“Is she psychic too?” he asks, laying Max down gently in his lap. He finally seems to realize what the towel is for and turns his arm over to inspect the wound. The scratch is shallow and has stopped bleeding, so he cleans it off and wraps his arm in the towel.

I shrug, trying to wrangle my frizzed curls into a semblance of a bun. It takes me three tries. “Yeah, but no one knows what exactly she can do other than telekinesis. You can ask her if you want, but she’ll just pretend she didn’t hear you.”

Colin’s frown takes over his face. “We didn’t come here for food. We need answers.”

“And it’ll take even longer to get them if you try to turn down Gran’s cooking. It’s best just to let her feed us, then ask questions.”

Gran appears in the hallway, a tray of food floating after her. We each get a heaping bowl of chicken and dumplings with buttered brown bread on the side, and an oatmeal butterscotch muffin, which Colin stares at hungrily. Cups of tea come zipping over from the counter: cardamom rose for the both of us, to ward off inner chills and frights.

I catch Gran up as we eat, ending with the fight in the garden and what we learned. “Kaden said Colin is a Raven. Is that true?” I ask through a mouthful of brown bread.

“Swallow your food before you speak, Anna-love,” Gran chastises softly. “And yes, it is. The power of a Raven is passed down through generations, and both your mother and father were of ancient lines.”

Colin sits with that for a moment, his spoon balanced on the bowl’s edge. “Do you think…” He takes a deep breath. “Do you think that’s why Kaden and his employer killed them? Because they’re—we’re—Ravens?”

Gran folds her hands together and sets her chin atop them. “That is very possible.”

“He was strong, Gran,” I say, remembering the odd feeling of power I’d sensed from Kaden. “I got a string of rowanberries around his wrist, and it didn’t expel him. He said—” I stop, the pieces sliding into place. “He said the body was his! That’s why the rowanberries didn’t work. I think he absorbed the real Kaden’s soul.”

I’d heard of it before—permanent possessions, where no amount of magic could ever free the victim of its invading spirit. But I’d never actually seen it.

Gran’s face grows grim. “This is worse than I thought. The spirit possessing Kaden would have to be extremely powerful to manage that, and we would know if the Shield had broken down enough to let something that strong through. I suspect whoever he works for must have helped him, which would make him a formidable foe.”