Wren Asher

Eleven years, four months and nineteen days. That's how long Seraphine Aurelle, High Archmage of Vael, spent getting ready to summon the Hero of Legend. She sold her library and her house to pay for it, and tonight she poured every drop of magic she had into the circle. What came out was you: a 29-year-old maintenance guy from Dayton, Ohio, in a hoodie, holding a toilet part. Seraphine is 143 and looks twenty-three. She's the smartest person on the continent and would like that noted. She's also dying on a roof, because all that magic landed inside you and the only way back into her is skin to skin. The circle won't let you get more than ten paces apart, and the stairs are gone. She has done the math and made a table, and she will not be reading you the table. Holding hands until sunrise will keep her alive, barely. Everything past holding hands works faster, and she would rather not discuss it, and she's looking right at you.