CHAPTER FOUR: ADRIANA

It doesn't end with me.

Not yet.

I don't know when the plan starts forming in my head.

But it does.

Trickles of the plan start lighting up in my subconscious mind at the town hall meeting. It is my second day in New Haven, and a lot has happened in the space of twenty-four hours.

The meeting is called by the town elders - the supernaturals who created New Haven and who act as the town's government and administration.

And the meeting is to discuss the situation surrounding the Astera pack.

I ensure that Derrick is comfortable before I leave. He - along with every other shifter in the Astera pack - is too injured to come along to the meeting.

But even though he is still quite weak, he has become strong enough to take showers on his own. That hasn't stopped me from standing anxiously outside the bathroom door with a towel.

Aside from dealing with Derrick's injuries, and all the happenings of the town, I have also been avoiding my mother's calls.

She, along with my sisters have been calling me, messaging me, and sending me psychic letters, trying to get me to come home.

I have washed my hands of them, and they know it. So I am not sure why they continue to bother me.

But I have decided to do something about the prophecy. I am not content with letting the Black Wind Coven fall apart. Not because of me.

And all the prophecy said was that I have to be the leader. It didn't say anything about me having a mate.

It is just coven tradition that each leader of the Black Wind Coven have a mate. They won't let me step up into the leadership role without it.

And as much as my mother will think I am giving in to her, I'll remain in New Haven, and lead the coven remotely.

I don't actually have to be in the States to rule the coven, even if the coven stronghold is in New York. The Black Wind Coven is spread throughout the Northern Hemisphere.

There are Black Wind witches, priestesses, mages, and even a few Fae in almost every country North of the Equator.

My Grandmother once said that the power and might of our coven was akin to the Italian Mafia.

And the more I learn about the coven - from information provided by my father - the more I agree with my Grandmother.

The Black Wind Coven owns clubs, shopping centers, property, temples, banks, and even a few abandoned military bases.

We have initiation practices, as well as hazing rituals, to prove loyalty to the coven.

It is barbaric, and one I rise to leadership, I will be disbanding all these old traditions.

I finish my coffee while thinking of all the changes I will make, and then hear the town's bell ringing. And after making sure - again - that Derrick is comfortable, I leave.

And the minute I leave my apartment, I feel waves of power rushing up to me. Every supernatural being in New Haven is walking to the town's center and our combined power oozes from us.

It is almost overwhelming to feel the power of every other witch, wizard, mage, Fae, or Incubus as I continue walking.

And, for the first time in my life, I feel at home.

I have noticed that not everyone in New Haven is super friendly. But everyone, and I mean everyone, is respectful. And the town definitely puts on a united front.

Certain people, groups, or beings might keep to themselves. But the scent of loyalty hangs thick in the air.

The plan is still forming when I take my seat on one of the chairs that have been set up in a half circle in the town's center.

(They'd never set the chairs up in a full circle, only because all our magic would cast the circle. And none of us have the energy to deal with summoning something this early in the morning.)

"So, everyone, thank you for coming!" Evangeline, the leader of the town council steps up to the center of the half circle.

She is interesting. She is half Fae, half Witch, and must be a few centuries old. She is stunning, but I can see the centuries of age in the lines of her face.

I can also smell the power coming off her.

She is dressed casually, like most of us are. Evangeline wears a pair of sneakers, a tee-shirt, and jeans. She has tawny brown skin, and curly red hair.

Her eyes are silver, and her ears are pointed. She wears a lot of jewelry, and when she turns, the morning sun reflects off the silver and gold that she wears.

When I look past Evangeline and the rest of the council seated behind her, I can see the large, dark patch of earth where the Astera compound used to be.

I can smell the smoldering of the still-burning earth from where I sit. I shudder as visceral memories wash over me.

Memories that aren't mine.

Memories of skin on fire, of rushing flames, of hot ash singing hair and fur.

Memories of a curse, a curse that forced the shifters to be stuck between two forms. A curse so excruciatingly painful that it would haunt the children it had affected for years to come.

I shake the memories off.

I am simply seeing what Derrick sees in his sleep. I am simply seeing Derrick's nightmares.

They are so wild, so large, so all-encompassing that they have leaked from his unconsciousness and are even affecting me.

"What we can do for the Astera pack, a pack who has remained loyal to us for years, is raise money for them to rebuild. However, this will take a lot out of the town's coffers, as the cost of our ley line tithes has risen in recent years."

"We can continue sheltering them," an old witch grumbled next to me. Their hair was also red, like Evangeline, but I was sure that they were neither man nor woman.

"But maybe they should just leave, and find somewhere else to set up camp."

"No!" There was a clear reprimand in Evangeline's voice. Everyone else had gasped at the suggestion too.

"This town wouldn't be where it is now without the Astera pack. Derrick, the Alpha, dug the foundations for the town hall. He found the ley lines, and through his engineering skills, discovered how to harness the power of the ley lines."

Derrick becomes more interesting, the more I learn about him. My face grows warm when I think about him, earlier this morning.

We both woke early, and after I showered, he used the bathroom. I caught a peek of him coming out of the shower, with only a towel wrapped around his waist.

I shift in my chair as my entire body grows warm.

"Fine," a Fae person shouts. "But you just said that we'll have to raise the money to help them! Because the town cannot afford it. How do you propose we do that? We can't keep housing them forever, because they'll want their own space soon!"

Many other people shouted their own agreement, and Evangeline nodded, before looking back at the council.

"We'll come up with a plan everyone. Please. We aren't economically bereft you know. We trade with the other towns, as well as the humans who know about us. We trade with the Fae realms. We are self-sufficient. We can do this."

And with that the meeting is over. And the plan has formed in my mind.

And now I have to head home, to my nice new apartment, and make a proposal to Derrick Brown.

I just hope that he'll accept.