Page 19 of Saved By Her Guardian
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 wasoff, 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.
Maverick didn’t mind the night shift, although he would have preferred to be in bed with Aralyn.He hated that they were separated by so much distance, but she was safe at the cemetery while they sorted things out.They’d made plans to see each other in a week, which was not nearly soon enough in his opinion, but he’d take it over the longer delay he thought they’d have to deal with.
He rubbed the place on his neck where she’d bitten him.The bruise had disappeared quickly due to his natural healing abilities, but he could still feel it, and he loved it.
He didn’t think he could fall for someone so quickly, but that seemed to be the way it was with truemates.The feelings hit hard and fast.Humans, he’d heard, tended to feel that insta love wasn’t real, but tell that to his damn heart that felt like it was tethered to Aralyn already.
He walked into the security office and saw Gabriel, one of the wolves, sitting at the desk with the monitors and several elves milling around.
Gabriel looked up and nodded.“Welcome to the night shift.”
“Thanks, it wasn’t at all difficult to convince someone to trade with me.”
“I bet,” Gabriel said with a chuckle.“I’ve got you patrolling the perimeter for the first half of your shift.After your meal break, you’ll be keeping an eye on some maintenance workers at the reindeer barn.”
“Sure thing,” he said.He grabbed a walkie from the charging station and hooked it onto his belt, then pulled his stocking cap down over his ears and tugged on his thick gloves.“Who’s with me?”
“Me,” Heath, one of the elves, said.
They fist-bumped and headed out of the office, following the hall to the outer door.The cold night air was like a punch in the face, a harsh reminder that it was far, far warmer down in the States, especially where Aralyn was.
