2. Lyndon

Chapter 2

Lyndon

T here was a lizard man in my garden, destroying my tomatoes. What had I ever done to deserve this?

I aimed my magic at him, hoping he bought the threat. If he were a human, he would be running in the other direction. It didn't matter that I was an earth mage and didn't have any type of offensive magic. Humans never bothered to find out the facts. If your hands were glowing, you were dangerous.

But this guy was some kind of shifter, so I just had to pray to the goddess that he bought my bluff and got the fuck out of here without causing any more trouble.

"Get out of there, now," I snapped.

Today had started out like any other. I'd drank my tea and eaten my toast and then gone out to tend my garden. I had just sat down in my workroom when a blinding light from outside had distracted me. At first, I'd thought someone had been trying to blast through my protection wards around my property. But then, when I'd run outside, I'd realized it must've been a portal of some kind because this reptile shifter was suddenly here, ruining my poor tomato plants.

How had he gotten here, and why was he in his shifted form? Didn't he know how dangerous it was to be running around like that? If he were clamoring through anyone else's garden, it could be a death sentence.

The man clomped his way out of my vegetables. I thought he was trying to be careful, but he was clumsy and awkward and managed to destroy more crops on his way out. I winced and waited. My fingers itched to fix them right now. My poor plants deserved better! But I wouldn't take my attention away from him and risk an ambush. He might have been a parahuman, but it didn't mean I could trust him.

Once he was closer, I finally got a good look at him. What the fuck? He was unlike any shifter I'd ever seen. First off, I didn't know any reptilian shifters personally. Their communities were mostly in desert areas, not the Northeast, so I never met any.

Secondly, he was in some weird hybrid form. His shape was mostly human, with the exception being his face shape and tail. But he stood upright on two legs and was probably around six-feet tall. The guy had scales. Scales that kept changing color. And a forked tongue, and two sets of eyelids?

"Why are you here?" I snapped, letting my magic flare a little brighter. It wouldn't hurt him. My magic couldn't hurt anyone even if I wanted it to, but he didn't know that.

The man blinked at me, and I couldn't decide if it was creepy or fascinating. Maybe a little of both.

"Um . . . I-I don't know. I came through a portal. I'm ssssorry I ruined your garden. Can you just tell me how to get back to Edgewind? Or the nearest portal? I'll get out of your hair as ssssoon as possssible."

He was nervous. The way his eyes kept shifting over the area and how he elongated his s's were a giveaway. But why? Was it because he was lost and confused? Afraid of me? Or was he hiding something?

I tried to make sense of what he was saying, but I just couldn't. What in the goddess was he talking about? Edgewind? The nearest portal? Was he on drugs?

Regardless, he needed to shift to his human form and quickly. My area was protected by wards, but I'd admit they weren't my strong suit, and the humans from town were always sneaking down here to cause mischief. The last thing I needed was for one of them to creep down here and see him. I refused to get tagged because this guy was shifted in an undesignated area.

"Will you shift, for goddess's sake? This isn't a designated shifting area, and I'm certainly not going to get in trouble for your idiocy."

"I-I don't understand. Ssshift into what?"

I rolled my eyes and let my magic fade a little. I wasn't used to holding it for that long, and I could tell this guy was harmless. An idiot, but a harmless one. I still didn't let my guard down completely. I would be the idiot if I trusted him.

"Shift into your human form. You have to know it's illegal to be in your alt form outside of designated areas, and news flash, my home isn't one." It had been hard enough for me to get a license to practice my magic here as it was. If I hadn't agreed to provide healing herbs and other things at a seriously discounted rate, I probably would've been denied.

The guy just stared at me in confusion. Or at least, I assumed that was what the facial expression meant. It was a little hard to tell, with the scales and all, but the head tilt was the quintessential confused look.

"I-I don't have a human form. Some of us do, but I'm not one of them."

A shifter who couldn't shift? I had never heard of such a thing. Though, to be fair, my knowledge on shifters was limited. As I'd been growing up, our coven had stayed far away from other parahumans, and once the Unveiling had occurred, most of the information had been propaganda and blatant lies to scare the humans. Maybe there were some that were always in a hybrid form, but how had they stayed hidden before the Unveiling? It was baffling.

Either way, I knew we couldn't stay out here any longer. It was too dangerous. I was taking a risk, but I would have to bring him inside my home. It went against everything to even consider letting him into my space. A stranger, in my home? Goddess help me, I must have hit my head or something. I didn't even like my family here, let alone strangers.

Yet, my mouth opened against my will. "Come on, let's go inside. It's not safe to stay out here."

The guy blinked, which was unnerving. The inner eyelid would be something I'd have to get used to. No, wait, no I wouldn't. I'd figure out who he was and how he got here, and I'd get him back to where he belonged. He'd be out of my life in a few hours tops. I didn't need to get used to anything.

Finally, he nodded and walked up to me so he was only a few feet away. I gestured my hand in a "you first" motion, and the guy walked by me. As he did, his arm brushed mine.

It was like a lifetime flashed before my eyes in the split second of contact. I saw everything, from the moment the man before me, who was apparently called Darcy, was born to him walking through the portal into my garden . . . and then beyond. I saw us holding hands, cuddled on the swing on my porch, me teaching him how to weed the garden, him showing me how he hunts. I saw us standing in front of a large Victorian house I'd never seen before, a toddler with silver eyes and fire growing out of his fingertips in my arms. I saw us in bed together. And above all, I felt. I felt the love, the relationship. I felt what the future could hold.

It all lasted less than a second. A lifetime of memories was over in the time I could blink. That didn't make the moment any less significant. My coven used to talk about it all the time. That first moment of contact when you met your one true love, your fated person, your soul mate.

My eyes opened as my heart hammered out of my chest. This stranger, Darcy, stood in front of me, shaking, his forked tongue poking out between his lips. I shook my head, praying to the goddess that this was all some sick dream.

No, there he was. This lizard man who couldn't hide if he wanted was very fucking real. And he was my soul mate? "Oh, fuck no. This isn't happening."