Page 28 of Raven's Dawn

“Laila said they don’t die easy. Better to be safe than sorry.” She yanked back on the blade with a grunt. Standing, she glanced from left to right. “Any idea where those screams came from? I heard them, but I can’t remember which direction.”

I glanced around, breathing in that awful, sickly smell. When it resonated, and I picked up on the wind direction, I pointed to the left. “That way. But maybe we should get help first?”

She propped her hands on her hips. “Everyone back at camp is fighting for their lives. They don’t need to worry about us right now. But we can get an inside look. We might learn something, and we just wiped a bunch of them out, so we might as well exploit this opportunity. Right?”

For a heartbeat, I only studied her face. Despite the blood that drenched her hands, the fast breaths that panted in and out of her chest, her eyes were calm. Her hands were steady.

And it puzzled me.

“Ezra.” She snapped her fingers in front of my face. “We need to move. These fuckers could be regenerating as we speak. Let’s go sever some heads. Unless you have a better idea.”

After taking her hand, lacing our fingers together, I lowered them between us. “It’s a good idea.”

She held mine tightly and continued ahead.

The next dozen strides, we walked in silence. Ducking cave rocks overhead. Turning to fit through tight openings. Listening for an enemy. Preparing for another attack.

None came.

Truth be told, though, I wasn’t worried. Not for us. Not for Rain.

Her gaze darted left to right. I felt her heart pumping fast, but she didn’t look scared. She didn’t feel scared. She was focused.

Apparently, I kept looking at her for too long, or too many times, because she finally turned my way and said, “What?”

All I gave her was the slimmest of a smile accompanied by a headshake.

“You keep staring at me. There’s gotta be something going on in that noggin’ of yours.”

“I’m just surprised.”

“Surprised by what?”

“How well you’re handling this.” I squeezed her fingers. “I expected you to be a bit more nervous.”

And for that, I expected a blush. Maybe a smile. Something that showed emotion.

Instead, she shrugged. “We’ve been training for weeks. I told you guys I was prepared.”

Of course, she had told me so. Of course, we had trained for this.

But she was as calm as the forest after a storm had passed.

She’d just sliced a man in half and then stabbed him in the brain. And she was calm.

Granted, so was I. But this wasn’t my first time on a battlefield. This wasn’t the first time I’d awoken to the sound of death and destruction. This wasn’t the first time I had to push the people I loved, my comrades and fellow soldiers, from my mind to focus on the task in front of me.

Not to say that made it easy. My hands were shaking. In a few years, I would probably have a nightmare about what had just happened.

But I knew how to detach myself, had learned from traumas just as terrible as this one. That was the only way I thought one could truly prepare themself. I didn’t realize that anyone was capable of staying this calm in the moment of crisis.

“Do you think I’m a psychopath or something?” She glanced at me out of the corner of her eye. This time, the corner of her lips twitched with a smirk. “Because, in case you forgot, your partner has killed people for a living since you met.”

“No, nothing like that.” My voice stayed low. Sound liked to travel in caves. “I just thought that this would be more difficult for you.”

“Yeah, well…” Feet slowing to a stop, she released my hand and brought a ball of fire to it instead. On the ground, half a dozen strides away, lay another man. Also split in half, but this time vertically instead of horizontal. She lowered the hand with the blade to her side. “I was born into chaos. Guess I’m just accustomed to it.”

While I understood the philosophy, it didn’t make much sense to me. Rain had suffered throughout her life—I knew that. She’d never had a father. Her grandfather died when she was young. Her mother lived with severe schizophrenia, only to commit suicide in Rain’s adolescence. Her grandmother raised her, only to die when Rain was barely more than a child.