by C. E. Murphy
I squeezed Gary’s hand again, giving him one brief adoring look even as tears ran down my face. “This friend. This man taught me to believe, and I know I wouldn’t have made it this far without him.”
I looked back at my exhausted Raven, making sure he was still with me, and spoke, uncertain if anybody would even hear me. “So whatever you’re bringing here today, I’m just asking you to share it. With words, with song, with silence, if that’s what works for you. Just hold hands for a few minutes and offer what you’ve got toward making this world a better place. We’ve had a hell of a time of it, and we could all use a little of that kind of positive thought.”
All over the place, people were taking one another’s hands, which kind of surprised me. I’d have thought it was a kind of hokey request, and maybe it was. But maybe I was right, too, and it was something we all needed.
As the last hands joined, energy crashed into the circle—the meandering, looping, lopsided circle—that they formed, and a pulse of magic swept me. Went right through me and sluiced into Raven, though I tamped it down, afraid that too much at once would blow him away. The lines of him strengthened just a little and I caught my breath on another sob, gathering him close to nuzzle his soft feathers. He pressed his head against my chin and made the softest sound I’d ever heard from him, a quark that was mostly my imagination, it was so quiet. But it was real, and it was him, and the tears that spilled over my cheeks were exhausted and joyful and so, so thankful.
It was only as I snuffled into Raven’s feathers that I realized I’d forgotten to ask Mel to take the lead with the circle. Oh, well. There was so much strength here, so much goodwill and hope and sorrow, tinged with faint embarrassment at participating in this, or delight at participating in this, that I would have to be really trying to screw it up. And at this particular moment in time, for the first time ever, I was absolutely certain I wasn’t going to screw anything up, because I’d gotten Raven back, and I wouldn’t do anything to risk him.
There were stains in the earth, blood-brown and black from the murder that had been done here. I Saw them running deep, like they were trying to escape the gathering magic here, and I smiled. Change. It was so simple and so hard, all at once. Just change.
The stains never stood a chance. White magic poured through them, sizzling, burning them away, and in less than a blink the land surrounding the falls was clean. I sent pure white magic deeper still, offering it to the strained earth, and felt its sigh of thanks. I sent it back into the people gathered here, healing touch to lessen their strain, and felt that ease, too. With each pulse of power, Raven got stronger, returning to form, until he finally gave a happy, familiar klok! and hopped from my arms to my shoulder, where he pushed his face into my hair and bit my ear as if to prove he was really there.
That was my future. Not the chaos of the past year, not the dreadful, exhausting knowledge that I was going to have to face something way out of my weight class, not all the predestiny and tangled time that had driven me forward whether I liked it or not. Healing people, healing places, making the world a better place: that was what I wanted to do now. I wanted Raven to help me, as if there was any chance he wouldn’t. I wanted to do it with Morrison at my side, and with Gary and Annie guiding me. I wanted to improve my relationship with my father, and get to know my son. I wanted to watch Billy and Melinda’s kids grow up, and see what kind of person Suzanne Quinley was going to become, and where her choices would lead her. I wanted all of that and more, and for the first time, all those dreams seemed within reach. Gary really had taught me the thing that mattered the most. All I had to do was...
...believe.
* * * * *
Acknowledgments
My grandfather, for making writing seem a natural occupation.
Mom and Dad, for telling me I could do anything.
Ted, for looking out the window in the first place.
Trip, for illuminating the world-structure error in the early drafts of Urban Shaman.
Trent, for being the first reader for every. single. manuscript.
Bev and Gary, for being forgiving when I wrote during family vacations.
The War Room en masse and Laura Anne, Mikaela, Michelle and Chrysoula in particular, for being there at all sorts of stupid hours when I needed a kick in the pants.
Jennifer, for ten great years.
Matrice, for taking a chance.
My readers, for carrying this story through all the way to the end.
Thank you all so, so much.
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ISBN-13: 9781460330173
SHAMAN RISES
Copyright © 2014 by C.E. Murphy
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This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events or locales is entirely coincidental. This edition published by arrangement with Harlequin Books S.A.
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