Page 56 of Raven in Midwinter

“Oh?”

“If Giles has lied to you, I will help you dispatch him.”

“Why?”

“He’s done great damage to me and to Corvus. I want my own revenge.”

“And yet, he’s a member of your family.”

“You of all people understand there are greater concerns.”

“I do.”

“And really, I would make a better soldier than MacBain. I’m a witch, after all.”

“I don’t know that I can trust you, Xander Corey.”

“Trust that I don’t want you to take Lorne from me.”

She nodded, because that she understood. “Take me to the graveyard of your ancestors, as that is where Giles will go.”

“Certainly.”

Moments later, we left the path we’d been on, and I forged ahead, taking us in the most roundabout way possible back to where we’d started. If everything had righted itself, then the cottage should be where the mansion was, just a bit back from the road. But because the road had been altered as well, I wanted to give everything time to reform before I showed up. Most of all, I was hoping that everything would be as it had always been when we arrived, and that Lorne would see me coming up the path and would rush out the front door and onto the porch. I wanted that desperately.

I crossed my fingers inside my mittens.

NINE

It was slow going, the snow thick and heavy, with ice underneath. Fortunately, because she didn’t know Corvus, she had no idea I was leading her in a giant circle. Not a chance I was taking her anywhere near my family cemetery and risk finding Giles there. I had to try and talk to my land before I faced him.

“Is there no more direct route?” she asked for what had to be the seventh time.

“Corvus has no roads on it and sits beside a nature preserve,” I reminded her. “If you had walked the space you inhabit, you would know that.”

She muttered something under her breath.

“Did you say something?”

“Only that if you are trying to trick me, you will die first.”

“Would you divulge something?”

“If I must.”

“Are you a witch or something else?”

“What else would I be?”

“You said you’re a practitioner of the dark arts, but I don’t know any witches who characterize their craft that way.”

She was quiet.

“What could it hurt to say?”

“As though it matters if I tell someone as lowly as you.”

“That’s right.”