Page 4 of Chosen, Eternally

ONE YEAR LATER…

W ith the precision of a surgeon, I manage to pick a lock with two bobby pins, eyes closed, hands restrained behind my back. When I hear the door click open, a smirk spreads across my face.

Easy peasy.

“No one likes a sore winner, Hecate,” Ian—my Handler—grumbles.

I open my eyes and use my magic to release my hands from the restraints.

Ian balks, because they were supposed to be magically restrained.

However, I think it’s time he accepted the fact that his powers are nothing against mine.

I mean, it’s been nearly a year since the Chosen Protector ceremony gave me a boost in powers. Powers that probably could’ve saved?—

I squeeze my eyes shut, not wanting to think about it now. I’ll save it for later tonight, for when I visit him in my dreams.

“I’m not a sore winner; I’m a bored winner.

When are you going to give me something harder to work on?

” It’s been a year of training, and while I definitely didn’t want the job when it was offered to me, I quickly changed my mind when those three vampires killed the love of my life.

To say heartbreak, grief, devastation, and revenge were great motivators would be an understatement.

After the funeral (closed casket, of course, because I can’t even begin to imagine what those disgusting vamps did to James), I didn’t hesitate in assuming the role.

I never questioned my destiny again. I was going to defend this town and the world from every single vampire, take them to extinction, dedicate my entire life to it, even if it would never make up for the failure that was losing the world’s most precious person.

“I have been giving you difficult things. At least according to the curriculum.”

“The curriculum is ancient.”

Ian rolls his eyes at me, the thick lenses of his glasses make it even more comedic, almost cartoonish.

“The curriculum was developed in conjunction with some of the most powerful witches of our coven who gave their lives to protect our kind. The Four surrendered their lives, their powers, and their entire future for every single member of our community. Were it not for them, the humans would have exterminated us back during the Trials.”

Now it’s my turn to roll my eyes at him. “I wasn’t saying anything bad about the Four. You always take things so personally. All I meant is that the world is a completely different place than it was in the seventeenth century, for crying out loud.”

“Obviously.”

“So can we just find a way to update the curriculum? Focus more on developing strength and technique over dumb stuff like picking locks? I mean, vampires don’t even live in places with locks.

They live in nests near graveyards. Abandoned warehouses.

They don’t bother with that kind of security. I need more.”

Ian sighs, pinching the bridge of his nose as he squeezes his eyes shut in that frustrated way he always does when he knows I’m making sense but won’t admit it.

Men.

“Your powers are strong enough,” he grumbles, probably jealous.

I scoff.

“Hecate—”

“Cate.”

He narrows his eyes at me. “ He-ca-te ,” he says, enunciating every syllable. “I’m not going to call you by the bastardization of the name of one of the most powerful witches of all time. You were honored with that name. Accept it. Carry it with pride.”

“Jesus,” I sigh, running my fingers through my hair.

“Hecate,” he starts again. “You know that the current political climate in Salem is more unstable than it’s ever been.

At least since the Trials. Our treaty is up for reevaluation and renewal in January, and with this upcoming mayoral election next month, we may lose everything.

Noah Cooke is likely to win, and he is not a fan of witches and witchcraft.

After William Thacker screwed the pooch with that whole prostitution scandal, he isn’t getting reelected.

And Cooke has made it clear that, despite the fact that Salem’s economy depends largely on tourism in the fall months, he wants the town to stop focusing so heavily on what he calls ‘witch culture.’ How do you think he’s going to react when he’s elected into office and the current mayor catches him up on our confidential treaty during the transition period?

When he tells him that witches actually do exist?

What do you think will happen if we step a toe out of line?

If he so much as thinks we’re a threat, it will be like the Salem Witch Trials Part II.

Except this time, the humans have real weapons on their sides.

It won’t matter that we’ve been keeping the town safe from the vampires all these years. ”

I sigh and get to my feet. Walk over to his office window to look out onto Salem College’s campus where Ian is a professor of Criminology Studies. He also serves as one of Salem’s pathologists in the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner—which comes in super handy when hiding vampire-related deaths.

“I understand that we’re in a pickle, here, but I think you’re losing sight of the fact that the humans aren’t the only ones with improved weaponry.

May I remind you that vampires don’t just use their teeth or superhuman strength anymore?

That on top of their powers of Subjugation, they, too, have decided to start using actual weapons? ”

Ian gasps so loudly, I turn.

“What do you mean?”

“I told you. The vamps last night had actual guns.”

“I thought you were joking.”

“Why the hell would I be joking about guns?”

“I don’t know,” he says with a shrug. “Maybe because you tend to be a bit dramatic sometimes.”

“Dramatic? When have I ever been dramatic?” I seethe.

He chuckles. “Well, to begin with, that whole thing with that boy was a little bit much, don’t you think? You’re the Chosen Protector. You need to get used to the occasional casualty, but you were depressed for months. Even your aunt told me she was concerned you were taking it a bit too far.”

I narrow my eyes at him, clenching my fists at my side.

“I don’t believe you. Cybil would never talk about my personal life with you.

” For months after, she never left my side, offered me a comforting shoulder.

My aunt Cybil, who raised me as her own after my mother’s suicide and my father’s abandonment, never faltered.

“Don’t you dare try to involve her in this. ”

He sighs and shakes his head. “That’s fine if you don’t want to believe me, but she was embarrassed by your moping. And why wouldn’t she be? You’re supposed to be powerful. Almighty. But you’re undeserving if you’re going to let a casualty of war bring you to pieces.”

Rage shoots through me at an alarming speed, heating the tips of my ears and hands, fingers twitching to do something , summon anything . To hurt.

I take a deep breath to steady myself before I cast a Fireball spell and burn this whole damn building down with him in it.

I don’t care if he’s my instructor. If Ian is the one who’s supposed to guide me.

All he’s done is lead me down a miserable path I never wanted but only assumed in order to get revenge.

When I feel a little more settled, I speak: “That boy was not just a casualty . He was the love of my life. Taken from me in the most cruel way imaginable.”

Ian rolls his eyes again, and if I hadn’t spent the last twelve months honing my self-control, I would’ve used my powers to rip them out of his sockets. “See what I mean? Dramatic.”

I turn for the door, but he stops me with a hand around my bicep.

“Where the hell do you think you’re going? We aren’t done here.”

I use the fire building in my heart and visualize it, transfer it to my arms and literally burn his palm.

He gasps and shakes his hand as pain spreads through him.

“Don’t ever touch me again.”

Ian grits his teeth. “You’re out of control.”

I shrug, nonchalant. “Maybe. But you made me this way.” And without another word, I leave, using every ounce of strength inside to walk away with my head held high, holding back tears of grief.

Later that night, I take a bath before I go out hunting for vampires.

As I do every time, I turn off the lights, drenching the bathroom in total darkness before turning the ceiling into a moonscape—the same sky from the night they took James: Pegasus and Cassiopeia shine brightest above, along with Perseus’s Demon Star—so appropriate for the events that lead to the shaping of the rest of my existence.

I lie back with my eyes closed, and use my mind to call on James, to imagine us back at that very same spot, that very same moment where we confessed our feelings, and imagine different outcomes than the one that actually happened.

Since then, I’ve dreamed a thousand lives with my love. Tonight will be no different.

Like a catalogue, I sort through different fantasies.

Tonight, I decide to fast forward past our confessions last year, all the way to us walking the beaches of Bali under the moonlight (for some reason, I can never imagine us in the daylight)—where we would’ve ended up had the vampires never taken him from me.

I imagine the cold sand between our toes as he stops to wrap his arms around me and whisper in that deep, molasses-like voice: “You’re worth everything, dear Cate. I wouldn’t take back those ten minutes of pure bliss for anything in the world.”

Even if it’s all in my head, the pain in my heart is real. “What are you doing? This is a fantasy —you’re not supposed to be talking about real things. In here, I imagine what our life should’ve been like.”

He smiles sweetly, fondly. “I think you need this tonight, though. I think you need to hear how happy those last ten minutes of my life made me.”

“But you’d still be alive if we never had them. If we hadn’t been there, if we’d just stayed home that night?—”

“Then there’s a chance we might’ve never admitted how we felt. And it would’ve meant never having that pure moment of joy. Would you have been able to give it up?”

I swallow thickly, my eyes welling with tears even in my imagination. “I don’t know. Maybe? So long as it meant you were alive.”

James brings his lips to my ear, his hand raising goosebumps over my skin as he trails his fingers up and down my exposed back.

“I’m still alive. I will always be alive, so long as you continue to live on.”

I open my eyes to come back to reality, tears streaming down my cheeks, a hole in my chest yawning open—bigger than the Grand Canyon.

No matter what imaginary James says, my love is gone. The vampires took him away. And nothing will ever change that.

Slowly, I get to my feet in the tub and wave the stars and moonlight away with a sweep of my right hand, summoning a towel with my left.

Fantasy over—it’s time to get back to reality.