Page 6 of Raven in Midwinter

“That’s right.”

My land, Corvus, had once been a wild, untamed forest, but then my ancestors had come, and over time, slowly imbued it with their magic, given blood and bone and created a sacred bond to my line. The land granted power and ancient knowledge, and the guardian—which it was my turn to be—gave protection and guidance.

“Xan?”

“We just need to figure this out,” I soothed him.

“You don’t seem terribly concerned.”

“I’m more intrigued than anything else.”

“Because you know the cottage won’t let anything past the threshold that could hurt us.”

“Correct.”

“And since Corvus isn’t reading whatever this is as dangerous, then I shouldn’t get all worked up.”

“No, but as you know, Corvus reads danger differently than you and me.”

“Meaning what?”

“Meaning something magical the land doesn’t perceive as evil could still be here for some nefarious purpose. All we can do is wait and see.”

“I hate waiting.”

“I know.”

“And you think it got here through the veil that isn’t supposed to be thin at the moment but somehow is.”

“That’s all it could be. All kinds of creatures from the fae realm pass in and out of rifts all over the world at any given time. But to intentionally use a rift, to navigate and move from one specific plane to another, that requires the power of a deity. Anything less magical gets lost.”

“Okay… But explain the veil to me.”

“The veil is simply the barrier between the unseen world and ours.”

“Define unseen.”

“Spiritual realms.”

“Okay. So not like the rift, which allows people to pass through.”

“That’s right.”

“So when the veil is thin, spirits can use that opening.”

“Yep, and it thins only at specific times of the year—Samhain, in the fall, that people are most familiar with, but also at Beltane in the spring. I haven’t heard of the veil thinning at any other times.”

“I know the dead cross through during Samhain. What comes through at Beltane?”

“Normally nature spirits and those of the fae.”

“What’s a nature spirit?”

“I’m starting to sound like Richard Attenborough narrating a documentary on the occult,” I quipped.

“I don’t care, tell me.”

I took a breath. “The truth is, everything in nature has a spirit. All animals, trees, the wind, the rain, everything. But humans, or most humans, don’t see those spirits. We see the tree, but not the spirit of the tree. Does that make sense?”