Page 1 of Saved By Her Guardian (Yuletide Shifters #4)

Aralyn Lethe, newly graduated reaper, stared at the message from her uncle. Grim, the most powerful of all reapers, had summoned her to him, sending her a pin to his location.

He was pissed.

And rightly so.

She’d refused her assignment.

Upon graduation, all reapers were given assignments related to the ferrying of souls to their final resting place.

Because reapers were magical and used said magic to ferry souls, they replenished their magic by the very souls they reaped.

A reaper who didn’t ferry souls would eventually just not have magic anymore and would no longer be a reaper.

So she had to ferry souls.

While reapers weren’t filled with dark magic, they weren’t necessarily good either, straddling the magical neutral line.

Going to the Well of Magic at the top of the world for replenishment—something that a reaper did when they weren’t employable—was seen as a backdoor of sorts.

Once she graduated from reaping school, she’d essentially been forbidden from going to the Well of Magic because working as a reaper would more than suffice for replenishing magic.

Except in Aralyn’s case.

Because she absolutely didn’t want to take the assignment.

She looked around her little room in her apartment at the reaper school and knew that her whole life was about to change if she didn’t get on the trolley , as Grim had suggested.

But she simply refused to take the assignment.

She looked at the message again.

Pack a bag and report to my location in ten minutes or there will be hell to pay.

She wasn’t sure she wanted to know what Grim’s version of hell to pay was. She was certain it wasn’t good.

She’d never heard of a reaper refusing an assignment before, and perhaps she only felt confident in doing it because Grim was her uncle and her only living relative. She didn’t think he’d kill her, but he sure could make her life miserable.

The door to the apartment opened and an excited squeal was followed by her ever-perky roommate, Deidre, who bounced into the room with blonde curls swinging and blue eyes glittering.

“Oh! I can’t believe this is it! We grad-u-ate-ed!” she practically howled, exaggerating the syllables of the last word. Flopping onto the bed, she clutched her graduation cap to her chest and sighed dramatically.

“Yep.”

Deidre lifted her head and looked at Aralyn with an arched brow.

“What’s up your butt? This is the day we’ve been working for! All these years of hard work have paid off. We’re officially reapers!”

She stared at her roommate for a long, quiet moment. They’d been paired together as first-year students, and while they were friendly, they weren’t friends . Deidre was way too opposite of Aralyn. Too MaryJane and sunshine to her pessimism and clouds.

It didn’t help that Aralyn had a famous relative. People tended to treat her with kid gloves and not want to get too close.

“I got my assignment.”

“Yeah, so did everyone in our graduating class.” She sat up fully and reverently set the cap on the neatly made bedspread.

They were supposed to have been packed up and ready to leave the apartment after graduation, but Deidre hadn’t packed a single sock yet.

Aralyn was fully packed and had been for a while.

She just hadn’t had the courage to leave yet, even though graduation had concluded hours ago.

“I refused my assignment.”

Deidre leaped to her feet with a screech of alarm. “Are you kidding me? Have you gone completely insane? Your uncle will kill you .”

Something in Aralyn’s chest felt like it dropped into her stomach. Maybe her heart? Was that possible? She touched the space on her chest where her heart was and found the familiar thud-thud of the beat, but it wasn’t comforting. It would probably be better if her heart did fall into her stomach.

“What’s your assignment?” Aralyn asked, putting her phone in her pocket and ignoring the way it felt very heavy in her hand.

“I’m off to Maui. I’ll be ferrying souls in the tropics.”

Of course she would be.

Even though Aralyn had the most connected relative in the reaper ranks, Deidre came from a long line of wealthy reapers who were able to buy anything and anyone they wanted, and assignments, while overseen by Grim, were chosen mainly by the school staff.

He only stepped in when he wanted a reaper for a specific assignment.

Like her.

“It’s kids, Deidre.” Her eyes stung with tears, and she pushed them back, determined not to fall apart like a little girl on the first day of school.

At her confused look, Aralyn explained. Then Deidre sat on the bed with a speculative hum. “Well, I’m sorry about your assignment, but you can’t just say no. If Grim says go somewhere, you just have to do it.”

“I can’t.”

“I’m not sure you have a choice.”

“Says the girl who gets to ferry tourists while sipping cocktails on the beach.”

Deidre hummed in a way that sounded like a middle finger.

With a sigh from somewhere deep inside, Aralyn stooped and picked up her bag. “Good luck in Maui. I’m sure you won’t get eaten by a shark.”

Deidre squeaked out a noise of shock as Aralyn walked to the door.

“Well, I’m sure your uncle, who is so well known for being kind to reapers who refuse to do what he wants, won’t kill you or stick you in Siberia. Have a nice life.”

Aralyn let out a low growl from her throat as she walked through the doorway, then turned and flipped off the overhead light, plunging the apartment into darkness before she slammed the door shut.

Lifting her chin at Deidre’s angry shout, she took the stairs to the lobby and made her way to the portal at the side of the complex.

The minutes ticked by as she waited for her turn at the portal, but she refused to look at her phone to see just how much time had passed. She could only get to her uncle’s location when she did.

As she stepped up to the magical portal, she looked at the location pin: Saint Morrigan’s Church in Eldermoor, Kentucky.

The name of the church sounded vaguely familiar.

She’d dressed warmly, considering that the typical Savannah, Georgia weather for early December was not nearly as cold as it would be in Eldermoor, especially as the sun set.

After a glance over her shoulder at the apartment complex, she stepped through the portal to Eldermoor, wondering if she’d ever return.

* * *

As the frigid air hit her face when she walked out of the portal, Aralyn gasped, bracing against the chill that swept over her. The portal closed behind her, and she felt a surge of magic, followed by nothing but icy cold.

Her eyes adjusted to the darkness and the dim lighting provided by old-fashioned gas lamps that ringed a waist-high, crumbling stone wall and a decrepit double gate.

A church that seemed shrouded in fog stood at the center of the stone wall’s barrier, and in front of the church was what looked like a very old cemetery.

Something clicked and she turned to see her uncle close the lid on a gold pocket watch.

“With a minute to spare, you’re just like your mother,” he said dryly.

Grim was her mother’s brother. When her mom had passed away, he’d become her guardian until she turned eighteen.

He looked like her mom, and a pang of grief hit her.

He’d come to her graduation, but they hadn’t spoken because he’d been called away on business.

And then she’d refused her assignment and here she was.

Standing in Grim Reaper’s presence.

He was tall and well built, with a powerful aura that made him seem larger than life.

They shared the same long, black hair with a single shock of silver-white through it, like they’d been touched by death itself, and they both had the same ice-blue eyes.

But that was where their familial similarities ended.

She was curvy and petite and loved the color pink.

He always wore black, and tonight was no different.

He wore all black, including a high collared, long coat that seemed to melt into the shadows around him.

It was no wonder that there were so many scary stories about Grim. He looked like a villain, like a monster come to life.

And he held her future in his hands.

“Hello,” she managed to squeak out.

He let out a low growl. “Come.”

He walked through the gate and into the cemetery toward the church.

It was a classic Gothic-style church, and as she followed him, she got all the creepy, old cemetery vibes.

The church was well maintained, as was the cemetery, but a glance at a nearby gravestone as she stopped a few feet from the front door of the church told her that the cemetery was two hundred years old at least.

“Listen,” she said, ready to explain herself.

He put his hand up, and she shut her mouth immediately.

“First of all, you listen, young lady. People know you’re my niece, and as such, you’re supposed to behave appropriately. And that includes taking whatever assignment you’re given. Especially— especially —when the giver of the assignment is me. ”

“I can’t.”

“Why not?” His upper lip curled, making him appear twisted and evil.

She looked away from him and took in the church.

The windows were stained glass, but she couldn’t make out the designs, and the arching doorways looked like they were carved by hand out of stone.

Gas lamps on either side of the big doors flickered in the breeze, making her wish she’d put on a thicker coat.

“My assignment is to ferry the souls of children. I don’t want to.”

“Why not?”

“It’s too sad.”

“That’s a human thought. You’re a reaper.”

“I can’t help it,” she said. “My territory assignment is in a town with a children’s hospital. There’s so much sadness there, so much grief. I don’t want to ferry the souls of children, Uncle Grim.”

“There is nothing sad about death to reapers; it’s our job. You—the daughter of reapers and part of the Lethe family line—were destined to reap souls, period.” He gave her a long, silent look with those icy-blue eyes that she felt could see into her soul. “Will you take your assignment?”

Tilting her chin up slightly, she shook her head, but the words were frozen in her throat. She’d never gone against him in anything. He was too powerful to say no to, but here she was, shaking her damn head at him.

His brow arched.

“So be it.”

He rubbed his hands together and a crimson glow appeared. She watched his reaper power as it swelled between his palms and fell to the ground like drops of blood. The drops wiggled and stretched on the ground like vines, and she felt something settle over her.

A finality of some sort.

Shit, what had she done?

“I sentence you, Aralyn Lethe, to serve as reaper here in Eldermoor, Kentucky, at Saint Morrigan’s Church in the Cairnwood Cemetery until such time as you are relieved of your post.”

As his last words were spoken, a chill shot down her spine.

And then she heard it: three deep howls.

No, it couldn’t be.

The padding of paws echoed in the night, and she turned from one side to the other, searching, and then she saw him.

Church, the supernatural black dog who guarded the oldest witch and warlock cemetery in the States.

That was why the church’s name sounded familiar.

It’s cemetery was named after Cairn, the Celtic goddess of fate and death.

Church stopped nearby and sat on his haunches. He had glowing red eyes and was the size of a pony. He was the guardian of the cemetery because sometimes people liked to steal artifacts from the church or the bones of witches and warlocks to use in spells and ceremonies. He killed anyone who tried.

“Uncle,” she said.

He hummed.

“This cemetery is full, Aralyn. That means that you will be unable to reap any souls. You can’t travel to reap souls anywhere but here, so while you can leave the area, you will return by sunset for your shift and stay until dawn every day, and you won’t be able to reap.”

“If there aren’t souls for me to reap, why are you assigning me here?”

“Because without reaping, your magic will leech away. Eventually it will be gone entirely, unable to be replenished, leaving you essentially human. Remember, only reapers who aren’t employed, like the elderly and very young, can utilize the Well of Magic. That would not include you.”

“Why would you do that to me?” She was shocked to the core. She didn’t know what she’d expected to happen, but this wasn’t it.

“I’m not doing it to you; it’s a punishment. You refused your assignment. Did you think you could do that without any ramifications?”

“I thought you might give me a different one.”

“Hmm, like ferrying elderly souls that have had a nice, long life and no regrets? Give me a break, Aralyn. You don’t get to pick your assignment, and you don’t get to make a fool out of me.

You will stay here in Cairnwood until you’ve learned your lesson and accepted your assignment.

And you will work with Church to keep the cemetery clean and safe. ”

“It’s staying here and losing my magic or ferrying children’s souls?” she asked as bitterness filled her.

“Yes.”

“It’s not much of a choice.”

“Well, spend some time here, and then we’ll see how you feel. It won’t be long before your magic wanes and you feel the effects of it.” He walked by her, the edges of his coat swirling the fog as he moved.

She watched him walk through the gate and lift his hand, opening a portal. He didn’t look back at her as he stepped through, and the portal disappeared. Then it was just her and Church.

“Shit.” She looked at the dog and he tilted his head slightly, his red eyes glowing in the darkness.

Then he walked away, and she was left alone again.

She picked up her bag and followed him, making her way to the side of the building where she found the abbey and a room where she could sleep.

Setting her bag under her bed, she walked out of the abbey and saw Church padding along the perimeter of the cemetery, a faithful watchdog who would patrol every night. And now he was her coworker.

Well, she wasn’t one to sit around doing nothing and feeling sorry for herself, so she decided to explore the church and the grounds and get the lay of the land before she settled in and found something to do to occupy her time.

Without any souls to reap and an assignment to keep the church and cemetery safe and clean, she was basically a magical custodian.

Not exactly what she’d expected to happen to her after graduation.

But she didn’t want to ferry children’s souls.

And if the choice was that or cleaning the church, then she’d clean the church.

Maybe Uncle Grim would change his mind before she lost all her magic.

She didn’t know what she would do if she had to actually choose between the magic that made her a reaper and the part of her that didn’t want to ferry children’s souls.