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)
“You can’t hurt him inside the mansion,” I told Giles. “It loves him too much.”
“How can a building love? That’s absurd.”
“It became sentient from thousands of years of soaking up the magic of guardians that lived within its walls,” Lorne answered matter-of-factly. “And when Xan and I met, the cottage knew I was the best thing for him. For the guardian of Corvus.”
“This is all nonsense,” Giles barked at him.
“Oh, thank you,” Lorne rumbled suddenly, and we all felt the warm breeze blow through the room and out toward the now open atrium. The walls were gone; it was a giant gallery now, lots of corridors with supporting columns, but the individual rooms, bathrooms, sitting rooms—all gone.
“What is happening…” Giles trailed off.
“What did you thank the cottage for?” I asked Lorne. “Oh,” I said with a shrug. “You look much more comfortable.”
Lorne now stood there in cargo pants, his heavy snow boots, a fisherman sweater that Amanda had knitted for him, and his parka. “I think my girl sees us going outside fairly soon.”
There was a hard, heavy slam then, like a slab of concrete or stone hitting another as plaster dust, and then larger pieces, began to rain from the ceiling in the atrium down three stories to the floor below.
“What’s going on?” I asked him.
“The cottage is collapsing down to its true size,” Lorne stated, moving fast, grabbing my hand and calling for Argos, who came flying from the corridor as the bedroom was gone, only a wall remaining. “My bet is that the fourth floor is gone and this one is next.”
With Argos leading the way, Lorne ran with me toward the stairs as the room where we had just been fell away, dropping to the second floor.
“I hate these kinds of movies,” I announced with conviction.
“Oh, c’mon, disaster movies are the best,” he shouted back so I could hear him over screams and yelling and the jarring, terrifying sound of a crumbling mansion.
Interestingly, lots of people were frantically running with us down the stairs, yet no one was being crushed under anything. The cottage was waiting, making its intentions known, while at the same time, the quaking and cracking was done in segments so people could get out.
Lorne scrambled to the side of the stairs with me, next to an overhang that would not last long, to make sure he was at my back.
“You’re afraid I’m gonna get pushed down and trampled,” I suggested.
“No. I’m afraid I’m gonna get pushed down and trampled saving you or the cat,” he replied, scooping up Argos and tucking him against his chest. “I see the cottage changed your clothes too.”
I was dressed much like Lorne, but in my favorite duck boots, jeans, a heavy cable-knit sweater, barn coat, and when I felt for it, my sherpa beanie that Amanda had brought me from Nepal. “You were right about the cottage. She is very motherly.”
He sighed. “I’ve been saying that since I moved in.”
I glanced around. “I don’t see Giles or Ilara.”
“Well, it’s not like they’re gonna leave without a fight, so don’t get your hopes up.”
“Don’t you get excited either,” I apprised him. “Corvus is broken, and I have no idea how to undo what he’s done. The cottage being whole when this is over will be a blessing, but if the land dies, we’ll lose our home as well.”
“The land and the cottage are both our home,” he reminded me, “and you’ll figure it out. You always do.”
I could barely breathe, his faith in me overwhelming.
“Okay, now, love, shake it off. We’ve gotta move because this ceiling is coming down.”
He was always so calm in terrifying, life-and-death situations. It really was one of his greatest qualities and one of the many reasons the universe chose him for me. I was a bird; he was a rock.
When he yanked me after him, I concentrated on keeping up with him, all my focus on his back, not the chaos around me, the fear I could smell, or the terror churning in my gut. I needed to stay with Lorne; there was nothing more important.
I lost track of time. It wasn’t a surprise.
The mansion crumbled, and once Lorne and I were outside, on the road, after a few moments, he passed me Argos and ran back inside. Of course he did. No one who knew him would be remotely surprised. I followed, but he rounded on me, took my chin in his hand and made me swear on his life and Amanda’s children that I would stay right there and wait for him so he’d know exactly where I would be when he came back.
“Please come back,” I rasped.
“I’m basically going into my home,” he reminded me. “Me being there is the only thing that will keep anyone left inside safe. The sole purpose of me going, specifically, is for that person who fell, twisted an ankle, or is wondering how long they’ll survive under tons of rubble.”