. Sneezed in Rory’s face. I barked a laugh, and Rory shut his eyes. “That’s why you called me over? To sneeze on me?”

“But if you wanted to—I would not blame you. It is easier, swearing ourselves to someone else’s cause than to sit with who we are without one.”

“When you do the right thing for the wrong reason, no one praises you. When you do the wrong thing for the right reason, everyone does, even though what is right and wrong depends entirely on the story you’re living in. And no one says they need recognition or praise or love, but we all hunger for it. We all want to be special.”