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As fluently as the cat cuts through grass
I will teach you to be loud as silence, and to
Slip through armies, like a blade through the chest.
I had thought this had been a poem the day Amon first read it to me in the library in Toronto. The version I had read claimed the author was anonymous. Rereading it now, knowing everything I knew, I understood. This was not a poem. This was a prophecy, about Amon and I.
I turned my attention back to the desk, there had to be nearly a dozen prophecies here. Each one was about us. The Origin’s Daughter and the Prince of Pride, The Shadow and The Raven, the Dark Prince, and the Queen of the Dominion. The oldest one was dated nearly three hundred and sixty years ago, roughly around the time The Origin and Elvira had been frozen into stone.
Had he known for that long? Had he known his unborn mate had been frozen into stone with the daemon he looked up to as a father?
The scent of cinnamon filled the room, and I looked up from the desk to see Amon standing at the door, with his hands in his pockets and dark circles under his beautiful green eyes. He looked like he’d been through hell and back. I realized suddenly that my hand was still over my mouth. I slowly lowered it as the tears that had welled in my eyes finally released down my cheeks.
“Amon, I’m… I’m so sorry,” I managed to say. “I’m so sorry about yesterday, I should have been more careful. You told me to run, I should have listened.”
Amon looked like I had just kicked him in the gut instead of offering him an apology.
“You’re sorry?” He croaked. He came into the room, closing the door softly behind him. “Raven, you did nothing wrong. I’m the monster who brought you there. I’m the…” He cut himself off, pinching the bridge of his nose and closing his eyes. He took a deep breath in, and I realized he, too, was holding back tears. Finally, when he had composed himself, he looked at me, a piece of silver hair falling into those green eyes. Eyes, that I now realized I loved so much.
“I’m the monster who wanted to do what you asked of me.” His voice broke at his admission. Suddenly, everything made sense. How it had seemed like my touch revolted him, how he had dropped me as if I had caught fire the second, we entered the room. How he had nearly thrown me into Kasha’s arms, to get me away from him. The pained look on his face was guilt.
“Oh, Amon,” I whispered and came towards him. I brought my hand up to the side of his face, the way he always did to me. “You’re not a monster.” I promised him.
“I am, Raven. It took everything in me not to take you right there in that horrible fucking bed chamber. It would have tainted everything.”
“I asked you to,” I told him, “Nothing is tainted.”
“You couldn’t properly give consent in that state. If I had touched you at all -”
“But you didn’t, Amon. You didn’t touch me. You are not like her. You are good.”
He squeezed his eyes shut and leaned his head into my hand.
“I don’t deserve you,” he whispered, and my heart broke.
“How long have you known?” I asked. His eyes snapped open, and I lowered my hand.
“Since I freed Prophet Margaret. While imprisoned by Ash Nevra, she had written many of the prophesies you were just reading. She gave them all to me when I freed her. There were more from before that time as well. I began to uncover them as I started to dig further.”
“So, you knew we were mates, before I was even born?” I whispered and he nodded. “How did the prophecy I found in the library in Toronto end up there?” I wondered. He shrugged.
“Daemons sometimes spend time beyond The Veil, mingling with mortals when they grow tired of things here. Some even take up careers to occupy their time. Forever is a long time to live. That is not the first time I’ve seen a daemon prophecy crop up in a human book of pros, disguised as poetry. It is the first time, I would assume, that the person it was written about happened to stumble upon it.”
“It called to me,” I told him. As I was entering the stacks, its voice had been louder than all the others.
He cocked his head to the side. “Interesting.”
I smirked at him playfully. “I thought you had planted it there, and that was some kind of planned encounter.”
He gave me a cautious smile in return. “The encounter was planned, but no, I didn’t plant the prophecy there. I felt it when your energy overflowed that day. Everyone did. That’s when I knew I had run out of time and needed to come get you. But I was too late. The magick folk had already found you. Conrad had earned your trust and I knew he would poison you against me. Against our kind.” He looked so painfully sad; it was hard for me to breathe.
“Well, it seems you have managed to win us both over.” I joked. He nodded, even his smile was sad.
“Raven, there’s more.” My eyes widened. Just how much had he been holding onto, all this time? I needed to know. I needed the full story.
“Tell me everything.”
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