Eleven #2
“Also,” I continued, “I’ll give you some casting herbs you can add to a fire or to a bag or however you want to use them. It will add an extra layer of protection, for you as well as for others in your party.”
“Oh, thank you.”
“Let me go get those while Lorne gives you our phone numbers and the address here and his email so you can call us and have us send things to you, like more casting herbs, when needed.”
Before I could get up, she leaned in for a hug, and I wrapped up the little pixie of a woman and squeezed her back tight.
Leaving them to talk, I went to the sunroom, slipped on my wool clogs that lived in that room, got a medium-sized drawstring burlap pouch, and then got down one of the many jars there and filled up the bag.
I had to go outside next, from my sunroom, through my glorious new greenhouse, to the dirt beside the path that was protected from turning to mud under the rosemary and thyme. I grabbed a pinch of Corvus dirt and sprinkled it over the top of the open bag.
“Protect the woman and all those she would have you shield. So mote it be.”
Easy to feel the magic infuse the mixture and seal up tight. It was funny because all my life I’d heard people say, Oh, I just had the weirdest feeling , only to completely disregard whatever that was. I’d been raised so differently, to always listen to your intuition, which could be anything from genetic memory to a feeling in your gut.
I was about to go back inside when I heard a rustle in the bushes. When I looked for the sound, I saw a reindeer.
Now, I knew it was a reindeer because I had to do a report on them for school when I was in fourth grade, and then that same year over the summer, my grandparents took me to Syracuse, to the zoo there, and I saw one up close. So I knew what I was looking at, though it was odd to see one walking around on Corvus.
“Okay,” I said softly, unsure what to do. “How are you?”
It sort of squinted at me, its eyes narrowing, and the thought occurred that I’d never had any kind of deer make me feel stupid before.
“Great,” I muttered as we both stood there, and I gave it a wave, ready to go back inside.
It moved then, taking several steps toward the forest, then stopped and looked over its shoulder at me.
“Oh, am I supposed to—do you want me to follow?”
It stared at me.
I waited.
Huff of breath, followed by a light stomp, and I got the picture.
“Don’t be all mad,” I grumbled. “It’s late, I’m tired, and I’m not the deer whisperer.”
Second stomp, and I quickly put the bag of herbs back inside the door of the greenhouse and got moving.
To reach the reindeer, I had to jump over the small stream that ran behind my home, and as I closed in on the deer, I walked by the huge Southern live oak that was right there on the other side. I touched the branches as I always did on my way across Corvus. I was concerned I’d be walking far and Lorne would get worried, and that I should have gone back inside and let him know, but it was only another ten yards before I came upon the holly and hawthorn, so I knew we were walking east, not north toward the deeper woods. The rowan was next, then an English oak, the acorn carried across the ocean by a distant relative, then the copse of birch and alder trees, where the reindeer seemed to disappear and reappear. At last we reached the willow growing close to where the stream widened into a small pond before thinning again.
The reindeer hopped through the water, and I trailed after him, taking the ancient stepstones, and once on the other side, touching the leaves of the hazel before glancing around. There, near the elder shrub, fifty or so feet from me, with her hand touching purple berries that had been creamy flowers back in May, was a goddess.
Even if I hadn’t recognized her instantly from the stories my grandfather told, the way the light gathered around her would have told me she was not of this world. But again, she was Arthur Corey’s favorite, and they had spoken many times when she’d come through the rift. It made sense she would visit, as all routes, channels, conduits, waterways, even migration paths of animals were under her protection. Ley lines as well, passageways of energy would be hers to check on, though ours were different. Ours didn’t lead off the land like others, didn’t connect to anything, being there solely for protection because of the rift. The wards were in place to make sure that gods and goddesses, like herself, could come and go in absolute safety.
She was Elen, Elen of the Ways, Elen the Guide, Elen the Protector of Pathways, Elen who also oversaw the destruction of the old to create something new, always with the intention of moving forward, which led to a different path, either actual or symbolic, hence her blessing and her mandate.
I had no idea what she could want with me. Everything on my land was good, and I had not failed in my stewardship.
Immediately, I went down on one knee because first, she was a goddess blessing me with her presence, and second, as deer were sacred to her, as were all roads, it had clearly been her shielding us from those creatures earlier in the night. I wanted to thank her, but I needed to wait for her to speak to me first.
I was aware of the breeze prickling over my skin, feeling different, charged, as though there was a bit of electricity in the air. It didn’t hurt, but it wasn’t comfortable, not at all a normal summer wind.
She spoke to me then, her voice deep and husky, beautiful and powerful. I heard her, all the words reached me, but unfortunately, I had no idea what she said.
“I’m sorry, my lady,” I respectfully replied. “I think that was Gaelic, but I’m not positive. I speak Spanish along with English, but that’s all.”
She tilted her head, and I watched as she took a breath. “You were on the road this evening.”
My lord Arawn had done the same thing. He too had first spoken to me in a language I didn’t understand, which I later found out was Middle Welsh. When he realized I had no idea what he was saying, he, like Elen now, switched. Amazing to be able to speak to anyone at any time in their own tongue.
“I was, my lady,” I responded, lowering my head in deference, seeing that she was walking toward me.
“Those beasts were not of your world.”
“No, they were not, my lady, and I thank you for protecting me and my party from them on the road, as well as in the cemetery.”
She made a soft noise of understanding, and then I saw the tip of her staff on the grass near my right knee. “Look to me.”
I lifted my head and met her beautiful dark-green eyes. There were two long braids on each side of her face, but the rest of her thick scarlet hair was being gently blown around her. I didn’t know about goddesses, but most of my ancestors reported that the ones they met looked like nymphs, perfect specimens of stunning beauty. Elen looked kind. She had a ruddy complexion, and there were freckles across her cheeks and nose. Her smile made me smile back, and the laugh lines around her eyes crinkled.
“You surmised correctly. You’re quite clever.”
I wanted to ask, when? But I didn’t want her to take back the compliment.
“Your grandfather was wise.”
“He was,” I agreed.
“He knew that cats ward evil spirits.”
“Yes.”
“One lies under your roof.”
“But my cat is not truly one,” I reminded her, certain she knew what Argos really was.
“And others would know that.”
Which was exactly what happened last night. “Others might mistake a woman for a witch as well.”
“If questioned and the answer given was, Yes, magic lives within me , then perhaps.”
I knew Kathy Hayes, and if anyone questioned her being a witch, she would have said that of course she was. She wouldn’t have known that answer could get her killed until it was too late. And now, since I knew Elen and I were having a conversation, and she was here to offer guidance, I asked, “Can’t the other tell who is and isn’t magic?”
“A lie cannot be detected in those who believe.”
Which was what I’d been saying to Lorne since I’d met him—that if you believed you were a witch, then you were one. And if other entities read your heart, looking or listening for a lie and did not perceive one, then you would be treated as precisely what you said you were.
“Come,” she said imperiously, and when I looked, I saw Lorne put his rifle on the ground and then jog across the long grass to reach me.
Once he was beside me, he took a knee.
“You are his mate, are you not?”
He cleared his throat. “Yes, ma’am.”
“My lady,” I corrected him.
“Yes, my lady,” he amended quickly.
She lifted her hand almost as if petting the air. “You are a conduit for his magic. The pathway flows through you. I see the energy ebb and flow.”
He glanced at me, uncertainty on his face. He had no idea if she thought that was a good thing or not. But he went with his go-to. “Thank you, my lady.”
She nodded.
“My lady Elen,” I began, glancing at him, then back to her—I didn’t want her to think I wasn’t giving her all my attention, “sent the deer to us, and the stag in the road.”
“You had concern for he who is mine, and that well pleased me.”
She meant the stag.
“We were worried about all the deer, my lady,” Lorne told her. “Not just the one.”
“Oh, I know,” she said with a hint of a smile before looking at me and pointing over her shoulder. “Why must that shrub not be burned?”
She meant the elder she’d been standing near.
“Because it’s sacred to you.”
“Yes. And why would we place one near our home?”
“To ward evil?”
Her eyes narrowed. “Evil?”
I was playing with fire. It was always necessary to convey exactly what one knew when questioned by a deity. “The devil,” I said. “That’s why people planted them.”
“Yes.”
I trembled slightly. “But we did not. My people did not. It was planted to strengthen the wards in the land.”
“Regardless, it will also keep one less than the fallen away. Those that are made.”
Made? I felt so stupid.
“Not the devil,” Lorne clarified, “but, as we suspected, a demon. One who is here conjuring evil to try and hurt you.”
“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.”
“It’s different. You did it to save a life, I’m certain of it. But for me, I got Kathy killed. That’s on me,” I said, feeling the weight of the guilt settle over me. “I should have?—”
“You should have what?” he asked harshly, his voice sharp, taking hold of my hands, not letting me cover my face. “Tell me.”
I tried to pull free, but he wasn’t letting go.
“Stop,” he ordered as I stared down at the grass between my folded legs. “Look at me.”
But how could I?
“Xan.” His voice was low and gravelly.
I lifted my eyes.
“If questioned,” Lorne began, “Kathy would have said she was a witch. You’ve told me again and again that if people say what they are, magically speaking, then they are. It was like Elen said—if questioned and the answer was yes, the demon took her at her word.”
I tipped my head up then, still holding his gaze.
“People always say, Oh, if I hadn’t done this , or, Oh, if I had only been home …but guess what? The only person responsible for ending a life is the one who did it. Nott would have died either way, yes?”
I nodded because that was the truth. Thero had alluded to it herself. As soon as Nott was taken, the outcome was already set.
“Whether she told the demon everything or nothing, she was dead.”
“Yes,” I whispered.
“Sorry?”
“Yes,” I said, louder that time.
He gave my hands a gentle squeeze, then let go. “So both of them, Kathy and Nott, are not your fault. And then you saved Lynette.”
“ We saved Lynette.”
“It was you, but that’s fine. The point is, she’s okay, the kids at home are okay. You need to start celebrating your wins.”
I searched his eyes, his face, and found only resoluteness there. “And now? Please explain what you want me to do with the wards.”
“I will, but get up so we can get back to the cottage. I don’t like leaving the kids in there alone with our cat. What if he gets peckish?” He stood up.
I chuckled and lifted my hands to him. He had to basically drag me to my feet, but when he draped an arm around me as we started back across the field—retrieving the rifle he’d left in the grass, breaking contact only for as long as it took to lean over and get it—I felt the happiness of being beside him. No matter what was happening anywhere else, between us there was an electric, sustaining energy. He was absolutely the best thing for me.
“Start talking,” I ordered him.
“Like I said, or more importantly, like Elen did, the land can kill the demon. So we just have to lure it on.”
“You make that sound so easy,” I said as we arrived at the pond, and I went first, jumping from one stepstone to the other. Once on the other side, he was back beside me, and he took my hand again, leading me home.
“Well, I’m less worried about that at the moment and more about finding the demon.”
“What do you mean?” When he didn’t answer, I turned to look at him. “Lorne?”
“I never in a million years thought I would say that I was worried about finding a demon,” he said, shaking his head. “My life has gotten so strange since I met you.”
I wasn’t sure what to say.
“Strange in a good way,” he rumbled, drawing me into his arms, hugging me.
I really needed that hug.
Once we were walking again, he asked if Shelby could find the demon since she was clairvoyant. Did I think that possible?
“I would be concerned about having her interact with a demon. She had trouble in the cemetery, and though that charm I gave her is ghost-proof, a demon might be more than she, or it, can handle.”
“Yeah, that was stupid. I don’t wanna put her in danger. I mean, I don’t want you in danger either.”
“Well, I will be. There’s no getting around that,” I said flatly. “Both of us will, but we can’t run it out of town and send it to another.”
“That wouldn’t be very heroic of us,” he teased me.
“No, it wouldn’t,” I said, leaning on him as we walked. “I keep thinking it would be so helpful if we knew precisely what kind of demon it was. I really hope Father Dennis’s friends come through.”
“In the meantime, we have to come up with some places to look,” he said as we reached the greenhouse. “And exhausted or not, we’re gonna have to try and narrow it down tonight.”
He opened the door for me, and I stepped inside, slipping out of my clogs and picking up the bag of casting herbs I’d made for Shelby. All the windows in the sunroom were open, as they’d been when we left, but the breeze no longer stung as it had when I was with Elen, having returned to a normal, gentle summer breeze, rolling indolently through the house.
When we entered the living room, we found both girls passed out on the couch, Shelby snoring. Not loudly, but constantly. The necklace was around her neck, and when I looked at it, it glowed slightly to let me know it was where it was supposed to be.
“You saw that, right?” Lorne asked.
I smiled at him. “I did.”
“I’m thinking that’s a good thing, yeah?”
“It’s a very good thing,” I promised him.