“You’re the tough one,” I say. “If you’d been here before I figured out how to stop him, you’d have just shut him down with a look.”

“And a good kick in the balls.”

“That, too.”

She stands up. “We should go. I think we’re done here.”

I nod. “I’ve just got a couple more things I need to clean up before I go.”

“Do you need a hand?”

“No, I’m good.”

She cocks her head. “So, are you really going to hook up with Geordie?”

“I hope so.”

“Well, whenever you talk about him it’s pretty damn obvious you’re head over heels.”

She catches me off guard with that.

“What do you mean?” I ask.

But she just laughs. “Good luck, sis.”

I start toward her, and she shakes her head.

“Don’t go getting all mushy on me,” she says.

Except she lets me hug her. She even puts her arms around me and sort of pats me on the back. But she seems relieved when I let her go.

“Call me when you’re home,” she says.

“I will.”

She just stands there.

“Well?” she says after a moment. “You brought me here—aren’t you going to send me home?”

“Oh. I didn’t think about that.”

“I was dreaming about Johnny Depp, if that helps. We were about to—”

I give her a smile. “I don’t think I need to know the details.”

Once upon a time, I think.

And then she is gone, and I’m alone on the porch.

I stay for a moment longer, looking out over the fields. I watch a hawk slowly circling above, following its flight until it sinks below the far trees. Then I turn back into the house, the boards of the porch creaking under my feet.

Joe

Coming back to the plain where the buffalo had gathered didn’t work the way Joe had expected it would. Instead of Anwatan putting him back in his body, they were a pair of spirits, invisible to all except each other.

Joe’s gaze lingered for a long morbid moment on his body, his head cradled in Cassie’s lap. The blood from his wound had made a mess of her clothes, but she didn’t seem to care. She just held him in the crook of one arm while she stroked his hair with her free hand, avoiding the area that had been bashed in. Zia and Maida sat on either side of his body—more still and serious than he could ever remember seeing that pair of crow girls. Raven stood behind Cassie, his gaze fixed on the cliffs on the far side of the plains. He, too, was still, but in him, it was as though he’d turned to stone. He seemed more statue than corbae.