One
Gareth
Five Months Ago
She waited for me to get close before speaking. “Ah, there you are. You held out longer than I thought.” Her voice was warm and teasing.
“Shouldn’t you be down there with the townspeople, Madam Mayor?
” Hestia only smirked at my sarcasm. “No, really, why aren’t you down there?
” I took a spot at the railing next to her, grateful for the shade of the gazebo.
The afternoon sun was baking everything it touched.
The grass was all yellowed from the lack of rain.
“I knew you were reaching your limit.” At my questioning glance, she explained. “You flinched when Fynn brushed by you. Besides, I needed to talk to you and knew you would come here. The only place where we can hear ourselves think right now is here.”
Down in the city, Hestia had opened up City Hall for the festival organizers to use as their base.
We held town events regularly—something about it bonding the town together—and the summer solstice was an easy excuse for a party.
We even had weddings at these things. Usually, I could handle it for longer, but there was a tension in the air that had my magic prickling over my skin.
Away from the crowd, I should have relaxed. Being in nature was a way of soothing my rough edges, yet I still felt on guard. Perhaps it was the way the mayor held herself, all rigid and alert, and the clipped way she spoke that had alarm bells going off in my head. “Everything okay?”
Hestia was silent for a beat, a moment where I had all sorts of doom scenarios building in my head. Finally, she murmured. “Do you feel it? The wind is changing. Our town is about to go through some trials.”
If I wasn’t scared before, I was now. “Trials” sounded so ominous. She was right, though. There was an awareness, a pregnant pause, an expectation of something all around us. As if the world were holding its breath. “Are the wards okay?”
This time her smile was sad. “Most of my power goes toward them. They will hold as they need to.”
“I can help.” I spoke without thinking, hopeful my offer wouldn’t offend the goddess.
She patted my hand with a grateful smile, losing some of the tension she’d held before.
“I know, but there’s only so much we can do.
” She looked exhausted, worn to her bones tired, not just physically or magically, but to her soul.
I always worried that my friend and our mayor was lonely, just like I was.
“You can’t keep doing this alone forever! Can’t you ask him to come home?”
Her eyes closed in a rare show of grief. She never showed this level of vulnerability with others. “Not yet. He has to want to be here, Gareth.”
“But—”
“No,” she cut me off, sounding firm. Her posture straightened as she switched back into our formidable mayor. “With this fresh wind, I feel positive about the future of the town. It won’t be all clear skies… Yes, challenges are ahead, yet we will endure and grow stronger from it.”
Not a sentiment I shared. Hestia knew better than me, though. “Is there anything I can do to help? With the wards, to make it easier on you,” I explained.
Hestia regarded me thoughtfully. “You’ve really grown into yourself since your parents went traveling. I would be grateful for your help, since you’ve freely offered it. This town is about choice, after all.”
“What can I do?”
“Come with me, there’s a border marker not far from here.” I shot a glance at the town below us. “Don’t worry, Tatsuya has it under control. They won’t notice our absence.”
Without a word, I followed Hestia further into the woods that surrounded the town.
After a few minutes, we approached the boundary and the heavy wards that protected our town from outsiders.
We didn’t speak as we climbed up the slope to the heavy magical stones.
My breath grew labored, yet Hestia didn’t appear to break a sweat!
Finally, we reached a cornerstone of the wards.
There were four corners to the barrier around the town, along with two additional stones along each edge, set at an equal distance apart.
“Here,” she said in an undertone. “Come, put your hand on the stone and push your magic into it.”
“Is there an incantation I should say?” The rock was cool under my fingers, which was odd, since it was standing in full sun.
“No. All you have to do is concentrate on your desire to protect the town. I’ll do the rest.”
Hestia laid her hand underneath mine and let her power feed into the massive boulder. My power reacted, flowing into the stone under my palm without any conscious effort. As Hestia had told me to, I brought up my worry for the town, my need to protect the residents at all cost.
We stood there for a long time, our magic seeping steadily into the wards until I felt like I’d pass out from how much I had given.
“Let go,” Hestia ordered.
“I’m sorry—” I said, dropping my hand. My fingers flexed automatically as my well tried to refill itself. After what I’d just pushed into the wards, it was going to take some time. I didn’t know how Hestia could stand it.
“You’ve given plenty.” Hestia held on to the rock for a few more minutes before she let go.
She stumbled, her face wan, as if she had leached out most of her life force to power the protections over the town.
She allowed me to steady her until she could stand on her own.
“We should return to the gala. Someone is sure to have noticed we’re missing. ”
The party was in full swing and absorbed us instantly.
No one said a word about our absence, they just handed us drinks with an added kick.
I hung at the edges, letting the potion do its work in replenishing my magic faster than it would have if left alone.
While I appreciated the thought, since I hated being without my magic, it showed just how closely people had been watching me, which left me feeling unnerved.
Damn small towns where everyone was always up in your business.
“Did you visit the wards?” Tatsuya asked from just behind me.
I turned to greet my best friend with a one-armed hug, the other holding my drink.
As expected, he was in his police uniform, always serving the town rather than enjoying a nice day with his friends.
I could guarantee he’d offered to work instead of taking a well?earned day off.
He might have been my best friend, but I could admit he was a workaholic.
“Yeah. Are they always that draining?” As a dragon, Tatsuya had plenty of his own magic to push into the wards. It had been a long time since I’d taken a turn bolstering them. We couldn’t ask our mayor to do it herself all the time, so many of us with deep wells of magic offered to help.
“Pretty much,” Tatsuya admitted with a wry smile. “Worse since we took in more land as the town has grown. There are so many vulnerable spots now. We’re more open to attack than—”
It was as if he’d spoken it into being. Heavy magic thrust against our barrier, and a boom ricocheted over the dome covering the valley.
A siren rang out as the residents fell into their practiced roles.
“You coming?” Tatsuya shifted, his long neck angled to face me, waiting for me to take a seat on his back. I fucking hated flying with him, and he knew it. I could almost see his wide, dragon’s grin.
Almost as soon as I got into place at the base of his neck, he shot into the air, heading straight for the disturbance.
The magic was holding, though it was impossible to tell how long it would.
Below us, people worked quickly, getting out of the streets and into shelters or to their positions, ready to defend us if there was a breach.
Over and over, hits came to the shield, yet it didn’t waver.
“They’re testing it, looking for weaknesses,” Tatsuya said in his deep, sonorous, dragon voice. The first time I’d heard it, I’d nearly soiled myself. To be fair, I’d been eight and sure he was about to eat me.
Tatsuya landed near the northeast corner and waited for the signal. Sparks of magic shot into the air, telling us the northwest was covered, then the southeast, southwest. When it was time, I sent up our sparks. The corners were covered.
“Let me handle this,” Tatsuya ordered.
“No,” I said more firmily than I’d intended.
“You’re too drained. If you step in, I’ll have to drag you to the hospital with magic sickness. I need you to cover my back in case of a breach.”
I wanted to protest, but I knew he was right. This attack had come just after Hestia and I had drained ourselves almost to full depletion. Had they been watching? Waiting until we were vulnerable?
“Do you know who it is?” My eyes lingered on the dome, hoping it would hold after all the power we’d put into it.
Tatsuya laid his hand on the barrier. “Angels.” His face screwed up in disgust.
“The same ones who’re after Rayna?”
We had a number of nephilim in the town, with Rayna being the newest. She had fallen in with a gang of rogue nephilim and caught the attention of a clan of angels.
Though nephilim were usually born of angels, these wanted to wipe out the angel?human hybrids as some sort of race purity thing.
Rayna had escaped the rogues and the angels with nothing but the clothes on her back.
When she’d arrived in Greyhaven, she was beaten and bruised, but not broken.
The ordeal had lit a fire in her, making her super protective of the town and its most vulnerable residents.
“Probably. Scouts have been circling the town for days. It’s only a matter of time before they figure out how to get in.”
Again, it was as if he had cursed the town. There was an almighty crash as two trees near our border stone splintered into a million pieces, debris flying everywhere.
The protective barrier around the town of Greyhaven had cracked.
Shouts rose in volume as the angels concentrated their efforts on that singular section of the barrier. I rushed with Tatsuya to reinforce it, but before we could get there, the mage, Riku, and his mate, Sean, got there.
Riku was furious. Unfortunately for everyone, when he was mad, Riku was also dangerous. Tatsuya pulled me behind him and shifted just as Riku’s magic exploded out of him.
Trees, bushes, the attackers… none of it survived. When silence returned to the woods, all that remained was Riku standing with his arms around Sean.
“You can’t rely on him—”
“I know.”
“If there’s another attack—”
“Gareth, I know. Riku’s unconscious. Whatever that was today, it knocked him out cold. He still isn’t awake.” Hestia looked troubled. “This was planned. They knew when we were at our weakest.”
I rounded on the mayor, who sat wearily behind her desk. “What can we do? We had just powered up the wards, and they still attacked. They cracked the barrier!”
“Whatever Riku did repaired it. He’s powered it beyond anything we could have done ourselves. We just have to hope it’ll hold until we can add more of our magic to it. They’re stronger than they’ve been in years.”
“And now he’s in a coma. We can’t afford to rely on his magic. There has to be another way.”
Hestia stared me down. “We’ve been through this before. He’ll return when he’s ready and not before. If I call him, if I ask him, he will never choose to stay. It must be his choice, Gareth.”
I deflated and slumped into an armchair opposite her. “What do we do in the meantime?”
“We bolster the wards. We take in whoever comes, and we endure. Greyhaven is a sanctuary and a target. I promise you, Gareth, there are better times ahead.”