Page 8 of Saved By Her Guardian (Yuletide Shifters #4)

“Oh, it’s so much warmer here than in Northernmost,” Aralyn said as she crossed through the Portal with Maverick.

They’d both overslept and the sun had already set in Eldermoor, so she was late for her shift.

She peeked around and didn’t see her uncle waiting, just Church, who gave her a disgruntled sniff.

“I guess he knows you’re late,” Maverick said with a chuckle.

“Seems like it.”

“I’m so glad you came to see me,” he said, giving her a hug.

“Me too.”

He cupped her face and kissed her. “Okay, so we’ll talk in the morning after your shift.”

“You’ll be at work, right?” she asked. “Didn’t you say you usually work days?”

“Yeah, but I’ll switch to nights so we’re on the same schedule.”

“That’s so sweet.”

“I need to get back to Northernmost, but I’ll talk to you in the morning. Be safe, sweetheart.”

They kissed again and then she watched him walk through the portal. He waved at her with a smile, and she waved back. When the portal was gone, she stared at the place where it had been for a long time.

Ever since Maverick had marked her, she’d grown more determined to see if the spell worked than she’d been when she went to Northernmost in the first place. She had to get away from the church and into an assignment that would work for her situation so she and Maverick could be together.

“I’m here, I’m here,” she said to Church as she walked by him.

He grumbled at her and padded away to make his rounds.

She walked to the abbey and located the book. She set it on the rickety table and sat down, opening the book and carefully turning the pages to the one with the spell.

“So I basically am just rejecting my current assignment and requesting a change to a higher power, these ancient reaper people.” She skimmed the spell again and then rose to her feet and picked up the spell book.

The only thing she needed was a sharp knife, which she found among the few utensils in the tiny kitchen area.

Clouds obscured the moonlight as she made her way to the cemetery gate. She stopped outside the gate and laid the book on the top of the stone wall, opening it to the spell’s page.

The spell, written by a reaper for others to use, was simple and utilized runes to focus the magic and open a portal.

Staring at the sigils and committing them to memory, she took the knife and set the tip against the wrought iron gate and carved the sigils. The only thing she could hear was the scratch of the blade against the iron and the wind as it howled.

As she was about to carve the last sigil, Church barked sharply and startled her.

“What?” she asked, turning to him.

His eyes were glowing and his fur was bristling like he was upset.

She wished he could talk. But even without him saying any words, she could feel his unhappiness with her actions.

“Listen,” she said, holding the knife tightly. “I’m doing this. Grim trapped me here and I know he won’t let me go until I take that damn assignment. But I need to be with my mate. This is the only way.”

Church’s claws scratched on the cobblestones as he arched his back and growled.

“Go away, Church.” Setting the blade into the iron, she carved the final sigil, her heart in her throat.

This had to work.

She didn’t want her assignment, she wanted something better, less sad.

Breath misting in the cold air, she laid her palm over the runes, gripping the iron, and whispered the incantation, “To the realm of the forgotten I ask passage to change my fate to my heart’s desire.”

There was a rumble under her feet, and mist rose from the ground, curling around her ankles. It was thick and pale and had a scent that reminded her of the sky after a storm. She exhaled sharply. It was working!

She walked into the thickest part of the mist and it swallowed her whole, sending a shiver down her spine. Church howled sharply, angrily, but the sound faded quickly, lost to the mist. As she walked forward, blinded by the mist, it suddenly dissipated, and the cemetery and church were gone.

She stood in a large hall with walls that gleamed like frost-covered obsidian. The air smelled like electricity and snow.

At the far end of the room, a figure emerged from the shadows. He was tall, with silver-white hair that fell past his shoulders, and he wore thick robes that were the color of a twilight sky.

As he approached silently, she saw that his face was lined with age, and his eyes were a deep gray, set in a face that she was sure had once been handsome but was now ravaged by time.

She could feel a connection to him and she knew what he was.

A reaper.

An old one.

His voice was a whisper when he spoke. “You seek to change your path, child.”

She breathed out a sigh of relief. “Yes.”

“Then let us begin.”

She told him about her assignment and her punishment, and finding her truemate and wanting to be with him and not ferrying children’s souls.

He stared at her with those fathomless grey eyes and then said, “Nothing in this realm is freely given. If you wish for me to change your reaping assignment, you must prove yourself worthy of the change. Complete a simple task that will restore the balance of the natural order.”

She frowned. The book hadn’t mentioned anything about a task.

But hell, she’d do whatever she needed to do to escape her assignment.

The male said, “Are you familiar with the Portal that brings supernatural creatures to the Well of Magic at the top of the world?”

“Of course.”

“The Portal is flawed. Over time, it has become unstable and has caused a tear between the realms. Magic is leaking into the other realms and if left unchecked, the Portal could collapse and the damage would be catastrophic.”

Unstable? She’d just been there. No one mentioned anything was wrong with it, and it hadn’t looked damaged. But then again, she’d been focused on Maverick.

The male inclined his head and smiled, but it was a strange smile, not quite reaching his eyes.

“The guardian of the Well of Magic is unaware of the weakness, believing it can’t become damaged, but those of us in other realms have known about it for some time and it needs to be repaired before anyone is harmed. ”

He waved his hand and a small, black object appeared before her, hanging in the air.

It looked like a piece of black stone with sharp edges and smooth surfaces that pulsed with blue runes like she’d carved into the gate.

She took the stone in her hand and felt a jolt of electricity shoot up her arm.

“Place this within the Portal on the outside of the gate. You will be able to push it into the space between the bones that make up the Portal. Once it’s in place, it will stabilize and repair the Portal.

Then you can come back here, and I will change your assignment to one better suited to a strong and competent reaper such as yourself. ”

The weight of the stone was heavy in her hand and she felt like it was pulsing. Something was off , but she couldn’t put her finger on it. Wouldn’t Santa and the Guardians know that the Portal was damaged?

The ancient reaper’s face darkened as if he could read her thoughts.

“If you doubt my word, return the stone to me and another, more worthy reaper will perform this task and get the assignment of their choosing.”

“No, no, of course not,” she said, straightening her shoulders. She couldn’t back out now. If she needed to repair the Portal to escape the burden of ferrying the souls of children so that she and Maverick could be together, then she’d do it.

“Good,” he said with a slow nod. “Return to me when it’s done by reciting the spell as before.”

The mist rose again, seeming to flow out of the floor, and then she was back in front of the cemetery gate with the stone in her hand and a job to do.

Once she did this, she’d be free of the burden of her assignment, and freely being with Maverick and not suffering under the strain of the job was all that mattered.