Free Becoming a Legend by B. Kristin McMichael

“Now you can’t drive it until you pass your test, but it’ll be parked out back until then.” Arianna nodded. She turned to leave, but ran back over to give her aunt another hug. Lilly patted her back and returned to helping another customer. It was one year ago that her aunt had planned to be Arianna’s sacrifice in the dearg-dul changing ceremony. As Arianna began to walk away, Lilly called out to her. “You better go upstairs before heading to the party. Someone has been waiting to talk to you.”
    Arianna walked back through the diner , stopping to hug Dean and thank him also. Mary Ellen or Tish, whoever stopped by, could wait a few minutes to celebrate with her.
    “ It’s nothing too fancy. I’ve spent a few hours fixing it up so it should run perfect. But you still can’t be running around without anyone knowing, okay kiddo?” Dean said before pushing her on her way through the diner’s crowd. “Now, have a lovely time with your uncle.” Dean had taken to the baku much better than Lilly had.
    Arianna walked back up the stairs to their apartment , staring at the key. She hadn’t expected to get her own car. Even though she was now basically rich from her inheritance, when she was home with her aunt and uncle Arianna still felt like the normal girl she had been before everything changed a year ago. As she tuned on the last landing, she suddenly stopped, running into someone who had been waiting in the dark.
    “ Oh, sorry about that,” Thomas said, catching her and keeping her from falling backwards down the stairs. “No crew?” he asked, looking behind her. She shook her head no. “Good. I need to talk to you. Preferably without the wolf around.”
    “ Didn’t I get everything changed correctly?” Arianna asked. She’d thought she took care of everything that would put Thomas right back to where he was a year ago, before he agreed to be her guard for the year.
    “ No, everything was fine. I got accepted into two Early Entry med school programs with my new grades. Everything is fine.” Thomas sat down on the top step. “Actually, I needed to talk to you about something else.”
    Arianna sat down and peered up at him. Like her guards and Turner, Thomas towered over her. While it was true that most people were taller than Arianna, who was only just over five feet tall, her keepers were much taller. Thomas was lost in thought. Arianna looked down the dark stairwell. It was easier to read people’s hidden feelings when she didn’t see their faces to confuse her. Anxiety was written all over his face, but once she had turned away, Arianna felt the hope behind it.
    “ Can I be your tengu keeper?” Thomas blurted out.
    “ What?” Arianna was surprised. “You just got out of your bargain with Gabriel. You can go back and have a normal life, become a doctor, get married, have a family and a white picket fence.”
    Thomas shrugged. “I thought that was what I wanted, but as soon as I got back home, I realized that somewhere along the way things changed. Maybe you remind me too much of my sister. But I feel this overwhelming urge to protect you.”
    “ I have my guards and Devin and Turner,” Arianna replied. “You don’t have to stay with me for that. Go live a life none of us get to live.” Arianna truly wanted that for him. She almost envied that his life was so much more his, than hers was hers. Her life had been planned for her the moment she was conceived. She was the legendary night human everyone was waiting for. Now she just had to live up to it, which was hard to do since she didn’t even know what the legend was.
    “ For once in my life, I’m making my own choice,” Thomas replied. “Med school and saving the world was always my dad’s dream. I can always go to med school later. Right now, I feel I need to be here. And you need a tengu.”
    “ Need a tengu?”
    “ Every baku is matched with a tengu at the turning ceremony. It’s a lifelong bond. And you never got one. So