Of Blood and Bone (Chronicles of The One #2)(47)

Much too fast.

She put on the parka she’d bartered for fiercely, and had worn every winter for more than a decade, then the hat and scarf Hannah—the only one in the family who could knit worth a damn—had made her for Christmas.

She picked up her briefcase—old and battered and passed to her by New Hope’s first mayor—and left the home she’d come to love for a job she hoped she proved worthy of.

In another life she’d been the youngest child and only daughter of a solid family, born and raised in Brooklyn, happily married to her college sweetheart. She’d worked in her family’s marketing firm, and when she and her Tony learned she carried twins, she’d planned to become a stay-at-home mom and devote herself to motherhood.

Maybe—maybe—she’d help out at MacLeod and MacLeod now and then, but she’d imagined herself taking her babies to the park, hosting playdates, documenting their firsts in pretty baby books, photo albums, videos.

She, along with her mother and mother-in-law, had outfitted and decorated the nursery. And she’d considered herself the luckiest woman in the world.

Then that world crashed down. She’d lost her father and her mother within hours of each other, her brother, her husband, and all of his family, too. In the weeks that followed, alone, grieving, terrified, she’d fought to survive for the lives inside her.

She’d come to believe she’d survived because of the lives inside her.

Now she walked along the sidewalk of a community built by survivors and based on hope. Smoke curled from chimneys into a sky of hard, clear winter blue. She saw no sign of a coming storm, but didn’t doubt the twins’ forecast.

If Tonia handed her an umbrella on a sunny day, Katie took it.

She walked toward the town center, past the house where her former roommate, the town doctor and Hannah’s mentor, lived with her husband—Katie’s hero—and their kids.

And there was the house where Arlys and Will lived with their family.

Lana and Max had lived there once, she remembered, with Poe and Kim and Eddie in the attached apartments.

Now Poe and Kim had a house a block off Main, two kids of their own. And the odd, sweet couple of Eddie and Fred had their little farm on the very edge of New Hope’s boundaries.

And Fred, the cheerful, indefatigable faerie, was expecting her fourth child.

Did Fred worry when Eddie went off as he did today, to scout? Raiders still cruised, Purity Warriors hunted, hard-line factions still cast nets. So much to worry about outside New Hope. And not little to cause concern within.

It looked calm, peaceful, like a small town might in any history book. She saw the open sign on Bygones, the supply shop Bill Anderson ran; the closed sign was still posted on Cut, Color, and Curl, the tiny barber and beauty shop created and operated by a beautician, a barber, and a witch.

The sandwich shop, converted to the community’s police station. The chief of police, Bill Anderson’s son, Will, would be leading the morning’s hunting party. Deputies included a former cop, a shapeshifter, and an elf.

Part-time work for the elf, as Aaron also worked as an instructor at the academy.

A balance, she thought. That was part of the plan, an essential element of the blueprint drafted years before in the living room of her home. A mix of the magickal and non in all aspects, creating a sense of unity.

Most often it worked.

In fourteen years only five people had ever been sentenced to the community’s ultimate punishment. Banishment.

She’d served on the panel for two of the five, and prayed with all she had she’d never be called to do so again.

She paused to watch the dash of a fox, a slinky streak of red through the snow. Then she crossed the quiet street to the old building—once a house, once a real-estate company, and now town hall.

She let herself in, switched on a single light. Power conservation remained a town ordinance.

The mayor went to her office, one she’d chosen for its window overlooking Main Street, sat at her desk, opened her briefcase. And got to work.

Within the hour the town planner arrived with her agenda, and the town clerk with his.

She had reports to read on the converted laptop their head of IT and communications had built for her. Without Chuck, they’d likely need town criers. Or smoke signals.

Supply requests, submitted by various community entities. The schools, the kitchen, the gardens, the clinics.

Refuse reports, power reports—and requests to expand power to areas outside the current grid.

The school and former furniture store—kindergarten through high school—needed more updating and, as always, more supplies. Fifty-eight kids currently attended, she mused, but there would be more.

The town council would meet, discuss, debate, and, she determined, find a way.

The town planner, an energetic woman of seventy, rapped knuckles on Katie’s open door. “Got a minute?”

“Sure. What do you need, Marlene?”

“It’s what we all need. A good cup of coffee and chocolate.”

“Marlene, why do you torture me?”

With a quick, cackling laugh, Marlene walked in on her scarred Timberland boots and sat in one of the wingback chairs Will and Jonah had hauled in for her when she’d taken the office.

“Here’s the deal. Fred, Selina, Kevin, and some of the others think they can do it this time. They think they know what went wrong before.”