Sunny wished there was a spell that would magically make her legs stop aching. She’d been on her feet for the last seven hours, and she still had an hour to go before her shift at the Bewitched Bean ended. She hadn’t expected to work so long on her first shift, but the afternoon shift worker had called in sick, and the boss had begged her to stay on and help. Sunny had protested that she barely knew how to run the cash register, let alone the espresso machine, but her boss had waved away her concerns.
“You’re doing great. You’re a total natural at this, Sunny. I’m sure you can handle anything our customers can throw at you.”
Sunny wasn’t sure how much of a compliment it was to be told she was a “natural” at making coffee, but she did need money. She agreed to stay and so far had fumbled her way through. The magical brews were easiest. Once she got the hang of the spells, she was whipping up Hocus Pocus Hazelnut Lattes and Mystical Mint Mochas as though she’d been making them for years instead of hours. Sunny had always been good at learning new magic, and coffee spells weren’t that challenging. The nonmagical drinks were harder. When a bear shifter came in and ordered a toasted honey latte, Sunny had stared at the order screen for several confused moments until her coworker had finally let out an exasperated sigh.
“I swear, every new hire we get is dumber than the last. You just handle the cash register and I’ll make the drinks.”
Sunny had been tempted to yell out that she wasn’t dumb. It was her first day on the job for Pete’s sake, and she’d never worked in a coffee shop before. She was doing the best she could, and she thought she was doing pretty well, considering the circumstances. But she bit back her frustrations and moved to take over the cash register without a word of protest. Taking people’s money was a lot easier than making drinks. If Sunny could just swipe credit cards and make correct change for an hour, she would be free to go home and collapse into bed. Well, collapse onto the couch at least. She still hadn’t set up her bedroom furniture, and she had a feeling she wasn’t going to be in the mood to assemble a bed when she got home.
A gorgeous wizard came in and ordered a Hocus Pocus Latte, flirting with Sunny during the whole transaction. Normally, Sunny would have enjoyed the attention, but right now she just wanted to get through the rest of her shift. Thankfully, after the wizard paid for his drink, there was a lull in customers. For the first time in several hours, Sunny felt like she could catch her breath. She straightened out her apron and then straightened out the tip jar. She grabbed a wet rag and began wiping the top of the counter down, all the while avoiding eye contact with her coworker, who was huffing about by the espresso machines, still angry over Sunny’s incompetence, it would seem.
Sunny frowned, and resisted the urge she had to go give the girl a piece of her mind. Sunny had moved to Torch Lake to avoid drawing attention to herself. Starting a big argument on the first day of her new job, even if she did have a good reason to, hardly seemed like the best way to “lay low.”
And so, Sunny focused all her energy on cleaning down the countertops, scrubbing them until they were sparkling, and then scrubbing some more. She fumed as she scrubbed, but she remained silent.
Being treated like an incompetent was a new feeling for Sunny, who had spent most of her life as the most talented wizard in the room. She’d excelled at the Academy of Ancient Magic back in her hometown of Eagle Thicket, and had been slated as the most likely wizard to replace her mentor Barnabas, the Head of the Academy, when he reached retirement age. That had been before the Dark War though. Now, the Academy of Ancient Magic didn’t exist anymore. Neither did her hometown. The whole thing had been burned to the ground, and rumor was that Barnabas had died in the fire, along with everyone else in her clan.
Sunny gritted her teeth and blinked back the tears that threatened to fall. What good would it do her to cry? None of the family or friends she had lost could be brought back, and, besides, she wasn’t the only one who had lost everything. Torch Lake itself existed because of the sheer numbers of wizards and shifters who had been left homeless and clanless by the War. This city is where all the misfits and vagabonds came to settle down. It’s where those without a family came to find a new family. And, despite her coworker’s impatience, Sunny had already seen a great deal in Torch Lake to give her hope. The sheer diversity here astounded her. You could find every type of shifter imaginable. Just today, she’d met wolves, bears, panthers, lions, and even a rare crocodile shifter! And wizards specializing in every form of magic lived here as well. In some ways, this was Sunny’s dream town. She could observe and learn about types of magic she had only been able to read about in books before the War. This city was a melting pot, a mish-mash of everyone and everything.
Which made it the perfect place for Sunny to hide who she really was.
As best Sunny could tell, anyone who knew anything about her old life had died in the War. Sunny herself would likely be dead now, if it hadn’t been for the last minute decision her old clan’s High Council had made the week before their city went up in flames. With the Great Dark War closing in on them, and the threat of Dark Magic growing stronger, the Eagle Thicket High Council had sent Sunny into hiding.
She remembered it like it was yesterday. She had been in the middle of a routine alchemy practice session at the Academy when a messenger from the High Council burst into the room.
“Sunny Rivera?” he asked.
“That’s me,” she said, looking up in surprise.
“You’re to come with me, immediately, by order of the High Council.
Sunny apologized to the professor she’d been practicing with, and quickly followed the messenger to the High Council building a few blocks away. The High Councilors pulled her into their conference room and closed all the doors, posting guards outside to make sure no one eavesdropped.
“Sunny Rivera,” the Head Councilor said, “We’ve seen your research work at the Academy of Ancient Magic, and we’ve been told by numerous wizards that you have a better grasp of ancient magic than even some of the elders there.”
“Th-thank you, your Honor,” Sunny said, unsure of why he was telling her this.
“Sunny,” he said, folding his arms across his chest. “The High Council has been closely monitoring the war, as you know. With dark magic closing in, we feel it is important to send one of our strongest ancient magic wizards into hiding, somewhere far from here. That way, if we are attacked, and everyone at the Academy is killed, the knowledge of ancient magic will still live on. We can no longer afford to concentrate all of our Ancient Magic Specialists in one spot.”
“Okay,” Sunny said, still not quite understanding.
“Sunny, we’re sending you away, into hiding. Immediately. You’ll be sent somewhere safe to weather the War, and when it’s over, hopefully you’ll have a home to come home to. But if not, you must promise us that you will carry on the ancient magic traditions.”
That had been the last day Sunny saw any of her clanmates. She’d been whisked away to safety, and just in time. The forces of evil had started a massive search for ancient magic wizards, and her hometown had not been able to prepare proper defenses in time. Now, as far as she knew, she, Sunny Rivera, was the last of the ancient magic wizards.
But she sure as hell wasn’t going to tell anyone. Ancient magic was the reason her old clan had been hunted down and destroyed. Anyone who possessed the knowledge that she had was a threat to evil so strong that the forces of evil would stop at nothing to destroy her—and anyone close to her. Sunny didn’t want to live with that kind of fear, and so she buried her true self deep inside of her.
There had been sacrifices, sure. She could have taken a high paying job in any shifter-wizard city, if she’d only shown the High Council what she was capable of. Instead, she had struggled to get by on the meager salary provided by a string of retail and restaurant jobs. But she had managed, and now, she’d scraped up enough to move to Torch Lake, which she’d been told was the place to be for anyone who truly wanted to leave the past behind.
And there was nothing Sunny wanted more than to leave the past behind. She’d been worried before she left Falcon Cross, the last city she’d lived in, that people were starting to suspect that she was hiding something. She’d been happy to get out of there before she was discovered.
“Sunny! Earth to Sunny!”
Sunny stopped scrubbing the counter and looked up, rushing back to the present moment at the sound of her coworker screaming out her name.
“Do you wanna maybe take this guy’s order?”
Sunny blinked in surprise. She had been so absorbed in her thoughts that she hadn’t even heard the bell above the front door jingle. She looked over at the front counter and then did a double take. There, waiting to order his coffee, was her neighbor. He looked different in the light of day, and with his hair and clothes dry instead of soaking wet. There was no mistaking his eyes, though. It was him. And damn, was he one good looking dragon. She’d heard people rave before about how handsome dragon shifters were, but she’d never seen one up close. Now that she had, she could definitely say that the rumors were true. Clint’s sharp green eyes, deep chestnut hair, and chiseled face all made her stomach do a delicious little flip-flop.
“Clint!” she managed to squeak out. “Good to see you again.”
“I didn’t know you worked here,” he said.
He did not sound pleased.