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“Are you going to leave me a way of contacting you,” she asked.
“If you need me, I will know.”
“How.”
He touched the side of his head in salute. “I shall keep in touch… somehow.”
She didn’t believe him, of course. And that was okay. Reality did not need to be believed to be lived.
“The wolven’s going to want to thank you,” Xhex said. “For everything.”
“And I would rather have my eyes plucked out ofmy skull before I must endure such an exchange.” As his sister arched her brow, Blade smiled a little. “?’Tis quite unpleasant, both experiences.”
“Yeah. For real.”
There was an awkward pause. And then she dropped her hands to her hips and rubbed her palms on her leathers as if they were damp.
“I want you to know something.” Her voice was low in volume, strong in tone. “It’s a two-way street, between you and me. If you need anything, you gotta let me know.”
Blade’s heart skipped a beat and he made a show of looking at the natural spring in the rear of the cave. The bedding platform. The storage trunks and the table with the candle on it.
“I rather thought you’d prefer to never see me again.”
“No,” Xhex said. “That’s not what I’d prefer.”
“Well.” He cleared his throat. “Isn’t that quite lovely. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I must be going.”
Bending at the waist, he bowed to her, and then he walked forward. As he passed by her position, there by the passageway’s entry, he thought perhaps she would reach out to him. She did not. And thus he processed, alone, through the narrow confines of the way to the great outdoors.
Emerging, he took a deep breath and felt a burn in his stomach. But it was not bad. Indeed, his healing had progressed quite the thing, and inanother week, he would have no residual effects whatsoever.
Physically, that was.
With one last glance around, he expected to see the silver wolf off to the side, looking satisfied with herself in all that she had engineered. Then he closed his eyes and—
“Blade—wait!”
As he turned, Xhex raced out of the cave’s entrance, and the next thing he knew, she was hugging him hard. He did not hesitate to return the embrace.
“Take care of yourself,” she said roughly.
“You, too, sister mine.” He squeezed his eyes closed. “You… too.”
Lydia arrived up on the mountain’s summit wearing white winter-weight hiking pants, a white turtleneck, and a white parka. Even her boots, which were snow-rated and waterproof, were white. Socks and long underwear, too.
She’d driven Candy’s car—which had previously been her own—up the back trail, and parked it a bit away from the magnificent clearing that provided the view of the valley. As she got out, the cold nipped at her, and she welcomed the burn in her cheeks, the way her eyes watered, the hum in her sinuses.
It just felt good to be alive. And she was excited for what was going to happen soon.
The guests would be arriving in just half an hour—Daniel, too.
She had come early.
As Lydia walked forward, she heard rustling in the undergrowth, and then the howling started. The sound made her heart sing further, and she stopped, let her head fall back, closed her eyes… and thought of Eastwind.
She had moved into his house with Daniel.
And she was taking over from him. Whatever that meant.
