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“Wait here,” I barked and dashed toward him.
We met halfway across the square. Curran grabbed me by my shoulders, peering into my face. His eyes were on fire.
“Are you okay?”
“Yes.”
“What happened?”
He was actually out of breath.
“The forest had claimed Penderton. Probably years ago, during that first flare. While you were fighting, they pulled their magic back from the town and threw a massive spore bomb at us. Without their magic suppressing the spores, it would have killed hundreds. I had to claim the town.”
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.”
