Page 61 of Demon and the Raven

“And besides, I don’t want Mom to be mad.”

Oh no. “What did your mother say about what Tanner Murphy said about magic?”

“She said Tanner Murphy wouldn’t know magic if it swam up next to him in a pool and bit him on the⁠—”

“I got it,” I assured him.

He nodded. “I knew you would.”

NINE

I put JJ to sleep in my bed, and while Toby started making a bouquet for his mother in the sunroom, I asked my cottage if it could help me locate any books or journals that had to do with burning up a rift.

When I checked my grandfather’s office, there was nothing on his desk. I then checked the library, again without success, which was surprising. The library looked tiny but was actually huge. The cottage held handwritten journals by all the guardians of Corvus dating back to those who had first awoken the land. There were also books on metallurgy, root work, candle making, animal husbandry, astronomy, and endless volumes of poetry. There were books on hexes, bestiaries, classifications of fae, every holy book in existence with no religion excluded, every pantheon of gods and goddesses, and of course, my grandmother’s romance novels that had all seen better days. Any text that came to mind, the cottage probably had a copy. Several guardians over the years had thought that perhaps selling off a few of the rare, out-of-print classics might be a nice way to bring in some extra needed cash before Corvus had become completely self-sustaining. The fact that all the volumes remained told me that nothing in print ever brought into the cottage had left. It was the same for the diaries of my ancestors. People could read them on Corvus, but they would never be permitted to leave. I understood. It was knowledge that the next in line might desperately need.

“Like me,” I said out loud to the cottage. “I need to know if there’s anything on sealing up a rift.”

Nothing moved around me, there were no sounds, no creaks, bumps, sliding, or anything falling off any shelves.

Returning to my grandfather’s study, I sat at his desk and pulled his last journal, simply to remind myself how he organized them. A page flipped open on its own, and I read: Xander has a friend, and this one’s going to stick. She needs him as much as he needs her.

“You’re a sap, old man,” I told him and was instantly surrounded by the scents of leather, cedar, and cardamom.

“It smells good in here,” Toby told me, coming in.

“Yes, it does,” I agreed. “And though I like reminders about my friends, I would appreciate it if anyone could answer my questions.”

When I turned to Toby, I noticed him squinting. “What?”

“When you make your voice like that, all sarcastic like Mom does when she’s mad, the cottage doesn’t like it.”

I sighed deeply. “Well, it would be nice if I could get some help.”

“Yeah, but you live here, so don’t you think it would help you if it could?”

Cold air ran over my skin then, making me shiver. “I’m sorry,” I said into the ether. This was, of course, why the cottage liked Lorne better. Why when he asked for things, they appeared. “Though I really do need help.”

“Maybe what you’re asking is something you already know,” Toby said wisely.

After a moment, I nodded. “You’re right. It could very well be.”

My grandfather’s scent was back then, which said he’d led me to his study, to the entry about Amanda, which translated to her son and the truth coming out of his mouth. Meaning, what Thero had said about the rift was all there was.

Smaller rifts were patrolled, as the nymphs had done. Larger ones, that deities could move through, needed guardians. The rift on Corvus could never be sealed. It was too big. The small ones, as Thero had explained, could be burned up if used by something of immense power. It was a one-way trip. So yes, whatever had come through was powerful, but even with that, it was not a god. My lord Arawn could not come through a sliver rift. Even trying would have combusted it, fried it right up. Originally, my friend Declan, when he was still fae and not human yet, had come through that exact rift. Others who had attacked me, other members of the fae, wolves, a sorceress, had come through one at a time. Which meant that whatever had come through was stronger than all of them. Thero had said other, and now I had to determine what that was.

“I might need to go on a field trip,” I told Toby.

“Me and JJ can come with you,” he suggested, hopeful.

“I’ll think about it.”

“That means no. You always say you’re going to think about it when you mean no.”

He really did know me.

JJ woke up twenty minutes later, dying for blueberry muffins simply because. I understood. Sometimes I had cravings as well.

“I have a question,” JJ began. “This morning at the restaurant the waitress said that I should have oatmeal for breakfast because it would stick to my ribs. What does that even mean?”