“Get out of here!” Raven yelled, but still the girl stood tall.
“This is my daddy’s barn. You should be the one to leave, miss.”
Raven cocked her head. “You want me to leave?”
“Y-yes,” the girl stammered.
“I just found this nice nest. I think I’ll stay here for a while. I’ll be on my way soon enough,” Raven said, testing her. The barn was full of soft hay and was clean enough. She found that the chickens’ eggs made a nice meal when she was in her raven form. She had to get stronger if she was to build an army and get out of this god-forsaken place. Her ally was depending on her to get her strength back.
This realm was an awful, disgusting, and vile place, and Raven hated it so. But this barn was warm while she was waiting for word from her informant.
Once he sent word, she’d leave this place for good and never turn back.
“Are you hiding from someone?” the girl asked. “Are you a criminal?”
Raven laughed. “I’m worse than a common criminal, child. And I’m not hiding; I’m waiting for a message.”
The girl looked down at her shoe and kicked a rock. “Well, I suppose you can stay. I won’t tell my daddy.”
Raven thought perhaps the girl was not such a good girl after all. Maybe she was a little devious herself, keeping secrets from her daddy. Raven recognized something within the girl that she saw in herself—rebellion. She smiled at the girl, curious to learn more about her.
“But you have to stop stealing my eggs from the chicken coup,” the little girl demanded, not meeting Raven’s eyes. “And I know you’re really a bird, by the way. I won’t tell anyone that either.”
“Oh,” Raven said. “How do you know that little child?”
“I saw you fly out of the barn, and then turn into a girl. I watched you through my window.” The girl met her eyes. “Daddy says crows are nothing but trouble, but I think you’re just scared and you’re hiding. I think you’re different and no one likes different around here.”
Raven shifted then into her raven form and landed in front of the girl. When she shifted back she was eye to eye with her. “I am not a crow; I’m a raven. There is a difference.” She stood tall now, towering over the child. “How do I know you won’t tell your daddy about me? How can I trust you?” She questioned, already trusting the girl.
The girl began to tremble and the words were frozen on her tongue. Eventually finding the bravery to speak.
“I keep a lot of secrets from Daddy. He is busy and doesn’t care much for my stories anyway. He wouldn’t believe me even if I did tell him. By the way, my name is Holly. Do you have a name?”
“Raven, my name is Raven.”
“So you turn into a raven and your name is Raven? That’s curious,” Holly said.
“No, actually it makes perfect sense.” Raven began to pace, thinking about what she was going to do about Holly now that she saw her shift. She could kill her, but she didn’t feel like it. Too much blood, and she’d have the whole town running after her; people didn’t like to see children killed. Then the idea struck her like lightning.
“I’ll tell you what—we’ll go up and meet your daddy right now. And I’ll tell him I need a place to stay. I’ll be real nice, and he’ll have to help me.” Raven smiled and laughed wickedly inside. This was going to be wonderful. The foolish child would believe anything because she found Raven interesting. For most people, curiosity leads to trouble.
“But what if Daddy says no?”
“Then I promise you I’ll make sure you are safe at night and I won’t hurt you. Is that all right?”
Holly nodded, turning on her heel, she ushered Raven to come with her.
Raven followed the little girl out of the barn as she led them to her house. Raven had remembered when Maleficent had found her; she was a child around the same age as this one. Being naive as well, she thanked Maleficent for all she had taught her. As they made their way to the front steps, Raven knew how this would go: The daddy would not be okay with Raven sleeping in his barn. He’d probably grab a weapon and try to protect his daughter from her; although, Raven was stronger than any human alive. And after it was all over she would uphold her promise and protect the girl. The girl would become what Raven was to Maleficent, a companion.
Chapter Twelve
Rory
The boar crouched low and came closer to me and Siana, causing her to buck wildly again and I fell to the ground, hard. My back screamed in pain as I watched Siana dash further into the woods and flee. I was left aching and came face-to-face with the boar. His tusks were dripping with saliva and his hot breath stunk of retch. I covered my face and turned away from him. What does he plan to do, eat me?
I had no weapon—it was strapped to Siana—and I couldn’t fight back. I was useless as I lay there in pain. Then I remembered he spoke to me. He was a shapeshifter just like Raven, but I wasn’t sure where his allegiance lay—was it with her or no one, as was their way? They didn’t follow anyone, nor did they call anyone queen or king. They were solitary creatures, never finding a home of their own. They ran alone or in small packs and would turn on each other given the chance. I had learned much about them when I trained with Gray.
“Do not ever trust a shapeshifter, Rory. They were not raised by anyone, but themselves. Their parents abandoned them at birth and just hoped that they would survive,” Gray told me one day during training. It made me incredibly sad to think that they were left on their own to fend for themselves. How did they make it if no one was there to feed and care for them? That must be why there aren’t many of them. The one’s that made it were rare.
I watched the boar start to circle me, and I knew that I had to get to my feet and try to defend myself whatever way I could. I searched the ground for anything to use as a weapon, and all I found was a stone. I clasped it in my palm and stood up despite the pain.
I stood as tall as I could and gave him a menacing glare. As he approached, he snarled and spittle dribbled from his mouth onto the ground.
A shudder went through me. It would not be good for the future queen to be rammed by a boar’s tusks right before her coronation. I took the stone and chucked it as hard as I could, hoping for a good shot to his head. When it hit his eye, I was happy. He screamed in pain and instantly walked backwards.
I took this time to run like hell back into the Fae Woods, but my path was blocked by four other animals: a wolf, a ram, a coyote, and a large vulture. I skidded to a halt and knew I wasn’t going to get out of this one.
The coyote approached me first, barring his ugly white teeth. I backed up and felt the boar’s hot breath on my legs.
“Crap!” I cried as I flipped around. “Listen, I don’t know what I did to offend you all, but my mare ran off, and I wasn’t trying to enter your woods.”
The boar laughed and then shifted into a large man with curly black hair that seemed to cover his whole body. His lower jaw jutted out from his face, resembling the boar he just was.
“You think we’re offended?” he said as he continued to laugh.
“Well, I’m not sure. I don’t know why else you’d want to attack me,” I said as I stood taller.
“You’re in our part of the forest, Princess,” the coyote mentioned as she shifted. “And everyone knows that whatever or whoever comes here is fair game.”
She was gangly and tall with the dirtiest hair I’d ever seen. Actually, her hair resembled mine when I was locked up just a few months ago.
As a cold wind blew strongly across this part of the forest, I found myself surrounded by five strange shifters, eyeing me like I was dinner.
“How did you know who I am?” I asked the coyote-girl.
She smiled. “We all know who you are. The question is what are you doing here?”
“I was with Noctus in the
Fae Woods.” I decided not to tell them about my plan to unite our people just yet. If these shapeshifters worked with Raven, she’d know my interests and that bothered me. She already knew too much. I had to weed out who her spies were.
“And how did you get here?” the wolf asked.
“My mare was spooked. She ran off that way,” I said pointing to the shadows. The light started disappearing from this part of the woods, and I was now getting a bit scared that Noctus wouldn’t find me. I couldn’t imagine being stuck out here much longer with this bunch.
“So, you’re lost then,” the boar-man said a little too happily.
“I can find my way out,” I lied.
“Can you? Well, you’re welcome to try. We won’t keep you here,” he sneered.
I decided to go back the way I tried the first time. I’d take this opportunity before they changed their minds. As I began to walk away the wolf said, “But we can’t help you when Tiger comes out looking for the smell of princess in the air.”
They all laughed, and I found myself confused. I turned around and put my hands on my hips. “Who’s Tiger?”
“He’s a shapeshifter. Keeps to himself, that one. But he loves to eat young girls,” the boar-man explained.
I knew then that they wanted something from me. They were telling me stories about a scary shifter to keep me there.
“We’ll walk you back to the Fae Woods, but you have to let us talk. We want you to hear us out for once,” the boar-man remarked.
I could do that. I would do that. I had to see if they were to be trusted anyway. A shapeshifter would be willing to work for me for a fee, I knew, and I could use allies in the woods. The thing was that if they found better employment, their loyalty would lean toward the person who paid the most. I’d have to make sure they couldn’t get anything better than what I was willing to offer them.
“Fine,” I agreed.
“Coyote, Wolf and Ram stay here. Vulture, come with me,” the boar-man commanded.
Their names were their animals? How very strange, yet fitting.
I decided to ask the boar-man to make absolutely sure they weren’t just nicknames. Besides, if I was to employ them, I had to know their names, right?
“Excuse me, are their names really Coyote, Wolf and Ram?” I realized upon asking how dense I sounded. But it wasn’t like I would know this sort of thing; I was raised in a castle where people didn’t speak of the creatures of the forest.
We weren’t ever allowed to ask about them, nor did anyone accidentally bring it up in conversation. It just wasn’t permitted. Things like this that I wanted to change. If I was to have a child someday, I would hope that she or he would know all the beings in our lands.
“Yes. We aren’t really given names at birth, so we just sort of go with our animal counterparts,” he explained rather nicely. “I’m Boar and this is Vulture.”
“Hi,” Vulture said. She was a short woman with a large hook nose and hair as white as the clouds in the sky.
I walked with them for the first few minutes in silence as I wondered about something that had been nagging me since I met them. They seemed to be traveling in a pack. It was small, but they were a team, Boar their leader. If they were usually creatures that ran alone, why were these shapeshifters together at all?
“Boar,” I began. “Can I ask you another question?”
He sighed loudly and rolled his eyes. “Sure.”
“Why are you all together? Don’t shifters usually travel alone?”
Vulture rolled her eyes now and then Boar nodded to her.
“We did run alone,” she started, “until Maleficent became queen. When that happened, a lot of our kind were forced to be her spies or serve her. Those who didn’t, well, they got cut.” She cut her throat with an invisible knife. I knew what she meant though, because many of my friends were forced to join her to spare themselves.
“So instead of waiting for her to come, we banded together and joined up. There used to be fifty of us,” Boar told me.
I gasped. There were only five remaining from fifty. I didn’t have to guess what happened. Maleficent got to them and killed them.
“She killed our friends one by one,” Vulture said with tears in her eyes. “And we tried to save them all, but now we’re all that’s left. There are a few extras who run off on their own from time to time.”
“I’m so sorry, Vulture.” And I was. “I promise that that won’t happen under my rule.”
I patted her back and she actually leaned into me and hugged me. Shocked, I hugged her back. These shifters were just people too, and they had feelings. They wanted to be here in this kingdom just as bad as everyone else.
“We will make sure she pays for what she did,” Boar growled. “We’re just waiting for the opportunity to enact our revenge. That’s why we offered to walk you back.”
Wait. Didn’t he know Maleficent was killed?
“Boar, she’s dead. She’s been dead for months.” I felt great glee telling him the good news. I actually felt bad he didn’t know until now.
“No, not Maleficent, silly,” Vulture informed me. “We know she’s dead. You killed her, right?”
I nodded.
If not Maleficent, then who? Who else would kill innocent shifters just trying to survive this harsh forest?
“It wasn’t Millie that murdered our friends, it was her minion, Raven,” Boar said with rage in his voice. “She came here in the dark of night and took us out one by one. Just for kicks.”
I remembered Raven’s “shift” ending late at night. I always wondered what she did on those nights alone. Seeing her change into her raven form once when Sawyer and I hid in an alcove from her, she had probably flown here to kill Boar’s friends.
“Raven killed her own kind?” I was shocked. She was beginning to prove herself to be worse than Maleficent ever was. But I had just one nagging thought which I asked aloud, “Boar, why now are your people banding together after years spent as single travelers?”
He stopped walking and turned to look at me. “The way we were left for dead as infants and the way we’ve always been leery of others, it just isn’t right. No one should be abandoned, especially in a world where so many are unified,” he explained. “You have your people, and you aren’t left alone to fend for yourself. You have a mother and father, but we have nothing. We have no memories except what we make ourselves. So one day, I told the others that this had to stop. We had to watch out for each other.”
“It took a long time for everyone to get used to it, but it works for us now,” Vulture said as she took Boar’s hand.
Oh! They were a couple!
I knew shapeshifters had to make babies somehow—I wasn’t stupid—but relationships for them were never more than one night spent together. I was excited to see this development, proving to me that shapeshifters were more than mindless vagabonds. I could actually trust them.
“Come on. We have to make it to the castle before night,” I told them both as I turned around and went the way we came from.
“Princess, you’re going the wrong way!” Vulture yelled.
“We’re going back for your friends and then you all will be my welcome guests. My coronation is in two days!”
“Well, you go ahead; I’ll get Tiger,” Boar told Vulture.
“Tiger?” I asked. “The mean nasty one that likes the taste of princesses?” I joked.
Boar looked bashful and then said, “He’s our friend, too. Sorry about all of that. I was making sure we could trust you first. He wouldn’t hurt you.”
I laughed. I had to give him credit; he was a fine leader. He sure had me scared.
“I’m here, and I have your mare.” Out of the darkness came a tall man with stripe tattoos running down his arms leading Siana out of the forest.
>
“You must be Tiger,” I said to him.
“Yes, Your Majesty,” he said as he bowed low. “We must hurry, Princess.”
And he was right; I had to prepare. I had a long road ahead of me, and I couldn’t wait to tell Sawyer all I learned today.
Chapter Thirteen
Rory
I leaned down, kissed Sawyer’s forehead, and told him I loved him. I had come up to his room as soon as I told Gray what happened to me. Everyone had been out searching for me as soon as Noctus sent word back to the castle. Gray told me she and Noctus searched everywhere, but couldn’t find me.
“I knew you were safe,” she said. “I could just feel it inside.”
She kissed my head and let me know I had a letter waiting for me. “It arrived just as you were leaving with Noctus.”
I took it from her, but wanted to read it alone in the room with Sawyer.
“You would not believe the day that I had,” I told him. “I met the most wonderful shapeshifters, Sawyer. They actually came together and are on our side for once.”
I told him everything as I opened the letter. The wax seal wasn’t one I recognized, but Gray told me she did. I was not permitted to open letters unless the seal was identifiable—for safety reasons of course.
Sawyer didn’t move or breathe heavy at my news which made me a bit disappointed. Fauna had done a good job with his neck lately. It was looking better and better. I just wished she was able to wake him, that somehow as she healed him, she would heal his curse. It was hopeless to believe in that though.
“I received a letter.” I pulled it from the sleeve and noticed the writing was Merryweather’s instantly. She had this strange scrawl that was hard to read at times, but I had gotten very used to it.
My dearest Aurora,
Awaken (Slumber Duology #2) Page 6
