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)
We care for the guardian, and now the guardian will rest.
The abruptness, the command, surprised me, but it was starting to feel more like winter was influencing the land, not a spell.
Once I was on my feet, Lorne quickly scooped me up and carried me into the house that had somehow become again the 1799 version of our home.
“What the hell?” Lorne said.
“I think, possibly, because we’re living inside a spell right now, that when we’re not occupying the space, it’s going to revert to Giles’s more powerful magic.”
He huffed out a breath. “As I said before, I hate all magic but yours.”
“But you shouldn’t,” I soothed him. “It’s always all around you.”
“Doesn’t it make you angry that you can’t fight him?”
“I use my magic for healing and defense, you know that. I revere nature, as I was taught, and that works best for me, for you, for our family and friends, and for Corvus.”
“I know,” he said, giving me a squeeze.
“I don’t think Giles does that. There’s no restoration in the magic he practices.”
“I get it, I… If this was the middle of summer, Corvus would be vigilant, and Giles Corey would be miles underground.”
“Perhaps…or not. He’s a Corey as well, and if he wanted to claim Corvus and be the guardian, it’s possible the land would recognize him.”
He shook his head. “You never give yourself enough credit. You’re the only one we want—me, your friends, and Corvus.”
“Well, certainly you and my friends. Corvus, at the moment, just wants to remain undisturbed for another two months.”
“Until Imbolc.”
“Yes, that’s right. Very good.”
He rolled his eyes, making me chuckle.
“Okay, so in this archaic version of our home, is there even a bathroom?”
“Yes, dear, it’s in the same place. But you’re going to have to mix the water from the hearth with what you pump into the tub.”
“Okay, I can do—”
“That’s going to take time, and we need answers more than I need to be clean. Let me put my clothes back on so we can go talk to Giles.”
After checking my shoulder, amazed there wasn’t even a scar to mark the injury, he helped me get dressed, and visibly shaken that my T-shirt, sweater, and coat were all covered in blood, he eased me into his arms and held me close.
“You need to eat and rest.”
“Mostly rest, but I’ll be all right. Let’s go back outside.”
When we were once again breathing in the arctic air, he darted around the side of the house and returned with the iron axe that in our time was still used to chop firewood.
“What are you doing with that?”
“I refuse to be unarmed going forward.”
“Okay,” I murmured, and had to lean on him. It was slow going through the icy snow that was up to my knees. And even though I was healed, I had still lost more than a bit of blood, so I was not as strong as I normally was.
“Oh look, more tricks,” he muttered.
Lifting my head, I saw there were now two Giles Coreys buried up to their heads, no longer one man and one wolf.
“I don’t want you to—I feel like Corvus has got them, and that leaving them there to freeze to death is not a bad idea.”
“Lorne, you’re a guardian, a knight. You could never let people die.”
“But those aren’t people. Those are…other. I think we should just go back to my brother’s house.”
“I doubt we can. I don’t think we’re in the right time for the house to be there, and even if it was, there’s no way we could walk that far.”
“You know, in your grandfather’s diary he wrote that there was no one in your family, not one, who had a kind word for Giles Corey. I mean, we get it now, right?”
I smiled at him.
“What?” he rumbled.
“Even now, with all this, you’re okay.”
“I have to be. I’m your rock, aren’t I?”
“You certainly are,” I said with a long sigh.
He kissed my forehead, passed me the axe, and then bent, whipped my legs out from under me, and carried me to the two Gileses. Gingerly, he put me on my feet, took the axe from me, and charged forward. Both men screamed at the same time, the former wolf not quite as loud as the other.
“What are you doing?” I yelled at the man I loved.
“I’m going to put this axe through one of these assholes’ heads and see who is Giles Corey and who is not.”
“It’s me,” Wolf Giles insisted, his teeth chattering loudly, a bluish tint to his skin.
The first Giles didn’t look quite as cold, but the same level of terrified. “I am Giles Corey, can’t you tell? Come touch my face. You’ll know then.”
“No!” Wolf Giles shrieked. “I’m the one. Ask him how I knew that if I bit you, you wouldn’t change into a wolf.”