by Emma Dean
The walk back to Oleander House was silent and Mika tried to calm her racing heart.
Maybe she’d made a mistake. But if Corbin knew the Morrigan, and if he knew what she was, he could have answers for her she might not find in any book – not even one from a fox library.
Corbin set the food on the front steps and then turned around. Mika had been too focused on the ground and her thoughts that she didn’t stop in time. She ran right into him, and Corbin had to steady her – hands on her arms – to keep her from slipping on the ice.
They stared at each other in shock.
Never had he deliberately touched her before, not like this. He’d said in passing ravens didn’t really engage in physical contact except for procreating. At the time he’d been trying to rile her up, get a response, but Mika realized he’d been telling the truth.
Corbin instantly let go of her when he realized what was happening, he even took a step back to put more space between them. “I know what you are,” he finally admitted.
Mika tilted her head and studied him from head to toe. He was tall, she thought. For some reason she’d assumed the assassins would be smaller for stealth reasons. “Are you going to tell on me?”
His eyes were still glowing red, and they narrowed. “I haven’t decided yet.”
Mika turned around and headed toward the forest. “Hard to tell on me without giving away your own secrets.”
Somehow she’d managed to surprise an assassin. Mika heard him move for the first time since she’d been assigned the raven as he hurried to catch up with her.
“It’s not safe out here,” Corbin told her. “We need to get inside.”
“It’s safe enough,” Mika murmured, remembering those eyes of hellfire hiding in the shadows. For some reason she got the feeling those wouldn’t hurt her. “Don’t worry little bird. I’ll protect you.”
Then his hand wrapped around her bicep. Corbin intentionally touched her for the second time in as many minutes, and he tugged slightly so she would slow down.
Mika stopped at the tree line and waited. Slowly Corbin let go of her, like he was realizing he didn’t quite hate touching her. She wasn’t sure how she felt about that.
“Why?” Corbin asked.
That voice deep inside whispered, pushing her to tell him. Mika sighed and looked toward the temple, hidden by the forest – but she always knew where it was even with her terrible sense of direction.
“The Morrigan,” Mika said – her words barely more than a whisper. “Told me some things. And I may have been a bitch to her raven…whatever, that’s not the point. The point is – I can’t ignore the timing of your assignment. If you tell the Council…” She shrugged. “But I don’t think any of that is necessary.”
“Are you threatening me dove?” Corbin almost sounded impressed.
Mika started walking toward the temple again, trailing her fingers across the bark of the trees as she passed. They would have their words soon enough. “Hurry, or we’ll be late.”
The full moon was three days ago. Mika had hated Corbin the most that day – wasting a precious full moon she could have summoned the Morrigan. But if he knew and ended up on her side…well, there would be another full moon soon enough.
“I heard a hellhound was killed on the school grounds,” Corbin said, barely more than a shadow beside her.
“Why would there be a hellhound on school grounds?” Mika asked him innocently.
The look he gave her said he didn’t believe her little act, but Corbin didn’t push. “Hellhounds are hardy bastards,” he told her. “Whoever killed it has my professional respect.”
Mika shoved the warm feeling spreading through her down deep and pretended she hadn’t heard him at all. “Remember whose secrets will be spilled if you tell the Council,” Mika murmured as she turned and left the forest completely.
The temple loomed and the waning moon glowed bright. The dark waves crashed below, the foam glittering and glowing with moonlight. The sharp tang of salt and sea relaxed her and Mika wished she’d had a little more time with her grandmother.
There were so many things she wanted to ask her.
But Claire was right; she’d kept them all at arm’s length. Even if her health had improved and she had lived, Grandmother wouldn’t have given her the box – at least not until she was on her death bed. She wouldn’t have explained what it was or what it did.
Thanks to the distance between them all – all except her mother – Mika was sad, but she wasn’t crushed at her grandmother’s passing. She wasn’t heartbroken. If anything, she felt closer to her. Mika knew now how much she’d loved her daughter—Mika’s mother. And for some reason, knowing that was comforting.
It made it all seem…less horrific.
“What is this place?” Corbin asked. His entire body stiffened as the power coming off the stone became noticeable.
Mika didn’t respond. The answer would be obvious soon enough. She took each step carefully, even though there wasn’t any ice or snow – for some reason it never stuck to these stones.
The mosaic was difficult to read on the first two levels, but as the fountain with the Morrigan’s statue became visible – white in the moonlight – Corbin let out a curse.
Mika didn’t stop when he did. Instead she went to her usual place before the Morrigan and sank to her knees, the hell-forged iron box cradled in her hands as she stared into those depthless eyes. The stone didn’t give her pupils either – which made Mika wonder if the sculptor had seen the Morrigan once as well.
The box felt alive in this place, but still she didn’t try to open it. Had her grandmother been able to? Or had it become some kind of heirloom that no one understood the significance of?
“I don’t understand,” Corbin said carefully from directly behind her. He’d moved and even with her enhanced hearing she hadn’t been able to hear him.
“I don’t either,” Mika admitted. “I don’t know why this temple is here or where it used to lead to. I don’t know anything about it other than who this statue is of…and that.” Mika pointed to the raven perched on the Morrigan’s shoulder. “That is why I brought you here.”
Corbin actually knelt beside her, close enough she could feel his body heat, but not too close that he might touch her again. “I could tell the Council.”
“I don’t think you will.” Mika stared into the Morrigan’s eyes and wished she could have all the answers to all her questions. “You know I didn’t kill those people.”
The sharp look he gave her sent a flare of fear and adrenaline through her body, but she wasn’t backing down. The school was full again and Patricia had said ‘we.’ The Council had assigned her a raven indefinitely. Mika had to solve the problem of Corbin before she could solve all the others.
“The Council also knows I didn’t kill those people.” Mika ran her finger along the horned moon of the box as she considered the Morrigan. “But they most likely assume I was a part of it somehow – or that I know something I shouldn’t.”
“They think you use blood magic,” Corbin admitted, giving her something in exchange for trusting him just a little.
She paused in her tracing and glanced sideways. “Ironic.”
“Very.”
“Blood magic isn’t illegal.”
“No, but killing and sacrificing witches is.” Corbin seemed to lean in ever so slightly. “If I see anything suspicious I need to report it. And this is suspicious.”
“Is it though?” Mika asked, tilting her head so she could study the statue of the raven. “It’s on the school grounds and I’m allowed here since there is nothing in Morgana’s rules forbidding it.”
His elbow brushed hers infinitesimally, as if he was testing a theory. Then Corbin sighed and ran a hand through his hair. It was the most human thing she’d seen him do all week. “Why did you really show me this place?”
Mika slid her finger across the horned moon hard enough to break the skin. The raven’s glowing red eyes flared brig
hter when he scented the blood. As it dribbled across the raven and the pentagram Mika heard a tiny ‘click.’
“I want to know what you know,” she said. “Why do ravens worship a witch goddess? What do you know about her daughters, and most importantly, why do you know about them when I was born one and had no idea?”
Corbin’s gaze was fixated on the box, but he answered regardless. “I assume for the same reason the foxes know about it.”
Instantly she turned on him, a feeling of something rising up inside her. Mika had never felt anything quite like it before. It wasn’t quite shock, but…dismay?
The raven gave her a shrug. “Us scavengers stick together.”
Right.
Mika remembered the way they’d stuck close to each other at the Samhain Ball the year before, and she remembered Hunter mentioning it in passing once.
But she hadn’t realized the full ramifications of what that meant until now.
“Explain it to me?” she asked, feigning ignorance. Corbin might know about Hunter, but she doubted he knew about Lucien.
“You’re an outsider.”
So he wasn’t ready to trust her that far. It stung a little after she’d thought they were making some progress, but Mika also understood. Ravens were incredibly private. Seeing them around never happened. If you saw one…well, it meant they wanted you to.
Before she’d met the flock at Samhain, Mika had thought she would never see a raven, and desperately hoped it would stay that way. They’d all seemed so…normal. Well, considering.
Mika looked up at the Morrigan as she spread her blood across the raven and the pentagram, tracing the horned moon once more. “I am an outsider,” Mika finally agreed. Not just to the scavengers, but to the witches too.
She knew Ethan related to the feeling as well. It was part of the reason they understood each other so well. He wasn’t a high society witch, and his strength and power set him apart from the witches he had grown up with.
Lucien was also an outsider here – a shifter hiding in plain sight.
Then there was Malachi, the one who seemed to always belong. Perhaps that was why he couldn’t really connect with her in the same way after she’d told him the truth about everything.
Now she had a raven at her side.
And she and Corbin both knew the legends regarding the daughters of the Morrigan, he probably more than she.
Witches were warriors once.
They used to comingle with the other paranormals, and they’d worked alongside them. Things hadn’t been perfect, but the paranormal world hadn’t been as broken up and isolated as it was now. They’d found strength in each other.
Mika opened the box with her thumb and handed the lid to Corbin.
He hesitated before he took it, all covered in her blood.
Then she looked down and frowned. Mika picked up a crystal and studied it in the moonlight. She nearly dropped it when she realized what it was.
A blood crystal.
And the box was full of them.
5
Mika sat in her class but didn’t pay attention. She eyed the oversized raven sitting outside one of the massive windows and sighed. The professor must have sensed her irritation because he shot off questions at her and she responded in Latin without even thinking.
He grumbled before turning onto the next student.
Audrey had waited up for her the night before, and as they’d eaten the Thai food, Mika told her about her grandmother – Corbin a silent shadow next to her as always. Then she’d sent off texts with the news to Lucien, Ethan, and Malachi.
Telling them was a courtesy she supposed she didn’t have to perform, but Mika felt like she owed them the information despite knowing they couldn’t possibly understand her situation. Her family had never really been close so it was strange to hear the words of consolation all over again, but now for her grandmother.
It was even stranger to try and explain to Audrey that she wasn’t that upset about her grandmother’s death. She should be – that would be the normal thing. But it had been a very long time since she’d been close to Helen Marshall.
The last time she’d been barely more than a baby. And then her magic had manifested at five years old. Ever since then her grandmother had started pulling away, putting distance between them. Had she known?
“Can the raven still hear us?” Audrey asked from beside her. The whispered words didn’t carry, too quiet for anything less than shifter hearing.
Mika tugged on the dangling earring that held all her tiny little charms. “Probably,” she muttered. “And if he can’t he most likely can read our lips.”
“You came back later than I expected last night.” Audrey took a few notes, but she’d studied with Mika all week and knew the material as well.
“I was performing an experiment.”
“We have practice tonight,” Audrey reminded her.
Mika nodded, pleased that the five-mile run had taken less than fifty minutes this morning. Her speed and stamina were improving slowly but surely. Audrey could still rip through her shields like tissue paper though.
And all the while the raven had watched from his perch in the tree. It was the first time he’d given her the illusion of privacy, and it was the first time she’d seen his raven form. The entire first week he’d thrown out comments regarding how she could improve, teasing her to get her to respond. But she’d ignored him until he’d seen something she couldn’t explain away.
Was this some kind of progress? Mika had hoped the Council would call him off after spring break and that would solve her problems, but it didn’t look like he was going anywhere anytime soon.
Perhaps her solution to the problem of Corbin was to turn him instead. If he was on her side…
She glanced at the raven again and wondered if he’d already talked to Dean De Rosa or if he’d managed to keep his mouth shut.
“Does Malachi know?” Mika whispered, doodling on her notebook to make it appear like she was actually paying attention. If they didn’t count participation as part of her grade she wouldn’t have even bothered showing up.
“I’ve been keeping him apprised,” Audrey whispered back. “He’s still being weird.”
“Do you know why?”
Another sharp glance from the professor. He knew they weren’t paying attention but he couldn’t call them out on it, not with how quiet and careful they were being.
“He hasn’t said anything specifically, but I think he’s afraid – of you, for you. Malachi mentioned in passing last week that he wanted to make sure his feelings for you weren’t clouding his judgement. So he needed some space.” Audrey shrugged. “It’s kind of a compliment.”
Mika snorted. “I suppose.”
She glanced at the raven again. His eyes were glowing red now. He could definitely understand what they were saying.
Finally the professor called the end of class and Mika gathered her stuff in relief. “I suppose I’ll get some idea of his current feelings,” Mika said. “Unless he’s decided to skip Shifter Studies.”
“I hope he hasn’t,” Audrey said, slipping her hands into her pockets and glancing out the floor-to-ceiling window that looked out across the grounds in search of the raven. “Malachi needs to figure out his life already. He’s being a dumb boy.”
“And Natalie has already pledged her undying love to you proving that women are far superior?”
“As a matter of fact she has,” Audrey admitted with a massive grin. “Lesbians don’t mess around.”
Mika chuckled and linked her arm through Audrey’s as they headed to their next class. For the first time in weeks she felt almost normal.
They stopped at her favorite coffee cart and Mika treated them both. Then they walked through the maze of the school in companionable silence.
“You know, I read that ravens work in pairs or trios,” Audrey said. “That one raven alone was vulnerable. What does that say about your little bird?”
Mika glanced ou
t the window and saw the raven perched on one of the statues, staring right at her. “Probably nothing I want to know.”
“Does that mean he’s super strong, or that he works independently?”
“I don’t know,” Mika snapped, irritated that she’d never thought of that herself.
“Geez, I was just asking.”
Mika pulled Audrey aside and set her back to the window. “I showed him the temple.”
Audrey’s eyes widened and her mouth opened to say something but Mika put her finger to her lips. “Don’t say anything. He’s watching.”
Instantly Audrey snapped her mouth shut and nodded.
“He was there when my grandmother died, when she gave me this,” Mika murmured as quietly as she could. She showed the hell-forged box to Audrey before tucking it back in her pocket. “That symbol is tattooed on his wrist. He saw. I didn’t know what else to do.”
Audrey whistled. “Risky.”
“I know.” Mika didn’t trust their small amount of privacy for long. “But if I can get him on my side…”
Audrey looked out the window and paled.
Mika’s heart started beating wildly and she turned to see if he was standing right behind her, but then she heard his voice in the crowd.
You’d think in a school full of eclectic witches that a tattooed Viking wouldn’t stand out, but he did. He was tall with huge muscles and just fucking gorgeous. All the girls stared as he passed.
“Sharing secrets, dove?”
She wanted to melt into the floor. There was no way this wouldn’t become the talk of the school. Mika smiled at some random girl who was staring and linked her arm through Corbin’s. “My cousin,” she simpered before yanking him along with her. “What do you think you’re doing?”
“You’re clever,” Corbin admitted. “But until I decide what to do with you, I’m not letting you plot against me.”
“And you think I am?”
“I know you are, cousin.” And just like that he pulled his arm out of hers, clearly uncomfortable. “I’ve just been given status as an exchange student. Looks like I’ll be shadowing all your classes from now on.”
