Total pages in book: 50
Estimated words: 47894 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 239(@200wpm)___ 192(@250wpm)___ 160(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 47894 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 239(@200wpm)___ 192(@250wpm)___ 160(@300wpm)
“I—”
“But the fact that you don’t remember means Corvus isn’t doing such a great job of sustaining you. So now you must ask yourself, how can that be? What has changed from when you made the decision to wrest the land from me and now?”
The way he was staring, his face crumpled with emotion, both confusion and pain there to see, I couldn’t help it, I felt sorry for him. He’d gotten so far away from the witch he was supposed to be, learning, growing, and discovering life’s mysteries.
“Ask yourself, what did you do to Corvus when you made it bigger than it was ever supposed to be?” Lorne asked him. “What have you changed?”
“Nothing,” he declared, but he sounded unsure, his voice thready. “I’ve done nothing wrong. Adding more acres, increasing the area of Corvus would make no difference. The only one who would ever care would be the guardian,” he said, glaring at me. “But you’re right. I didn’t consider the ramifications of taking the guardian from the land.”
“Where there has always been one.”
“Yes. True.”
“And you didn’t just take me.”
“What are you—”
“This slip you created,” Lorne began, drawing his attention from me, “has corrupted the timeline. You took Xan from the present, and you took—was it William?”
“Yes, William,” I answered, smiling at him.
“You moved William from his time, where he belonged, here in 1799, and left Corvus without a caretaker, without a guardian.”
“I—”
“You left both past Corvus and present Corvus unprotected. There is no one to guard the rift, no one to call the wards, no one to harness the great power of the land.”
“I can do that. I’m a Corey too!” he thundered at Lorne.
Lorne scoffed. “You have no idea how to speak to Corvus because you never pledged all that you are in service to the land and protection of the rift,” Lorne reminded him, putting down his mug and crossing his arms as he regarded Giles. “You may be a Corey, but I’m more of a steward than you will ever be.”
“I—”
“Giles!” Ilara yelled as she returned.
“Where were you? How long does it take to check one bathroom?”
“Are you insane?” she shrieked at him, gesturing behind her. “Everything is changed. Nothing in that room is how it should be. It’s completely undone.”
“I want to see,” I said to Lorne, who nodded.
“You will not move,” Giles shouted, turning on Ilara. “I don’t understand.”
“You told me you grasped all there was to know about Corvus and all…this,” she said angrily, gesturing around her. “But it seems that this mansion, especially, is changing every moment.” She pointed at the marble floor, or what had been marble seconds before but was now ancient wood.
“Giles changed Corvus,” I informed her. “He messed with time and left all this in free fall without a safety net. But that’s the outside, the land. Inside your mansion, the changes happening now, Lorne is the one responsible for those.”
“Oh, do explain,” Ilara goaded me.
“I think Giles wanted to exert his power over a man he feels inferior to.”
“I am a hedge-rider, you worthless, mewling little—”
“Yeah, but Lorne tossed you off our porch,” I said flatly.
He went mute and stared at me.
“You were pissed, so after you thought you killed me, you decided to keep Lorne, lock him up, let Ilara play little cat-and-mouse games with him, and then waited to see how long it would take him to break down and go mad.”
Both of them were now focused on me.
“But what you missed, Giles, because you forgot, because you shouldn’t even still be here, because Corvus is not at all charging your battery anymore, is that Lorne can make his own sanctuary in this mansion.”
“That’s not even remotely—”
“It is,” I insisted, “because underneath all this mortar and marble and all the gilded paintings you’ve put on the walls, it’s still his cottage, just with some extra bells and whistles.”
“You’re mad,” Ilara said.
“No. The cottage, this cottage,” I said, indicating everything, “likes me fine. Always has. It will protect me, shelter me, all of that, I have no concerns. But the person this home is devoted to is Lorne.”
“Is that so,” Giles retorted before throwing something, fire, perhaps, a blast of it like a flamethrower or a bolt of lightning.
What happened was, he made a motion as though hurling something, like a mime or an actor in front of a green screen. There was a lot of movement, and I had no doubt he’d expected to burn Lorne to death, make him explode, something. He would smite him, eviscerate him…this was what was supposed to occur. But nothing happened. Nothing at all, and all the gesticulating made him appear ridiculous.
“Giles,” Ilara demanded. “We’ve heard enough of this. Kill MacBain now.”
He tried again, lifting both hands, trying to shoot something at Lorne, who was still standing there, waiting, arms crossed, legs braced apart, ready to fight if needed.