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)
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?
You will not die.
It was nearly shouting.
Opening my eyes, I found myself looking up at teeth lowering toward me. The ravenous maw was there, terrifying, readying to end me, and I closed my eyes. Lorne was yelling, and then…silence.
It took me a moment to realize I was underground.
Roots were squeezing me in a vise, and I would have howled in agony if I could have.
I didn’t dare open my eyes, thinking, this is the transition. I’m dead. But the pain driving through me told me I was still very much alive.
It was selfish, and I felt bad, but I still wished Giles had gone somewhere else, to any time that wasn’t mine. It would have been better if another of my ancestors had to deal with him. The reason it was me, though, was simple. He thought I was weak—which most of our line was, compared to him—so he came in midwinter to attack Corvus under my protection.
The sound of churning brought me out of feeling sorry for myself, and then I was shaken…and saw flashes of trees backlit by the moon. I saw the inky-black sky before I was lifted from the cold earth and high into the frigid air. I wondered then if I would ever be warm again.
“Xan!” Lorne yelled, and when I turned my head to see where he was, it didn’t hurt. My muscles responded, and I saw him below me, so far down, a good fifty feet, standing with his arms lifted, as beside him, buried to their necks in the dirt, were Giles and the wolf.
When I felt the roots begin to drop, I thought fly, my clothes falling away, raining on Lorne, and instead of plummeting down beside him, or maybe being yanked back into the earth, I circled as a flock of ravens.
The moon was the sole light in the sky, and when it went behind clouds, it was again pitch black. This wasn’t the deep indigo sky of summer with its soft air; this was the glacial dark with no light coming from anywhere, and it was scary to think I was alone. But then the clouds parted, and when I glanced at the ground, I saw Lorne on his knees, clutching my clothes, staring up at me.
He was there. My anchor was there.
Circling for a moment, I then landed near him and was instantly back, a man again, stumbling forward and collapsing into his arms.
“That was amazing,” he husked, clutching me tight. “Let’s get you inside so you don’t freeze to death.”
Purposely, I didn’t look at Giles or the werewolf, instead wrapping my arms around Lorne’s neck, closing my eyes, trying to soak in his warmth.
Through the snow, Lorne trudged closer to the back door, and when we were almost there, I had him put me down so I could thank my land for saving my life.