Chapter 1

McKayla rolled her eyes at the sign that welcomed her to Scaphis Valley. “The Land of Milk and Honey,” it read. “Population: 6313.”

How do they even know that? she asked herself. Is that number going to go up for the week that I’m here? Almost as if responding to her thoughts, she noticed a truck pull up beside the sign. As they approached, a burly man pulled out a ladder and a bucket of paint and began climbing.

But it wasn’t the specificity of the number that bothered her the most - it was the size of it. Barely six thousand people. How could anyone live like that?

McKayla was a city girl - currently living in New York, after her home town of Chicago had begun to bug her. It might have been the country’s third-largest city, but it still felt like a small town in many ways, and that was not a feeling that McKayla liked.

So why was she heading into Scaphis Valley, home of six thousand, three hundred and ... fourteen people now, she supposed.

She swiped at the lock-screen of her phone, and began texting her boyfriend.

“Almost in,” she wrote. “Pick me up in five?”

“Sure thing,” Theo responded, almost as soon as she finished typing. “See you soon.”

McKayla hadn’t specified where the bus was dropping her off. In a town this size, she didn’t have to.

When McKayla and Theo had met, three years earlier, they’d both been living in Chicago. They’d gotten along almost immediately - the pair were both vegetarians, they shared an easy sense of humor, had similar taste in music and films, and there was an intense physical spark between them.

In fact, it hadn’t been until they’d been together for almost a year that McKayla had discovered that she wasn’t at all Theo’s type.

“What do you mean?” she’d asked, not sure whether or not she should be hurt.

“Just that ... well, you’re not the kind of girl I would normally go for.”

McKayla wrinkled her nose.

“For real?”

She wasn’t a particularly cocky person, but McKayla knew she looked good. When a model hadn’t shown up for a photoshoot at her marketing agency, someone had suggested McKayla step in ... and the idea had been taken seriously.

It wasn’t that McKayla was model-level gorgeous - she was attractive, but she never stopped traffic or evoked proposals from strangers. It was mostly just that she had a look which was very “in” at that moment - she had tattoos running up both of her slender arms; a dragon wrapped around her right forearm, and an inspirational quote surrounded by flowers on her left.

She had a collection of black and grey beanies, which she’d gotten a lot of use out of throughout New York’s wintery months, and she was almost always dressed in a leather jacket.

“I think you’re gorgeous,” Theo had been quick to clarify, and she’d laughed at the apologetic tone of his voice. She’d decided not to be mad at him - after all, he wasn’t exactly her type either. She normally went for guys a bit taller, more muscular. Theo kept in shape, but he had a runner’s frame - McKayla’s ideal guy was more Thor than Loki.