Page 5 of Raven in Midwinter

“I’m working on it,” he rumbled.

“I know, and it’s very appreciated, but there are other times it’s thin, and those too are normally seasonal.”

“But you’re saying because I saw foxes in the graveyard, you think what, that something came through somewhere? Crossed over?”

“I don’t know,” I said, walking toward the kitchen window.

“I thought spirits were what came through the veil,” he replied, following. “Is that wrong?”

“No, but someone powerful, like a hedge-rider, could as well.” When silence greeted that statement, I turned and found him scowling at me, his arms crossed. “What’s wrong?”

“You say things like hedge-rider as though I know everything you do.”

“You’re right, that’s a terrible habit and⁠—”

The wind chimes were loud again outside, and we heard heavy steps on the porch. Lorne moved faster than I could get a hand on him and was at the window in seconds.

“What is happening? There’s nothing out there.”

I took a breath. “The good news is, we’re safe in the cottage, but I do think that whatever you’ve been seeing is something that’s been specifically hiding from me and is obviously trying to draw you out.”

“So something on the porch wants me to open the door.”

“Open the door, walk outside, step down into the snow…yes.”

“That’s not spooky at all.”

“You have to think, though, it can’t come into the cottage, and it’s not even letting you get a good long look at it.”

“Which makes you think what?”

“You first.”

“That basically, it wants me to be curious enough to find it.”

“Exactly.”

“But how am I seeing something you’re not?”

“It has to be a spell.”

“Like a cloaking spell?”

I waggled my eyebrows at him. “You’re getting good at this magic stuff.”

“Great,” he said sarcastically.

“Do me a favor and draw the curtains. I don’t want a creature suddenly appearing there and you running out after it.”

“I’m not stupid and—wait. Creature?”

I gestured in the direction of the graveyard. “There is obviously something prowling around on Corvus. I don’t know what, but whatever it is, it hasn’t woken the land. Because it hasn’t, we can only assume it’s not necessarily dangerous.”

“You mean evil.”

“Yes.”

“Because if it was, Corvus would kill it.”