Page 25 of Raven in Midwinter

“I don’t want to leave Lorne.”

“Well, no, of course not,” she said drolly, kneeling beside me and putting her warm hand on my forehead.

“I was so glad to see you and Gramp at my wedding.”

“You couldn’t have kept us away.” She said happily. “Now listen. You know as well as I that you have no choice but to wake the land, as you need to heal. Be on your guard when you do so, as all is not what it seems.”

“The time, you mean. The cottage and the land not matching.”

Big smile for me. She was clearly relieved I was paying attention.

Though it was hard to focus—I suspected that having one foot in Summerland and one in the waking world wasn’t helping, nor was the reason—I could still ask questions. “Tell me how it’s possible that they’re not aligned.”

“There’s a spell over Corvus.”

“Meaning?”

“It is, and it isn’t, your land.”

Over Corvus, she’d said, not on. “I have to go deeper.”

“Very good,” she praised me before shifting to rise.

“Wait, I want a hug.”

“You’re a ghastly shade of gray. I want you to return.”

“Hug,” I insisted.

“If I must,” she said, like I was putting her out, but the mischievous grin gave her away. She had been, and remained in the afterlife, crazy about me. I was the same. Wrapping me in her arms, she hugged me tight.

The tears were immediate and no surprise. I would never stop missing her. The grief had become easier to carry over the years, a stone in my pocket now, no longer a boulder on my back, but still, it remained.

“I love you,” she stated, touching my hair. “You could drag a brush through this mane of yours once in a while.”

I chuckled, but it hurt.

“Move the slip, save our family.”

And because I wasn’t stupid, I knew she meant all of us. Giles was messing with time, and that could be disastrous. “I hate him.”

“Hate requires so much energy, my love,” she said, then hugged me again.

The warmth, the love, the tenderness, all of it was overwhelming, and then there came a hint of cinnamon, musk, and male.

Jolting, I opened my eyes that I hadn’t realized were closed, and there was Lorne, staring down at my face, his own streaked with blood.

“Are you hurt?” I gasped, instantly terrified for him.

“Oh God, I thought I—I thought I lost you,” he said, catching his breath. “There’s blood all over you.”

So not his blood, just mine. That would always be preferable.

“Did the wolf bite me or claw me?”

“It bit through your shoulder,” he barely answered. “I…I was sure you were…Xan.” His voice cracked.

He was scared, and I knew why. We would never make it to the hospital one town over before I bled to death. On top of that, there was the snow and the lack of a car to transport me in. To Lorne, things appeared dire. Little did he know, the near-death experience was necessary to get the direction I needed.