Moon Raven Rising (The Moon Raven Trilogy #3)

1. Raelle

Chapter one

I don’t regret my decision. It lets me know that he lives, and I’m doing everything I can to get back to him. Even if it darkens my soul every day that I must be without him at my side.

The wind whips my hair around my face, stinging at the raw skin of my cheeks. Since taking flight and leaving Soren’s presence, the tears have flowed freely. However, I still do my best not to let the dragon prince, with a death grip on my waist, know just how much I’m hurting. Silently, my heart breaks as I leave it, my mate, and our future behind. But with the heartbreak, my resolve strengthens. These tears will be the last I shed. Soren will get no more from me.

The flight is quick despite the distance from Castenelle to Demetrey. The beast’s massive wings carry us much further in less time than I would have thought possible. Or perhaps I was just too distracted by my own emotions to pay enough attention to our travels. Either way, we land with a bone-rattling thud right on top of the castle. The stone beneath us threatens to crumble just from the sheer size of the incredible monster.

The dragon prince, Osiris, doesn’t say anything; he just grips my hips with both of his meaty palms and tosses me from the dragon’s back. I can’t help the screech that comes from my throat at the suddenness of it. I curse as I slide along the rough scales and land on my hands and knees. The skin splits with the fabric that covers them, but I recover quickly and push myself up to stand.

Osiris stays silent as he grabs me by the back of my arm, just above my elbow. Only a grunt as he steers me in the direction he wishes me to walk. Two guards greet us at the weathered double doors. The entrance from the rooftop creaks as they nod their greeting to the prince. They are careful not to meet my eye, and I can’t tell if it’s out of fear or instruction. Either way, I make note of their faces as I’m pushed past them and into the cold, dark stairwell. Marking them in my memory for the end that will surely come for their part in this.

The walls and ground shake as the dragon launches back into the sky, causing me to lose my footing. I stumble forward, but I don’t fall due to the bruising grip Osiris has on my arm. He flicks his fingers, and fire flares to life along the walls in the sconces that line the narrow stairs. He grunts again, and I take that as my queue to begin moving my feet again.

At the bottom of the stairs is another set of guards, bracketing another set of doors. These guards, their eyes shadowed by the darkness of the hall, don’t mask their interest in my presence. The salacious grin that creeps onto one of their faces makes my heart rate spike, anger, and pain—that I can do nothing—intermix, but I keep my chin held high as I pass him. It’s when his vile emotions slither over my body, along with his eyes, that goosebumps rise along my skin and the sinking feeling in my gut intensifies.

Osiris looks down on me; the scrutiny I see in his gaze is only a flash of an emotion on his otherwise emotionless face. The thought brings curiosity to me, and I can’t help but push my magic out toward the prince like Alaric and Ambriel have taught me. His jaw ticks, but I feel no feelings or thoughts coming from him. Only a wall of magic blocking my attempt. The glower he pins me with is enough to shut down my trying.

By the time we stop walking, and after multiple sets of stairs, I’m certain that we are deep underground, beneath the massive castle. The air is cooler, and the scent of dirt and moisture fills the space around us.

I hear a click, as a lock turns, and Osiris stops, halting my footsteps in the process.

“Keep her locked in. No one else enters.” Osiris growls at the guard with ruddy cheeks littered with freckles as he opens the door wide. His armor looks two sizes too big and his sword too heavy for his frame. Osiris also seems to notice his lack of size, looking him up and down, when another guard steps forward from the shadows. A larger man, with dark hair and eyes to match the darkness in his gaze, zeros in on me.

I swallow the fear that his presence evokes in me, and he watches the motion of my throat with abhorrence. Stepping forward, he takes my arm from the prince more aggressively than needed. Osiris looks at me speculatively once more before he curls his lip, turns on his heel, and disappears into the darkness within the next moment. Rough hands shove me into the cell so hard that I fall, sliding along the filthy stone floor, my head slams one of the wooden posts.

Thinking that they will leave me here, I let my emotions take over and tears well in my eyes, but they don’t fall. I won’t let them fall.

When dark leather boots step into the minimal light, I freeze. The larger guard with the darkness in his eyes has come to a stop in front of me. I look up to meet his deep-set, black eyes and hold my breath as I consider what he is going to do. He tilts his head slowly to the side, eyeing me like a predator.

“You sure are a pretty one to be put down here with us. You must be feisty. Must deserve to be down in the dirt with your feet up.” His slimy tongue runs over the edge of his yellowed teeth and acid burns at my throat.

“Fuck you,” I say, lifting my chin further to not show him any fear. I could take him out with only a lift of my hand, but there are many reasons that is not the smart thing to do. One of which, the most important to me, is Dax. The ruthless guard pinches my chin in a bruising grip with his thumb and forefinger, tilting my head back and forth so he can take in all of my features.

“Oh doll, I plan to do just that.” He says in a low growl as he reaches down with the other hand to cup his manhood. I spit on him. It’s another wrong choice, but the disgust overwhelms me, and I can’t help but react. His hand pushes my head back by my chin, and then he wrenches it upright, and the back of his hand comes down quickly, busting the skin under my eye. “You fucking bitch!”

“Dammit,” I barely hear another voice say through the ringing in my ears. I flinch just as the shadow of another body comes close and fingers reach out, brushing softly across my cheek. He apologizes in a whisper, just before he reaches behind his back, bringing my attention to his hands a moment too late. I feel the cold bite of metal on my wrists right before the lock clicks and he secures them. Our eyes lock, but the concern I see there has me considering him possibly the only Fae here who may be an ally, and I sniff before looking over his shoulder to the guard who is grinding his teeth to dust watching.

When I narrow my eyes on him and my face falls into a calm that can only be seen as cold hostility, that is the moment he knows his fate is sealed once I am free. I pull every ounce of hate into my eyes as I kill him in my thoughts in every way imaginable. I may have to endure Soren’s torment, but I don’t have to accept it from anyone else.

The lack of light in the dungeon doesn’t allow me to know how much time has passed. I’m not sure if it’s been hours or days. With the way my mind is racing, time seems to be at a standstill. Endless darkness surrounds me, body and mind. Rubbing the heel of my palm into my eyes, I try to muster up some semblance of moisture to them, but it is no use. I cough, the dryness of both my eyes and throat causing a steady burning need for water.

“Eventually, they will bring you something they try to pass off as water.” A gravelly voice echoes from the corner—in the darkest part of the shadows. I didn’t notice anyone there with me before he spoke.

“Who’s there?” I ask, my eyes widening as I try to see through the bleak space.

“Just a man with no purpose, I suppose.” He says, causing my mind to race. I try to push my magic out toward him, but the pain in my head is immediate; the block he has on him is something sinister that causes pain to slice through my mind like a hot blade. My magic retreats as quickly as I pushed it out, and I’m left panting.

“Why are you here?” I ask breathlessly. I hear chains much like my own rattling, and I scoot across the dirty ground, backward away from the stranger and the danger he may pose.

“The same question could be asked of you.” Just as he says the last word, his face is lit by a shard of light that now comes from the crack of the door as someone approaches with a firelight. His gaze is intense as we make eye contact, his eyes kinder than the look of his marred face and body. Something about his gaze has me pausing. He says nothing more but slinks back into the shadows, leaving me sitting in confusion as the guards storm into the space.

Before I can regain my bearings, a booted foot comes out and lands against my ribs, causing me to double over from the shock of pain. I hear laughter from the guards who remain at the door, and a proud sneer is on the face of the man who just kicked me. The same man who backhanded me when I first arrived. I clench my teeth, looking up at him through a devilish glare. My lip curls back as I growl, moving as fast as I can. The fastest I’ve moved since being held captive, and my muscles protest with a burning tightness, but I ignore it. I grab the small blade from his boot that was too close to the prisoner’s hands—my hands.

A mistake that will bring him his death.

I twirl as I stand, putting all of the momentum behind the power of my stab.

The blade sinks into his thick neck.

The room falls silent as his body drops. First to his knees, then to his stomach. My chest is heaving, and blood drips from my hand and the tip of the blade. My arms hang loosely to my sides as my eyes track up from the man laid slain at my feet, and I growl with my teeth bared at the men who dared to laugh at my expense.

Exhaustion, dehydration, and the dizziness of my sudden blood rush have me dropping to my knees. Unable to keep the blade in my hand any longer, it slips from my grip and into the puddle of blood that now soaks my legs and the ground in front of me.

The guards rush in, but I’m in a daze.

They don’t touch me. Only take the blade and the dead man. Leaving me with the tarnish on my soul from taking another life, being given no other choice but to show cruel men that they won’t determine what brings me fear. The moment I left that cliffside was the moment I decided, I will be the monster to anyone who seeks to harm me or those I love—I will be the one who they will come to fear.