Crimson Shepherd

By Renee Hewett and Mandy Rosko

Sierra Pan is a Capricorn Red. An Accidental Zodiac who is hunted by the Zodiac Enforcement Agency for her very nature. For the past year she's been keeping a low profile, hiding her aura with a charmed amulet, and staying out of trouble so the Blues don’t capture her.

Because she never wants to wear their magic-nulling cuffs again.

That changes the day two Blues annoy her enough to warrant teaching them a much-deserved lesson. Saving the kid they were picking on was an unexpected added burden, but now they're both targets, forcing Sierra to go on the run with the little foundling while trying to avoid the Blues and come up with a plan for their future.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Celtic Hearts Press
• Release date: Jun 8, 2023
• ISBN: 9781949575750

Book preview

Chapter

One

Sierra Pan awoke to the most annoying sounds.

Goddess, what plans do you have for today? a squeaky female voice asked.

Perhaps today is the day we finally go out and rein chaos and destruction on the world again, said a monotone male basso profundo.

Sierra groaned and pulled her pillow over her head, crossing her arms over top of it in an attempt to squeeze the noise out. If it wouldn’t waste the concealment charm from her amulet, she’d cast something to make those two idiots quiet for once.

Was it too much to ask for them to allow her to sleep in?

And by sleep in, she meant sleep for the whole day, every day. What was the point in getting up, anyway? Her life for the past year had been more than pathetic. She had no job, no purpose. Everything she’d once earned had been ripped away from her, and she now lived in an old abandoned mega mall. Her neighbors in the establishment were a bunch of randos who found themselves on the wrong side of the law, hiding out for one reason or another. The only reason they didn’t get raided on the regular was because Sierra paid off the local cops.

The less attention to this place, the better.

She may have forced her into hiding and unable to live in the lap of luxury like she was used to, but at least she still had fortunes hidden away that she could still access.

Of course, paying off the cops had another benefit: it ensured her neighbors maintained some level of respect and appreciation for her. Not as much as she deserved—being a Zodiac meant she should be worshiped as a goddess—but she had to keep her true nature hidden.

She released the pillow with one hand and touched the amulet around her neck. She wore the thing at all times. It was charmed with a spell that kept her identity a secret, hiding her Red aura so she appeared to be just an average human. The charm held so long as she refrained from using any of her powers. The tiniest Red spell cast, and poof, the charm vanished and her aura was on display for all to see.

Well, for any of the other Zodiacs to see. Humans themselves couldn’t see auras. Sierra would have to actually tell the other mall inhabitants of her status if she wanted their full adoration, but that was something she’d never do. She didn’t trust any of those fuckers not to turn her in, even though her true nature yearned to be revered. She could easily be the leader of the mall, goddess of the shopping center outcasts…

If not for the jealous snitches who would turn her in. Blue worshipers who wanted to earn some notice by turning in a Red.

Which left Sierra with just Racer Readmond and Fawn Beradino, who continued on, babbling about all the nefarious deeds Sierra could do today. It baffled how they’d never given up hope of things returning to the way they were. Yet, every day they showed up and talked about the amazing things Sierra should do.

Turn the whole mall back into a castle! Fawn gushed. I love your mass-morphing power.

Sierra did, too, but now she envisioned not changing the size and shape of the mall, but trapping her minions in crystal prisons, finally ensuring their silence until she actually wanted to hear their voices again.

Which, quite frankly, might be never. Their encouragement may have been fun when she’d had the freedom to act on their ideas, but now it just constantly reminded her of how tied her hands were.

Fawn and Racer were the last of her followers. Loyal even past the bitter end. They’d benefitted when Sierra had been reveling in her wealth and power, back when she’d openly waged war against the Blues. And while all others had ultimately abandoned her, Racer and Fawn remained.

Those fucking Blues. Bunch of holier-than-though pricks who called themselves the Sinless and hunted down the Fallen—the Reds like Sierra. The Blues were openly treated like gods and honestly believed they were the Earth’s protectors. They condemned all with Red auras, denied them the right to use their celestial birthright, and locked them up in prisons. They kept a close watch on those with Purple auras—the wandering, who wavered away from Blue but hadn’t yet turned Red—ready to capture them up when their hue changed in the wrong direction.

The Blues had ruined Sierra’s life. Took everything from her. If she hadn’t managed to escape their custody, she’d be in one of their prisons right now. Well, the Zodiac Enforcement Agency’s prisons, though the ZEA was basically the same as the Blues. Many Blues ended up working for them, though technically the ZEA had some government involvement and human employees who worked alongside the Blues.

They were all her enemies. The Blues and anyone who worked with them.

There were days when Sierra wished the Reds could work together and take down the Blues once and for all, but, alas, her kind tended to be so power-hungry they couldn’t share with one another, let alone work as a team for any common cause. They wouldn’t follow leaders, and they wouldn’t pursue a common goal. Red life was an every Zodiac for themselves situation, one focused mainly on using powers for evil and causing chaos on Earth and in other realms.

The pillow peeled away from Sierra’s face until she saw Fawn holding it. The petite woman quietly asked, May my goddess allow me to brush her hair this morning?

Sierra was perfectly capable of brushing her own hair, but being waited on was the last remnant of her previous life that remained. And Fawn reveled in the honor. The woman dressed her and did her makeup as well, thankful for the chance to be the one and only lady in waiting for a goddess.

As Sierra sat at her kitchen table in the apartment that had once been some sort of retail store, she closed her eyes and could almost pretend that she was still living in her castle, surrounded by an army of minions who did her bidding and cheered on every last of her evil deeds.

Life had been good… until the Blues took her down.

She shivered thinking of those iron cuffs around her wrists. The devices the ZEA created that could not only hold a Red captive, but actually took away their ability to wield their power.

My celestially-blessed power. My birthright.

There might be no rhyme or reason why one person over another was born with the Zodiac powers, but Sierra