At the Edge of the Otherworld by Kristin Gleeson

Author:Kristin Gleeson [Gleeson, Kristin]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Kristin Gleeson

24

MAURA

When the others did come, all piled into a hire car and Luke driving, I was still attempting to retrieve the head from the shed and gather all the bits of myself into a semblance of a functioning self. That self tried its best, “you know yourself” could never be applied because, the “know” and “self” were still wide apart. And yet. But still. I kept coming back to the raven. The Raven raven. Who he was. All this going around in my head while we sat there in silence. Didn’t he have any questions, the fecker? Or was it all worked out and waiting for me to catch up, like some slow git not quite able to figure out the equation thrown out by a teacher? Who knew? What I knew was that Raven was a raven. A shifter. A shifter like me. And that thought hit me, just as the others parked behind us and got out of their car.

By the time they reached us and I’d got out of the SUV there was a smile on my face. I could even manage a grin as I glanced at the five of them, standing there, determined. Yeah, five. Somehow Sherman had found his way into the SUV.

And there was Luke with the warrior expression, Smithy solid and especially determined, almost matching Saoirse, and then Finn. I would label Finn’s expression fierce. Warrior fierce, but also something else. It was the eyes that gave it the “something else”, and they stopped me for a minute, made my smile slip, until I felt Raven’s hand at my back. Raven, who was like me. The same. Corvids with purpose. Corvids with power. Sure, hadn’t he called me a woman with power?

“You’re here, too?” said Luke, his manner cool.

I looked down at my body, pinched myself in matching cool while still trying to find that shed that held my head. “I am.”

“I have to say I didn’t expect it,” said Luke.

“But I’m sure you’re glad she is,” said Raven, a grin on his face. Feck off with the grinning, I thought.

It seemed to help, though, defuse the situation to some degree. Saoirse gave me a genuine smile and I nodded back. Feck the others.

“We’ve had a look and narrowed down possibilities to a room at the back,” I said. “It seems to also have another room off of it that we think might be a storage space of some sort.” I shrugged. “It has potential, in any case.”

“Had a look around, did you?” Luke said, studying me, his eyes narrowed.

I gave another shrug. Let him make of it what he wanted. “Just through the windows.”

“Oh that’s brilliant, Maura,” Saoirse said. “Sure, you’ve saved us bags of time.”

After glancing at Saoirse with a frown, Luke crossed his arms. “Did you take care for the CCTV cameras?”

I tried not to bristle but my tone was sharp. “Of course.”

“Do you want Sherman to disable them?” asked Raven.

Luke looked at Sherman, obviously weighing the benefits of that option.

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