Total pages in book: 50
Estimated words: 47894 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 239(@200wpm)___ 192(@250wpm)___ 160(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 47894 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 239(@200wpm)___ 192(@250wpm)___ 160(@300wpm)
“Clearly, you’re already a shapeshifter,” the first Giles said to me. “Of course you can’t be changed into something else.”
“No. That’s wrong,” Wolf Giles said. “Because yes, you can shift into a flock of ravens, but not because there’s a curse on you.”
“Obviously it’s not a curse,” the first Giles said. “The power comes from the Corey line.”
“He’s merely repeating. He doesn’t really know,” Wolf Giles heaved out the words, then began to cry. “You have to believe me. I’m Giles Corey.”
“Xander, it’s me. You know you hate me. Everyone in the family hates me. And think about this now. How could a powerful hedge-rider ever become a wolf? Is that even possible?”
He had a point. Maybe.
Wolf Giles appeared utterly bereft, and without any covering—he was naked in the ground after the shift—he’d be dead soon. “Believe me,” he barely managed to get out.
Calling on the elements again, I removed the snow near me, then sank into softened earth. Shoving my hands in deep, nearly to my elbows, I called on Corvus.
Sleep.
Please let me—
Sleep.
Leaning back, I sighed deeply. The land was tired. And it was impossible to know if it was truly done—because, again, this was midwinter—or if the spell covering Corvus made it not mine to reach. My grandmother had advised me to dig deep, but I’d been underground and still couldn’t get the land to respond to me.
“Well?” Lorne asked.
“Unless it’s life and death…”
“Which it just was,” he said roughly, still recovering from seeing me hurt.
“Which it just was,” I agreed. “Yes. The land is supposed to be sleeping.”
He nodded. “Okay, then, axe it is.”
Both men shrieked in terror, as I would have as well. And then it hit me. “Oh!” I gasped, my eyes on Lorne. “Did you see Argos inside?”
“No, I—I dunno. I don’t remember.”
“Well, go back to the house and call him and see. It’s cold, and he hates to be away from the fire in the winter.”
“You want me to bring the cat?”
“Yes, I do,” I told him, not reminding him that Argos was actually a daemon.
Lorne was so much faster than me in the snow. He was built bigger to begin with, all the power and muscle, and was moving in seconds.
“I’ll be dead before you get this sorted,” Wolf Giles whimpered.
“Well, maybe if you weren’t such a prick, your family, meaning me, would be happy to see you, and none of this would be necessary because my magic would intuitively know yours.”
“I will kill you.”
That was bravado talking. We both knew he was good and caught by the earth. “Why did you bite me?”
“I meant to bite him,” he said, tipping his head toward the other Giles, “but you got in the way. And then”—he had to stop talking as a shiver tore through him—“I was terrified I’d killed you. Without you, I have no chance of breaking this curse.”
“I’m the one cursed,” the first Giles shouted. “This is what happens when you visit dark places and walk hidden paths, Xander. You get a murderous shadow that can follow you to every realm, always trying to kill you, never letting you eat or sleep until you’re nearly mad. I’m blamed for all manner of horrors now, no longer the hedge-rider who cares only for himself, but now one who leaves blood across realms that this wraith alone should be blamed for.”
There was no way for me to know who was telling the truth.
“Corvus will discern what is real,” he assured me. “Wake the land. It will know.”
But I’d already tried, and maybe he knew that.
“Wake the dogs,” he advised next. “Wake the Cŵn Annwn who now sleep under the snow deep in the woods. They will discern the veracity of my claim.”
“No,” Wolf Giles rasped. “If you wake them now, they will make sport of the animals left in the forest. You will taint the land with the spilling of unnatural blood. Let sleeping dogs lie.”
The thing was, they were both right. Because yes, absolutely, Arawn’s companions, who stayed with me until spring, would kill whatever or whoever didn’t belong on the land. A shifter of any kind would be eviscerated. A wraith, as well, could be destroyed by the magical hounds. But also, once woken, they would run across Corvus and kill whatever crossed their path. It was why I made sure they slept until nature woke as well. In the spring, they waited for Arawn to collect them, and they were gentle, curious, and guarded Corvus from anything that would harm any living thing on the land. Much like my land, neither wanted to be awake in the winter. The primal rhythm of the natural world was to rest.
“Here,” Lorne called, bringing me from my thoughts, carrying Argos in his arms like a baby. Argos, who also slept away the winter. Unlike the land and the dogs, though, he got up to eat, look out the window—not too long, as he wasn’t a fan of the cold glass—and even occasionally walked out into the snow. He enjoyed sleeping in front of the fire most of all.