“So, what was up with that dream?” she says. “Except we decided it wasn’t a dream, didn’t we? Or if it was, you pulled me into one of yours.”

“I’m sorry, but I really needed you there,” I tell her. “You were my inspiration to be strong and stand up to the Del in my head, because you’re the only one of the two of us who stood up to him for real.”

“Yeah well, when you think about it, I didn’t do such a good job. I should’ve cut his throat instead of just his leg.”

“I’m glad you don’t have to carry the weight of that.”

“I guess.” She’s quiet for a moment, then says, “When we were there, you kept talking about how we were inside your head, but it felt just like the otherworld to me.”

“I think it was a bit of both.”

“I guess that’s why I’ve been feeling this way.”

“What way?”

“Well, ever since that night, I can’t stop looking over my shoulder. I keep expecting to see one of those damned wolf boys, just a-gunning for me. They warned me pretty much point blank that they’d be coming for me if I ever went back.”

Raylene’s had her own experiences in the otherworld, but they didn’t turn out nearly as well for her as mine did. You know how fairy tales have good guys and bad guys in them? Well, she was definitely the big bad wolf and the canids didn’t take too kindly to what she was doing to their reputation. She’s changed now, but cousins have long memories.

“I’ll talk to Joe,” I tell her. “He’ll make them understand.”

“Good luck with that because I don’t. Understand, I mean.”

So I tell her the whole story, everything I didn’t get the chance to explain when we were sitting on the porch of that old homestead inside my head.

“I guess it all makes a certain perverted kind of sense,” she says when I’m done. “Do you think you’ll ever go back?”

I hear the yearning in her voice.

“I can’t not,” I tell her. “We’ll probably go once Geordie’s done with the last of his commitments to play with the Knotted Cord.”

“So, Geordie’s going with you?”

I smile, but she can’t see it.

“Oh, yes,” I say.

She laughs. “Someone’s getting laid.”

“It’s more than that.”

“Of course, it is. It’s you and Geordie.”

“No, I mean we’re getting married.”

“Oh, wow. I’d say ‘so soon?’, but you guys have been circling around each other for pretty much forever, haven’t you?”

“I guess we have. Will you come to the wedding?”

“Is it going to be all mushy?”

“Come on, Raylene. Say you will. Say you’ll be my maid of honour.”