Chapter 1 #3
“Fae spirits are unlike normal fae. They’re like our nature spirits and are, as a whole, absolutely lovely. I’ve seen many on Corvus, along with our nature ones, and I feel very blessed that they seem happy here.”
“All right so, nature and fae spirits in the spring, and I know what happens in the fall.”
“You sound like you’re writing a report.”
“I just need to make sure it’s all straight in my head,” he stated. “Go on.”
“As you know, at the end of October, and well into deep, dark November, that’s when the veil allows souls that have departed from this plane to return and visit.”
“Deep, dark November?”
“Fall is the death of the year, it’s the darkest time because it’s when nature dies, rests, and is then reborn in the spring. It has to be quiet to restart the endless cycle, to get you first ready for your long winter nap and then rebirth in spring.”
“I never thought about it like that. Sleeping in the winter to prepare for spring.”
“Trees and flowers go dormant for months. People should pay attention.”
“I like that.”
I shrugged. “It’s how I was raised.”
“All right, so the veil is thinnest at Samhain, and will remain thinner than usual all the way through the end of November, but by the time Yule rolls around, it’s done. It’s sealed.”
“Yes, because even magic has to rest and recharge.”
“And it does that in the winter.”
“It’s the natural order of things, yes.”
“So how is the veil thin right now in January?”
“Because, like with everything in life, there are exceptions.”
“I hate exceptions.”
I chuckled because he sounded so annoyed.
“Like a hedge-rider, whatever that is.”
“Yes. I’m thinking, because of the graveyard, that’s probably it.”
“Explain.”
“You should take your parka off before you pass out from heatstroke.”
After a moment, he said, “Yeah, okay, I am starting to cook.”
When I laughed, I got a smile from him.
Once he was back in only his long-sleeve T-shirt, sweats, and socks, we took a seat on the couch in front of the fire. When I turned to face him, I noted his arched eyebrow.
“What?”
“I like how you always feel like you have to sit me down for things like I’m going to break apart if you scare me.”
“That’s not it. I just want you to hear the whole thing, not pieces. And also, I appreciate that you didn’t go outside and that you’re waiting to hear what I have to say. It means a lot to me.”
He nodded.
“Okay, so a hedge-rider is a witch who travels over a hedge, and hedge, in this instance, means a boundary, specifically one between our world and others. They usually travel to other realms to learn more about their craft.”
“To learn to be a better witch?”
“Mostly to acquire archaic knowledge.”
“And how do they do that?”
“Normally, their bodies stay in one place and their souls roam.”
“You’re talking about astral projection.”
“Yes.”
“That’s real?”
“It is.”
“I love your magic and hate all the rest.”
I put a hand on his cheek. “I love you.”
“I know,” he muttered, covering my hand briefly. “Okay, so you think I’m seeing someone’s soul?”
“Normally, you wouldn’t be able to, so I’m thinking you’re seeing an actual person.”
“Oh, fuck off.”
I couldn’t hold in my laughter.
He shoved me, and I was still snickering on my side moments later. He really was an extraordinary man.
“Sit up and talk to me.”
“You’re the one who pushed me over.”
“Just, c’mon.”
I reached for him, and he took my hand and gently righted me so I was back to sitting beside him.
“Tell me who you think I’m seeing?”
“I think it might be Giles Corey.”
I got a scowl then. “Who the hell is Giles Corey?”
“Technically, my ancestor. He lived in Victorian England in the late eighteen hundreds.”
“Not here in Osprey?”
“No.”
“Really?”
“Yes, really. He was the brother of Edmund Corey, who was the guardian of Corvus at that time.”
“How funny.”
“What do you mean?”
“I thought that in every generation of Coreys there was only one child born.”
“You did?”
He nodded.
“Well, that’s not true at all. Lots of families had lots of children. In Giles’s case, he moved to England and Edmund stayed here.”
“But you’re an only child. You have no siblings or cousins.”
“I could have cousins. My grandmother came from a large family, so if her sisters or brothers had kids, then I have distant cousins somewhere.”
“But not with Corey blood in them.”
“Oh, I see what you’re saying. No. I’m the singular Corey.”
“Okay, so back to Giles. He’s in England, his brother, Edmund, is here, and then what?”
“Well, Edmund, as I understand from reading the journals, was a Green Witch. He could make anything grow on Corvus, and did, but his craft was limited to planting, sowing, all of that. Giles, on the other hand, was a powerful witch from a very young age, and his parents hoped he would be the one to stay on Corvus.”
“But he bailed and went to England, and his brother was the guardian.”
“Yes.”
“Did Edmund do all right?”
“He wasn’t powerful enough to awaken more power in Corvus, and some of the land out toward the western woods grew haunted for a time, but my grandfather’s father was also a mage, and he restored it when he was guardian.”
“How do woods get haunted?”
“If they’re left alone, not ever walked over or through, if no one talks to the trees, touches them, or thanks the spirits who reside there, eventually, feeling abandoned, they build resentment, and dark patches are created.”
“So that’s what happened?”
“Yeah.”
“And how did your great-grandfather fix it?”
“He went there daily, and he took my great-grandmother with him, and between his magic, and the love and kindness she showed with her offerings, eventually, the light was returned there, and no part of Corvus has been haunted since.”
“Good. Okay, now back to Giles. What’d he do?”
“Giles became a very powerful hedge-rider, so powerful in fact, that instead of dying, he moves back and forth through time, through the veil, from whatever realm he’s visiting back to Corvus, and then he leaves again.”
“Not through the rift?”
“Again, intentionally moving through the rift takes more power than a mortal can ever possess. It’s impossible, no matter how strong a witch gets.”
“A demon could—”
“Stop. You know as well as I do that the demon we tangled with this past summer moved from hell to Osprey by sheer luck. He had no idea where he would end up when he stepped through that portal.”
“All right,” he sighed. “Back to the veil. I thought only spirits came through, nothing flesh and blood.”
“You’re right, nothing corporeal can come through, but along with spirits, souls can pass as well.”
“Souls meaning people, and spirits as in the spirits of the forest.”
“Yes. Very good.”
“I listen,” he grumbled. “But go back to the hedge-riders.”
“You have to remember they can astrally project their souls through the veil, and unlike the dead, they’re not bound to the natural order. They can go anywhere, to any time and any place and any realm they want to see.”
“So thin veil, not thin veil, doesn’t matter.”
“No. They thin the veil themselves, making their travel possible.”
“Okay. But Giles is different from normal hedge-riders, which is why you think it might be him I’m seeing?”
I nodded. “Yes. Giles is so strong, he can corporally move from one place to another, one plane to another, just by thinking about it.”
“Because he’s that powerful.”
“And has been alive for centuries, yes.”
“So does he come and go from Corvus a lot?”
“I don’t know if it’s a lot, but eventually, yes, he has to.”
“Why’s that?”
“Because our family graveyard is here, and it’s where all the guardians have been laid to rest since Corvus became Corvus. My understanding is, this is the place he has to visit to ground himself to the natural world.”
“Don’t look at me like you’re done talking. Say more.”
I grinned. “If you think about it, being a hedge-rider, being able to go anywhere, realms, time, you name it, eventually you’re going to lose track of who you are and where you belong.
Returning to where your ancestors are buried and performing a grounding ritual is what’s gonna help you get your bearings. ”
“Like remind him he’s human.”
“Yes.”
“So he pops in, does whatever grounding he needs to do, maybe communes with your ancestors, and then away he goes again for however long.”
“Yes, and that’s the extent that any of us know about him.”
“It sounds like he could have been helpful in dealing with the demon last summer.”
“I like how offhandedly you said that, like it was easy.”
“Not at all easy, but maybe he could have helped us.”
“The thing is, there is no way to contact him, you never know when he’ll be here, and yes, he’s related to the rest of us, to our guardian line, but he’s never been part of the life of any guardian, not even his brother’s.”
“His brother is buried in the graveyard.”
“He is.”
“That would be weird for me.”
“Yeah, but you would never abandon your family, and he never returned when his parents or his brother died.”
“You don’t know that. Maybe he looked in on them.”
“They never put that in any of their journals, and what’s the point of seeing them and not visiting them? I mean, he never stopped by to say, I went to the fae realm and know all about centaurs now or whatever.”
“I see what you mean.”
“No warm bonding family moments because he has no interest in any of us.”
“Okay…so that’s why you think there were foxes in the graveyard. Someone in your family sent them as a message to give you a heads-up that Giles was here.”
“That’s what I think, yes.”
“But why would you need the warning if he’s just gonna be in and out?”
“Your guess is as good as mine. Like I said, as far as I know, he normally comes and goes, no alert necessary.”
“Unless something’s different this time.”
“Possibly, but I couldn’t begin to guess what that would be.”
“I have a question about the time part.”
“And I am ready to answer.”
“Can he go to the future?”
“Nope. Only the past.”
“Can he go back further than when he was born?”
“Yes. He can go back as far as he wants. To the first of our line, and apparently has. There are reports of him for centuries, small footnotes in many journals.”
“Why can’t he visit the future?”
“I suspect that, as it’s unwritten, he can’t go someplace where there’s no path. But regardless, he can’t travel forward beyond the last of us. So since I’m it, this is as far as he goes.”
“Maybe he’s here to check on you, to see if there’s another Corey.”
“But all he’d have to do is arrive here to know he was in the same place again, still firmly grounded within my lifetime. Nothing new to see yet.”
“Have you ever seen him?”
“No. I only know what he looks like from journal entries.”
“I wonder why he’s here.”
“I wish I knew.”
“So Corvus will let him roam around because he’s not evil and doesn’t pose an outright threat to me or you.”
“That’s right.”
“And thus far, he hasn’t tried to speak to either of us.”
“Nope.”
“And also, he can’t come into the house without an invitation, like a vampire.”
“Most things can’t enter without being invited.”
“Which is why welcome mats are bad.”
“So very, very bad. It’s like leaving your front door open for all manner of paranormal creatures and entities.”
“That’s actually really comforting that he can’t come in.”
“If Giles is here, he won’t stay long. He never does. From everything I’ve read about him, he’s a wanderer.”
“That sounds like what hedge-riders do, right?”
“No. They normally have families or covens, lending their talents and learning to a specific place.”
“But because Giles learned to do more, he’s not tied to any one place.”
“That’s correct.”
“What if he wants something?”
I shrugged. “Well, there’s nothing I can do about that if he doesn’t want to talk. Hopefully, the fact that you’re the one seeing him, means he doesn’t need to speak to me and will therefore be on his way soon.”
“I really want that to be true because the skulking around is creepy as hell.”
I couldn’t very well argue.