AllFreeNovel
Share Us
ONE
RAVEN
Darkness consumes me, threading around my veins, piercing my heart, and labeling me something I don’t dare to believe. Twisted, torn, and in denial is how I sit, arms banded tightly around my bent legs as I rock slightly in the corner of the room.
My vision is blurred, a black, white, and gray hue to everything I see.
Everything buthim.
I can’t look, it’s blinding.
He’sblinding.
Latching my gaze on to my filthy hands, I stare at the grime etched into every crease and ridge of my fingerprints. My throat burns from screaming and my chest aches from the sobs that wracked my entire body, leaving me silent and cocooned in a room filled with people.
Dead bodies remain scattered across the floor, medics entering and taking them away one at a time. Finn. Gone. The enemies. Gone.
Smoke marks tarnish every inch of the office I woke in earlier, and I still can’t recall how I ended up here. My head throbs as a reminder that something knocked me out. My last memory before this room was the tower collapsing. Everything else after that was black until I woke up here. Drenched in carnage.
I tighten my hold around my knees and my nails cut into my legs, grounding me a little.
Everything is fuzzy. I remember waking in the chaos, watching in horror as Creed, Zane, Eldon, and Brax all fought off some crazy faceless fuckers, who only seemed to gain more strength as they pushed, until Ari, my griffin familiar, came and…saved us? It feels like that’s what happened, but I don’t feel confident enough in my own breath right now to trust in my thoughts and emotions too.
Not when I saw him—Brax—injured, hurt, unresponsive. By the time I dropped to my knees beside him, his sword was gone.Hewas gone. It was too late.
Until it wasn’t.
One brown. One green.
One fucking brown. One fucking green.
Those two colors flicker at the back of my eyelids as I slam my eyes shut. The pain that consumed me still flutters through my veins in waves of aftershock. The only reminder that I felt that level of torture because now he’s…
I pry my eyes open, instantly finding him across the room where a medic tends to his blood-soaked wound. All of the gray shadows fall away and an amber aura shimmers around him. I shake my head and it fades away, my eyes zoning in on his eyes.
One brown. One green.
I choke on my breath, unable to process any of it, and quickly cast my gaze elsewhere to distract from the reality threatening to be acknowledged in my mind.
I lock eyes with Creed, who is leaning back against the large desk where I woke earlier. The medic before him is trying to look into his onyx eyes, but they’re settled on me instead. He knows what I know, what I can’t say or admit. I can’t read him, though. I can’t tell if disgust fills his thoughts, whether he’s calculating his next move to use me to his advantage, or…
No, Raven. Not him, not them. They wouldn’t…would they?
Slowly blinking, I shift my glance to Zane, who is by the door, helping one of the medics cover Finn’s lifeless body. The muscles in his neck and shoulders are bunched tight, revealing the tension beneath his otherwise casual demeanor. He’s not looking my way like Creed, and I can’t decide whether I prefer it or hate it.
Swiping a hand down my face, likely smearing more grime over me, I find Eldon shuffling to lean beside Brax. He grips his friend's shoulder, confirming he is, indeed, standing before him, and another pang of pain and confusion swarms through my body.
As if sensing my stare, Eldon glances over his shoulder at me while still holding on to Brax. His jaw works from side to side, his mind in overdrive, and uncertainty claws at me again. He knows what I did, what I didn’t mean to do… it wasn’t intentional, I don’t think.
Would I change it? Not when Brax is here and breathing right now, but I’m not delusional. Life won’t ever be the same. Not when people learn of what I’ve done, what I can do.
Say it, Raven.
My teeth sink into my bottom lip, the taste of copper lacing my tongue as I drop my gaze.
Necromancy.
Resurrection is against The Monarchy’s law. And the one subject not encouraged at Silvercrest…necromancy.
