He sets the mortar on the wooden desk, hovers his hands over it, closes his eyes, and continues chanting. After a moment, the herbs float from the mortar, forming a cloud of sorts, and begin traveling over the map. A niggling sense of anticipation and excitement unfurls within me.
The cloud of herb debris stops its travel over the map, and after hovering for a moment, drops. I stand from my seat and lean over the table to see where the mixture indicates I’ll find my mate.
“Aesara,” I murmur. A small, rural human village in the mid-west of the former North American continent, renamed Acuria upon the mythic invasion. It’s merely a day’s ride from Kinrith, the Rockwell Pack’s capital, where my family’s seat of power resides.
If I recall correctly, the village of Aesara is known for its bursting trade market that caters to other human villages within a hundred-mile radius despite being rather small and sparsely populated.
The complication of having a human mate mainly lies in the delicacy of their composition. I don’t care on a personal level that she’s human; if she was gifted to me by the gods then that’s good enough for me, but the fact that humans are so breakable by nature is cause for concern. Fortunately, once the bond is formed and strong enough—with the aid of a mark and consummation—she’ll gain some of my speed, power, and accelerated healing. That, mixed with my watchful eye, will ensure her safety for as long as we live.
A small smile curls my lips—a rare occurrence really. “Thereyou are.”
Chapter One
Sierra West
The feeling of a sudden weight jumping onto my chest yanks me out of my fitful sleep. My eyes pop open and I find myself staring into my younger sister’s smiling golden eyes.
Leisel throws her arms around me in a hug, kisses my cheek, and chirps, “Good morning!”
Despite the fatigue still weighing on me, I can’t help but return her smile. The nine-year-old is always bursting with energy and wakes me almost every morning like this. I wrap my arms around her and hug her in turn, also lightly kissing her cheek.
“Morning, trouble,” I murmur, pushing myself upright.
Chip, the small chipmunk Leisel saved from a ferret in the forest years ago, is sitting on her shoulder as usual. The two have been inseparable since Leisel found him, and anywhere she goes, he goes. I give his soft fur a gentle stroke in greeting before stretching my arms over my head and wincing at the crick in my neck.
“Have you already washed up?” I ask Leisel, setting her on the mattress next to me. Leisel is fourteen years my junior, and in theabsence of our parents, I’ve raised her as my own daughter more than as a sister.
It was my mother’s last wish, right before she passed away giving birth to Leisel. If mythics hadn’t invaded the Earth and destroyed most of our technology and way of life, Mom could’ve gotten proper medical treatment to keep her alive. Unfortunately, such things haven’t been available to humans for more than two centuries. Now, there are only stories and rumors about how advanced our world used to be.
“Yep,” she responds. “Chip has too.”
I nod, suppressing a yawn, and slowly stand from my dingy bed. “Give me a few minutes to do the same, and I’ll get started on breakfast,” I tell her.
With a brilliant smile, she tosses her long strawberry-blonde hair over her shoulder and happily skips out of the room.
In a world of darkness, Leisel has always been a bright ray of sunlight. That’s likely why all the villagers in Aesara adore her—despite the difficult, unyielding times we live in, she’s always a bubbly presence.
I take a quick shower, trying to conserve water as much as possible. The bits of technology mythics have allowed us to retain are minimal; primarily electricity, just enough to power running water, stoves, and lights. Everything else, items that didn’t suit their needs, was destroyed.
In the beginning, there were massive rebellions against this. Humans were rightfully angry thatourworld was being invaded,ourtechnology destroyed,ourlives upended. Those rebellions were quelled swiftly by shifters, who were the first mythics to invade. It was easy to see that they outclassed us in just about every way and that we didn’t stand a chance.
Now we scrape by however possible. Some are more fortunate than others; those who have learned to make the best of what they can. But no human is trulyfortunatethese days. The gilded ages of human monarchies and people living in extravagance are now only stories in old books.
After brushing my teeth with an herbal paste bought in the village market, I get dressed in worn-down, somewhat tattered clothing. Then, winding my red hair into a bun, I head through a small hallway into the kitchen and living area.
The cabin we inherited from our parents is modest, a one-story home with a living room and kitchen combined into one space, two bedrooms, one bathroom, and a spare room that I use to paint whenever I can find the time. Our home is on the very edge of our village, Aesara, and sits on a few acres of rich farmland, with a small stable that’s home to two horses. It’s bordered by a vast forest that makes excellent ground for hunting. Thanks to my mother and father, we have everything we need to sustain ourselves—an abundance of fruits, vegetables, and grains I grow and harvest each year to sell or trade in the market of Aesara.
Although my father died when I was thirteen, days before my mother found out she was pregnant, he’d already taught me everything I needed to know about hunting and harvesting. Both are gifts that have allowed me to provide as comfortable a life as possible for Leisel.
Leisel’s already sitting at our small circular wooden dining table, leafing through a book. Another thing we inherited from our parents was a small, albeit rich in literature, collection of books. My father was an avid Shakespeare reader, my mother loved all classics, and after their deaths, Leisel and I were left with about a hundred books of our ownthat are stacked around the house. That’s a far greater sum than can be found even in our village’s old bookshop.
“What are you reading?” I ask her, walking over to the stove to start on breakfast. Oatmeal for Leisel and fresh fruit plucked off our land for me as always, and a handful of grains for Chip.
“The Pearl,” Leisel responds absently.
I smile. “Ah, Steinbeck. Wonderful author. Tell me about what you’ve read so far.”
Education is in very scarce supply these days, and the majority of schooling is done from home. Along with a rich book collection, my mother left several textbooks for me—on topics ranging from math to languages to science and even farming techniques. She taught me various subjects from the time I can remember until her death. From there, I used what I’d learned to teach both myself and later Leisel.
