‘I need to get changed first.’ I gesture at my sweats. My parents don’t like seeing me dressed like other humans. Which is partly the reason I do so, as often as possible.
‘Oh, yes.’ My mother’s satin-smooth brow creases for a moment. ‘Did you see the clothes I left for you? There’s abeautiful velvet gown that used to belong to your grandmother. Will you try it on? It’s the purple one.’ She kisses my cheek again, as though unwilling to let me go.
I know she misses me. I miss her, too. She was my entire world for much of my life. There are people who wonder why she’s even bothering to make me Raven. I used to wonder the same thing. But I get it, now. She fought for me since the moment I was born, and she continues to do so.
I go into my bathroom and change quickly, putting on the purple dress. My mother links arms with me, telling me of her day as we head towards the library. Father didn’t come to meet me because he wanted her to have that moment, I guess. But there’s no disguising the quiet joy in his face as he looks up and sees us coming through the double doors.
He’s seated at a large wooden table, the gleaming polished top almost hidden by piles of books and curling maps. A smaller table nearby holds a tray; steam curls from the spout of a flowery porcelain teapot, the matching cup next to it. There’s a pen in my father’s hand, dark against his pale fingers. He could use a laptop, if he wanted. But I suppose old habits die hard. And his are very, very old.
He puts down the pen and gets to his feet. His lean face breaks into a smile, his golden eyes bright as he folds me into a hug, pressing a kiss to my hair. I cling to him, breathing in his scent of moss and violets. I never thought he loved me; always felt he was ashamed of me. Then he offered his life in exchange for mine, and I realised how wrong I was. How my own self-loathing had coloured the world around me. And how much I love him.
‘You look well,’ he says, his hands on my shoulders. ‘Are you here long?’
‘I’ll go back tomorrow afternoon, on the shift bus.’
‘You don’t want to take the car?’
‘You know why I don’t.’
‘I do. Have I told you I’m proud of you?’
I grin. ‘You might have mentioned it.’
He regards me for a moment longer, then pulls me to the table. ‘Before we start our lesson, I have something interesting to show you. Notes of an experimental community, a few centuries ago. Human and vampire, living together.’
My father is teaching me statecraft, among other things. But he’s also researching how humans and vampires co-existed through the centuries, each scrap of information another piece of the puzzle, key to the new world I want to create.
I scan the curling parchment, squinting to make out the words in the low light. My father’s finger moves across the page. ‘It speaks of a place, a town where humans and vampires share the community. Vampires guard it, humans offering blood in return, but only if and when they choose. They work together, each for the good of the other. And there’s something here about “dark knights” who protect the place during the day. Human champions, I suppose.’
‘Really? That sounds pretty cool.’
‘Yes, very cool.’ My father’s lips twitch as he reads from the page. ‘‘‘Designed by ye ladye Morvenna, this ys a place where human and vampyres may live as free men, where reciprocity and manners keep one as civilised as the other, where balance in all things is respected and required.’’’
‘Lady Morvenna?’
‘Her name isn’t familiar.’ My father’s brows draw together. ‘What about you, my love?’
My mother places a cup of tea on the table for me, running a gentle hand across my hair, then sits next to my father. ‘I’ve not heard of her.’ She purses her red lips. ‘I had a cousin called Morwen – it’s one of our family names – but she wasn’t born until the eighteen-hundreds.’
‘I know nothing of her either, or this experiment.’
‘Ah, you were probably too busy fighting wars across Europe then.’ My mother gazes at him fondly. He drops a kiss on her lips, both of them smiling.
I sip my tea, breathing in the sharpness of mint, the warmth of this moment. Faint golden light gilds us, fire crackling in the fireplace. Yet it feels, somehow, like the calm before the storm.
My mother turns her attention to me. ‘Are you ready for tonight?’
So, here it is. The thing that’s been making me nervous since I woke up this morning. Since I first heard about it, to be honest. Tonight, I finally get to do something I’ve wanted to do for months. Something I couldn’t tell Michael about, or Laurel.
I’m going to speak with the North Wind.
ChapterFour
THE CHALLENGE
‘Name the twelve families.’ My father’s voice is gentle, yet has an undertone.
‘Mistral, Ravenna, De Corbeau, De Raaf.’ I recite the names, the rhyme familiar from childhood lessons. ‘Vindhof, Ravenko, Corvosa, Andras.’ There are twelve noble Raven families apart from ours, all descended from former Ravens who stepped aside for their heirs, each managing their own territory in Europe or North America, a dark network of black and silver watching over our lands. ‘Darkwing, Karanlik, and there are two more, Voronov and Eligor. I already know this,’ I add, unsure why he’s making me run through it again.
