Raven Song: Shifters Bewitched #4

by Tasha Black

  “Anya, holy cow,” Kendall yelled, taking the steps two and three at a time to get to me.

  The others were following more carefully, eyes and smiles wide.

  “Regina, arrange something for her to eat?” Headmistress Hart said to Miss Twillbottom, who was standing at the foot of the stairs looking anxious.

  Miss Twillbottom nodded once and scurried away gratefully, presumably to the kitchens.

  Either she was intimidated by the Raven King, which was understandable, or she was just happy to be able to help. Either way, the mention of food was perking me up already.

  “Take her up to the Bellwether lounge,” Headmistress Hart said firmly. “Make sure she eats something.”

  She swept off down the corridor to her office without waiting for us to agree.

  “Anya, are you okay?” Bella asked.

  “I’m fine,” I told her, feeling a little embarrassed at all the attention. “You can put me down.”

  “Not on your life,” the king whispered. “That woman would geld me.”

  “Did you just call Headmistress Hart that woman?” Kendall asked, her eyes twinkling.

  But suddenly it felt disloyal to me to even pretend to make fun of Headmistress Hart.

  “Let’s get upstairs,” I said, eager to change the subject. “I’m hungry, and we have to catch you up.”

  Everyone scrambled to do what I wanted, and for once I was maybe just the littlest bit happy to be the center of attention.

  “Where are Nina and Lark?” I asked Cori, who was heading up the stairs next to the king.

  “Doing some sort of project in the library,” she said. But there was something about the way she said it, the corners of her lips turned up in a hidden smirk.

  I wanted to ask what she was smiling about, but before I had a chance, Miss Twillbottom was calling out to make way.

  She marched past us with two of the cooks in tow. Each was carrying a large tray, laden with food. But they both stopped to give an awkward half-curtsey to the king.

  “Ladies,” he said in a smooth, velvety voice.

  Miss Twillbottom nearly dropped her tray of hot chocolate at that.

  I buried my face in the king’s chest to hide my smile, and before I knew it, we were entering the Bellwether lounge.

  “Place the food on the table,” Miss Twillbottom called out unnecessarily to the cooks. There was literally nowhere else to put it.

  Luke, Reed and Jared were sitting on the big sofa. Their faces lit up at the appearance of the feast as Miss Twillbottom scurried over and placed her tray of hot chocolate down.

  “Miss Corbin, do you need anything else?” she asked.

  “I’m fine, Miss Twillbottom,” I told her honestly. “Thank you for all of this. And please… thank Headmistress Hart for me.”

  “Of course, dear,” she said, suddenly looking relaxed instead of anxious. “She’ll be very glad to know you’re feeling better.”

  “Egg rolls?” Kendall yelled out from the sofa. “Awesome.”

  “Go get something to eat before it’s all gone,” Miss Twillbottom advised before trotting to the door back to the hall.

  The cooks hurried after her, but stopped at the door to curtsey once more.

  The king waved to them, and they scurried out, giggling.

  I scrambled out of his arms and checked out the hot chocolate tray. Kendall was already sitting on the floor beside the table with her own mug.

  “What’s with you and the lunch ladies?” Kendall asked the king teasingly.

  “They remember how to properly pay tribute to the Raven King,” he said lightly.

  “I’ll bet you know how to properly pay tribute to the Raven King,” she whispered in my ear.

  I pulled back and looked at her in shock.

  She gave me a pirate grin and shrugged. “Lucky guess?”

  I felt the blood rush to my cheeks and grabbed for a mug of hot chocolate before I could say something colossally dumb.

  “Hey,” she whispered. “Anya, I think it’s cool.”

  I looked up from my steaming mug to grin at her like a fool.

  Luke was feeding Bella an egg roll, while Reed shoved warm chocolate cookies in his mouth at an almost alarming rate.

  Cori sipped her hot chocolate, smiling fondly at her ravenous mate.

  This was home. These were my friends. I wished I could freeze the moment right where it was. But not even the Raven King had magic that powerful.

  “Did you find the blade?” Jared asked, cutting through the camaraderie with the one question destined to end it. He looked haunted. But after what he had been through, I could hardly blame him.

  I was content just reveling in my friendships and snacks, but Jared remembered why we were here. He did not have the luxury of forgetting.

  I shook my head, feeling guilty.

  “Where do you think it is?” Cori asked. “If it’s not there?”

  “I have no idea,” I admitted, putting my hot chocolate back down on the tray.

  It was time to fill them all in on our failure.

  24

  The Raven King

  Anya looked exhausted, and I hurt for her. She wanted nothing more than to help her friends, but we did not have good news for them. In spite of her heroic homecoming, that whiny shifter had deflated her in an instant.

  I could have punched him in the jaw, but that wouldn’t make her happy.

  I decided to do something that would.

  “We traveled to the great trees,” I said, allowing a little magic into my voice to draw their attention. Mortals were fools for it, even witches. “When we arrived, the scent of magic was thick on the air.”

  They all leaned forward as one, knowing they were about to get a story.

  “We raced for the big trees,” I went on. “But before we reached them, something rent the air.”

  I could sense Anya’s smile. She liked a good story too.

  “It was a foul skeleton-warrior, wielding a terrible falchion,” I said.

  “Riding a zombie boar?” Kendall offered.

  “An undead dragon,” I said, giving the words a tiny echo in order to send tingles down everyone’s spines.

  “Whoa,” Cori breathed, leaning forward.

  “Before I could bring my considerable powers to bear, the craven ambusher dropped an iron net over me,” I went on. “I was rendered completely helpless. The dragon beast beat its rotting wings, and I was dragged along behind them, my skin burning under the iron like so much bacon in a hot pan.”

  Bella hissed in a sympathetic breath.

  “I could hear the brave winter ravens crying out above me,” I went on. “But what could they do against the likes of a dragon?”

  I allowed a moment of dramatic silence.

  “Suddenly, I could feel the earth heave around,” I said. “Anya had called on the trees.”

  Everyone turned to Anya.

  “What does that mean?” Kendall asked.

  “I put my hands on the trunk of the biggest tree,” Anya said. “Then I closed my eyes and… spoke to it.”

  Bella was nodding, leaning forward. If I recalled correctly, Bella was the friend who had plant magic. It made sense that she was receptive to this part.

  “What did it do?” Bella asked.

  “It uprooted itself,” Anya said, still sounding shocked.

  “It wrenched itself free of its earthly bonds, and chased down the dragon and his rider, using its mighty branches to beat them into submission,” I went on. “My would-be captors dropped me and fled. And Anya freed me from the hateful iron netting.”

  “And you saved Hobbes,” she said softly.

  “And here we are,” I said, not wanting to force Anya to relive that painful moment by retelling that particular part of the story.

  “Wait, wait, wait,” Kendall said. “We were watching out the window when we heard you coming back. You fought off a bunch of statues to get through to Primrose. What about that part?”

  “A
nya did that,” I said.

  “It looked like you didn’t even touch them,” Cori said thoughtfully. “You just scared them away.”

  Anya got a worried look on her face.

  She still did not want to tell her friends she was fae. Thankfully, no one had asked how she ended up in the front of the castle instead of where the labyrinth should have let us out.

  I swallowed down my concerns about Anya’s reluctance and continued.

  “We did not find the blade,” I told them all. “Though we had a smashing adventure. Anya tells me your group is always full of good ideas. So where do we search next?”

  “We’ve exhausted anything we could think of on our own,” Bella said.

  “So the next step is the library,” Cori added.

  Primrose Academy was home to an impressive magical library, quite possibly the greatest in the continent. This was a wise idea. Though it could take minutes or years to find the knowledge they sought. There was no way to be sure.

  Or it might not exist in writing at all.

  “If someone knew where that blade was, it wouldn’t be a secret,” I mused out loud. “Or if it were a secret, it wouldn’t be written down somewhere to make it so easy to find.”

  “We don’t need a treasure map,” Anya said. “Just a reference to a place with the kind of requirements you described - a place that is guarded by magic - where nature overgrows its bounds.”

  I nodded slowly. They were right of course. If the library contained any mention of such places, then perhaps we could find the blade after all. But there was no telling how long it would take to seek out every place in the world that could fit that description.

  “To the library,” I said, leaping up. Sooner begun would mean sooner done.

  The women jumped up to join me, and the shifters, predictably, grumbled a little but pried themselves off the sofa as well.

  “I think we need to check on Lorenzo and Dane,” Luke told Bella quietly.

  Bella rolled her eyes, but nodded. “Makes sense,” she said. “See what you can find out about the statues coming to life?”

  “Of course,” Luke answered as he, Reed and Jared headed out.

  “Are you okay to do this with us?” Anya asked me quietly.

  “You’re the one who fainted,” I pointed out.

  “My knees just went a little weak, that’s all,” she said. “I missed lunch. You’re the one who was wrapped in iron.”

  “I’m fine,” I assured her.

  She frowned, but when I placed my hand at the small of her back, she allowed me to lead her toward the corridor.

  Gods of the realms, I wanted nothing more than to lead her straight to my bed. Curse these mortals and their constant rushing to get everything done.

  We followed Anya’s friends down the hallway and stairs, and around the winding corridors.

  The other students in the halls gave us a wide berth, but I could hear them whispering after us. It was no more than appropriate to be giddy in the presence of a king, but they could have at least bowed instead of just giggling.

  At last, we arrived at a pair of large doors that led into the library. The others went in first, Anya and I brought up the rear.

  But when we tried to step through, she went in, and I was somehow unable to follow. Something stopped me mid-stride. Something strong.

  “What in the world?” Anya murmured.

  The others stopped and turned to watch.

  I moved forward again, and again I was blocked. It was as if there were an unseen wall, completely stopping me from being able to enter.

  “The library is for students only,” a woman in long brown robes said sternly from inside.

  “Surely, you can make an exception for the Raven King,” I said with a teasing smile.

  “Can we get him a guest pass?” Anya asked.

  “Sorry, love, there’s nothing we can do,” the librarian said. “Those wards are as old as this castle.”

  Anya pulled me partway down the corridor, a curious expression on her face.

  Her friends followed a moment later.

  “What the hell was that about?” Kendall asked.

  “Why would they have ever needed wards like that?” Bella wondered at the same time.

  “No idea,” Anya said.

  “But the hellhounds got in before,” Bella said.

  “They aren’t human,” Anya told her.

  “Neither am I,” I pointed out.

  Anya frowned at me thoughtfully, and I could see the wheels turning in her head. She was wondering if I had told her the truth, if she was really fae. If I was blocked, why not her?

  It was a good question.

  I had seen the pride in her eyes as she called on the trees, and again when she'd mastered the labyrinth and bested the statues by simple virtue of believing in her birthright.

  What would happen if she started to doubt?

  We were in too much present danger for this to be allowed.

  “It may have nothing to do with what is or isn’t permitted to pass,” I clarified quickly. “How do most of the castle wards work? Do they physically block access like this?”

  “Most of them are just alarms,” Cori explained. “A ward that blocks things out physically is a super intense thing. It would require a lot of power and a lot of maintenance to stay up for so long.”

  “Or it would need to be new,” Anya said thoughtfully.

  “She said those wards were as old as the school,” Bella reminded us.

  But Anya still had a faraway look in her eyes, like she was trying to figure something out.

  “Why don’t you four go in?” I suggested. “I’ll wait out here in case you need me. We won’t learn anything just standing here.”

  “Are you sure?” Anya asked.

  “Of course,” I told her. “Go find that blade.”

  “On it,” she said with a smile.

  25

  Anya

  I didn’t like leaving the Raven King out in the corridor. Realistically, I knew the biggest risk was that the kitchen workers would come out and preen over him.

  But there was something vulnerable about the all-powerful king right now.

  I didn’t like it that he couldn’t just smash the wards on the library. Sure, a powerful ward might stop a witch, a mortal, and even a warlock, drunk on the Raven King’s power.

  But not the king himself.

  Why was a ward like that in place?

  And if it was meant to keep out the fae, why did it let me pass?

  “You okay?” Kendall asked me.

  “Sure,” I said. “Let’s go.”

  There was no point wondering what I was, I’d wasted enough years doing that. It was time to put my powers to work protecting what I loved. Whether I was fae, or just a weird witch after all, it didn’t matter. The only thing that mattered was Primrose, and all the people I loved under its roof.

  We strode into the library together and as usual, I felt a sense of wonder the moment I stepped inside.

  While the castle itself was dark and foreboding, with dim corridors and dark paintings, the library was bright as a jewel.

  Built in a circular shape, the enormous room was filled with afternoon light from the glass dome that topped it. The bright white marble floors were covered in colorful hand knotted rugs that muted our footsteps.

  Massive bookshelves, filled with tomes of every shape and size, shot out from the walls like spokes in a bicycle wheel. And the paintings that covered the few spots that weren’t lined with shelves were more vibrant and colorful than anywhere else at Primrose.

  But the true star of the library was the incredible oak that grew right in the center of the space.

  The trunk was as wide as my dorm room, and its branches reached up for the ceiling like arms. Vivid green leaves bristled from every branch and brushed against the glass dome, with no regard for the fact that we were deep in the heart of a frigid Pennsylvania winter.

  Holy crap.

 
“Bella,” I said softly. “Tell me again what we’re supposed to be looking for.”

  “A place that is guarded by magic,” she repeated. “Where nature overgrows its bounds…”

  Her face went as slack as mine felt as all four of us gazed up at the mighty oak.

  “No way,” Kendall murmured.

  “It’s big enough to hide the blade,” Cori said.

  “It’s big enough to hide a damned marching band,” Kendall said. “But how would we even look for it, or get it out if we found it? There’s always someone in this room.”

  I looked around. She was completely right. The library was overflowing with witches. Primrose students were avid readers. It came with the territory. Finding a time when the library was empty would be a tall order. And right now, the place was teeming with activity.

  “Late tonight?” Bella offered.

  “We don’t have that kind of time,” I told her.

  “Then we need a distraction,” Kendall said. “Something that will get everyone out of here.”

  “I’ve got you covered,” Cori said with a grin. “Thunderstorm in the cafeteria sound good?”

  “Have I told you lately that I love you?” Kendall asked her.

  Cori grinned at her.

  I was going to miss this gang so much when reality set in and Kendall and I were sent away.

  “Okay,” I said, trying not to dwell on my feelings. “I’ll run to the cafeteria so I can come blasting back here with the news as soon as it starts.”

  I jogged out of the library before they could see the tears in my eyes.

  26

  Anya

  The king looked up as I ran out of the library. He was surrounded by first-year witches, who weren’t talking to him, but were sort of staring with varying degrees of interest and longing - as if a rock star were visiting campus and no one had anything for him to autograph.

  “Be right back,” I mouthed and sprinted down the corridor.

  I was pretty sure he would want to follow, but I hoped the first-years would keep him from it.