The hellblazers all left their coop. Taking a few trembling steps into their enclosure, I quickly learned why they ran in a panic. “Laken! There’s a snake!”
Laken jumped around in the air trying to catch Archie. “What?”
“A snake!”
“A rake?”
Son of a witch.“A snake!” I yelled with all my might.
Laken stood still long enough to tell me to grab the machete. But flames flew at my head. I ducked and ran in a squat away from Chicken Noodle. Then, I remembered a snake slithered nearby and I scurried backward.
“Machete? Where?” My voice cracked, lost and helplessand soon to be praying to some kind of chicken God, if such a thing existed.
“The wall!” His tone told me I should’ve known where it hung. Cluelessly, I gawked around the wall until, well, wouldn’t you know, I saw the machete. Shrugging, my clammy hands wrapped around its handle, I stood a good way from the reptile.
“Laken, what do I do?” My screams, feather, fire, porcupine—focus, Reece. In my chest, my heart flopped like a fish out of water. “Laken!”
“Kill it!”
What had the world come to, relying on Reece McCarthen to save its ass? Me? Having to fix my own problems? This wasn’t a problem I’d dealt with. I’d handled the raxxen, but barely. This wasn’t a broken vase, dying flowers, or heartbroken friend sobbing in her room. I couldn’t run to the market to buy wine and fix everything with some good cheese and crackers.
“Reece! Come on!” Laken ran like a feral man after Phoebe.
The animals ran rapidly. They needed me. He needed me. Tears lined my eyes, my fingers tightened around the handle of the blade, and I gave myself a pep talk. “Fuck it.”
The chickens’ screeching clucks went off again, flames flew, the snake turned to me hissing. I screamed for life, liberty, and my chickens’ right to a safe home—and swung.
It took a couple minutes of scrambling, but we calmed the hellblazers enough to rally them into their coop. Then it wasjust me and Laken, panting. Facing the pasture, the rest of the creatures were accounted for except…
Something crunched behind me, something like a cake box.Butters.
Whipping around, the fluffy brown bear sat up eating the very cake I was supposed to deliver. I sank to the ground, kneeling in the grass, and everything went downhill in my mind. To complete mush. Burning and blowing away in a catastrophic storm.
I’d been a fool to think I could do this. To think I could save money by working extra jobs and handle it all. Running the sanctuary would’ve been a miracle on its own, but needing to pull twelve thousand macs out of my ass? Impossible. I didn’t fix things. I didn’t save things. I didn’t heal them! I killed them! I killed plants, I burned food, I forgot I had leftovers on the counter! I lost Benedict, I got burned by chickens! I couldn’t… there was no way.
It was obvious why the town wanted someone else. Laken wasn’t there when my father got back after the incident. He didn’t hear his yells or see his anger. His disappointment. Laken didn’t see the way the town resented me. How they looked at me.
My heart pounded, my chest rose and fell, yet I couldn’t move. I couldn’t speak. I couldn’t do this. I couldn’t save it. “I’m going to lose this place.”
I’d lose my family’s legacy. I’d lose my childhood home that held every golden memory I had. And the animals…oh Gods. They’d be auctioned to whoever paid the most, theworst of the worst, returning to the hells they were rescued from. Picked, prodded, and punctured for their magical traits.
“We aren’t going to lose this place.” Strong arms pulled me in. His hands combed through my hair and he engulfed my shoulders. “We’re going to get through this. We’re going to get the money.”
No. I snapped my head up. There was a time I’d believed inwe. When I would’ve trusted him, asked for his help, or even wanted his help. Against all odds, I’d believed in it untilweturned intomeand never went back. “We? Whatwe, Laken? This isn’t your responsibility, this isn’t your problem, and it’s not your job to fix it. There is nowe, there’s just me—”
“Gods damn it, Reece.” He spun away, dragging his hands through his hair. “When are you going to learn it’s okay to ask for help? Or to accept it when it’s being given? If you weren’t so damned stubborn—”
“Well, I am that damned stubborn, Laken.” This was my tip of the iceberg, my last sprinkle of inconvenience. “Why do you think that I need you? Like you have to be some kind of savior coming to my rescue? I’m not some damsel and Gods know you aren’t the golden boy everyone here thinks you are!”We heard Laken was taking over. Is Laken running the sanctuary?“You might have everyone in town fooled, but I remember the pain you’ve caused.”
His arms dropped to his sides. “Is it such a crime to care for you and the creatures?” His voice sounded worn, tired.
“Well, maybe you shouldn’t!”
“I definitely shouldn’t! But here I am.”
“Then leave!” I erupted, molten lava pouring out of me and burning anything that dared to come close. “We both know you’re so good at that.” He said nothing. Our stares collided and I could feel myself breathing heavy, unraveling the longer my eyes were fixed to his. He stood still, unyielding.
“Why stay, Laken? Hmm? What’s the reason?” I pushed and pried. Laken spun on his heels and started making his way to the gate, but I wasn’t done. “And for the love of Gods, don’t say it’s for me because I—”
