Page 26 of Bonds of Magic
“And you named them Cat?” I arched an eyebrow.
Cory shrugged. “They sort of named themself. They mostly appear whenever I need saving.” He laughed, but it soundeddefeated. “Maybe there’s another moragh on the way. With you and Cat, I might stand a chance at surviving.”
He looked down at the ground, kicking a chunk of dirty snow. He muttered something else I couldn’t make out, but I thought I heard the words, ‘deserve it.’
I waited for him to look up. When he finally did, I said, “You helped save yourself from that moragh. I saw it. You stuck it in the eye with a feather from your pocket. Maybe from this guy, here,” I added, pointing at the raven.
Stabbing a moragh wasn’t the smartest move, actually, as it made it easier for the creature’s fluids to come in contact with Cory. But he hadn’t known that, and I wasn’t going to pile more guilt or shame or whatever this was on top of his already dejected demeanor.
“That’s what Ash said,” Cory said with another shrug. “I don’t remember it though. I just remember freezing.”
“That happens sometimes,” I told him. He looked at me in confusion, and I continued. “The not remembering part. Sometimes the body acts without conscious direction. If an experience is traumatic enough, you might block it out to help yourself get through.”
He looked at me doubtfully. “Have you ever frozen like that? Or forgotten details of an attack?”
I shook my head. “Don’t let it get to you, kid. You and I have lived very different lives.”
There were things I wished Icouldforget. But I wasn’t going to talk about that with him.
We followed the winding path back to the gym, then took a second one into the trees towards my cabin. When we were still a good fifty yards out, Cat lifted off Cory’s shoulder and swooped through the darkness, cawing loudly. When we reached my cabin, the caws were coming from the roof, directed angrily at a darker patch of black slinking around on the forest floor.
The patch of black resolved into Mouse as we got closer, the hints of gold in her coat subdued in this light. She rubbed up against my leg before walking over to Cory. I watched in astonishment as she twined through his ankles, then reached up and stretched herself against his front legs. The raven let out another caw. They sounded jealous.
“Um, hi,” Cory said, reaching down to scratch Mouse behind her ears. Shelethim. She’d never let me get within a foot of her head before. He looked over at me. “What’s her name?”
“Mouse,” I said, still dumbstruck.
Cory grinned, and even in the dim of the night, it lit up his face. “And you were judging me for my bird’s name.”
“I wasn’t judging.”
“Sure.” Cory laughed. “Okay.”
He bent down to stroke Mouse’s fur again. I grunted and walked up the front steps to my cabin. I opened the door and turned to look at him. “You going to stay outside all night? Last I checked, you didn’t know how to put yourself into a trance at all, let alone standing up.”
I thought maybe he flushed at that, but it was hard to tell in the dark. He gave Mouse a final scratch, then made his way inside.Mouse, I noted with some relief, did not attempt to follow. At least some things remained the same.
The raven stayed outside too.
I expected Cory to sit down on the sofa once we got inside, but he walked over to the kitchen instead and peered at the pot on the windowsill behind the sink.
“Is this a cactus?” he asked, reaching out to touch it. “Ouch.” He withdrew his hand and stuck his finger in his mouth.
“Yeah, it is.” I looked at him in disbelief. It was obviously a cactus. “Why would you deliberately touch the sharp part?”
“I wasn’t sure you would answer me.”
I didn’t know what to make of that, so I crossed my arms and waited for him to sit down. Instead, he wandered over to the fireplace and poked at a hummingbird’s nest that I’d set there.
“Did you find this here? At Vesperwood?”
I stifled the urge to tell him to stop touching things, and kept my voice neutral as I said, “Yes. Closer to the lake, over by Harvest Haven.”
He nodded, but I got the impression he was barely listening. He had already turned away from the fireplace. He walked over to the couch, but instead of sitting down, he pointed at the afghan.
“Where’d you get this? Did someone make it for you?”
I frowned. What was with all the questions? And why did he seem so nervous?
