Page 13 of White Raven

Blood sprayed, terminating her cry. Sarina’s body stumbled, her hand going to her throat in shock. Her gaze lifted up, her shoulders convulsing, choking on her blood. She dropped to her knees, her icy blue gown staining the color of overripe cherries.

“Sarina!” Body thrashing, my muddled screams echoed in my head, corroding my throat.

No. This can’t be happening! She can’t die.

Her eyes found mine, peering up in pained uncertainty. Her head hit the rug, gaping for oxygen she could no longer reach. Sadness and fear, then understanding. Her body went limp, her gaze still on me, but she was no longer there.

“Nooo!” I sobbed. Unbearable grief had me sagging to the floor, slipping from my abductor’s hold. I stared at my best friend’s blank gaze. “Rina . . . Rina, please wake up . . .” My heart spilled out in agony, still trying to get to her.

She cannot be dead. This wasn’t supposed to happen.

It should be me.

My head twisted back and forth in denial. “Please . . . Sarina.”

No begging in the world would bring her back.

Sarina was dead.

Voices yelled down the hall, sounding alarmed and loud.

“Faen!” I heard one of the men bark in a thick northern accent. “They know we’re missing. We have to get out of here.”

The Northerner holding me tried to lift me up. My body going limp in his hold.

“Stop fighting me,” he snarled.

“Kill me,” I sobbed, trying to claw my way to Sarina. She was my sister. The only friend I ever had.

“You’re the reason we’re even here, kanin.”

“We have to go! Now!”

“I’m trying!” He grasped for my arms, but I fought against him.

“She’s feather-thin! It can’t be that hard.”

“Then you fucking get her.” The man stepped back, letting me drop to the ground.

“Knock her out!” The other male stepped over me. “We can’t have her keep calling us out. Too much is on the line.”

His statement plucked me away from Sarina, reminding me my mouth was free and that I could still fight.

“Help!” I tried to lunge a hit for his crotch, belting out my last cry of hope to anyone who could hear me. “HEL⁠—”

Something struck the side of my head. Pain sliced across my vision. Losing control of my body, I slumped to the ground, my face right in line with Sarina’s.

My last view was of my best friend’s dead eyes, her blood spreading across the white rug.

I yearned for the darkness, desperate for it to take me and never let me go again, ending the pain and the truth.

I failed.

CHAPTER 4

Death was not kind to me. It spat me back out, wanting me to suffer for all the ways I had failed.

Pain daggered through my skull. Every thump against my head seared into me, dragging me from oblivion. My head pulsed with pressure, wanting to combust, ringing through my ears.