Page 21 of Raven's Dawn

And I understood why. After a decade in purgatory, he woke up in a different reality. One where I was friends, even family, with the gods that I prayed to. One where we were on call for CIA agents and the creators of our world.

It was far-fetched already. But it was so much harder to wrap your mind around as a teenager. Especially as a teenager in a man’s body.

“Whatever.” Jake darted to his feet and cursed under his breath as he walked to his tent.

Jeremy frowned at me. “I’m sorry. I wasn’t trying to hurt his feelings.”

“Don’t be,” I said. “He needed to hear that.”

“Indeed, he did.” Luci patted my shoulder on his way past. “Sleep well, esiasch.”

I replied with the same and watch them continue to their tents. Once they were out of sight, I pulled in a deep breath and carefully let it out.

“How the hell did he end up like that?” Amara asked. “How Jeremy described him, I mean. Being young, but not realizing he is.”

“It’s a hell of a story,” I said. “How much time do you got?”

“All night, apparently.” She grabbed her spare blanket off the log beside her, shook it out, and put it on the ground in front of the fire. With a cheerful smile, she sat and patted the spot beside her. “And before ye ask, aye, I want all the details more than I want to catch ye up on everyone we knew, and everyone who has died, and everything that’s happened. We’ll get there. Tell me the story first. Then tell me why Nix—the Nix—considers you family.”

Chuckling, I lowered myself to the blanket beside her. “I hope you brought snacks.”

Amara stretched behind the log for her backpack then passed it to me. “Take yer pick.”

I did. I took my pick, and I told her everything.

For hours, we sat, and I explained. How I had met Jake, and how close we had been when we were young. Then his death, followed by the years without him, only to be reunited because of the boyfriend Rain happened to stumble upon. More than likely, because of the ghost who played a large part in our love story and was the same reason a few dozen ravens perched themselves along the border of Rain’s tent. I explained how my life intertwined with Laila’s and Jeremy’s, and how I had been gifted eternity.

We talked, and we ate, and I had more fun than I thought I would here.

I didn’t think much about the friends I’d lost when I came to Earth. There weren’t many of them. Being what I was, more people than I cared to admit rejected my existence. Amara hadn’t been one of them, but the fact remained.

When I went to Earth, I tried my best to forget anything from this world that hurt. I clung to the things that gave me hope, that brought me comfort, but I veered far from the things that would bring me to tears.

Amara was one of those things. Not because she had ever done me any harm, but because I didn’t think I would ever see her again. And now, here she was. We were sitting beside a campfire, eating orange berries, and honey bread, and chicken jerky.

“This is new,” I said, wagging a stick of it. “Only the rich had chickens when I was here.”

“Because of yer however many greats grandson and his wife.” Amara chewed with her mouth open, giving me a full view of the ground up jerky. Now I understood why Ezra hated when I chewed with my mouth open. “The masses don’t know that. Only a handful do, really. I’m lucky to be one of them.”

“So am I.” Tearing my hunk of honey bread, I smiled. “Sometimes, I can’t believe that any of this is real.”

“I bet ye can’t, ye lucky shite.” She playfully bumped her shoulder into mine. “How’d ye get her to give it to ye early?”

“I just asked her for it,” I said. “We were dealing with all that stuff with Jake, though. They helped us, and they wanted us to be as strong as possible when we fought that battle. So she gave it to me. And to Rain.”

Amara’s shoulders slumped.

“Have you asked her?”

“Aye.”

My chest tightened. “And she said no?”

“She said I needed a few more years.” Which made sense, because Amara was three years younger than me. Even I was too young to typically receive eternity. “I think it was more than that, though. She did the search. Afterward was when she told me no.”

I furrowed my brows. “Did you ask if it was more than that?”

Amara laughed. “Like I’m in any position to question her.”