6. Raven
Ihad this irrational urge to be there holding her hand and telling her everything would be alright when she finally woke up.
I also had an urge to kick my own ass.
I couldn’t go falling for every single female witch I crossed paths with that had traumatized eyes and a really fucking pretty face.
Had I learned absolutely nothing in all this time?
That asshole Annabell who’d first tried to rip my coven apart hadn’t traumatized anything but boy she sure left all of us seriously fucked up when she finally left us for what she thought would be a better fit for her financially. She’d been a greedy cow and she’d worked really hard to destroy every single coven she ever so much as looked at.
I had hated that woman like I never thought I was capable of hating a female before. My entire coven ended up hating her just the same way.
I rubbed my tired eyes. Autumn. I hadn’t been sleeping good since she’d gotten here. I was constantly worried about her because she hadn’t fucking woken up yet.
And the poor girl had Rain in her bedroom hovering over her. Nobody wanted to wake up to that asshole glowering at them. He was going to give her a heart attack or scare the ever loving shit out of her.
He’d insisted though.
And I really had no claim to the girl so it wasn’t like I could put up a fight without anyone side eyeing the fuck out of me like there was something wrong with me.
And I felt like there absolutely was something wrong with me. The longer she was in my house the worse my obsession with her became.
I caught the others staring up at where her bedroom was and finding reasons to walk past her door. They were developing unhealthy obsessions as well. None of us were going to get out of this unscathed at this point.
As soon as Rain got here I should have immediately handed her over to him so he could take her ass home with him and away from here.
Liam had started researching all the tattoos on her body after I mentioned them being there for protection. He’d sketched what he could remember of them, which were scarily accurate, and he’d hit the books hard. I think he’d even reached out to a few other covens on the down low. He was going to keep digging until he figured out every last mark on her body and what it meant.
Though I found them beautiful and I got the gist of them I’d be lying if I said I too wasn’t burning with curiosity over them.
She’d been the only person we’d seen in those woods with markings like that on their body and we had been watching them for days. She’d also been the only one who’d been abused in any way, which filled me with rage. Not that I had wished that upon anyone else but why her?
That place was so wrong it wasn’t even funny.
Why ever would they do such a thing to somebody? It was completely horrifying to think of the kinds of things that had been done to her to leave those marks on her perfectly pale skin. It was proof there were monsters everywhere and they didn’t just belong to the Council.
Rain sat down across the kitchen table from me with a steaming mug of coffee in front of him. He picked it up and held it aloft in front of his face while he stared intently at me. “Are you sure she talked to you? Because I’m not so sure she can actually speak. I’m not saying she’s not intelligent, because you can see that’s not the case, but I think she’s at least partially mute. If she can talk it’s going to shock the shit out of me.”
Autumn.
She’d said her name to me loud and clear. There’d been no confusion and no hesitation or stumbling over the word. She could speak, and I’d bet my life on her being able to say more than just her name.
For whatever reason she just didn’t want to speak to Rain. I couldn’t say I blamed her because he could be an intimidating man on a good day.
“She can speak,” I assured him. His eyes zeroed in on my mouth as if he read a lie on my lips. He immediately saw too much and a lot of things I did not want him to see were likely written all across my face.
I was next level fucked here and I knew it.
“She’s a victim and will need a great deal of care to likely get her mind right,” he reminded me in a sharp tone.
I knew it was wrong to do it but I put it out there anyway because he’d always rubbed me the wrong way. “Like Romero and Isobel were victims? They both live completely normal lives now. You should know, you live with the both of them. And, from what I’ve heard, Finn wasn’t exactly a normal person before he joined your little crew either.”
If possible, his eyes grew even shrewder and I was definitely fucked. I didn’t regret it though, even if I wasn’t entirely certain why.
She could speak more than just her name, I knew it in my gut, and Rain was wrong to talk about her that way.
Jesus Christ. I was in over my head with this witch and the only fucking word she’d said to me so far had been her name. This shit was not good and I should really stop antagonizing Rain and ask him to take her with him and could they please both get the fuck out of my house now.
For whatever reason I couldn’t do that just yet. She needed me, I just knew it.
“How is she?” Liam asked as he sat down at the table. He wasn’t usually so serious but something about Rain’s presence really had him on his best behavior.
“Not talking,” Rain told him bluntly.
“She’ll get there,” Liam responded confidently. “Maybe she just needs a better person to talk to.”
Okay, so maybe not on his best behavior after all. Christ, I wanted to smack him upside his stupid fucking head. I just might if Rain didn’t kick his ass first.
Rain cocked an arrogant eyebrow and stared the man down as he sipped his coffee.
He sat his mug down on the table and grimaced. “I thought maybe it was just my daughter’s coven but it seems like all you young fuckers are the same. That poor girl. I’m just going to tell you now, I’m going to offer her a safe place to stay with my coven just in case she wants to get away from you idiots. And who could fucking blame her if she says yes?”
I frowned at him. “What are you talking about?” I knew, of course I knew, but I’d be damned if I was going to say it out loud.
“You know,” he said cryptically. “I’m guessing you all feel the pull. When it’s right it’s right.”
Yeah, we’d thought it was right before and it had almost destroyed all of us.