19. Raven

Raven

" H aboob," Theo gasped as Kevin began to wind in circles around my knees.

"A what boob?" Myrr demanded.

"Sandstorm." And it was a doozy. Like a tornado of whipping winds and sand. A terrible storm, so massive, it was impossible to see where it started and where it ended. If it continued on the path it cut, we'd be flayed to the bone.

"She knows," Diana said, squirming until I let her down. "She knows we found Jade. Damn it. I'd hoped to have some time to?—"

She wobbled on her feet, and I made a move to steady her, but she held me off. Her eyes were trained on the incoming storm that seemed to be moving faster with every passing second.

"If this hits us, it's curtains," Myrr said, scooting closer to Theo.

"Doesn't take an Oracle to see that," Nicholas replied, meeting my gaze with a questioning one of his own.

I knew without words what he was asking. Should we snatch up Diana and Myrr and make a dash for it? But as tempted as I was, I knew she'd never forgive us if we left Maverick and Theo behind. I was pretty sure Kevin could keep up if he wasn’t burdened with riders. No matter how we split it, there was no way we’d all make it out of this.

The winds whipped, and the sand screamed as the haboob closed in.

"What do we do?" Nicholas called out to be heard over the sound of the growing storm.

"Not we," Diana replied with a grim smile. "Just me. It's time to see exactly how powerful this piece of Veil truly is." She shot me a look over her shoulder, mouthed the words, "I'm so sorry," and then broke into a sprint.

Toward the storm.

"You want me? Come get me, bitch!"

What the hell was she doing?

My feet were anchored to the ground in sheer terror for a single instant before I leapt toward her, arms outstretched, as if she were going to literally embrace the storm. Before I could reach her, she let out a primal scream that rang through my head so loud, it nearly felled me. The sound climbed around us, building in strength instead of waning, unnatural in its reverberation.

At the peak of her scream, a light exploded from her chest, momentarily blinding me before the storm swallowed it. And her.

"Noooo!"

I was in motion again, hurling myself into the whipping sands after her. Razor sharp grains tore at my cheeks and neck, forcing my eyes closed as I reached blindly, grappled wildly to find her. A wrist. A shoulder. A handful of hair...nothing.

And then, it was silent, deafening in the quiet that shouldn’t have been.

The sand fell harmlessly to the ground, joining the rest. The wind but a memory as if it had never been. I blinked, sand stuck to every piece of bare skin, my eyelids crunching as I tried to see…anything.

"Diana!"

I searched the desert floor, howling her name. "Answer me, damn you!"

I could have reached for her with my bond if I’d thought of it, but I was too panicked at first.

"She's there!" Nicholas ran forward, gesturing wildly to a lump covered in sand a few yards ahead of me. The angle of her body, I’d have never seen her.

I stumbled toward her, muttering incoherent pleas under my breath. When I reached her, I bent and scooped her limp body into my arms.

"Diana? Can you hear me?" As the sand trickled away, her eyes remained closed, but she looked unharmed. No signs or scent of blood, her nostrils flaring lightly with each breath. "Why isn't she answering me?"

Myrr toddled closer, with a whimpering Kevin at her heels. She pressed two fingers to Diana’s forehead. "It took Sienna's body years to process the shard and access her powers. She still doesn't know the extent of what she can do. Diana forced the issue on day one. Maybe her body couldn't handle that kind of power."

"Diana is strong. She can handle anything," I shot back with a growl, ignoring the pity in Nicholas's eyes as he looked on. "Now stop talking and start walking, old woman. Diana will wake up.”

Myrr grimaced. “And if she doesn’t?”

The thought of Diana not waking up was…I wouldn’t think about it. It wasn’t a possibility as far as I was concerned. “Then we need to get her to the ship and back home as soon as possible so Sienna can fix this."

Sienna was a healer, it was a part of her gift. If anyone could bring Diana back from whatever this was, it was her.

But as we marched along in eerie silence, I couldn't shake the little voice inside my head...

What if it couldn't be fixed?

The next few hours passed in a haze of grief and regret, and it was dark by the time we reached the shore. The few demons we saw looked away from us, as if we didn’t exist. Fine by me.

We made it back onto the ship, and I was almost numb.

Almost.

I kicked open the door to the captain's quarters with Myrr on my heels.

I looked around. The place had been cleaned, everything set to rights. I laid Diana on the bed.

“What is this?” Nicholas said from the hall. “From what I can smell, the ship has been cleaned, repaired and re-stocked. Why?”

A thump from the deck above had me running, fangs bared.

General Algrin stood on deck, his wings tucked behind him along with his hand. “I thought you might come back this way. Figured you’d need your boat ready.”

“Why are you helping us? Not that I’m complaining.”

He drew a deep breath, his chest and wings expanding a little. “Things are shifting. I can feel it in the air…know that…know that I am on your side. As much as I can be when it comes to my king. I am bound to him in ways I cannot change. The sands of our territory have spoken to me in the darkness that it won’t be long…” He shook his head. “Go swiftly, I have told those on the docks to forget your passage.”

Without another word he sprang upward, into the sky and flew away.

I turned to Nicholas. “Get us out of here.”

I ran back down to the captain’s quarters.

Myrr had started the water into the tub. “Put her in, and then go drink some blood and clean yourself up. It's been a long day in the sun, and you'll need your strength to stay on watch overnight in case we run into you know who on the trip back," the Oracle muttered, waving at me to set Diana in the bathtub. "I'll wash her down and make her comfortable."

She turned off the water and stood back expectantly.

But I didn't want to leave. I wanted to sit on the floor with Diana in my arms until she woke up. The whole walk I’d expected her to snap out of this, to tell me to put her down, she had legs and would use them

The longer she was out cold, the more the fear grew that she wasn’t coming back. That this was the cost.

"Fuck," I snarled, tightening my grip on her as I started down into her soft, expressionless face. "It feels like a bad dream. How did this happen?"

"It happened because it was meant to happen, boy," she snapped back. "The sooner you can get with the program, the better. It will save you a lot of heartache."

"And what is the rest of the program, Myrr? Is this the end of Diana's story?"

Of our story?

Better if I knew now so I could make a plan to join her...wherever she might be.

"I wish I could tell you, but you know that isn't how it works. Go, Raven. Let me take care of her, and you let all that emotion out so that when you come back, you can be strong for her."

Her tone had shifted, and she sounded so gentle, I almost wondered if she herself had been possessed in some way.

The two of us stripped away Diana's clothes and I set her gently into the warm bathwater, pausing to press a kiss to her forehead.

"I'll be back soon, Frostbite. Come back to me."

With that, I rushed headlong out of the room before I couldn't force myself to leave at all. Myrr was right, though. Despite the fact that Diana had defeated Lilis in the moment driving the haboob back, we had no idea how long Diana would be out of commission. One thing was for sure, we were on borrowed time. Nefir had said as much. We could hold her at bay, but we couldn't stop her forever.

Algrin had given us a shot at surviving though.

My footsteps had carried me to the galley and I was surprised to find Theo standing by the stove. If I hadn't sensed the man or the stew, I definitely needed to recharge if I wanted to stay alert on watch all night. He glanced at me. "Stews bubbling in the pot, and Nick has got the ship on the proper course. He figures we should be in Werewolf Territory by tomorrow."

"Thanks," I said with a clipped nod. He looked like he was about to say more, but I held up a hand. "Look, I know you mean well, and I'm sure you have some amazing wisdom to share, but I just need to be alone for a while."

"Understood," Theo replied. "While I've spent enough time alone to last an eternity, I will leave you to it. I'll be at the wheel if you change your mind."

I paused and realized with a start that the old man would likely be captaining a ship for the first time since he'd crashed onto the island. So far, so good, as he'd managed to get us on our way without me even realizing he'd taken command.

"And Theo?" I called to his retreating back, forcing him to turn around. "Thanks. I appreciate everything you're doing." I popped off a salute, which he returned with a bittersweet smile.

"My pleasure."

In an effort to get a few minutes with Diana before night fell, I made quick work of helping myself to one of the jars of blood in our supply. I eyed it, smelled it and then carefully tasted it.

Human. Not demon. Demon blood could be unpredictable at best if was foolish enough to drink it. I did not need to go on a killing rampage, thank you very much.

Satisfied, I tipped the jar back and guzzled the entire thing.

Surging with renewed energy, I scrubbed myself off in the shower, and made my way back to Diana's room, armed with two steaming bowls of stew, and two hunks of bread.

Just in case.

I found Diana laid out on her bed in a nightgown with Myrr snoozing in a chair beside her.

"What the—" Myrr sat up and let out a snuffle. "Oh. Only you." She perked up as she squinted in my direction and caught sight of the bowls.

"How did she get out of the tub? Did she..."

But my hopes were dashed as Myrr scuttled toward me, both hands outstretched. "No, she won't be needing the stew, Raven. Maverick came and helped me put her in bed. But I'll eat both, if you please."

I didn't bother to hide my disappointment as I handed her the bowls and made my way to Diana's bedside. As before, she looked at peace, which was a small comfort.

"Captain says we'll be home tomorrow, Frostbite, so unless you want Lochlin and the Duchess out there making heads roll, you better plan on waking up soon."

My teasing brought no response, and I bent low to press my nose to hers, chest aching.

"I love you, Diana. Please don't leave me."

A loud slurp echoed through the room, and I let out a puff of air as I turned to the Oracle who had a spoon in each hand as she chewed in delight.

"Hard to have a tender moment when you're around, isn't it?"

"Some might say I'm having my own tender moment right here with this stew," she said around the mouthful. "Food rarely lets me down, bloodsucker. I can't say the same for people."

I couldn't argue. Instead, I gave Diana's silky cheek one last kiss and headed out.

I made it to the main deck just as the sun fell off the earth. As bad luck would have it, we were just approaching the area where we'd found the mermaids, and I couldn't help but search the seas for signs of life. But as I scanned the waves, it looked like nothing at all out of the ordinary had happened. So vast and unpredictable, the ocean and the creatures in it had all but erased the carnage. But it would forever be branded in my mind. I let myself remember Xefia's impish smile. Her eyes full of excitement. Her childish giggle.

Gone for whatever revenge Lilis was taking out on the world.

The hate flared hot again in my heart, and I relished the feeling.

Anything beat the terror that came with the thought of Diana never waking up...

"I fucking hate that she loves you."

I turned from the railing to find a slightly drunk Maverick sidling up next to me. In no mood to spar with his dumb ass, I faced the sea again with a sigh. "Well, it's a good thing I don't give a flying shit what you think, then."

"Me hating you makes perfect sense. The thing I don't get is why you despise me so much." He leaned his back against the railing and craned his head to meet my gaze. "You won. It's you she wants."

My gums ached with pressure, and I tried to remind myself that Diana would be super irritated with me if I separated him from his larynx while she was asleep. "This is exactly why. This conversation right here. You are sitting here prattling on about winning and losing, while she is?—"

I broke off, at a loss for how to continue. Because what was she doing, exactly? Fighting for her life? She all but told me she didn't have any regard for that which was most precious to me. That she'd throw her life away in a heartbeat if it meant saving the realms. Did she even want to wake up, or did she consider stopping the haboob her grand finale? Did she think we could take her back home with the shard intact, and everyone would be okay with using her to fix things, so long as the realms survived in the end?

Because I would never be okay.

I couldn't wait to tell her that when she woke up. And tell her how pissed I was at her for thinking I might be.

"Look, Maverick. Even if she was just a friend, I wouldn't like you on principle. You used her and then broke her heart."

"That was a long time ago, Raven. I'm not the same person I was back then?—"

"The way you continue to use her sympathies to try to sway her affections tells me otherwise."

"I'll do whatever it takes if I think there is any chance at all that she will see me the way she used to. And what about you, Mr. Above it All?" For the first time since we'd met, his eyes snapped with something like fury. "You know her people would revolt the second she openly chooses you as her mate, yet you persist. There are factions of wolves that have never accepted her. Not to mention the assassination attempt right before you left for this journey that killed her father. And yeah, she told me about all that. Being with you would be painting a target on her back for all eternity. But that's okay, is it? That fits in with your 'principles'?" he snarled.

My fingers itched to curl around his neck and choke the life out of him, except there was no point. He'd laid the truth bare already.

"I would protect her. I have always protected her," I managed, my voice nothing but a hoarse whisper.

"Like you did today?" His laugh was low and humorless. "You might have an ego like one, Raven, but you are not a god. You can't promise her protection against what's coming her way. No one can. And being with you only adds to the dangers she will face. Maybe if you truly look at this situation without rose-colored glasses on, you'd see that the greatest act of love would be for you to help figure out how to heal her, and then walk away."

My insides churned, and I squeezed my eyes closed. "I suggest you take your own advice and walk away yourself. Before I forget that Diana cares for you and do what I've been dying to do since I first laid eyes on you."

He was motionless for a long moment, but then he nodded. "Fine. I'll go. But remember what I said, Raven. Assuming we all survive this nightmare and when all is said and done, the safest place she can be is away from you. Allowing her to think it can be any other way is far more cruel than anything I've ever done."

With that, he stalked off, remarkably steady on his feet for someone who was supposedly deep in his cups.

Tricksters tricked, after all.

But I couldn't get his words out of my head, even hours later as I sat at Diana's bedside, head bowed in something like prayer.

Was the bastard right? Was I as bad as he was…Or worse?

And if I was, did I even have the strength to walk away?