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)
Argos was at my side too, butting his head against us.
“Oh, my boy,” Lorne rasped, picking up the cat, nuzzling his fur and hugging him. Argos rubbed his nose on Lorne. They were so sweet together.
The ground shifted under us then, and Lorne moved closer to me as I wrapped him and Argos in my arms as the earth moved, creating a circle around us.
“You fixed Corvus,” he whispered as his eyes welled with tears. “It’s all better.”
“Yes, it is,” I mumbled, then let him go and pressed my hands down into the earth.
The guardian is well, it said.
The guardian is well, I responded.
I had to take a breath.
You are well, I said.
We are well, it answered.
And now we will rest, I promised.
We will rest.
The guardian will protect you, I said.
We will protect our family, it said.
When I pulled my hands out, I laid them gently on top before breaking down sobbing. Lorne gathered me in his arms, hugging me and Argos tight, and for once, Argos let me cuddle him. We stayed there a long time, the three of us and our land.
LATER THAT EVENING…
The temperature had dropped well below freezing, but the roads had been cleared in town, including—amazingly—Cider Lane. Perhaps the metamorphosis it had gone through in the past had moved snowdrifts in the future. All I knew was that when Lorne was carrying me and Argos into our cottage and I looked to the right, I saw in the distance the lights of the Johnson Apiary, and then checking left, the lights at Wingate Farm.
“We’re in our right time,” I whispered, “and everything is how it’s supposed to be.”
“It is,” he confirmed. “And after we sleep for a week, I want to hear everything that happened.”
“I promise,” I said, kissing the side of his neck as Argos purred.
We were only inside for a few minutes when there was a knock on the front door. I was not surprised to find Amanda, Eddie, and the boys there, though we’d had no plans.
“Why are you two covered in dirt?” she asked, horrified. “It’s winter. You’re not supposed to be outside. You could freeze to death.”
I tried to hug her, but she evaded me, heading to the kitchen, where her children and her husband were unpacking food.
“Lorne, I got the good beer,” Eddie called over.
“Thank you,” Lorne managed to choke out.
“You all right?”
“I had a weird day.”
“Oh, don’t I know it,” Eddie stated. “Driving in this weather is the worst.”
“Go take a shower,” Amanda ordered me. “There are more people coming.”
“For what?”
She tipped her head and squinted at me. “We’re having a little midwinter chase-the-blues-away party to bring everyone back to the land of the living. You have to visit and eat and laugh and hug so everyone remembers they’re part of a community. You agreed we should have these get-togethers every other week so that even while we’re all hibernating, we also remember to touch base and make sure everyone is good.”
I nodded. “That sounds perfect.”
“All my ideas are amazing, and you and Lorne are hosting this week. Your neighbors are coming, and also James and Cass—they’re bringing some woman who’s staying with them…Theseus? That can’t be right.”
“Thessaly,” Lorne corrected her.
“Still terrible.”
“That’s not nice,” Amanda’s youngest child, JJ, said as they rushed into the room to bring me a snickerdoodle. “Don’t make fun of people’s names.”
“Yes, dear,” she said with a roll of her eyes.
“Why do I get a cookie?” I asked JJ, accepting the offering.
“You look like you need a cookie,” they told me. “And you’re kinda dirty.”
“I will go shower now,” I promised, taking a bite and then returning the cookie. “You have the rest and we’ll eat some more of these when I come out.”
I got a big smile and a happy nod before they darted away.
“Uncle Xan, I can’t find Argos’s food, and I think he’s hungry,” Toby, Amanda’s oldest, called over.
“Wait, I brought him chicken hearts—his favorite,” Amanda apprised him, and Argos darted over to her as she got them out of another bag for him.
“Gross,” Eddie commented, shaking his head.
“Uncle Xan, I found this in a box in the attic,” Toby announced, rushing from the kitchen over to me, reaching into the right front pocket of his pants, and pulling out a pendant. “Is it okay if I wear it?”
It was a small silver disc, darkened with age, clearly an antique, and very beautiful. When I reached for it, touching it gently, immediately there came the familiar thrum of my own magic. Taking it from him, I noted that even after two hundred years and counting, it was still a powerful talisman.
“I want to get a chain for it,” he said.
“Or perhaps a leather cord instead,” I suggested.
“Yeah, that sounds better.”
“When did you find it?”
“Yesterday,” he replied cheerfully.
“I said it was fine,” Amanda chimed in, joining us. “I mean the Algiz rune is for protection, right? How can you go wrong with that.”