The Raven Trilogy- Complete Series

by Elle Lincoln

  Because I still don’t know why I’m so worked up.

  A tweet behind me breaks me out of my self-destruction. I turn to see two ravens perched on a branch. One inky black and one snow white.

  “Well, it’s about time you two joined us,” I grumble.

  They tweet to each other as though communicating in some strange avian language. For all I know, they can communicate this way. Bette flies away, leaving Casseus to shift before me, looking smug in his sweats and torn shirt.

  “Yer a bastard.” I point my ax at him.

  Casseus cocks his head at me. “There’s something wrong with you.”

  I snort. The rational part of my brain has me acknowledging his words, the other half wants to beat him to a pulp. “You might be right.” I swing my ax to the ground before leaning on the handle. Stroking my beard, I try to think logically.

  “Talk.” Cas crosses his arms, just staring at me.

  “You think it’s magical? The Fae?” Normally, I’m not this grumpy.

  “No, I don’t. I sense nothing on you, I think you’re pissed off about something and you need to get it out. I also don’t expect that’s something you are used to doing.” He purses his lips like he knows what he’s talking about.

  He just might.

  “I’m not used to having so many people... in my space.” Is that the issue? I didn’t realize how much it’s been bugging me until I spoke the words out loud.

  Cas laughs at me. “Patrick, you are a loner, you’ve always been a loner. The past couple months you’ve been cooped up with the rest of us. You are used to being in the woods, alone.” He pauses, glancing down at the ground to the little creatures lapping up my blood. “Well, mostly alone.”

  I roll my shoulders, breathing deeply. Realizing the truth in his words. Hell, I can feel it now as the forest closes us in. My tension leaves and the twinge in my muscles lessens.

  “Look, no one will blame you if you want to...” He stares out deep into the forest. “Take off.”

  Do I want to leave? Them? Bette? I think of her sweet smile that can turn racy in the blink of an eye. Do I want to give them up for this? “I don’t want to give them up.” I haven’t had family for so long that I’m not used to being smothered with affection and laughter. I love them, but I also love this.

  “We have to rebuild, Patrick. Why not rebuild a few cabins, smaller, but where we each have our own space?” He twists his face up before smirking. “Do you think Bette would want her own space or would she prefer to just share?” He laughs at his own joke, but I’m not amused.

  “She deserves her own space.” I grunt. “I like it. Maybe we can build deeper in the woods. I personally wouldn’t mind a tree house.”

  “That’s the spirit! We will have to have a chat, see what the others think, but I don’t think anyone will argue. This dynamic...” He scratches his neck. “It’s definitely unusual and I don’t think we really thought about what the consequences would be. We only thought of the pervy stuff.” He wags his brows.

  “Alright, let’s go then!” I’m ready to find the perfect space.

  “Well, I sought you out for a reason.” For the first time, Casseus blushes, throwing me off guard. The man strives to make everyone around him uncomfortable, to see him blush is disconcerting.

  “And?” What the hell has him so tied up in knots?

  “So, about a month ago, I came down here to smoke a cigarette.” He pulls out a damn toothpick to chew on, this should be good. “I flicked my butt and watched as it disappeared.”

  My entire body freezes. “What did you just say?”

  “Right, so I flicked my butt and it disappeared.” He coughs, looking around nervously. “Then Mac shows up and casually says—”

  “You fed a fucking dragon your cigarette butt?” It’s official, I don’t care if Bette or anyone else had laid claim to this special eejit, but I’m going to kill him.

  “Yes, so I fed a dragon my cigarette butt.” He pops his mouth, looking at me with those squinty black eyes of his. “Is that bad?”

  Am I seriously hearing this? Is this even happening? I grip my ax, swinging it over my shoulder. Casseus takes a rightful step backward.

  “I didn’t know!” He holds up his hands, warding me off. “Don’t kill me!”

  “I can’t kill ya, but I can hurt ya quite a bit!” I growl, flinging my ax into a nearby tree. Only it doesn’t hit a tree, it stops in midair.

  My eyes widen, and I glance to Cas who looks like he’s about to shit his pants. He points, stuttering as he tries to get the words out. “I don’t think it’s supposed to do that,” he whispers.

  “No, it’s not” I stand there stupidly, blinking for far too long. I’m not sure it’s the dragon we were just talking about or some other creature that can cast itself in glamour, rendering itself invisible.

  The time to figure it out, however, flees when a roar thunders the forest. All creatures flee, scampering through the underbrush or taking flight.

  We should too, but that’s my damn ax.

  “I didn’t think they survived,” I mutter more to myself that to Casseus. “What the hell do we do?”

  “Are you blind?” Casseus squeaks. Seems like there is a way to really ruffle his feathers—find a dragon.

  “No, I’m not blind.” I need my ax is what I need.

  The air shimmers before us as small, red-orange scales displace the air where moments earlier there was nothing. Right there in the beast’s side is my ax. I wince as reality settles in that I threw my ax at this mystical creature.

  The creature who looks... pissed off. And it’s staring directly at me. Its nostrils flare, becoming black orbs where smoke filters out of them. It leans his head down, huffing a smoke ring in my direction before peeking over its shoulder at my ax. He or she isn’t huge, it’s small compared to the beasts back home. No bigger than the size of a small sedan.

  “He’s a baby,” I mutter.

  “I told you that. Didn’t I? Mac said it was a baby. I guess he could see through its invisibility cloak.” He takes a cautious step forward.

  “Glamour. Not invisibility cloak.” I snap my hand out, pushing Casseus back.

  “Oh, she doesn’t like you touching me.” The bastard laughs.

  But he isn’t wrong, she coughs. My eyes widen before I dive behind a bush just as a stream of fire erupts out of her nostrils.

  Casseus laughs harder, bending at the waist. “This is glorious. She likes me! It’s because I fed her ash!”

  I landed on a branch, my forearm is bleeding, and I think my head hit a stone. I slowly move to stand, giving the dragon and Casseus a wide berth.

  He finally stops laughing and casually strolls up to the damn beast to peer at my ax. “I’d be pissed off if you stabbed me as well.”

  “I didn’t know she was there.” I pause. “How do you know it’s a she?”

  “No balls,” he mutters, then pets her scaly head.

  I’m the one who once had a dragon as a pet, and here this dipshite is petting a dragon who wants nothing to do with me.

  Just my luck.

  “Have fun,” I grumble, before going to walk away. This time it’s Casseus who grips my shirt and drags me back.

  “You threw your ax at a dragon and you’re just going to walk away? Remove it!” He waves his arms at the ax.

  He isn’t wrong. I grip the handle, yank it out, and take a preemptive dive into the brush to keep from catching on fire. It’s a good thing too, because she lets loose a flame at that.

  I roll over, peeking up at the sky through the canopy of trees. Casseus is right, I was a loner. Living a quiet life up in the mountains. Now, here I am, lying on a forest floor because a dragon tried to set me on fire with her mood swings.

  “Will she heal?” Is he nuts?

  “She’s a mythical creature. Should heal just fine. The ax was mostly wedged between scales.” I sit up, staring the two in disbelief. “Believe me, if I had gotten through the scales, I’d be dead.
”

  Casseus tickles the beast under her chin and I swear she purrs.

  “Listen to that, she loves this!”

  “Don’t get too close,” I warn.

  She burps again, setting his shirt on fire. Finally, amusement for my eyes. Casseus dances around the clearing smacking at his charred shirt.

  “That hurt!”

  “I tried to warn ye,” I point out.

  Cas grunts in response. “Do you think we can take her back to the house with us?”

  “What house?” Okay, maybe that was a bit too snarky, but the house is crispy.

  He gives me a dark look. “You know what I meant.” he counters, while still scratching under her chin.

  “Probably not a good idea to spring this on Bette just yet. Besides, what do you think the others will say?” It isn’t that I care, but I worry about Bette and the dragon. Two women fighting for a man. I mean, human women are crazy enough. Throw in a few immortals and all hell is bound to break loose.

  “You think she wouldn’t like Bette.” He snorts. “I have news for you. Her scent is all over me right now and this beast hasn’t once huffed. Unless you think she’s a shifter.” He takes a step back, scrutinizing the wee thing.

  “I’ll admit, it isn’t something I thought of.” I scratch my beard. “Dragons are hatched as dragons. But they are magical. A humanish form wouldn’t be their natural state.”

  “You think they could choose to shift into a human?”

  “Why not? Some days I don’t think magic has any rules!” I grunt, hands on my hips. “Shift, see what she does.”

  “She might eat me, because I’m a small fucking raven, Trick!” He throws his arms up, to which the she-dragon snuggles under his arm.

  “She likes ya. I doubt she will eat you.” I think about it for a moment, canting my head and shrugging. “Chew ye up a bit maybe.”

  “Trick,” he growls at me, annoyance flickering in his gaze. For some reason the more I annoy him, the better it makes me feel.

  “Just shift. My thought is that in this form, she will see yer magic and follow suit.” To me it makes perfect sense.

  “You realize I’m not a shifter, right?” he points out, but I know this already.

  “Isn’t the magic the same?”

  “How many times do I have to explain this today? No, it isn’t. Logan would be better off showing her how to shift.” But he’s thinking about it, I can see the thought crossing his features. “I’ll try just once and if it doesn’t work, we will let Logan in on our little secret and see if he can get her to shift.”

  He nods once to himself before taking a step back and shifting to the raven. He flaps his wings once, then twice, before settling on a branch. I look back over at the dragon. Her head cocks to the side as she watches Casseus shift back to a human.

  “Nothing.”

  “Give her a moment.” I lean in as the air shimmers. “She’s either going invisible or she’s about to shift.” Excitement bubbles within me as her magic swells with a burst and a pop.

  There, where the dragon stood, sits a little girl no older than four.

  My eyes widen. “You fed a child a cigarette butt.”

  “You stabbed a kid.” I pale, he’s right. “Though in our defense, neither of us knew this was possible.”

  Chapter 6

  Bette

  Surprises

  I walk up the gravel drive, dust billowing behind me as I follow the voices of the others. I’m curious to see if there really is a dragon hidden out here or not, but for now there is a bigger issue at hand.

  What the hell am I going to do? I need to talk to Kelsi, that’s my first step, and it just so happens we need some camping supplies. I refuse to move off this peak. It took the entire flight back, but I understand now that the house isn’t what made it a home. It was the ones living there. If that means we sleep in a tent until we can rebuild, then so be it.

  Laughter reaches me, floating down on a gentle breeze to remind me that all isn’t lost. Just deviated from our original course. A detour perhaps.

  I reach the rubble, but the guys are nowhere. I scrunch my face up, straining to hear where that laughter is coming from. It sounds almost like it’s coming from in the rubble. I carefully wade through the wreckage of our home, trying to mentally picture where everything was laid out, but it is damn near impossible.

  The laughter increases as I near the center of the wreckage. But no guys. What the hell?

  “Marco!” I yell, wondering if someone will catch on and answer me.

  “Polo!” I’m sure that was Mac, but I can’t pinpoint where it’s coming from.

  A bushy, dread locked head pops out from the edge of the rubble, and I see a smile on Balor’s face.

  “Over here.” He holds his hand out to me as I near, sweeping me around to land on the opposite side of the house, where a slight drop-off of stones slides down a cliff into the forest below.

  “What are you guys doing over here?” Instead of letting me walk, he holds me close to his chest, stepping over boulders and small stones. Beads of sweat pebble on his forehead, not from exertion I’m sure, but from the humid day already upon us.

  “We were trying to gather the rubble and set it on fire. We were also looking for stones to make a pit, instead we came across a little gem.” The smile on his face has me truly wondering what they found.

  The cabin sat on an overlook, dominating the forest below. One side was always rocks and boulders, and I never played there as a child because Grandma warned me against it, said I’d fall to my death. I looked once and decided she was right, never returning out of fear.

  But now, Balor carries me down a few feet before settling me down on a boulder. My brows pinch as I wonder what the hell is really going on. He jumps down to a small flat surface before reaching up to me. I shrug and jump to him, his hands catching me as though I’m nothing more than a ragdoll. He spins me around to reveal an old wooden door set into the mountain.

  “What in the world?” Ivy and moss grows around the mouth of the door, hiding it from view. Looking up at the house from the valley below, I have no doubt I wouldn’t see the door. “It looks like a hobbit mound.” The door is smaller than a normal one, maybe only five feet tall.

  “That it is. Come on.” Balor opens the door, scraping it along the stone.

  I step inside to a wide round room. The ceiling just a bit taller, enough for me to stand up straight, but the guys would have to duck. What I find has laughter bubbling out of me. Any southerner worth their weight knows exactly what I’m looking at. Hell, anyone in this modern era would know what I’m looking at.

  Directly in front of me, and to my right and my left, are three distinct copper barrels with a few others sticking out of it, making it look like something out of the future, when in fact it is nothing more than a clean moonshine distillery.

  “You know, I always wondered how she could afford the things she did.” I can’t hold back the amusement spiraling in me. “She always told me she made investments, that lying cow.”

  “I mean, if we are being technical, that wasn’t a lie,” Logan comments, drawing my eyes to the guys sitting against the stone wall, sipping out of mason jars with Mac.

  “Are you drunk?” Because now is not the time to get smashed. Even I have some morals.

  “No, we are planning.”

  “Plotting.”

  “Analyzing.”

  I turn to Balor, because these two are drunk. I blink several times, waiting for him to come up with something better.

  “We were trying to come up with a plan.” He frowns before snatching the jars from their hands.

  I grab a jar from Balor, sniffing it before looking at the label. A familiar cherry tree and brand name pops out. Too mentally disturbed to even think about my grandmother’s actions, I place the jar on the table before staring down the guys before me.

  “Did you come up with anything?” My eyes feel gritty from lack of sleep and burn my lids as I try
to close them.

  “Not really,” Logan mumbles, eyeing up the jar I placed on the small table.

  “At least we have somewhere to sleep.” Mac’s hopeful voice is the only one of reason, as usual.

  “The other two have come up with a plan for housing,” Balor interjects, telling me he’s been mentally listening to them.

  “Are they on their way back?” At least someone has a plan.

  “No, they shut me out after that.” The big guy is not pleased about that. I pat him on the shoulder, shrugging. He’ll get used to that.

  “Well, I’ve come up with something.” I walk over to an empty wall and slide down to sit. “We need to talk to Kelsie, but I don’t want to just go searching for her. First, I haven’t seen her in a month, so I don’t know where she is. Second, I need to know how dangerous this threat is.”

  “I would not take it lightly,” Balor sneers. “If he has a formorian other than me, that means only one thing.” He sits, sliding down the wall beside me. “Ceth.”

  Mac leans forward, his eyes sobering instantly with the name. “How is that possible? I heard she was killed.”

  Balor snorts. “Like I was killed?” He shakes his head, his eyepatch shifting. “No, I have no doubt it is her. She isn’t powerful, but she can be a manipulative bitch.”

  I exhale a harsh breath. “Your wife?”

  Balor pulls me into his lap, his arms settling around me. “Yes, but I believe she lost that title when she helped dismember me.”

  I wince, yeah, that would be instant divorce for me as well. Not that I ever wanted marriage anyway. My forehead wrinkles and the words stall on my tongue.

  Balor chuckles beneath me. “I think what we have goes far deeper than a marriage.”

  I sigh in relief. “Well, at least we are on the same page there.” Logan and Mac glance at each other, an odd smile on their faces. “What?”

  “It’s just amusing. You tried to rip out the heart of a Fae king, and yet the thought of marriage has your pulse hammering like a jackhammer,” Logan points out.

  “Your faced paled too. Completely ghosted, paler than you usually are,” Mac adds.