Page 97 of Demon and the Raven

“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.”