But the desire to crack jokes fled Joe when he saw Walker approaching him.

“Did you see my daughter?” he asked.

Joe nodded. “She showed me the way back to my body, but . . . “ He hesitated, then added the lie: “She’s gone on. She told me to say goodbye for her and to give you her love.”

The cerva sighed, the ache plain in his eyes.

“There’s blood between us now,” Joe told him. “You, your family—they’re my family now. You ever need anything, all you have to do is say the word.”

“Goes for me, too,” Jack said.

“I just want my daughter back. I want to see her running with the herd. I want to hear her voice.”

Joe glanced at Raven.

It was too late for her, the gruff voice said in his mind. You know that.

Joe turned back to Walker and put his hands on the cerva’s shoulders.

“That’s the one thing I can’t do,” he said, “though it’s the one thing I would do if I could.”

Walker nodded. “I know.”

There was so much hurt in his voice, in his eyes. Joe felt a pang of guilt. Why should he come back when she couldn’t? But he knew the answer. Never mind whether your time on the wheel was done or not. If you had to die, do it while helping power players like Raven and Ayabe who could see that you were brought back again, better than new. Anwatan had died alone, and there hadn’t been enough left of her body before anyone knew she was dead.

Thinking of the cerva spirit who’d shown him the way back reminded him of what she’d told him when they were still in the holding ground.

Joe returned his gaze to Raven.

“Anwatan told me something on the other side,” he said. “She says there was a cousin running with those bogans—giving them safe passage through our territories and teaching them how to shapechange.”

Raven nodded. “I know. Odawajameg of the salmon clan.”

What, now he chose to be omnipresent? Why couldn’t he have played that card before all of this began?

“How’d you know?” he had to ask.

“Grey brought him to us. I have him in custody at my roost. He will go up before a council of air and water cousins.”

Standing beside Joe, Jack started to roll a cigarette, pulling out that Zippo lighter of his when he was done.

“How do you think that’s going to work out?” Jack asked.

“It’s not for me to say,” Raven said. “But if I had my way . . . “ He sighed. “There’s history between Odawa and the corbae—old, unhappy history in which we’re not entirely blameless. But it should have been finished by now. And I should probably learn a cerva’s ability to forgive, but I can’t find it in me.”