Page 21 of Saved By Her Guardian
They strode over to the door and greeted the two elves.
“Sorry about this,” Drea said.“I was working in the office and Santa said he’d make sure I had coal in my stocking this year if I didn’t get my magic replenished tonight.”
Maverick chuckled.“You office workers always seem to want to hold off for the longest time when it comes to replenishing your magic.”His alpha female Ivy said she’d been the same way.They always got too busy this time of year to deal with it, but their magic had to be replenished or it would fade to nothing.
Eira hugged her arms around herself.“Tinsel, it’s cold.Let’s get this done.There’s a mug of hot cocoa calling my name in my apartment.”
He and Heath walked the females to the Well.The Well was useless for shifters since they weren’t magical, but he could feel the pulse of magic in the air as they neared the bottomless pit where the world’s magic was housed.Above them, the Northern Lights danced, painting streaks of bright yellows and greens against the dark sky.
When the females were finished replenishing their magic, they walked them back to the building and said goodnight, and then continued on their rounds.They were at the very back of the perimeter near the perpetually frozen lake when Maverick had the strangest feeling.
He stopped and looked around.
Were they being watched?
He didn’t see anything, but he felt like something was out of place.
“You all right?”Heath asked when he noticed that Maverick hadn’t moved along with him.
He hummed and looked around again.When he opened his mouth to tell Heath that he wasn’t sure, he saw an odd, purple glow just barely visible over the buildings.It seemed to come from the direction of the Portal.
“Something’s wrong,” he said.“I can…shit, I can feel Aralyn, but she shouldn’t be here.”
Without a word, he raced toward the Portal, calling on his leopard for strength and speed.Heath was running alongside him, calling on his walkie for backup at the Portal.
At first, he didn’t see anything.The Portal wasn’t glowing as if someone had used it to come to Northernmost.
But that feeling persisted.
Then, as he heard the pounding feet of other security members joining them, he saw movement on the other side of the Portal, outside of the magical perimeter.
“Aralyn!”He charged through the perimeter.His mate was standing in front of the Portal, her hand inches from touching it, and something dark between her finger and thumb.
She slowly looked at him, and he almost took a step back.Her eyes were glowing an unnatural blue, and there was a strange purple aura around her.
He moved toward her and there was static in the air, like an electric barrier.
“What are you doing?What is that?”
She blinked a few times and then said, “The Portal is damaged and I have to fix it.It’s what I need to do to get a new assignment from the ancient reaper.This is the way we can be together, and I don’t have to cry while I work.”
“What are you talking about?The Portal isn’t damaged.”He moved toward her, pushing through the strange static field, his leopard snarling in his head.She didn’t sound right, and she didn’t look right.Something was very wrong with her, but he didn’t know what.
“What’s going on out there?”Sebastian’s voice came across someone’s walkie.
“Aralyn?What are you doing?”Maverick said.He reached for her, wrapping his hand around her wrist.The moment he touched her, the strange purple glow faded and her eyes stopped glowing.
“Maverick?”she asked, blinking wide eyes at him.
“Aralyn, where did you get this thing?”he looked at the strange black stone poised just inches from the Portal.
“A reaper.”
“You don’t need to do this to change your assignment.I’ll be there with you for all of it.This isn’t the way.Something is off about this whole thing.Dangerous.Evil.”
Her brows furrowed and her knuckles turned white as she squeezed the stone tighter.
“I…I’m worthy of a better assignment.”Her tone was off, like she didn’t trust her own words.
