AllFreeNovel
Share Us
His comfort lets the world and time seep away. I’m not sure how long we stand there, but it feels like an eternity before I lift my tear-stained face from his coat. I don’t care that I’m raw, exposed, and vulnerable. I know he will protect me to the ends of the realm.
I am him, and he is me.
Testing the softness of his fur on his legs, I look back up at him to find his expectant gaze already taking me in. “Happy official first meeting,” I breathe, a dry chuckle following while I shake my head in disbelief. I’m talking to a griffin. A fucking griffin. It sounds bizarre, but I’ve never needed someone or something to hear me as much as I do at this moment. “Thank you. For being here, for saving my life, for savingeveryone’slives,” I correct, waving a hand around us.
He doesn’t reply, of course, but he leans down, nuzzling his beak against me from my shoulder to my stomach as he lowers until he’s kneeling on the ground in front of me. My heart soars. I don’t know what it means, what this feeling is inside of me, but it feels like love, like family, an unbreakable bond, like everything I’ve ever craved and needed. He feels like my mother’s touch, but more. Different.
My fingers find their way to his head, stroking softly, and he mews, leaning into my touch, refilling the hope inside of me despite the carnage around us. I don’t know what an attack would look like, but this isn’t it. It’s worse. Darker, deeper, etched in pain and sorrow.
I don’t know what the purpose of any of this was, but I get the feeling I’m going to find out whether I like it or not. Never have I wanted to be alive more than I do now. Even with all of the uncertainty and the unknown twists of my magic, I belong. I know it. But the priorities are quickly shifting around me. Everything is changing, and I’ll never feel the same. For better or worse, one thing is for certain.
Fuck following the sun. Fuck destroying the shadows. Fuck everything but my next breath.
TWO
BRAX
I’m confused, disoriented, and just…
Fuck.
Despite the healer's efforts, an ache consumes every inch of my body, making every move continue to throb. Something isn’t right. I can sense it in the air. Like there’s an elephant in the room, and I’m oblivious to what it is.
Eldon is hanging closer than usual, repeatedly touching my arm or shoulder for reassurance that I’m here or something. I don’t know. He’s always handsy, but never like this, not when he knows it irritates me. Creed is staring at me like I grew a second head, but a quick sweep of my hand over the back of my neck confirms it’s still just me. Zane is busying around, helping the medics with shit that doesn’t need our attention, but for some reason he needs the distraction. While Raven is…wilting.
I can’t look at her right now, seeing the distress oozing from her while it’s impossible for me to fix. I need this fucking healer to finish checking me over so I can bundle her into my arms and make it all go away. She’s always so strong, so brave, so resilient, and it’s not the battle remains around us that have broken her, but there’s a switch I can’t quite put my finger on.
I’m missing a piece of the puzzle and I can’t find it with everything still happening.
A dead green guy is carried from the room, a reminder of what we were fighting against, and the pain from the wound on my back burns despite being healed. I don’t know who the fuck sent them, but the ones responsible will meet them in Hell when I find out. Fuckers.
Everything feels foggy and I don’t like it. I was turning to stone, defending myself, when the searing pain of the blade at my back seemed to make the world go dark. Nothing made sense as I floated in an inky-black pool of dread. The liquid in my mind was getting thicker and restricting every breath I took until it consumed almost every inch of me.
I can’t say my life flashed before my eyes, I was too focused on the fight to get out, but my efforts weren’t enough. Until a pink glow broke through the never-ending pit of emptiness and Raven’s angelic voice whispered in my ear. My Shadow, somehow chasing them all away and leading me back to her.
The healers arrived just in time as I clung to the sound of my name on Raven’s lips.
“Where did the other two go?” The medic’s question cuts through my thoughts and I clench my eyes shut for a second before I blink them back open and focus on the present. I look around the room to see what he means and instantly notice the absence of Raven and Zane.
“Where did he take her?” I ask, tilting my attention to Eldon at my side.
“Probably to the griffin,” he replies, wiping a hand down his face as I frown.
“The griffin is here?”
Eldon nods at my question and I push the pads of my fingers into my temples. When did that happen? A quick glance up gives a hint that Raven’s griffin has been here. That gaping hole wasn’t made by any of us. I vaguely recall the distant sound of it screeching, but I can’t be sure. I was really fucking out of it. “Is she okay?”
“Who?”
I glare at Eldon’s bullshit. “Don’t play dumb. You know I mean Raven.”
He sighs, his eyebrows furrowing as he avoids my gaze. “Once we’re away from all of…this, I think I’ll be able to give you a better answer.”A better answer?What the fuck does that mean? As if sensing the bewilderment in me, he reiterates. “Well, a more accurate one, at least.”
There’s something they’re not saying and it’s pissing me off. I hate not being in the loop, unaware of what’s going on around me. Control is a power you wield without magic. I need it more than I need air to breathe and I have no patience to wait this bullshit out.
“Can we leave?” I blurt, rolling my shoulders back, trying to shake the stress off me. Eldon looks at the healer, who gulps as he tilts his head back to meet my gaze.
“Uhm…”
