Page 102 of Woods of the Raven

“It’s fine. I’m just going to fly down there and take a look,” I told him, leaping into the air above the hole and, as always, thinking fly.

I was a flock of ravens in the blink of an eye, dropping down into the chasm and immediately hitting the barrier. It felt like a membrane, stretching and stretching so very thin, and then, finally, it popped, allowing me through while it remained intact. As I was living, the barrier couldn’t absorb me, so I passed through unharmed. It was strong, far more robustly made than others I’d seen, but those had all been much smaller. The moment I breached it, I had to adjust in midair, out of my dive, and then I landed gently between bodies on the dirt floor.

As my fire could go where I went, it followed me through the barricade, and now I could see that the bodies weren’t stacked haphazardly, one atop the other. They hadn’t been thrown down into the hole; they had to have been individually lowered and placed. Each corpse was carefully positioned, one next to the other, gently, reverently, hands crossed on their chests, both men and women, and their clothes, which looked to be from the mid-1800s, were in immaculate condition. The bodies themselves all appeared to be sleeping, not dead, so much so that for a moment my brain ridiculously concluded that Lorne and I had discovered a nest of vampires.

I wasn’t in a slip, it wasn’t a trap, but rather a hoard, as I’d initially thought to be far more likely. Someone had wanted these bodies to remain here undisturbed. In theory, they had planned for them to be there only a short time, as I’d never heard of a hoard being a long-term plan. Clearly, something had gone awry.

“Come out of there right fuckin’ now!” Lorne roared.

I wanted to speak to him, to tell him I was okay and that there was nothing in the pit that could harm me. But to do that, I would need to shift back to human form. Since there was not nearly enough room for me to run and shift back into raven form if I became a human, I remained the flock I was and did as he asked. I flew up, felt the barrier catch me, hold me momentarily, and when I punched through it again, I felt it collapse. It almost pulled me down, but I flew fast, to Lorne, shifting near him before stepping into his open arms. He tucked me tight against him.

“We have to get outside,” I rushed out the warning.

He shuttled me through the door quickly and we ran back over to where his Jeep was. Once there, he passed me my clothes so I could put everything back on, just as we both heard the sound of thunder.

“You broke it, didn’t you?” Lorne asked as I sat on the ground to put on my socks and shoes.

“I did. Yes. The second time I went through.”

“Should I be driving us away?” He helped me to my feet.

“No, we should be—oh,” I gasped as the ground shook, and Lorne grabbed me. It was comforting to be clutched tight.

And then there was that sound like thunder again before the dilapidated roof was blown off the top of the barn, hurled hundreds of feet in the air, then came down on the other side, shattering into a thousand pieces.

The wind blew up every leaf on the ground, portions of fencing were hanging off posts, and all kinds of trash were lifted, forming a funnel in the air.

“It’ll dissipate in a second,” I promised Lorne, speaking into his ear.

When the debris suddenly dropped at once, out of the sky and back to the ground, it sent up a cloud of dust, even though the ground was wet from the rain the night before.

Once it was still and silent, I exhaled deeply and looked up at Lorne. I was surprised at the fear I saw there. “Are you okay?”

“No!” he roared, letting me go and walking away several feet.

This was it. I’d done it. I’d finally succeeded in scaring off the only man I’d ever wanted to keep, and I had no one but myself to—

“You could have been killed!” he yelled, returning to me and grabbing my arms, shaking me. “What if something happened to you and— We just started and— You need to be more careful and follow my fucking directions!”

It took me a second to grasp his words. No, he wasn’t leaving me, but he was thoroughly pissed I’d put myself in danger.

It was marvelous.

Not that he was mad but that he was distraught about me. For me. I’d scared him, and he was angry. I simply adored him.

“Are you listening to me?” His voice cracked, and I heard it, all the emotions surging through him, fear and pain and, most of all, more than anything, the caring. Without question, from his expression and his battle stance and how dark his beautiful eyes were, he was telling me he cared.

“Yes,” I rasped, taking his face in my hands and leaning up to kiss him hard and long so he’d know I felt exactly the same. “I hear you loud and clear.”

ELEVEN

Most people, when they heard the word hoard, thought about dragons, but really, a hoard was basically a vault where treasure was housed.

“So there’re no dragons in this scenario.” Lorne was making certain.

“No,” I said, liking the fact that he was checking on all things magical just to be on the safe side.

We were sitting in his Jeep. He’d just gotten off the phone with the state police and the FBI, and now I was explaining things to him.