Chapter 22
Jake and Noah had their first real fight in Lisa’s driveway.
Not cute bickering.
Not cinnamon rolls.
A fight.
Noah wanted to go with Ethan to watch the fifth anchor overnight.
Jake said no.
Noah’s face changed.
“You said no?”
Jake heard himself.
Too late.
“I mean it’s dangerous.”
“I know.”
“Then why go?”
“Because I can smell hunters before Ethan can.”
“Then I’ll go.”
“You have a game.”
“I don’t care.”
Noah stared at him.
“I do.”
Jake laughed without humor.
“You care about football now?”
“I care about you having things that aren’t me.”
That landed badly.
Jake stepped back.
“What does that mean?”
Noah rubbed both hands over his face.
“It means every time something happens, you drop everything and run toward me.”
“Because people are trying to kill you.”
“And one day they won’t be.”
Jake said nothing.
Noah’s voice softened.
“At least I hope they won’t.”
“So you want me to care less?”
“I want you to trust me.”
Jake’s anger stalled.
Noah looked at him.
“You keep saying the mate thing doesn’t own us. Then don’t act like protecting me gives you ownership.”
Jake flinched.
Noah immediately looked sorry.
But he did not take it back.
Jake nodded once.
“Okay.”
Noah waited.
“I hate that you’re right.”
“I know.”
“Don’t do that.”
“Sorry.”
Jake looked toward the street.
“Text me every hour.”
Noah smiled faintly.
“Every two.”
“Ninety minutes.”
“Deal.”
Jake held out his hand.
Noah took it.
The fight did not end with a kiss.
Jake liked that, eventually.
Sometimes fixing something meant actually changing.
***
The fifth anchor taught them why being ordinary mattered.
It sat beneath a storm drain behind a grocery store.
Jake, Noah, Sofia, Elena, Claire, and Ethan could not get within twenty feet of it.
Every supernatural person who approached heard someone they loved calling from inside the drain.
Jake heard Daniel.
Noah heard Mara.
Claire heard her mother.
Sofia heard someone whose name she refused to say.
The voices became unbearable.
Jake backed away with both hands over his ears.
Marcus stood beside the shopping carts.
“I don’t hear anything.”
Everyone looked at him.
Marcus pointed at himself.
“Wait.”
Sofia’s expression changed.
“You have no supernatural sensitivity.”
“That sounded insulting.”
“Today it’s a compliment.”
Marcus stared at the storm drain.
“Absolutely not.”
Jake straightened.
“You don’t have to.”
Marcus looked at him.
Then at Noah.
Then at Claire.
“What do I do?”
They tied a rope around Marcus’s waist.
“This is how every documentary starts before somebody dies,” he said.
Jake checked the knot.
“Comforting.”
Marcus crawled into the storm drain with a flashlight, chalk, iron nail, and instructions Sofia made him repeat four times.
The voices attacked everyone else.
Jake heard Daniel begging.
Son, please.
Noah grabbed Jake’s hand.
Jake grabbed back.
Neither moved.
From inside the drain Marcus shouted, “I FOUND IT!”
Sofia yelled instructions.
“Draw the broken circle!”
“WHICH WAY?”
“OPENING NORTH!”
“I DON’T KNOW NORTH!”
Jake shouted, “TOWARD THE TACO BELL!”
A pause.
“THAT I UNDERSTAND!”
Gold light flashed from inside the drain.
The voices stopped.
Marcus crawled out covered in mud.
Jake hugged him.
Marcus froze.
“Are you crying?”
“No.”
“You’re crying.”
Jake released him.
“You smell terrible.”
Marcus smiled.
“I saved werewolves.”
Noah hugged him next.
Marcus’s smile disappeared.
“Okay, this is too much affection.”
Claire hugged him too.
“Guys.”
Ethan joined.
“Stop.”
Sofia patted his shoulder.
Marcus sighed.
“Fine. But somebody is buying me tacos.”
***
Jake told Noah he loved him after tacos.
Not during a battle.
Not beneath a full moon.
Not because tarot predicted it.
They sat on the hood of Jake’s car in a nearly empty parking lot while Marcus argued with Claire about hot sauce inside the restaurant.
Noah had salsa on his sleeve.
Jake looked at him.
“I love you.”
Noah stopped chewing.
Jake immediately wanted to climb into the engine compartment.
“You don’t have to say it back.”
Noah swallowed.
“Jake.”
“Seriously. I’m not doing a mate-bond thing. I’m not demanding anything. I just realized I keep almost saying it and then making jokes because apparently emotional vulnerability is where I draw the line.”
Noah stared.
Jake’s face burned.
“Please say literally anything.”
Noah smiled.
“You have salsa on your chin.”
Jake closed his eyes.
“I’m moving.”
Noah caught his shirt and kissed him.
When he pulled back, his eyes were wet.
“I love you too.”
Jake breathed.
Noah touched his cheek.
“I told my mom first.”
Jake stared.
“You what?”
Noah started laughing.
“Two days ago.”
“I cannot believe this.”
“You said I didn’t have to say it back.”
“That was before I knew there was paperwork.”
Noah kissed him again.
Jake let him.
Inside, Marcus banged on the window.
“GET A ROOM.”
Jake lifted one finger without looking.
Noah laughed into his mouth.
***
The sixth anchor was the easiest to find and the hardest to change.
It sat beneath the fallen oak.
Where Noah had woken naked.
Where Jake had found him.
Where Daniel had died eighteen years earlier.
Jake stood over the exposed stone.
The names waited.
Daniel Miller.
Ana Miller.
Mara Bennett.
Noah Bennett.
Jake Miller.
Claire touched the stone and recoiled.
“Too many people.”
Noah crouched.
“I can try.”
Jake stopped him.
“Together.”
Noah nodded.
They put their hands on the stone.
Memory opened.
Daniel.
Mara.
Hunters.
A younger Sofia.
Elena holding infant Noah years later.
Lisa pregnant with Jake.
Thomas kneeling at the stone.
Claire screaming.
Every memory layered over another.
Then Jake saw something new.
Daniel looking directly at him.
Impossible.
Memory could not see the future.
Daniel smiled.
If you’re seeing this, it means I failed.
Jake forgot to breathe.
Noah heard it too.
Daniel continued.
Or maybe it means I bought enough time.
He pressed his bloody hand to the stone.
A Warden does not guard a door because everything behind it is evil.
Jake felt Noah’s fingers tighten around his.
A Warden guards choice.
What enters.
What leaves.
What gets remembered.
What gets to rest.
Daniel looked exhausted.
Tell my son he doesn’t owe me anything.
Jake broke.
Not loudly.
Tears simply came.
Noah leaned against him inside the memory and outside it.
Daniel’s image faded.
Jake whispered, “I heard you.”
The stone warmed.
The names changed.
Not erased.
Released.
Daniel’s name remained, but the hunter symbol beside it cracked.
Mara’s did too.
Jake drew the Warden mark.
Noah placed his hand over Jake’s.
Together they redirected the sixth anchor.
The woods exhaled.
There was no other word for it.
Birds started singing again.
Jake sat against the fallen oak afterward.
Noah sat beside him.
“You okay?”
Jake wiped his face.
“No.”
Noah nodded.
Jake leaned into him.
“But I think I will be.”
***
They could not redirect the seventh anchor from outside.
The silver nail had been embedded in West Ridge for years.
Sofia estimated at least eighteen.
Jake stared at the cabinet.
“So my school has been magically compromised since kindergarten.”
Mrs. Henson stood beside him holding coffee.
“I’m choosing not to process that sentence.”
She had become remarkably adaptable.
They worked after school.
Noah guarded the hall.
Marcus sat at Mrs. Henson’s desk pretending to be guidance counselor.
“What are your career goals?” he asked Claire.
“Survive my family.”
Marcus typed on an imaginary keyboard.
“Strong five-year plan.”
Sofia removed the files from the cabinet.
The nail pulsed.
Jake felt every redirected anchor answering.
Five had been turned away from the school.
The sixth had been released.
The seventh wanted all of them back.
“It’s not an anchor,” Jake realized.
Sofia looked at him.
“What?”
“It’s a switch.”
Noah came into the office.
“Meaning?”
Jake looked at the nail.
“The Circle can turn everything back on from here.”
A voice behind them said, “Exactly.”
Thomas Voss stood in the doorway.
And he was not alone.
***
Four hunters filled the hallway.
Thomas held no weapon.
That made Jake more nervous.
“I’m not here to fight,” Thomas said.
Claire stepped forward.
“You chained me to a radiator.”
Thomas looked at his daughter.
Pain crossed his face.
“Claire.”
“Don’t.”
Ethan moved beside her.
Thomas looked older suddenly.
“I can fix what happened to you.”
Claire laughed.
“By doing more of it?”
Thomas turned to Jake.
“December twenty-first is nine days away.”
Jake’s stomach tightened.
“I know.”
“The seal is failing.”
“Then help us reinforce it.”
“It cannot be reinforced.”
Sofia said, “You don’t know that.”
“Daniel tried.”
Jake stepped forward.
“Daniel also told me I don’t owe him anything.”
Thomas went completely still.
“You heard him?”
Jake saw hunger in Thomas’s face.
Not for power.
For the dead.
There it was.
The original wound.
Thomas whispered, “Can you hear anyone?”
Jake understood the question.
His wife.
“No.”
Thomas’s face hardened again.
“You will.”
He looked at the silver nail.
“When the door opens, you will hear all of them.”
Jake shook his head.
“That’s not the same as bringing them back.”
“You don’t know that.”
“Neither do you.”
For a second Thomas looked furious.
Then afraid.
He left without touching the switch.
The hunters followed.
Marcus waited until their footsteps disappeared.
“Why did we let them leave?”
Sofia answered.
“Because they wanted us to attack first.”
Jake stared at the nail.
Nine days.
The threshold was coming whether anybody wanted it or not.