I’m running, staggering, stumbling through the darkness, knowing he’s ahead. Alone. Doing the one thing I begged him not to.

It’s going to get him killed.

Panting breaths expel mist, the chill air of the silent forest engulfing, swallowing me whole, while the black beast ghosts past me, two more soaring by on wings. A shadow and his pale companion, gone into the night.

I’m too late, I’m sure of it, and yet I cannot slow my steps, will never retreat. Never abandon him though he’s left me behind.

He’s about to give his life to protect me. Why won’t he let me do the same for him?

The unexpected rush of power hits me, a blast of hot magic exploding outward with such force it strikes me like a blow, silent and invisible, bowing trees towering overhead with the same might as it impacts me. I’m unprepared, terror in control, leaving me open to the impact, throwing me back. The unyielding trunk of the tree stops my flight with a crunch of bone and bark. It takes my desperate breath, fading consciousness prickling with frenzied dread and the searing agony of burning power, as I claw toward the surface but fail, the dark taking me to silence on the other side.

All I hear is the rush of wings, the dog barking, barking.

And the sound of him screaming my name—

***

Chapter One

Who knew I owned so much stuff? Or that it would take up all this space in so many boxes I could barely navigate the rather substantial living room. Gathering things appeared to be one of my vices, though I hadn’t noticed when I’d packed up my old place on the East coast for this journey to the West and a new beginning.

Especially since I’d done so in a hurry with more than a little magic aiding in the actual stuffing of my plethora of belongings into their temporary containment.

I’d told myself I wasn’t running away, almost believed it. Except, as I stood on the threshold of what was meant to be an open space with a spectacular expanse of the clifftop Pacific Ocean view (all there was to see from that vantage), said panorama had been so crammed with cardboard and plastic-wrapped furniture and the detritus of my last life I could barely glimpse the water. Surely such blockage wasn't an omen. More likely, I had to admit my rapid retreat from who I used to be really had been a bit of a scramble out of the way of everything I knew and my concerns about foretelling were just another excuse to avoid the truth.

I ran. So be it.

“I’m going to unpack the old-fashioned way.” I glanced down at the giant, black mastiff, his huge, flat head higher than my waist, those dark eyes looking up at me with quiet confidence. “Take my time. Enjoy the experience.”

“Whatever you want, Mother,” Benjamin said in his deep baritone. “Will it be fun?”

I still thanked the stars and elements they’d rejected him from Black Hound Guard candidacy two years ago. That gave me the opportunity to swoop in and adopt him the moment he’d lost his standing. Benny had the heart of a sweet little boy, not exactly the kind of personality they were looking for in Guild Hades and the very reason he’d been booted from training in the first place.

My gain and joy. I grinned down at him, ruffling his fur, happy they didn’t get the chance to dock his ears or tail as was the order’s typical initiation for successful candidates. Made him look goofy rather than threatening, though his larger-than-average size didn’t help in the trust me, I’m a good boy department.

“We’ll make it fun,” I said. “Pick a box, Benny. Let’s see what we packed.”

His ears perked, tail wagging aggressively while he sniffed around the stacked boxes, but he didn’t get to choose. His giant head instead swiveled suddenly, soft woof escaping just as someone knocked on the door.

I guess unpacking was going to have to wait.

As I wound my way past the few boxes I’d discarded on the white and gray tiled floor, heading for my visitor and the kitchen door, Benjamin hung back a little, sitting within a few feet but keeping his distance. It always saddened me when he thought he needed to hold back, though it was in his nature to care that strangers—non-threatening ones, that was—weren’t instantly taken aback by his size and presence.

Something I rarely considered, since I was so used to him by now. Did I mention he was a good and sweet boy?

The woman’s face on the other side of the glass seemed cheery enough, though I realized as I opened the way to her, that I’d forgotten to finish setting my property wards. Nothing overt, just a gentle repelling spell to keep my borders clear of unnecessary contact.

You’re already thinking ill of me, aren’t you? It wasn’t that I wanted to scare the normal neighbors off or anything, but I’d always had a penchant for introversion and this new start in human society without the surrounds of the paranormal powered meant special attention to my privacy so they didn’t see things that would send them running, screaming, and looking for torches and pitchforks.

Fitting in meant keeping them out, as weird as that sounded.

No luck with my present guest, however, the middle-aged blonde with her huge, green eyes and magnetic smile stepping across my threshold as soon as I gave her the opportunity, reaching out with her two hands, the casserole dish hovering hopefully between us.

“Hello there, neighbor!” At least she didn’t have that kind of piercing and irritating voice that could turn this conversation—and every one after—into torture until I was forced to take magical steps. “Welcome to Whitewitch Island.” She carried on rather quickly, turning to nod to the young woman I only just noticed at her side, equally cheery and with enough familial resemblance they had to be mother and daughter. “This is Holly,” she said, “and I’m Olive. We’re the Henry’s.” Again with the proffering of the dish. I reached for it with tentative hands, though the scent escaping it ensured the contents were surely delicious. At the very least, I could feed it to Benjamin ,and accepting a food offering seemed the normal neighborly thing to do.

Does this mean I have to cook for them now? I sent that frantic and yet amused question to my mastiff.

I think that would be lovely of you, he sent back. You’re so thoughtful, Mother.

That dog.

“Is that a mastiff?” Holly’s eyes lit up and, before I could answer, she rushed to Benjamin, offering her hand for him to sniff. He did so with the grace and elegance of his breed. That is, he slobbered on her, but she didn’t seem to mind, cooing to him and hugging him as he leaned into her and groaned his delight when she immediately rubbed his ears. Holly’s mother-matching green eyes met mine, wide and excited. “What’s his name?”

“Benjamin,” I said, unable to prevent my own smile at his happiness and her obvious love of animals. We’d get along if that was the case.

“Holly, honey, don’t maul our new neighbor’s dog.” Olive eye-rolled at me, but her perky grin told me she didn’t mean the chastisement. “She wants to be a vet someday.”

“An excellent career choice,” I said. Stood in the following silence, smiling and yet feeling the awkwardness grow between us while Olive looked at me with some expectation.

Mother, Benjamin sent, I think they’d like to know who you are now that they’ve introduced themselves. Is that right?

Legion and league, I was an idiot. “Georgia Drake,” I blurted, setting Olive’s dish on the counter before shaking her hand. “So nice of you to welcome us like this.” Fitting in was going to be more of a problem than I thought if I couldn’t even manage basic social conduct.

But Olive didn’t seem to take offense, her smile stretching further while she pumped my arm up and down with both of hers clasping my hand between hers. “We’ve been wondering who was moving into the old Miller house,” she said, “haven’t we, Holly honey? She was hoping for a new friend her age.” Olive looked around, blinking and smile fading. “Are you on your own, Georgia? Husband or kids?”

“Mom,” Holly said, clearly appalled at her mother’s forwardness, but I shrugged, accustomed far more than they knew to such direct questions. Normal humans were so careful with one another while paranormals tended toward the excessively nosy. Hard not to be in a society where hiding your truths meant a lack of trust and magic made almost everything impossible to disguise anyway.

“It’s all right, really,” I said, leaning one hip against the counter and watching Holly continue to give Benjamin the kind of scratches that meant I’d have a giant pile of black hair to clean up when she was done. “Just me, and Benny here. And I have two other friends, though they have feathers.” The ravens had flown off the moment we’d arrived, hardly surprising they wanted to check out their new territory.

Again, Holly looked up at me with those huge, happy eyes of hers. “Is the white raven yours?” I nodded while she shivered. “She’s so pretty.”

“Conscio and Caprice kind of own me,” I laughed. “They should be home later and I’m sure they’d love to meet you.” The mated pair, one black, one white, were my only real concern moving to a normal community. Though I’d spelled them both—and they possessed protective magic of their own—if someone decided they were good target practice I might have to take steps and that would mean dead bodies and leaving Whitewitch Island under a memory-erasing spell that would land me in prison.

“That would be amazing, wouldn’t it, Holly?” Olive clasped her hands together in front of her chest, her light knit sweater rolled to her forearms exposing a tattoo that had me frowning a little. But a quick and hopefully unobtrusive scan told me she wasn’t one of us, not at all. In fact, she was so human it hurt. Why then did she bear the mark of Guild Hecate?

I kept the question to myself as Olive spoke again.

“Sweetie, we should let Georgia get back to her unpacking.” Holly gave Benjamin one more pat and a kiss on the forehead to which he swiped her aggressively with his giant, pink tongue before she reluctantly left him to rejoin her mother. “Maybe we can take you for dinner tonight?” Hadn’t she just brought me dinner? I almost protested but second-guessed and nodded back.

“Thank you,” I said.

“We can do a tour of Circe, of course.” Olive slipped her arm around her daughter’s shoulder, the matching set of green eyes and shoulder-length blonde hair over sweaters and tank tops and shorts and sneakers almost making me blink. “6PM? We’re just down the lane.” She pointed out my kitchen door to a blue cottage visible over the gentle crest of the hill. I’d noted it as my closest neighbor on the road that led into town. “Meet us at our place and we’ll walk into Circe together.”

“I’ll see you then.” I waved while they walked away, realizing while the visit was nice enough, I actually shut the door and backed off, feeling a little overwhelmed by all that normalcy.

“I like Holly, Mother,” Benjamin said. “She’s nice. And so is Olive.”

Of course, he liked them. He liked everyone. I needed to take a page from his adorable book of sweetness.

Look at me, all friendly and accepting casseroles and living with normals, and having dinner with the neighbors.

This had been the plan, after all, so I only had myself to blame.

Wouldn’t you know, Olive and Holly were only my first visitors?