Page 11 of Raven in Midwinter

“The thing is, there is no way to contact him, you never know when he’ll be here, and yes, he’s related to the rest of us, to our guardian line, but he’s never been part of the life of any guardian, not even his brother’s.”

“His brother is buried in the graveyard.”

“He is.”

“That would be weird for me.”

“Yeah, but you would never abandon your family, and he never returned when his parents or his brother died.”

“You don’t know that. Maybe he looked in on them.”

“They never put that in any of their journals, and what’s the point of seeing them and not visiting them? I mean, he never stopped by to say, I went to the fae realm and know all about centaurs now or whatever.”

“I see what you mean.”

“No warm bonding family moments because he has no interest in any of us.”

“Okay…so that’s why you think there were foxes in the graveyard. Someone in your family sent them as a message to give you a heads-up that Giles was here.”

“That’s what I think, yes.”

“But why would you need the warning if he’s just gonna be in and out?”

“Your guess is as good as mine. Like I said, as far as I know, he normally comes and goes, no alert necessary.”

“Unless something’s different this time.”

“Possibly, but I couldn’t begin to guess what that would be.”

“I have a question about the time part.”

“And I am ready to answer.”

“Can he go to the future?”

“Nope. Only the past.”

“Can he go back further than when he was born?”

“Yes. He can go back as far as he wants. To the first of our line, and apparently has. There are reports of him for centuries, small footnotes in many journals.”

“Why can’t he visit the future?”

“I suspect that, as it’s unwritten, he can’t go someplace where there’s no path. But regardless, he can’t travel forward beyond the last of us. So since I’m it, this is as far as he goes.”

“Maybe he’s here to check on you, to see if there’s another Corey.”

“But all he’d have to do is arrive here to know he was in the same place again, still firmly grounded within my lifetime. Nothing new to see yet.”

“Have you ever seen him?”

“No. I only know what he looks like from journal entries.”

“I wonder why he’s here.”

“I wish I knew.”

“So Corvus will let him roam around because he’s not evil and doesn’t pose an outright threat to me or you.”