Total pages in book: 96
Estimated words: 92996 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 465(@200wpm)___ 372(@250wpm)___ 310(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 92996 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 465(@200wpm)___ 372(@250wpm)___ 310(@300wpm)
“Your mate is wise,” Elen told me, smiling at Lorne. “You chose well.”
I had to set aside her compliment regarding my fiancé-picking skills and think about that later, about the fact that a goddess was fond of my intended. “We believe we understand where the demon came from, and why it killed the nymph when it came through the rift, but we’re having trouble grasping what it wants now.”
“It seeks to spread hate and disease, as do they all. But this is more, as it is a creature of torment, a defiler of dreams, who wrests sleep from the weary.”
“What would it want with Xander?” Lorne asked her, though we’d already surmised a bit. It wanted to make sure I couldn’t end its life.
“What would a demon fear?” she asked, at the same time turning, walking slowly away.
Couldn’t she just tell us? Unless of course the point was to make our brains work.
“Someone who can kill it?” Lorne replied.
“Yes.”
Lorne took a breath, and I understood. One did not speak to a goddess every day. “My lady, our understanding is that a demon can only be exorcised and sent back to hell, not actually killed and ended.”
“Your mate knows differently, as he himself is branded by he who does such.”
“Arawn?” Lorne whispered.
I had meant to explain all about Arawn to Lorne when we were alone, but we hadn’t been, and new things kept coming our way.
“Have you not told your mate that your lord hunts demons?” she asked, which sounded almost rhetorical, as she continued to walk gracefully on. Amazingly, her voice was reaching us as if we were standing inches apart.
“You failed to mention that,” Lorne muttered under his breath.
“A witch sworn to stand as guardian may vanquish the unclean,” she reminded me. “Is that not so?”
This time she was looking for an answer. “Yes, my lady.”
“Many a horror, human, fae, and other have fallen here and been rendered unto the land.”
That last one was a statement of fact about Corvus. “Yes.”
“Your duty is clear.”
Which was the same thing that Thero had said to me.
“Holy shit,” Lorne rasped, sitting down hard in the grass before reaching up to take hold of my hand and tugging me down beside him. “Thank you, my lady.”
“Blind the demon with all it seeks, witch’s mate. It needs but a small path to enter. Use your power as the one, only that, no more.”
We both ducked as the reindeer leaped over our heads and ran across the field toward Elen.
“Where did she go?” Lorne asked, and I pointed—she seemed already far away, looking inches tall from where we were sitting, and getting smaller by the second. “That’s a neat trick.”
“Not a trick. She’s a goddess. She can be on the other side of the world in a second.”
“I meant that as a compliment,” he snapped before shoving me sideways in the grass. “And I thought we went over your running off into the woods without me.”
“I know, and I’m sorry,” I rushed out. “But there was that reindeer, and I had to follow, and I didn’t have time to go back to the house.”
“A reindeer? Like a caribou?”
“Yeah.”
“Isn’t a reindeer and a caribou the same thing?”
I smiled at him because it was funny to bring that up now, yet so very helpful to decompress, which I needed. “Yes.”
“I hate it when things have two names. Why is that necessary? Like a turkey vulture and a buzzard or a cougar and a puma. Why?”
“I have no idea,” I said, moving closer to him.
“So she has a pet reindeer.”
“And all those others—the ones on the road, and that pretty one that moved out of the way of the truck earlier tonight.”
“Time is becoming fluid,” he said, taking a breath and crossing his legs.
I mirrored his movement, facing him, pressing my knees to his. “So now we have confirmation from a goddess that the thing that killed Nott and Kathy, and would have killed Lynette too, given the chance, is a demon.”
“Yes.”
He seemed lost in his own thoughts and I wanted him back, with me. “I’m sorry I didn’t explain about Arawn.”
Turning to look at me, I got a smile. “That’s okay because Elen told us what to do about our demon.”
“Yeah, you seemed very excited there, but I missed the why.”
“She very clearly said the demon could be killed here by the land.”
“Well, of course, but how does that help us? The demon can’t cross onto Corvus.”
“It can if it’s invited.”
“Meaning?”
“You have to convince Corvus to open the wards and allow the demon entry.”
“Why would I do that?”
“So we can kill it,” he said, squinting at me. “Were you not listening?”
“I was, but—”
“You need to stop carrying around Nott and Kathy. Neither of those deaths are on you.”
How did he know?
“I’ve actually killed people in the line of duty, Xan. I know what it is to carry around guilt.”