Page 41 of Heart of the Raven Prince

“Run, Oisín.” His voice is haggard, strained, it doesn’t sound like him at all. I struggle against him, cautious of the knife still held to my throat. Caden holds me tighter.

The glowing orb sharpens into a heart, beating a steady rhythm above the queen’s outstretched hand. She looks up, her face cast in an eerie crimson light as she locks eyes with her son. She closed her fist, the heart shattering like glass in her palm. I’m not sure if the blood dripping from her hand is hers, or from the crushed heart. “Kill her, Caden.”

There is a strangled noise behind me, like a starved wolf moments before it attacks, and the daunting aura bleeding off Caden shifts into something far more sinister. Caden sucks in a harsh breath behind me as he shoves me forward and screams in a wild and guttural voice, “Run!”

I nearly stumble to the ground, but I keep my grip on the knife in my hand and spin.

I lock eyes with the demon behind me.

Panic grips my throat, strangling me when I see Caden. His chest rises and falls erratically, his arms and hands twitching. His once-black gaze now shines bright red, piercing the shadows as he stares at me, trailing over every inch of my exposed flesh. A feral grin splits his face, his tongue slowly sliding across his sharpened fangs. His knees bend ever-so-slightly, his stance shifting. Most people would have missed the subtle movement, but I am only too keenly aware of it, because I know what he’s doing.

He's readying himself to attack.

He takes one more deep breath, but he does not move. He’s tensed, waiting, the grin never leaving his face. Fear skitters down my spine as I grip the knife hard in my hand, never once taking my eyes off the predator in front of me. He tilts his head, his eyes getting lost momentarily in the wound on my neck. I take a single, small step back, moving barely an inch. His gaze narrows in on the motion before snapping back at mine. I realize the mistake I made a heartbeat before he pounces.

He told me to run, and I should have listened.

My back slams into the ground before I even realize I’m falling. I cry out on impact, the air punched out of me as his heavy frame presses me into the polished stone floor. Striking quickly, knowing I will not get a second chance, I aim the blade at his back and make to stab him. But his wing lashes out, knocking my hand back. He grips my forearm tight, sinks his nails into my flesh, and slams my arm on the ground. The knife flies out of my hand, sliding well outside of my grasp.

My free hand is holding Caden’s shoulder, trying to push him as far away from me as I can get. My fear is palpable, but my need to survive is a white-hot force inside of me. It is an unrelenting instinct that he brings out in me, churning deep in my gut as I refuse to go down without a fight. He shakes me easily off him. I am no match for his strength. But my father did not train me to quit, so I keep fucking trying. I rain down a flurry of blows on him, hitting anywhere I can. He doesn’t even bother grappling with me, slapping my hands aside effortlessly and clenching my neck.

In one swift motion, he wrenches me off the ground and pulls me toward him. He’s straddling my legs, one hand firmly gripping my throat, and the other cradling the back of my head and guiding me to him. I don’t fucking stop. I beat against him, racking my nails down his cheeks, his neck, his arms. I lunge my head forward, attempting to crack my skull against his, an attack he easily dodges. Nothing stops him. Nothing even slows him. I’m giving it my all and he barely notices. He draws me forward until his lips are brushing the shell of my ear, sending a hot breath trailing down my neck.

“Little rabbit should have run, run, run when she had the chance.” I punch him in the ribs repeatedly, but he doesn’t flinch. That flaring white rage rises in me, refusing to stop, refusing to give in for even a moment. He lets out a deep chuckle, nuzzling my neck as he says, “We have waited so long for one such as you.”

Then he stops holding back. All that rigid restraint I felt from him earlier snaps. He is not the Raven Prince. He is not Caden. He is a demon fueled only by hunger, and for the second time this evening, fangs sink deep into my flesh.

I shriek as he holds me tightly, cupping the back of my head like a lover, and drinking my blood deeply. That burning force inside of me erupts when he takes his first deep pull, sending a ripple of energy rolling through me. A part of my mind is focused on the queen—knowing to always keep track of an enemy. Easier said than done when I’m being feasted on. That inferno of rage is building in me, and I think I might burn alive in it. Placing my hands uselessly on either side of his face, I attempt to pull him off me. The moment I touch his face, that fiery anger crescendos as I scream.

Something powerful and sharp shoots out of me, leaving me filled with the resounding tension of a vibrating bow string.

A sunrise, brilliant orange cut with pink shining over a sparkling ocean. A woman with bright cerulean eyes and midnight hair smiling, reaching out to me. A man yanking a book from my hands, snarling at me with fury and disappointment clear in his eyes. The feeling of a thorn being pressed deep inside my heart. I howl as it is shoved deeper and deeper in, sprouting fissuring roots that splinter me from the inside out. Then, something is torn from my chest, and I am overcome with the knowledge that I have been tricked.

I open my eyes, unsteady after the deluge of strange images, still aching from that last visceral thought. It’s strange how empty my chest feels. So hollow. Blinking, my blurred vision clears, and I see long honey brown hair trailing behind the back of a woman. She’s breathing raggedly, but all I can see is her neck, like my face is nestled in the crook of it. Slowly, I pull back and study the bloody wound that is already bruising, thick patches of purple blooming like ink blots on her skin. My hand is wrapped around her throat, pinning some of those tresses to her sweat-slicked skin. I sit up straight and look directly into her eyes and—

I freeze. I’m looking at…me.

As though I am sitting in front of a mirror, I’m staring directly at myself, but the me that is staring back…there’s something wrong with her eyes. They glow a deep luminous green from behind the black ribbon mask draped across them. They remind me of the dancing bugs that drift over still waters on Gaelynn. The midnight insects that I used to think were the lingering spirits of the dead sent to watch over us. Glancing back at my hand, holding my own neck, I’m taken aback by how masculine it looks. I can’t help but notice the clothes I’m wearing, the well-tailored jacket embroidered with red vines of thorns looks exactly like Caden’s.

I lurch back, scrambling across the ground until my back slams into the couch behind me. The weight of something heavy sits on my shoulders, something that feels like feathers. The queen is standing in the open doorway, her brows knit together as she stares incredulously at me.

“I gave you a command, kill her,” the queen shouts.

I have no time to process the thought, because the queen is crushing her fist once more, and I’m overcome with a debilitating pain radiating from my chest. It’s like someone is holding my heart in a vice and squeezing; I’m sure it will burst at any moment. I want to cry out, to scream in agony. But it is this exact moment when I realize I’m inside his fucking mind.

At the realization, a force like a cord stitched into the essence of my soul yanks me back, and I am flung from his body, slamming back into mine with the weight of a boulder crashing into a frozen lake. The ripples of it roll through me and my vision splits. For half a heartbeat, I’m seeing both through Caden’s eyes and mine until my vision blurs and comes back into sharp focus. I’m in my body again, a splitting headache trying to carve its way out of my head.

Gods and demons, what the fuck just happened?

Caden is staring at me, still pressed firmly against the couch, but his gaze is once more that deep, endless black, and that malevolent grin is replaced with a look of bewilderment. All traces of the demonic form erased. We stare at each other in stunned silence. There is a moment between us, when predator and prey realize they no longer know where they stand. That moment is quickly interrupted when the queen snaps, “Fine, I’ll do it myself.”

Caden’s eyes dart away from mine, and he moves quicker than I can follow, lunging toward me. He might be fast, but the queen is faster. She already has her hand fisted in my hair, pulling me sharply to my feet as I let out a startled shout of pain. Standing directly in front of her, I can appreciate how truly beautiful she is. Full, pouty lips, their dark red color set off against her perfect porcelain skin. Bright white lashes frame her deep ruby eyes. The halo of wavy ivory hair that spills around her heart-shaped face coupled with her snowy wings gives her an angelic look.

That is, until her jaw unhinges.

Her chin sinks low, her great gaping maw opening wide as one by one her teeth sharpen to points, her fangs elongating. She rears back to strike, and time slows, as I’m told it does in the moments before you die. My past does not flash before my eyes. Rather, I am realizing all the things I will never experience. I’ll never see my brother again. I’ll never feel the salty spray of the ocean on my face, or watch the sunrise over the shores of Gaelynn.

I’ll never be in love.