Page 18 of Wanderer

“You know what it’s like after a storm and in the run‑up to the winter celebrations. Everyone’s bracing for another attack too. They always happen around these events.”

Greyhaven was a multi-faith sanctuary for all the supernatural, whatever faith they’d grown up in, so I knew how busy December was for my friend. “How are the preparations for the parade coming along?”

“The amount of paperwork is just stupid! I keep telling my sister and the mayor that we need to go digital. Other havens already have.”

I listened to my friend with half an ear while my mind wandered back to my mate. There had to be a way around Hestia’s promise. I would have to speak with her and figure out a plan. If what I thought was true and Riley’s other curse was the source of his reaction to me—and hopefully other warlocks in the town—then I’d have to do something from the sidelines to help him. I thought about all the other magic users I knew in Greyhaven, ones who could undo curses, but none of them felt strong enough to trust Riley’s safety to. While I didn’t know the story of his curse or curses, what it entailed or any punishments he would receive, Hestia requesting me first suggested that the others wouldn’t be powerful enough to break it on their own.

My thoughts spun as I plotted to get Riley the help he needed and to keep my involvement quiet. I could research things for the other witches and mages. I would offer them talismans to bolster their power if they needed me to. To give him what he needed, I would linger in the background until he either sought me out or left Greyhaven altogether.

I fell into bed with a heavy heart and a churning mind. There had to be a way to help Riley. First, though, I’d have to get Hestia’s permission. My sleep was the deep, healing kind where you wake up fully refreshed and willing to take on whatever comes your way, which was good since I received a call first thing asking me to meet the mayor. Sometimes I suspected she was an oracle, not the goddess of hearth and home.

“While I appreciate that my promise to Riley put you in a bind, I will not go back on my word,” Hestia stated firmly as her hands touched the cornerstone for the wards. Her power flooded the rock, leaching the color from her skin as she drained magically.

Unable to bear her doing this alone, I added my hand and let my power join hers. “I’m not asking you to,” I said calmly, as if we were holding a meeting at City Hall instead of repairing the wards protecting our town. Overhead, the dome pulsed with our combined magic. On the other side of town, Tatsuya’s sister was adding her dragon magic, giving the protections an extra layer of magic to prepare us for the coming festivals. “All I’m asking is that you let me help whoever he goes to. That’s all.”

Hestia frowned and let her hand drop. She swayed, having given more of herself than usual. “He carries nothing dangerous. There’s no backlash to the curses as far as I can tell. Though it is possible that breaking the first one will alert the warlock who did this to Riley’s situation.”

“That’s why you’re putting more power into the wards, isn’t it? This wasn’t just about the festival.”

“No. The festivals always attract attention from the outside. I’m sure they won’t attack during the winter solstice or Yule; however, they may try before or after, thinking we are either unprepared or have become complacent. Breaking the aversion curse—”

“Is that what it’s called?” I flinched at her glare. “Sorry, I didn’t mean to interrupt.”

She gave me a fleeting smile before the shutters came down and she straightened into the mayor we all respected. “Yes, it’s an aversion curse. A clever piece of magic, though utterly abhorrent. The warlock layered another curse onto Riley to ensure he couldn’t ask for help. He must have feared that someone could break his magic, so he doubly cursed poor Riley, making him feel powerless and terrified when next to a warlock. Given his reaction to you, I think it was the power of the fated‑mate connection that kept him in the room to almost have a conversation with us.”

“So you’re happy just to let him walk about with it?” I could feel my hackles rise at the thought of Riley suffering, of him feeling any fear because of this ridiculous curse.

Hestia shook her head sadly. “You misunderstand. Everything in Greyhaven is down to choice. If Riley seeks out a magic user, then yes, you can help them shatter the aversion. You cannot do this in person and break my word to him.”

“If he goes to another warlock—”

This time, she interrupted me. “He cannot. Besides, they have all been told to avoid him. He’ll find another to help him.”

I thought hard about who could possibly have the power in town. Only one person came to mind. “I think I know who he’ll go to.”

Nine

Riley

Hestia kept her promise. Though I wandered the town, visited the library and college to speak to magic users, I didn’t come across any warlocks, my mate or otherwise. Not surprising, really, since it felt like no matter where I went, there were eyes on me, spies reporting my whereabouts, making it easy for them to avoid me. No, it was impossible to hide from the residents of Greyhaven, though somehow they were keeping any glimpse of Gareth from me. I just didn’t know how I felt about it.

On the one hand, being confronted by a warlock was not my idea of a good time. Then, on the other hand, he was my fated mate. The one person in the world meant for me. Despite my reaction to him, I was curious about the man. All I’d glimpsed were pretty hazel eyes, which had been wide with shock, under a mop of curly chestnut‑brown hair. Looks aside, there was a pull to him that pure attraction couldn’t explain. Fate was a tricky thing.

I spent a few days in the cabin they had put me in, too terrified that the curse was going to rebound on me, that it would punish me somehow for finally telling someone about it. Once I started to feel bored and sort of lonely, I got to work on ending this curse for good.

The library near City Hall, and the one at the college, were both well stocked with many tomes of every magical variety. Just the ones I thought could be useful would take me years to read. There were that many. I knew I had to get help. The issue was that all magic users—dragons, mages, witches, whatever these sorcerers called themselves—were all avoiding me. Apparently, they didn’t get the memo that the only problem I had was with warlocks.

We classified magic users by how they came to be. Warlocks were also mages or sorcerers, depending on their preferred term and gender. They came from the pure-blooded fae, a race that no longer existed. The fae remaining on this side of the veil became diluted over years of intermingling with other supernatural species. From this dilution, sprites, nymphs, goblins, and warlocks were born. The fae were tricky by nature. Mercurial. Stubborn. Quick to temper. They loved bargains and deals. There was duplicity in all that they did. These traits were passed on to the other species that came from them.

Witches—the name for any gender—came from demons, which would make most suspicious of them, but the demons, though powerful, used the elements and were often bound to a coven and made harmless. Most witches had never met the demon their line came from and only had a spot of demon blood in them. Usually, their magic was quite tame.

Then there were the druids. Born of the elves, they lived in balance with nature and could be incredibly powerful. I’d searched for any sign of them, but like the warlocks and mages, there was no trace of them here. They would have been my preferred choice of magic user to turn to. It seemed like I wasn’t getting that choice.

So, being the lesser of evils, I sought out some witches. There were only a handful in Greyhaven, and most were unwilling to speak to me, aside from the newest resident, a young guy called Oscar. He and his bird had left their coven after some drama. He’d been staying with friends for a little while before breaking away to forge his own path.

I didn’t know his past, and even if I could stay in Greyhaven, I wasn’t sure that I cared to. Hypocritical, maybe, but I wanted to take Oscar at face value. He had only been in the supernatural sanctuary for a couple of weeks, so he had a lot to prove.

We bumped into each other in the library. Oscar had been taking a library science degree back home, which made him more than qualified to look after the collection of books in the vast building. It took a lot for me to squash down my bitterness that Oscar had only been in Greyhaven for such a short time and had found a job, a purpose in this place. I didn’t have the right to feel that way with this curse hanging over me. If I could stay in Greyhaven and make it my home, what would I choose to do with my life?