1. Raven

RAVEN

Darkness consumes me, threading around my veins, piercing my heart, and labeling me something I don’t dare to believe. Twisted, torn, and in denial is how I sit, arms banded tightly around my bent legs as I rock slightly in the corner of the room.

My vision is blurred, a black, white, and gray hue to everything I see.

Everything but him.

I can’t look, it’s blinding.

He’sblinding.

Latching my gaze on to my filthy hands, I stare at the grime etched into every crease and ridge of my fingerprints. My throat burns from screaming and my chest aches from the sobs that wracked my entire body, leaving me silent and cocooned in a room filled with people.

Dead bodies remain scattered across the floor, medics entering and taking them away one at a time. Finn. Gone. The enemies. Gone.

Smoke marks tarnish every inch of the office I woke in earlier, and I still can’t recall how I ended up here. My head throbs as a reminder that something knocked me out. My last memory before this room was the tower collapsing. Everything else after that was black until I woke up here. Drenched in carnage.

I tighten my hold around my knees and my nails cut into my legs, grounding me a little.

Everything is fuzzy. I remember waking in the chaos, watching in horror as Creed, Zane, Eldon, and Brax all fought off some crazy faceless fuckers, who only seemed to gain more strength as they pushed, until Ari, my griffin familiar, came and…saved us? It feels like that’s what happened, but I don’t feel confident enough in my own breath right now to trust in my thoughts and emotions too.

Not when I saw him—Brax—injured, hurt, unresponsive. By the time I dropped to my knees beside him, his sword was gone. He was gone. It was too late.

Until it wasn’t.

One brown. One green.

One fucking brown. One fucking green.

Those two colors flicker at the back of my eyelids as I slam my eyes shut. The pain that consumed me still flutters through my veins in waves of aftershock. The only reminder that I felt that level of torture because now he’s…

I pry my eyes open, instantly finding him across the room where a medic tends to his blood-soaked wound. All of the gray shadows fall away and an amber aura shimmers around him. I shake my head and it fades away, my eyes zoning in on his eyes.

One brown. One green.

I choke on my breath, unable to process any of it, and quickly cast my gaze elsewhere to distract from the reality threatening to be acknowledged in my mind.

I lock eyes with Creed, who is leaning back against the large desk where I woke earlier. The medic before him is trying to look into his onyx eyes, but they’re settled on me instead. He knows what I know, what I can’t say or admit. I can’t read him, though. I can’t tell if disgust fills his thoughts, whether he’s calculating his next move to use me to his advantage, or…

No, Raven. Not him, not them. They wouldn’t…would they?

Slowly blinking, I shift my glance to Zane, who is by the door, helping one of the medics cover Finn’s lifeless body. The muscles in his neck and shoulders are bunched tight, revealing the tension beneath his otherwise casual demeanor. He’s not looking my way like Creed, and I can’t decide whether I prefer it or hate it.

Swiping a hand down my face, likely smearing more grime over me, I find Eldon shuffling to lean beside Brax. He grips his friend's shoulder, confirming he is, indeed, standing before him, and another pang of pain and confusion swarms through my body.

As if sensing my stare, Eldon glances over his shoulder at me while still holding on to Brax. His jaw works from side to side, his mind in overdrive, and uncertainty claws at me again. He knows what I did, what I didn’t mean to do… it wasn’t intentional, I don’t think.

Would I change it? Not when Brax is here and breathing right now, but I’m not delusional. Life won’t ever be the same. Not when people learn of what I’ve done, what I can do.

Say it, Raven.

My teeth sink into my bottom lip, the taste of copper lacing my tongue as I drop my gaze.

Necromancy.

Resurrection is against The Monarchy’s law. And the one subject not encouraged at Silvercrest…necromancy.

The reminder of Creed’s words flickers in my mind. Tilting my hands up, I stare at them in wonder. It’s not possible. There’s no way I did that with my hands, my touch, whatever the fuck it was. But the proof is standing mere inches away from me.

“Miss, are you ready for someone to take a look at you?”

I flinch when a hand lands on my shoulder. Startled, I blink up at a man with a soft smile on his face. The concern is evident in his stare, but I take no solace in his closeness.

“She’s good for now, man. She just needs some space.” Zane reaches for the guy's hand while placing himself between the medic and me. I exhale when the medic steps back, nodding as he moves around the room, leaving me to look up at Zane like he hung the damn moon.

He crouches beside me, not touching me, despite the twitch in his fingers. I hate that I feel like I’m being difficult right now, as if he doesn’t know how to handle me. Or maybe he does. I just don’t like that he has to.

“Hey, Dove,” he breathes, his words warming my chest as his eyes soften. Hazel orbs peering into my soul whether I like it or not.

“Hey,” I croak, a bubble of emotion sitting on the tip of my tongue, sweeping my throat as I bite it all back. He notices it all, though. I can see it in the crinkle of his eyes.

Tilting my head, I swallow back the sob I’m sure was trying to escape, taking time to gather myself before I look at him again. I try to summon some humor to break the tension in the air between us, but my lips have barely parted when the clang of metal echoes around the room.

“Whose sword is this?”

My gaze locks on the silver, disbelief washing over me as another piece of the puzzle appears. It’s identical to mine, similar in every way, but my sword isn’t here.

“It’s mine.” Everyone whips around to look at Brax, who now stands with a frown on his face. He rubs the back of his neck, exhaustion clinging to his features as he bites back a yawn.

He looks dead on his feet. Literally.

My heartbeat quickens. It was gone. And now it’s not. Just like him.

He can’t even look at me, and I can’t even process what the fuck is happening. Does he know? Does he remember? Does he feel any different?

I could sink beneath the questions swirling in my head, but I refuse to lower my defenses in a room full of strangers. Now isn’t the time. That doesn’t stop the deeper thoughts from rearing their ugly heads, making a tremble run through my bones from head to toe.

I should have stayed hidden. I should have stayed tucked away in Shadowmoor for all of eternity. The ward on my body was a blessing, not a curse.

My heart clenches with the thought, knowing full well that if I weren’t here or attending Silvercrest Academy, then I wouldn’t know the Bishops. I wouldn’t know Ari. At the flicker of his name in my thoughts, a noise sounds out in the distance.

He’s still here. He stayed for me. His call gets louder, as if he can sense my distress and he’s hunting me down. Tilting my head back again, the gaping hole in the ceiling remains cast in darkness from the skies above until a flash of gold streaks across the open air.

Ari.

“Let me take you to him,” Zane breathes, offering me his hand. I stare down at it for a beat before slipping my palm against his. He squeezes gently, tugging me to my feet before plastering me to his chest. “I’m going to make sure no one can see us, okay?”

I frown, confused, until he starts walking us through the room. “Hey, where did the other two go?” The medic from earlier asks, and I catch a glimpse of Eldon’s smirk before Zane carries me down what remains of the demolished stairs.

He used his magic on me. Made me invisible, like him.

I tighten my arms around his neck, my feet just off the floor with the full length of my body pinned against him as he steps over the rubble, only releasing me when we step out into the open. Crimson stains the black and gray hues as people rush around, aiding those who are injured while others gather the lifeless remains of those less fortunate.

Zane runs the back of his hand over my cheek and I whimper at his gentleness. There’s so much to understand, so much to discuss, so many questions, but none of that matters in this moment. He’s here, silently showing me the support he’s never wavered on.

My Zane.

He lowers his forehead to mine, breathing me in despite the state of me, and I run my hands down his arms, squeezing his wrists in a silent thank you.

“I think he needs you as much as you need him, Dove. Go.” He leans back, dropping his hands from my waist as he nods over my shoulder.

I turn to see golden feathers gracefully float through the air, despite the size of the griffin landing before me. Ari hits the ground, making it shake beneath my feet, and a few people around us startle. But it all fades to darkness as I take a step toward him. Then another, and another, until my head is cranked back to look up at him. His head dips down, his eyes peering at me over his beak. To anyone else, he might look scary. Understandably, there’s a reason the griffins were in the Gauntlet: they’re feared.

Yet, to me, Ari feels like… home.

I launch myself at him, burying my face in his soft feathers as I cling to him. A harsh breath morphs into a sob as I bleed my soul into him. The world around us drifts away, my body craving his comfort, and I feel his beak nuzzle against my shoulder as he consoles me in a way I can’t even begin to acknowledge or explain.

His comfort lets the world and time seep away. I’m not sure how long we stand there, but it feels like an eternity before I lift my tear-stained face from his coat. I don’t care that I’m raw, exposed, and vulnerable. I know he will protect me to the ends of the realm.

I am him, and he is me.

Testing the softness of his fur on his legs, I look back up at him to find his expectant gaze already taking me in. “Happy official first meeting,” I breathe, a dry chuckle following while I shake my head in disbelief. I’m talking to a griffin. A fucking griffin. It sounds bizarre, but I’ve never needed someone or something to hear me as much as I do at this moment. “Thank you. For being here, for saving my life, for saving everyone’s lives,” I correct, waving a hand around us.

He doesn’t reply, of course, but he leans down, nuzzling his beak against me from my shoulder to my stomach as he lowers until he’s kneeling on the ground in front of me. My heart soars. I don’t know what it means, what this feeling is inside of me, but it feels like love, like family, an unbreakable bond, like everything I’ve ever craved and needed. He feels like my mother’s touch, but more. Different.

My fingers find their way to his head, stroking softly, and he mews, leaning into my touch, refilling the hope inside of me despite the carnage around us. I don’t know what an attack would look like, but this isn’t it. It’s worse. Darker, deeper, etched in pain and sorrow.

I don’t know what the purpose of any of this was, but I get the feeling I’m going to find out whether I like it or not. Never have I wanted to be alive more than I do now. Even with all of the uncertainty and the unknown twists of my magic, I belong. I know it. But the priorities are quickly shifting around me. Everything is changing, and I’ll never feel the same. For better or worse, one thing is for certain.

Fuck following the sun. Fuck destroying the shadows. Fuck everything but my next breath.