It’s the perfect segue to ask what’s been gnawing at me since our first meeting. “Why did you come here?”
“For the job at The Chronicle.”
“Yes, but why here specifically? You could have applied to work at a newspaper anywhere, why move to a small town in the middle of nowhere that, given you were living as a human, you would have never heard of before?”
Jared pushes his empty plate aside, then takes a drink. Despite my eagerness to learn everything about the man fate haschosen for me, I wait patiently while he figures out where to begin.
He clears his throat. “Well, I actually had heard of this place before.” How is that possible? Could he have encountered another supernatural before moving here? No. The amulet made him read as human—even if he had bumped into a random supe, they would never have discussed something as important as a sanctuary town with him. Supes have gone to prison for less. “Before I started at The Ledger, I worked as a bartender all through uni. I became close with one of the other guys who worked there—at the time I’d have said we were best friends.”
Sadness shrouds his expression, and it’s obvious this won’t be a happy story. “What happened?”
“When we first met, he was vague or dodged questions about where he grew up. I didn’t think much of it—just assumed he’d not had a great upbringing, you know?” I nod in understanding. “Then one night out of the blue he finally told me about his hometown, shared stories about his family, the lot. We’d been friends for a couple of years by this point. He made this place sound so great I looked it up thinking maybe we could do a weekend road trip or something if it wasn’t too far. But I couldn’t find any trace of a town called Crystal Lake. At first, I was confused, then I was angry. I thought he was playing some kind of trick on me, so I confronted him.”
“What did he say?”
“To begin with, he seemed surprised I remembered the conversation—we’d had a couple of beers the night he told me about this place but nowhere near enough to mess with my memory…” he trails off, looking to me for an explanation.
It sounds like he was testing Jared. Spending so much time with him must have given this friend the opportunity to pick up on subtle indicators a supe only interacting with Jared briefly would miss. Though if that’s the case, why on earth would theguy not tell Jared the truth? Why is my mate only discovering all of this now?
“The layers of wards around sanctuary towns are designed to protect the towns and keep them hidden. If you’d been human, the protective magic would have activated and made you forget everything you’d heard about this place. It’s possible your friend suspected you were a supernatural and was testing you.” Risky, given the potential punishment if anyone found out, but not out of the realm of possibility.
“Wow. So even though I wasn’t anywhere near here the magic would have kept the town hidden from me?”
“If you’d really been human, yes. Distance doesn’t matter.”
“Impressive.” He takes another drink, letting the magnitude of the wards sink in. “After he got over the shock Garrett did everything he could to convince me the town was real?—”
“Wait, Garrett?” Surely he’s not talking about the Alpha?
“Yeah. You might know him actually. He disappeared right after telling me about Crystal Lake. Then, a couple of weeks later, he reached out to let me know he had to move back here because of some family stuff. As far as I know he’s still living here but I’ve not run into him yet. Explanation or not, the situation never sat right with me. I always meant to check in on him but then I got so busy with uni and work I never followed up.”
“So why now?”
Jared pales and shifts uncomfortably in his seat, unable to meet my eyes. Without thought, I reach over, covering his hand with mine. “Hey, you don’t have to tell me.” Whatever is going through his mind is obviously upsetting him. While I know he’s my mate, he’s completely unaware of our connection and, even if he did recognise it, he doesn’t owe me anything.
“I’m fine.” He slides his hand out from beneath mine, then drops both hands to rest tightly clasped on his lap instead. “Haveyou heard of The Raven?” I nod. Everyone knows about The Raven. The Supernatural Investigation Bureau have been trying for years to catch the fear demon who’s been preying on humans. “At The Ledger I was the reporter assigned to cover all Raven related stories,” he begins.
“That’s impressive. You’re still young to be given such high profile pieces.”
“Yeah.” The tip of his tongue darts out to wet his lips then he continues, “Six months ago I…” He only manages to meet my eyes for a moment before his gaze darts away leaving him staring at the tabletop with an intensity that sends an uneasy feeling slithering down my spine. “There was an… incident. I took some time off but when I went back to the office things were different. My boss told me to take a year off, said I’d have a job if I still wanted it once my imposed break was over.”
Whatever this incident was, it’s clear Jared’s still recovering from it. He looks haunted. Maybe he saw one of The Raven’s victims at a crime scene—from what I’ve read that would be enough to leave anyone rattled.
“I was angry. More time off, more time to think about what happened—” his voice breaks and I watch as he takes a deep breath and carefully packs away everything he’s feeling until it’s hidden behind an impenetrable mask. “After I had a chance to cool off, I realised this was the perfect opportunity to finally look into Crystal Lake and whatever the town was hiding. It’s always bugged me that this place doesn’t show up in any search results or on any map.”
“Not any human maps at least,” I tease. If the small smile tugging at the corners of his lips is any indication my attempt to lighten the mood is successful.
“Getting the job at The Chronicle seemed like the perfect ‘in’. Coming to a small town as a tourist would have only got me so far but moving here for a job…”
“Means the locals will open up to you quicker.”
“Exactly.”
“And now? You know you can’t write about what you’ve learned here, right? You could go to jail.”
“I know,” he rushes to assure me. “And I’d never want to jeopardize the safe space you’ve all created here. I came here thinking I’d either uncover some shady government shit or find a town so small it simply gets left off everything. The truth is more than I ever could have imagined, but I understand why it’s important to keep the secret. People fear what they don’t understand.”
I breathe a sigh of relief that he gets it and I don’t have to convince him not to spill the big supernatural secret.
