Page 30 of Raven's Dawn

From time to time, we all thought things that might be offensive to another person. Every person alive did. Speaking something and thinking it were not the same thing. There was no stopping thoughts that passed through the mind. That didn’t mean that they were harmless, though.

Now, I felt it necessary to justify a passing thought––one I never would have voiced at the risk of insensitivity.

“I wasn’t trying to paint your mother as some type of science experiment. I was just?—”

“It’s okay. I was curious about that when I was growing up too,” she said, focused gaze still scanning the dark, damp path ahead of us. “And sorry for listening in on your thoughts. I was trying to send Warren and Graham a quick message, but they can’t hear me.”

My stomach knotted up. Why had I not thought to do that?

So I attempted, focusing on Warren’s energy, on Graham’s, but a nails on a chalkboard vibration pulsed through my mind instead. Yanking myself back from the thought, I physically cringed and rubbed my ear. “I can’t reach them.”

“They can’t either,” she said. “I’m not sure why I can. It must be a spell. My mind might be able to break through it easier than yours because I’m more experienced with magic.”

I couldn’t wait for the day when I was just as experienced as she was. “But they’re alright?”

“Yeah, the fight just ended. They had to kill them all. No hostages to interrogate.” Squinting ahead, she let the fire in her hand burnout. We were close enough that it wasn’t necessary. Judging by the god-awful smell and the distant light of torches, they were camped around a bend just a few dozen strides from us. “If any of them are still alive, we should take one.”

“Oh, sure. Such an easy task.” I kept my voice low, listening for the sound of a heartbeat. There may have been one, but I couldn’t place it clearly. Not over the sound of my own. “It would be ideal, though. Because I’m not sure how we will get out of here without a guide of some kind.”

Rain only released a deep breath. She squeezed my hand tighter and slowed her pace. In my mind, she said, Do you have a blade?

I found the one Jeremy insisted I strap to my hip last night. As I lifted it, it twinkled, catching the light that emanated from around the bend.

Only then did I see the slightest tinge of fear in Rain’s eyes. She had been on high alert throughout our walk, but now the danger was just around the corner, and reality had caught up to her confidence.

She gave a curt nod.

I returned it.

Edging slowly to the cave wall, Rain pressed her back against it. I did the same. Like decaying dynamite was strapped to our chest, we tiptoed to the crest of the opening. When we were only inches away, Rain raised her blade.

Then she jumped out around its corner.

A bit dramatic, but as established, she wasn’t half bad at this. And as Rain had pointed out, and I’d graciously not pressed her on, I’d only been a medic in the war. So I followed in the footsteps of the natural.

Her theatrics were wasted on an audience of dead or dying men. I exhaled with relief at the sight of their camp and all their bodies on the ground.

Until I looked above the fire, and I understood that sickly smell.

12

GRAHAM

Was I breathing?

The air drifting in and out of my chest was all that I heard, but it felt like there wasn’t any in my lungs.

Looking around the camp, I grasped a tree branch and slowly lowered myself to the soil.

We only had one casualty. There had been more, but between Jeremy, Hannah, Warren, and Ramona, all the others had been returned to their bodies. CPR played a big part in that. While only necromancers could save the mortally wounded, we could keep their blood pumping until one of the four had time to reach them.

Connor and Naomi were out searching for sacrifices who could bring that one casualty back to life. I wasn’t certain of her name. I’d only seen her in passing yesterday. But she was young, no older than twenty, and she was dead on the ground a few feet ahead of me.

Her lips were blue. So was her pale skin, where it wasn’t covered in blood.

Blue and red. That’s all she’d been reduced to, all I could see when I looked at her now. No matter how sweet she’d been when she offered me a drink from her flask yesterday, or how brave she’d been when she offered to fight in this war. I didn’t see her smile, or the dimples it formed on her cheeks, or her bright, innocent eyes. I only saw blue and red.

Our enemies were dead. We had killed each and every one of them. I couldn’t describe each of them, nor the way I took their life, if mine depended on it. There was no memory of it. Maybe because I had only been able to see them for the last few minutes. Maybe because, in moments like this, there were no thoughts.