Slade had to struggle to be still against the scent of hot-blooded rage that poured from both of them as his wife and his partner came to their feet that fast, the fury in both of their voices, the fear layered under Addie's and the full roar of Wintergreen's anger--

The girl did not quail, and that surprised him somewhat as she answered--but then, she was telepath, not empath, and somewhat shielded from the emotional storms that would have struck Raven so badly.

He wondered what the girl had done, even as he heard her words with a surge of relief. //They are... they are themselves. Thank God.//

And where was the foxhole, that he was even thinking at that deity?