Moon Raven Rising (The Moon Raven Trilogy #3)

4. Alaric

Chapter four

Smoke hangs low on the cliffside; the wind dying down makes it linger like the settling of snow. The taste of it sticks to the back of my throat as I shuffle through the ash. My muscles are weak having fought off the Raskin for what feels like hours, and somewhere in the scuffle Kait and I got separated. The heaviness pressing me down is from more than just the fight and smoke, though. It’s the weight of my failure.

I bent the knee to Raelle. She is my queen, but I failed her when she needed me the most. I’ve run through everything that happened during the night repeatedly in my mind, but I still don’t understand—why did my bond with Raelle not force me to choose her? To help her.

Instead, I’ve helped no one.

I trudge through the scorched trees looking for any sign that Kait made it out. Each time I think I see tracks, it turns out to be nothing. I don’t want to even consider it, but I know I have to see the facts. I was not able to save her. They had to have taken her. My teeth grind in my mouth as my mind spins through everything. Exhaustion starting to set in, I make my way to the cave.

When I reach the opening in the trees where I know I last saw Raelle, my heartbeat ramps up, hoping that perhaps someone is still around. Or at the very least someone will come back just as I am. The organ nearly seizes when I see the blackened stone ground and the crumbling tree left barring the entrance of the cave. Embers still glow and crackle along the surface; it couldn’t have been long since the fire blazed.

I pull charred branches, tugging as hard as I can in hopes of making some space, so I can get into the cave. Sweat beads along my forehead and drips into my eyes. Cursing as I forcefully wipe the moisture from my brow with my tattered sleeve. That’s when I notice it. There are engraved runes above the mouth of the cave that were not there before. Four of them, ancient, and yet… I recognize them. I can’t figure out where I have seen something like this before, but the longer my gaze lingers on the image, the more my intuition tells me to seek out the answer.

With a renewed determination, I rip my tunic from my body and toss it to the side. Gripping a branch from the tree, I turn to face the sea and wrench on it as hard as I can. The muscles on my back pull taut as I give all the energy I have to move the uprooted tree with body strength alone. Blinking hard past the bright flashes of light and shadows that fill my vision as the exertion tries to take me down, I give one last heave. The wood groans as the tree finally rolls.

“Fuck yes! It’s about time something goes right.” Bringing in a long breath, I blow it out as I approach the entrance, but just as I go to place my foot down in front of me, I stop. A ripple in the air in front of me causes me to instead step back. I didn’t notice it before—the magic veil that closes off the cave. The rippling energy radiates darkness—a malignant and unnatural magic, lingering like a curtain.

Through it, I see Dax’s still form lying on the ground where we left him, and I curse again, swinging my fist out. I punch the hard-packed dirt and rock of the cliffside. The skin across my knuckles splits, but the pain is a welcomed reprieve to the warring emotions in my head. Nothing is going the way I thought it would! I scream internally at myself as I begin to pace. Pushing my fingers into my unruly hair, I pull it at the roots, trying to muster up a plan. I need to find where Raelle is, Kait, and tell the others. Fuck.

“ Fuck! Why does shit always go wrong?!” I growl the words, prowling to the edge of the cliff. I suck in a deep breath of salty air when a thought comes to me. The words of the seer ring through my mind from the time Raelle and I went to see her. “Careful Alaric. Sometimes you get answers to things you don’t seek when accepting guidance from the fountain.” Gods know I need answers right now, and I’m willing to do just about anything to get them.

Letting my gaze turn back over my shoulder, at the cave and the magic keeping me from my kin, I step forward. “Dax, if you can hear me…” I grind my teeth as the anger builds in me. “Just know—I’m sorry. I’m going to make this right. I will bring us all back together again. This wasn’t meant to go this way. I never thought—I’ll fix it.” Turning my back once again, I face the setting sun, and as I let my wings snap out at my back, I growl my frustrations with the gods and with fate toward the horizon. “I’m going to fucking fix this.”

Falling forward, I let the air catch under my wings and leave Dax along with every other failure that has happened on that cliff with him. I won’t fail again. I will seek out the answers, even if they are ones I do not wish to know.

Stopping at a place I once used to frequent, during the time I was merely a ghost—a dead man no longer—I’ve come to collect what is mine. The woman who was holding my belongings for me was all too willing to do as I pleased. It’s the first time I’ve ever felt sick from a female’s touch. She looked as though I’d slapped her when I stopped her hand from trailing my sweat-covered body. My mind is not willing to go there. It’s in the ocean blue eyes of a wolf that is missing. It’s in the darkness with my cousin and spinning, trying to think of where Raelle could be. Anywhere else, but there. I cleaned up in her home, ate her food, and dressed in the clothing I left there. I would be no help to anyone if I didn’t take care of myself.

It’s late evening, and the sun is just taking its resting spot on the other side of the Soule Mountains. Just like when I was a dead man, no one pays me any attention as I amble through the shadows with my hood drawn. Something about my aura drives people away. Clenching my jaw, I look to the center of town; the castle appears untouched, and the Fae moving along the lantern-lit streets are oblivious to the danger that still lurks in the kingdom. The magic boundaries that used to inhibit our magic unless marked have not been restored. Something about what Raelle and I did seems to have corrupted the magic that held them and is still preventing it from being restored. I knew the moment I crossed into Loema and no magic met me. Only Maki’s useless sentries.

Ducking past a man pulling a market cart, I dipped into the alleyway I remember coming to with Raelle. Seeking out the seer once again. Something about the woman set me on edge. Perhaps her knowing eyes seeing past the looks the gods have given me, further than anyone has ever been able to see before. Maybe she sees the darkness that lives inside me. Unlike Dax, my darkness is not that of shadows but of pain. The pain I’ve caused and the pain I carry.

The alley is even darker than the rest of the town. The lanterns in the courtyard not yet burning, and the moon not yet bright in the early evening sky. I give myself a minute for my vision to adjust before I take the path to the fountain from before.

The stone is light, almost white-gray, sun-washed with age. The two ravens on top are a clear depiction of Dax and Raelle, both dark and light, fierce and beautiful. It’s not the fountain itself though that drives me to step closer. The crystal water like a mirror into my soul pulls at an invisible thread, reeling me in by my very essence.

“Alaric Amarose, you have returned?” A voice rough and smoky calls out, and it distracts me enough from the water’s pull that I turn to face the seer.

“I need answers,” I say bluntly.

“Ah, but we all need answers. It’s the questions we ask ourselves that matter most though, don’t you think?” Her pierced eyebrow lifts, as does the corner of her mouth, before she turns on her heel and waves me to follow. Grinding my teeth in fresh frustration, I march across the courtyard to the entrance of her cottage.

“Sit, Mr. Amarose, I will prepare tea.”

“I don’t have time for tea. I came to talk—for answers.”

“Can you not drink tea and talk like a civilized Fae, immolated son?” She watches me as she makes the tea anyway, but I sit silent as she does. My lack of words caused humor to dance in her eyes.

“Look—Raelle and Dax are in trouble. I don’t know where Raelle is, and Dax, well, I know where he is, but only in the physical sense. Kait—fuck Kait is missing too, and it feels like she took my fucking soul with her. I lack the courage to go tell everyone that I have ruined everything we’ve worked for and—” My words stop abruptly as she places a hand on my back. I hadn’t even noticed her moving. My vision tunnels as I think about all the answers I need.

“Breathe. Drink.” She presses a tea cup into my hands, and I grind my teeth as I tip my head back and take the cup. More frustration festering in my mind. “Now, the questions you wish to discuss. What part of it are your answers to seek?” My forehead creases her question nonsense in my mind.

“What is that supposed to mean? I need answers to save them! I need to help Raelle, find Kait, return Dax, and bring the kingdom together.” The poison in my veins is a threat on my tongue as I nearly growl at the woman in her own home.

“Answers you seek, but what questions do you ask?” She says again, the ominous tone and twinkle in her eye only serving to make my blood boil further. I should have known it would be like this. Talking to my mom could sometimes be the same. All riddles and dancing around truths. Never giving more than fate deemed right.

“All of them!” I yell. The dainty teacup becomes crushed in my glove as shattered glass and tea falls onto my leathers and to the floor in front of me. “All of them,” I say again, much quieter this time, a reluctant surrender of my emotions. I blow out a breath.

“I once had a man come to speak with me; he was seeking answers similar to what you are now. Take the same path as he; perish the same fate. Seek a new route, and perhaps fate will show the unknown what could be. What is heaviest on your heart, Alaric Amarose? What is the question you’ve asked yourself in the recesses of your mind, longer than the meaning of having the words there to ask?” Another riddle rolls off her tongue and settles silently in the air between us. We sit there in silence for a long moment. Me deep in thought, and she merely staring, waiting for my next words to come.

“Why did he leave me?” The words I’ve never spoken croak past my lips, and the heaviness I’ve carried all my life lifts with just the question. A slow smile spreads across her face before a flash of light sparks in her palm like a small explosion from the sun in her hand. When the light fades and only a single feather remains, my eyes trail up to meet hers once again.

“It’s time for a visit to the fountain.” She says, twirling the black feather between her deft fingers.