Degare': A Reckoning — Lorraine Beaumont

Degare': A Reckoning in the third book in the Briarcliff Series. What am I? I stare out into the coming night…watching as I always do. The sky is a hazy dusky blue. Clouds, large billowing ones, whisper across the horizon as day fades into night. The moon slides upward, higher, gaining its lofty perch above my head. The power from the moon transcends time and matter, bringing things like me back to life. The illumination spreads out across my naked flesh, encompassing my body as the light wakens me slowly. My lungs fill with air… precious, irreplaceable -- something I have been deprived of for far too long. Emotion, spears into my body like a sharpened blade, wielded with the artistry and precision of a master surgeon, plunging deeply into my heart, jolting it back to life. It thumps erratically, once… twice… then the steady rhythm pushes my blood back through my veins. I breathe deeply as the power from the light brings me fully into its embrace, like a lover. The force of long buried memories brings me to my knees. I lift my shaking hands to hold my head, to stem the haunting imagery from my past. It threatens to consume me, ripping me back into their tumultuous waves. Despair. Rage. Hope. Fear -- fill me… Awakening is an excruciating process but I welcome this as well, for it is far better than the alternative. The worst of my pain ebbs away and my strength returns. I am one of the strongest creatures alive. To be like me, some would say is a curse, to others I signify something very different. What am I? Look up to the sky, perched atop buildings that have been around for centuries. I am watching you…waiting… What am I? I am a GARGOYLE.