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setting my nerves afire. When he released me, I was disappointed.  
    “Not sure about the shock. You seem fine, but it’s possible there’s some minor irritation.”
    “Nerve damage?” I made a fist and flexed my fingers over and over, happy to know that I could still do it.
    He shook his head and pushed away from his sturdy, wooden chair to kneel at my feet. “Not damage. Moments of tingling and so on.” He looked up, pulling me into his gaze. “You were lucky, Audrey,” he said softly, his voice sad. “Most people don’t get a second chance.”
    “How do you know my name?”
    “Your wallet was in your jacket.” He rolled up the bottoms of my jeans and picked at the knot on the bandage. I was glad that he wasn’t able to see my face because I sensed I wasn’t doing a good job keeping the panic out of my eyes. If he’d looked into my wallet, he might have seen one of the family business cards. I only carried a few at a time, and I kept them behind my BigGrocer Saver card because really, how often would anyone need to hand someone a bounty hunter card? It wasn’t the sort of business where opportunities to add clients popped up over the course of a day.
    “And your name?” I asked, trying to sound natural.
    “Corbin,” he said. He glanced up, a strange look in his eyes. “Don’t you remember me telling you upstairs?”
    “Oh, yeah…” I shook my head. “I meant, it’s unusual…”
    “It means raven.”
    “Like the bird or the color?”
    He shrugged. “I’ll have to ask my mom the next time she calls.”  
    The idea of a wanted man talking to his mother…
    He pulled the wrap off of my left foot and I jerked away.
    “Another shock?” he asked as he gently grabbed me around the ankle.  
    I made a noncommittal sound. Damn, I really needed a pedicure. It was late November, and I’d planned to be wearing shoes, or at least socks, for another six months. The remnants of last summer’s polish were nothing but pinkish splatters that looked like mold. And I’d thought needing help getting my pants up and down was a problem. To my horror, Corbin passed his hands over my foot, assessing, probing.
    “That tickles,” I squealed, yanking my foot away.
    “Ticklish is good.” He unwrapped the other foot, and after he finished prodding me, he sat on the chair. “You’ve been quite lucky, Audrey,” he said, his face serious. “I’m… glad you pulled through this.”
    I sucked at my lip and tasted copper and salt. My poor chapped lips. “How long do you think we’ll be stuck here?”
    He shrugged, but he looked worried. “Hopefully no longer than two days.”
    “Did you say two ?”
    “Afraid so. Forecast calls for another twelve hours of snow, and it’s so early in the season that most of the freelance snowplows aren’t ready.” He stood with a smile. “I’ll put on water for pasta, assuming you don’t have a carb allergy.”
    “Pasta sounds good.”
    “There’s a bathroom just inside the front door. You’ll find something for your lips there.”
    “And which way is that?”
    He pointed, and I hurried off.
    I opened the bathroom door and received a horrific glimpse of a dark-haired witch. The only time I’d looked worse was when I went on a bender, then caught the flu before I was fully recovered. Now my face was covered in broken capillaries, my hair a knotty mess. I used hand soap to wash my face, cleaning out my eyes and nose.
    What I needed was a shower. Or better yet, a time machine so that I could not be in this situation.
    In a basket under the sink I found tampons, deodorant, lip balms, a brush, hair elastics, face lotion. I slathered on lotion and balm, then worked the knots out of my curls and coaxed them up into a ponytail. If Rob or one of my friends saw me, they would undoubtedly ask what had happened, but I still looked much better than before.
    I unlocked and opened the front door and was greeted with a blast of cold, howling wind. Corbin must have shoveled at