Page 26 of Raven in Midwinter

“I was gonna run back to the house to get my shotgun, but I only have iron bullets, and I didn’t want to take the chance that the lore was true and I couldn’t save you because they’re not silver.”

I needed to gather my strength before I could speak to him again, so I smiled.

“And also, I have no idea if either of my weapons are in the cottage. I want to think they are, but I don’t know.”

“I’m glad you stayed with me,” I husked. “Thank you.”

“I couldn’t do anything else,” he said, smoothing the hair out of my face.

“Where are Giles and the wolf?” I managed to get out.

“Giles is behind me holding up a circle of fire, and the wolf is pacing the perimeter. Giles doesn’t think he can hold it long.”

None of that made sense. Giles was a powerful witch, so why was he performing protection magic on something of flesh and blood when he could have simply obliterated the threat? And yes, werewolves were terrifying, but again, why was he scared? Me? Yes. I should have been scared. Unless I called on the land, I was as susceptible to being mauled to death by a gigantic wolf standing on two feet as the next person. But Giles needed to call on nothing. All his magic was contained within himself. So why wasn’t he destroying the shapeshifter threatening him?

Unless all the magic he’d performed to alter the cottage, and the land, had taken a toll on him.

“Okay,” I said. “You’re gonna have to help me, because I must speak to Corvus.”

“I don’t under⁠—”

“It’s gonna be all right, love,” I soothed him. “Sit me up.”

He was trembling, partly from fear for me and partly, I was sure, from cold. It was utterly freezing.

Once my legs were tucked under me and I was settled on my haunches, Lorne continued to hold his T-shirt, that used to be under his sweater, to my back.

“I’m sorry you had to strip down out here,” I whispered.

“Like it matters,” he muttered. “Just please don’t leave me.”

He meant don’t die, and it was kind of him to phrase it that way. “Not doing that,” I promised, then bent forward despite the pain running through me that almost made me puke.

My shoulder muscles had been shredded, and the pain was searing, excruciating, all encompassing. I cried a bit as the snow around and beneath me flew away and the dirt softened to the consistency of potting soil. My hands sank into the earth as I sent out my call.

Hear me and help me.

Unsurprisingly, there was no response. This was midwinter after all. I should not have needed anything from Corvus.

I need aid.

Nothing.

I know you sleep. Forgive me for waking you. This was not my intention.

It was hard to make the land hear me, and the horrible growling from close by did nothing for my concentration. I pleaded three more times but finally couldn’t do anything but fall forward onto the patch of snow-cleared ground.

“Xan…” Lorne was calling my name, but he sounded, strangely, far away.

It took the last of my strength to roll over on my back, and with my arms limp at my sides, I turned my hands so my fingers, which was all I could move, slipped back into the dirt.

Protect my love when I am gone.

I closed my eyes against the pain I would see on Lorne’s face, against the cold, and hoped that when I opened them, I would see my grandmother again.

He needs no protection.

I jolted at the sound because it was so loud in my head. Different from the sound I’d always heard, and I wondered if this was what happened when the land woke from its hibernation or if this was the effect of the spell. What had Corvus been like long ago?