I hugged him, and he gripped me to him, his chest rising and falling fast. I heard his heart hammer.
“Are you okay? Do you feel okay?” he asked.
“Yes.”
I felt better than okay. The magic of Penderton splashed around me, strong and exhilarating. The urge to claim and hold land was bred into my family. We called it the Shar, and it was a possessive, overwhelming beast. But like many things, controlling it got easier with practice, and I had practiced for years, claiming and releasing a small patch of land every week. I felt it nip at me now, but its bites were shallow.
This wasn’t my land. I’d picked it up into my palm like an injured bird I had to shield until I could take it to safety, and once the danger passed, I would whisper my goodbyes and release it. The thought of it brought me no anxiety.
“It’s only temporary,” I told him. “I’m okay. Really.”
“Good.” He took a deep breath and exhaled.
“Sorry,” I told him. “There was no other way.”
I’d had no idea what I was doing when I had claimed Atlanta years ago. I didn’t know about the Shar back then, and I had no defenses against it. It had almost twisted me into a tyrant. Curran had witnessed me descend into the dark hole, and he was the one who helped me climb out.
“It’s not a problem. I mean it.” And of course, that sounded like denial. “And if it becomes a problem, I’ll tell you. I give you my word.”
“I believe you,” he said.
“I promise—”
“You don’t need to convince me, baby. I trust you. You’ve known this place was claimed from the moment we’ve arrived. You told me that on the road.”
“Yes.”
“Your aunt always said that the Shar is the strongest when there is competition. It would’ve pushed you to make the land yours, but you didn’t claim the town until you had no choice. If you had an issue with control, you would’ve grabbed Penderton as soon as we got here.”
He was right.
“I’m not worried about it,” he said.
“I love you,” I told him. I meant to tell him how much it meant to me, but I love you was what came out.
“I love you, too. I think I need a damn heart transplant.”
“Why?”
“I saw you almost fall off the fucking roof,” he growled.
Oh.
“I thought I’d have to catch you.” He looked past me at Troy and Rimush in the doorway of the courthouse. “What the fuck were you two doing?”
He hadn’t lost it because of the claiming. He lost it because of my graceful slide down the roof. I was so stupid.
“How did neither of you manage to grab her?”
Troy winced. Rimush blinked.
“What were you going to do?” I asked. “Were you really going to try to catch me?”
“Yes.”
“From the third floor? Your arms would break off.”
“They’d grow back,” he growled.
Technically, he was right, but it would take years. I needed to redirect this before he started roaring at my two nannies. “Shouldn’t we go back to the fight?”
“It’s over,” he said. “We won. Why the hell didn’t you stay in the tower, Kate?”
“Because the last time I claimed something, the roof above me exploded. You were there, remember? I didn’t want to blow up their courthouse tower. It’s pretty…” Also, that bell could’ve fallen on our heads.
He swore, turned around, his fingers locked around my wrist, and started back the way he came, pulling me with him.
“You’re the best husband ever,” I told him.
“No more fucking roofs, Kate. I mean it.”
Troy and Rimush followed us. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Gene, who had finally made it down the stairs, appear in the doorway of the courthouse. He watched us with an odd expression on his face. I’d freaked out Mayor Gene. I’m sure he wasn’t the only one. There would be fallout.
That was fine. Better freaked out and alive than calm and dead.
“I met Conlan at Dad’s,” I said. “He identified Isaac’s weird elephant critter. It’s a Cuvieronius hyodon, a species of gomphotheres, which are loosely related to modern elephants.”
“Mhm,” he said.
“They’ve been extinct for twelve thousand years.”
Curran stopped and looked at me.
“According to my father, it is possible for a living creature to survive in a magically induced coma from the Ice Age until now, although he doesn’t recommend it. This explains the unusually furry manticores and the abnormally large lupine shapeshifters. They are not Canis lupus. They are Aenocyon dirus. Dire wolf shapeshifters.”
He was still looking at me and not saying anything.
“Also, I think I might have killed a were-sabertooth tiger. I did wonder why her fangs were so long.”
“Doesn’t matter,” he said. “Ice Age or not, we’re going in there and clearing that place out. That’s all there is to it.”
“I told Conlan he could come.”
“Good,” Curran said. “He’s earned it.”
The cleanup of the manticore bodies took a good two hours. There was some discussion about burning them, but we’d been traumatized by the awful sooty smoke that had risen from the rhino when it was burned. The stench had been indescribable. I could still smell traces of it.
A decision was made to dump the bodies into a conveniently available trench that had been dug out by the town previously because it needed dirt for some municipal reasons. Kate had assured me that unlike the rhino, the manticores were magically inert. That the chances of them springing out of the ground as something dangerous were relatively low. I trusted her on it.
We dragged the manticore bodies to the trench, and then Kate caused a tiny earthquake, collapsing the pit walls to bury the corpses. I knew she was already pretty tired from the claiming, and spending any more magic would probably knock her off her feet. There would be no going into the woods today. She’d need a day to recover, and I wanted my people to rest a little. They’d earned it.
We needed to discuss Conlan’s theory, so I decided we’d have lunch on the edge of the woods, where we wouldn’t be overheard. Keelan’s shapeshifters brought out food, drinks, and blankets to sit on. The day was warm. The sun shone bright from the blue sky, and a light breeze kept things refreshing. It felt almost cheerfuclass="underline" a cozy little picnic, just us and some friends, eating by the scary woods, across from a mass grave and a burning pit filled with corrupted, toxic ashes. I’d need to do something about that before I left Penderton to its own devices.
Kate explained the Ice Age theory and passed the paleontology book around. They took it better than expected.
“Explains the rocks and the spears,” Da-Eun said. “I’ve been wondering why they didn’t deploy archers. They probably don’t have the technology.”
“They might not have needed to develop it,” Troy said. “Their throwing skills are above and beyond.”
“What about the spearheads?” Hakeem asked. “Bronze?”
“Bone,” Kate told him.
We’d managed to retrieve only one spear, the first one the hunters had thrown at her. They had picked up the rest. I hadn’t looked at it until today.
“So I’ve killed a Smilodon,” Keelan said.
Kate took a sip of her iced tea. “Probably.”
He’d be insufferable now. We’d never hear the end of this.
Andre turned the book around, showing off an illustration of a huge bear. “Bulldog bear. Fastest bear that ever lived. Five feet at the shoulder on all fours, twelve feet when standing on hind legs. Runs at forty miles per hour and weighs one thousand five hundred pounds.”