27. Raven

RAVEN

Irun my fingers through the blades of grass beneath me as I stare up at the sky, hoping for the answers to come to me. A storm is coming. A war is coming. Those were his words and they’ve been rattling around in my head ever since.

What is it Eldon said to me not long after I got here?

“In my vision, a war was coming, a war across realms, threatening all of existence. And the raven… she saved us all.”

I don’t like the startling resemblance one bit. Every day, I wake up free of the life I was living in Shadowmoor, yet the noose around my neck only seems to get tighter.

The clouds gently float across the sky, set on their destination, while I lie here, fumbling to understand which way is up. The mention of the word war has my gut twisting. I feel it in my bones, the truth behind those words, and I don’t understand why.

I’m sure the truth will happily come along and smack me in the face eventually. That’s how it’s been going recently, at least.

Fingertips ghost over mine as someone lies down beside me in the grass and I tilt my head to find Eldon getting comfortable on my left. He’s not looking at me, though, he's staring up at the sky with a sense of wonder that feels far more hopeful than my own.

Turning back to the blue background and smattering of white clouds that have now replaced the gray and gloomy weather we had earlier, I lace my fingers with his.

“What are you thinking about, Little Bird?” he asks after a while, and I smile at the nickname.

“Nothing. I’m pretending there is nothing crazy going on in my life right now and my life is as simple as this,” I explain, glancing at him out of the corner of my eye to see a smile tipping the corner of his mouth up.

“You deserve nothing less,” he breathes, warming my soul.

“Yet it’s an uphill battle like everything else,” I say with a sigh, dampening the moment with reality.

“It’s a good reminder that we’re living.” He lifts my hand to his mouth, peppering kisses over my knuckles as another deep sigh passes my lips.

“That’s true. I know I’m doing more than just surviving now, which is overwhelming sometimes, but the hurdles we’re facing aren’t getting any easier and I can’t help but question whether I’ve got the strength for it.” I don’t even know where that truth came from but the second it parts my lips, I know I mean it.

“I know, but if there’s anyone who can handle this life, it’s you. All of these trials are here to remind you how strong you are, Raven. That might sound shitty, but I promise I’ll be with you every step of the way.” His words don’t take away the uncertainty in my veins, I wouldn’t want them to anyway, but they don’t mask or downplay how I’m feeling either. They’re exactly what I need when I don’t even know what it is I’m searching for.

“Are we ready to trial some magic for my dove?” Zane asks, his shadow casting over us a moment later as he stands with his hands on his hips, a hint of concern in his eyes.

Eldon looks at me expectantly and I nod, still uncertain about it. “As ready as I’ll ever be.”

That’s all they need to take over my serene space from moments ago, helping me up to sit cross-legged in the grass, and they drop down with me to create a kind of circle between the five of us.

Zane is to my right, Eldon to my left, while Creed and Brax face me. The sun breaks through the clouds at that exact moment, a soft glow shimmering over us, and it warms my heart.

“Let’s start off small, shall we?” Creed offers, and I nod. “If I do some mundane magic, can you try to see if you can feel it in the air?”

I nod, not bothering with words. He goes through the motions of making a platter of cheese and crackers appear in between us all before I manage to let my hair out of my hair tie and twist it into a bun on top of my head. “What’s this black strand here?” Zane asks, making me frown for a second before I realize he’s pointing at my hair.

“Oh, I don’t know. I used my magic to refresh my hair color the other day but that strand just won’t change,” I reply with a shrug. He purses his lips in thought but eventually shrugs and focuses on the task at hand.

When the general magic doesn’t seem to connect or register with me, Eldon opts to shift to the bigger stuff. “My visions aren’t controllable, so I can’t bring one on, and my fire magic is a literal energy source you can feel from the heat, so I don’t think that will work any better. What about you guys?”

At the offer, Zane instantly goes invisible beside me and my breath lodges in my throat. It was phenomenal seeing him do it in the Gauntlet, but right beside me, and so casually, is something else entirely.

A shiver runs down my spine as I close my eyes, focusing on the purple orb inside of me and the energy in the air around us. “I feel like there’s a disturbance in the air,” I murmur, a sort of static-like feeling flickering against my nerve endings.

“Is that because Zane’s probably moved closer to you, though? I wouldn’t be shocked if he had,” Creed states, and a moment later, legs appear on either side of mine. He’s shuffled around to sit so I’m between his open legs.

“Fucker,” he grumbles at Creed, dramatically moving back into position with a huff, and I grin.

“If Brax goes gargoyle, it’s a physical shift and not so much a danger to Raven, so that may not help,” Eldon continues, working down the list of magic they can sprinkle in front of me to see if I can sense it.

“Creed?” Brax grunts, nodding in his direction to encourage him to help, but my quiet and observant Bishop scrubs the back of his neck with uncertainty.

“I’ve controlled her sight recently and there didn’t seem to be anything that she noticed. Besides, it’s probably not helping that she’s fully aware of what we’re doing instead of catching her by surprise with it.”

“That’s because she’s as unhinged as you, and you’re right,” Eldon points out, and my teeth instantly sink into my bottom lip at the memory before coiling into irritation at the fact that Genie had somehow managed to sneak into the woods and take advantage of a moment between Creed and me. She deserves another punch, this time to the face.

“How about you try something on someone else and Raven can see if she senses it,” Zane offers. Creed glances my way, waiting for a nod of approval before turning his attention to Brax beside him.

“Fucker,” my gargoyle grumbles under his breath, his hands clenching in his lap as he slowly blinks.

The hairs on the back of my neck stand on end and everything but the two of them fades into the background. Tingles ripple down my arms and I’m up on my knees and shuffling toward them with the next skip of my heart.

Stopping dead center between them both, the hairs on my arms are as sharp as those on my neck as I look at them. “I can feel… something,” I whisper, unsure how to label it, but I know it’s there. I’m certain of it.

Slowly, I lift my hand in the air and reach between them. Not at either of them, specifically, more at the energy I can feel zapping between them. My eyes close of their own accord as I inch closer and closer and when I softly blink them back open again, I notice the faintest blue line of what can only be described as magical particles seeping from Creed into Brax’s mind.

Holy fuck.

“It’s there,” I breathe, and everyone else remains silent as I start to eliminate the remaining inch between my fingertips and the blue glow. Just as my finger is about to sweep over the delicate strands, a thud vibrates the ground.

My heart races in my chest as my hand drops to my lap and I turn to find the culprit of the interruption.

Ari.

He looks exhausted, and the second I acknowledge it, I feel the weight of that tiredness in my bones.

I’m instantly on my feet and rushing toward him.

“Where have you been?” he asks, making my eyebrows pinch in confusion.

“What do you mean?”

“I knew you were in danger, I could sense your panic, but it was weak, like you were far away and I couldn’t get to you…” Does he mean the other day? Possibly.

“I’m fine. Is everything okay with you?” It’s clear that it’s not but I need him to acknowledge that. He dropped in here concerned about me when I’m clearly not the only one handling crap.

“Do I need to be concerned about another man here or…”

“What?” My head whips around to Eldon, who looks between Ari and me with a tense jaw and a frown.

“Tell him not to be a fool. Just because that one is a shifter doesn’t mean I am too,” Ari says into my mind, making me smirk.

“He told me to tell you that he’s a griffin through and through. No shifting involved. Is that okay?” I cock a brow at Eldon, who relents with a shrug.

“You can hear him?” Zane asks, and I nod, tapping my temple.

“In here, but currently, he can’t hear me the same way, so it’s a one-sided spoken conversation,” I explain, and a hint of guilt creeps up my spine with the fact that I didn’t mention that to them, but I quickly reason with myself. I haven’t done anything wrong and I’m learning what it means to have a familiar. Besides, I don’t need to lay out every inch of my life, right? When none of them speak up again, I turn back to Ari. “Are you okay? You seem strained.”

“That’s why I couldn’t get to you. I was recaptured with the other griffins until one of the professors recognized me as your familiar. I came straight here when I was released.”

“Released? From where?” I snap, anger coiling inside of me as Ari hangs his head.

“The compound.”

The compound? What fucking compound?

“Show me.”

“Show you?”

“Show. Me.”

He takes a heavy step toward me, nuzzling his beak at my neck before standing tall. “Come.”

His right wing dips, as if to offer me aid, and I move toward him without a second thought.

“What are you doing, Shadow?” Brax asks as I pull myself onto Ari’s back.

“The griffins are being held against their will, I want to see what the situation is,” I state, clutching Ari’s feathers a little tighter than necessary, but I feel completely disoriented up here.

Creed steps forward, glancing between Ari and me before he takes two steps toward us and points a finger in my griffin’s face. “You bring her back here in one piece with a fucking beating heart or I’ll destroy you all by myself, do you hear me? And do not let her get off because she’ll start waging some kind of fucking war and we already seem to have one of those looming over us as it is.”

I blink at him with wide eyes as Ari slowly tips his head.

“I like him,” he says into my mind, and I grin, my teeth sinking into my bottom lip in a failed attempt to conceal it.

“I like him too,” I murmur, just loud enough for Creed to hear before Ari takes a step back.

“Are you ready?”

“No.”

It’s like my answer doesn’t register, or he simply doesn’t care for my uncertainty, because in the next breath, his feet push up off the ground and we’re up in the air.

Holy. Fuck.

I hold tighter somehow, plastering my face against his feathers as my thighs hold on for dear life.

My stomach somersaults as the air whooshes around us and I’m unsure if I’m going to be sick or not. Loose tendrils of my hair sweep around my face as I realize my eyelids are slammed shut.

“Are you not going to enjoy the view?” Ari asks, a sense of amusement in his tone, and I scowl, even though he can’t see me.

“I wasn’t aware there was anything to enjoy,” I snap, attempting to pry an eye open but faltering at the last second.

“If you would just open your eyes, then you would know,” he grunts back as we soar through the skies at an unreal speed, confirming that I’m good where I am.

A few minutes pass and it almost feels like we’re holding a steadier speed and a level height. Confidence gets the better of me and I manage to ping one eye open as my hold on him turns deadly. Not that he seems to notice as I focus on the sky first.

The clouds look just as they did when I was lying in the grass, offering me a sense of familiar comfort and a hint of courage. My jaw falls slack as I look around us. Mountain tops, the ocean, and an array of trees in a variety of colors cascade around us.

“It’s beautiful.”

“It is. It’s just a pity it’s only superficial and if you look below the surface, it’s not as sweet at its core,” he replies, and sadness floods me.

I don’t know what to say, so I don’t say anything, appreciating the view despite his words as Ari guides us to the compound. Glancing over my shoulder, I see the academy in the distance, standing tall and dark among the otherwise vivid scenery.

“Hold on, we’re going down.”

It’s impossible for me to hold on any tighter, but I don’t tell him that as he dips toward the ground. A squeal lodges in my throat, but I at least manage to keep my eyes open as he lands with a thud at the edge of a forest.

He tilts his wing as he did earlier and I shuffle down, slightly relieved when my feet touch the ground.

“Where is it?” I ask, glancing around, and he nods toward the forest. “I don’t understand, it’s just a…” My words trail off as I see a griffin, just like Ari, on the other side of the tree line. “Do you know them?”

“Yes.”

“Why don’t they come closer,” I ask when the other griffin remains exactly where they are and Ari doesn’t take a step closer.

“Because she can’t.”

“Why can’t she?”

Ari lifts a claw, pointing one talon forward as a ripple dances through the air in front of us.

A force field. Why is there a force field surrounding the forest? “Is that the compound?”

“Yes.”

The longer I stand beside him, the more I see. The griffin closest to us isn’t the only one and I’m sure I can see a group of minotaurs in the distance behind a fallen log as well.

The sadness coming from Ari, combined with the sight of the trapped magical creatures before me, has my heart lurching so hard I’m sure it’s going to leap from my chest.

“We have to change this. Hearing about it and seeing it are two very different things,” I breathe, looking up at Ari with sorrow shining in his eyes. Something has to be done. It’s diabolical. Does it look comfortable enough from the outside looking in? Sure, but it is still taking away the simple rights of these living creatures. If we worked together with the other beings instead of caging them like animals, then we would have allies instead of more enemies.

“That’s my love. My Gia.”

I look back at the closest griffin and understanding consumes me. If this was me and my men, how would I feel? My gargoyle, my firestarter, my invisible laughter machine, or my onyx observer? My heart would be torn from my chest. I know it.

Standing tall, I place my hand on his side and run my fingers through his mane, the feeling a stark contrast to his feathers.

“What are you thinking, Raven?”

I take a deep breath, resting my head against him as I speak the words true to my heart.

“A change is coming and we’re going to be at the forefront of it.”