Chapter 21
Dirty Tricks
Griffin
Present Day - Grypheem
Griffin paced his room as Julian bounced on the couch. Both men were locked in their anxiety, silent as they waited.
They were being watched, and neither could easily leave and go search for Raven.
“Oleks was with her,” Griffin said for the thousandth time. “He would take her somewhere safe.”
“Then why aren’t they back here? Surely—” Julian’s response was cut off by three raps on the door.
Griffin was swinging it open within ten seconds. He sensed Julian’s presence at his back.
And they both offered sighs of relief at the sight of Raven in the doorway, the tension spilling out of the space.
“Enzo?” Griffin asked. His brows furrowed as Enzo moved into the room and he ripped Raven from his arms.
For a single instant, he thought Enzo might not release her. “She was outside with Oleks. He couldn’t get her up here alone. She was drugged, but seems to be sleeping it off now.”
Griffin’s vision flashed red.
The Prince was using dirty tricks.
“Ah” was all Griffin managed to say. Oleks wouldn’t be able to carry Raven upstairs, he had been permanently weakened by his poison consumption in an uncontrolled environment.
Griffin felt the chill coming from Raven’s skin through her dress and concern thickened his tongue, making it difficult to swallow.
Griffin marched Raven to the bed, pulling the sheets back to put her in it, but realized she was soaking wet.
“Julian. I need you to change her.”
Julian inclined his head, taking Raven from his arms and heading to the closet.
“There’s a warm sleep gown for her on the dresser,” Griffin advised.
“Why him?” Enzo barked, reminding Griffin that he was still there.
Griffin turned to face him. “Because he’s seen her naked,” he muttered in annoyance, hating the truth of it, but recognizing that he didn’t want to cause her to hate him any more than she already did.
“So have I.”
Perhaps it was the words, or maybe the attitude, or the fact that Griffin had been holding himself back all day. But Griffin was launching himself on top of Enzo before he could enact any of his practiced self-control.
He had Enzo pinned under him, his elbow digging into his neck, his other covering the man’s mouth. He used his weight to press him into the ground.
“Griffin, she needs help being warmed up, and she won’t be happy if you hurt him.” Julian’s voice was edged in warning and exhaustion.
“Leave,” Griffin growled, releasing Enzo and getting off of him. He made no attempt to help him up.
Enzo’s long, bright copper hair was stuck up in all directions. When he got to his feet, he brushed it back. “If she dies. It will be your fault.” He offered Raven one last simpering look before storming from the room.
Griffin deadbolted the door before going to the bed. He removed his shirt and pants, choosing just his boxers, and slid onto the other side of the sleeping Raven. Julian pushed forward until Raven was wedged between them.
Her skin was noticeably cool even through the sleep gown.
Griffin wrapped an arm around her, his hand stroking her side, and attempted to warm her.
Julian watched with his dark impenetrable eyes. “Have you heard anything of Jayce and Sparrow?”
Griffin breathed out heavily through his nose. “No, she is in contact with Drago. I know that Jayce and Sparrow are safe, but I am not sure what exactly that entails.”
Julian wrapped himself around Raven, and Griffin stiffened at the memory of Julian strangling her in his sleep, still raw and fresh, but he didn’t move. He chose instead to remain diligent.
Griffin watched as Raven slept, his mind flashing back to the first time he had ever heard of her. Except back then, he hadn’t known her name.
Just that he would need to keep her safe.
Six Years Ago – Violencia
Nine years in a country that wasn’t his own. Forced to pretend, to be someone he wasn’t.
Griffin paced a hidden space inside of a Facility. A labyrinth within the walls. A room with a single pallet and a desk with papers strewn across it. Griffin leaned against the very back of the room, his eyes on the two possible entrances.
“I can hear them,” Oleks whispered on his right. “Are you sure we can trust them?”
Griffin offered the slightest shake of his head, but it was clear while the Griffin gang had continued to rescue countless victims, he wasn’t enacting change.
However, the Factions were. They were growing exponentially, and Griffin needed a connection to them.
Which was why he was here now. To meet the leader of the Brutality Faction. Viktor had set up this meeting and when Griffin and Oleks had come to the Facility, a teenager had been there to greet them. Next he knew, they were whisked through the walls of the Facility and left in this room to wait.
The door to their left pushed open. Griffin hardened his shoulders, his hand going to the blade in his pocket. He wasn’t sure this was the right move. But he had been living off his instincts long enough at this point to trust them.
After all, the Griffin gang and the Factions had a mutual enemy.
The newcomer stepped into the room and Griffin fell back against the wall. “You?”
Ana smiled at him, baring her teeth. She had traded the slip she wore before for long black sleeves and pants. “Yes.” Her eyes flashed to Oleks in annoyance. “You brought him? I was hoping you would whisk him away as you did the others, though I suppose it’s not usually men you save.”
Griffin opened his mouth to speak, shock flashing through him, but then he shut it.
“Now tell me, what is your favorite bird? I guess I already know the answer though.” She raised an eyebrow. “Didn’t even bother to go by a different name here, did you?”
Griffin stiffened, his eyes flashing anxiously to Oleks. “Oleks, leave us, please.”
A wrinkle formed on Oleks’s brow, his attention whipping back and forth, but he didn’t argue, slinking out of the room.
Ana stepped further inside once Oleks was gone, her attention on the desk, on the papers there. She picked one up. “This is my sister’s hiding space, so we can’t stay too long. But I wanted to take you somewhere no one would find us.”
“Your sister?”
Ana cut her attention to Griffin. There was an unearthly amount of suffering that she leveled into a single gaze.
“I am known as Nightingale.” She flipped the paper over in her hand, a ghostly smile gracing her features.
“You’re not from Luscinia,” he countered.
Ana’s eyes lit in amusement. “No, but I have been abused and used by their inhabitants for years. And Harold has a big mouth—he likes to talk and I like to listen. So what if I established myself as a spearhead for the people of Violencia, what if I named myself Nightingale? What if I made the people of Luscinia think I was one of their own? Would it earn me respect? Be my demise?”
“What do you want?” Griffin asked, his curiosity was outweighing anything else.
“Luckily for you, most of Violencia doesn’t know much of anything about Grypheem.” Ana threw her head back, a scratchy noise leaving her, reminiscent of metal on metal. “Not even the name of their prince. Isn’t that right, Prince Griffin?”
Griffin felt the cool cement of the wall as he pressed back into it, the urge to get as far away from this woman as possible rode him hard, but he couldn’t determine why.
“Even so, you’re not like your brother.” She whipped her attention to him with an edged glint. “Not like him at all, I would say.”
“My brother?” Griffin was shocked, but attempted to keep it from his voice.
His brother hadn’t spoken to him since their father died.
He had tried to get in contact. Over and over again, until eventually he had given up.
Instead, focusing his energy on the task at hand. “He hasn’t been here in years.”
Griffin did not like the pity that she showed him.
“Hasn’t he? Or perhaps he left you here to die and has no interest in reconnecting with the man who is making no attempt to hide his transgressions.
” Ana set the paper down. “My sister makes no attempts to hide her feelings. She writes them down and leaves them for the world to see. For me to see. Another slap to the face.”
“What do you want?” Griffin pressed. “I didn’t come here to play games. I didn’t come here to be lied to.”
Ana whipped around, marching until she was in his face. She spit in it as she spoke. “I want to kill every man who seeks to abuse the weak! Who came here to destroy our country! Who brought their infection!” She panted, stepping back from him.
He watched her, and it was clear—the trauma that filled this woman, the endless cruelties he was sure she endured.
“I will never have children,” Ana continued. “And that is because of your country. You come here, you spread your disease, and you leave us infertile.”
“What?” The shock was plain and crisp as his eyes widened.
“Of course you don’t know. You are too fucking—” She appeared to take a few beats to calm herself.
But Griffin wanted to shake her to demand answers, except he recognized that wouldn’t get him anywhere.
“I am going to tell you a story.” Ana took a seat on the pallet, but Griffin made no move to join her, choosing to maintain distance.
It was clear this should not be the leader of a Faction. It was clear she was intent on revenge.
Griffin didn’t blame her, but he wasn’t sure how well that would go.
He wanted to gather an army and storm Luscinia, free his mother from the king, and get revenge for his father’s death.
But how? He had been steadily growing the Griffin gang, but it wasn’t enough.
And would they even fight for him if they knew he was one of the enemies?
“Two girls were born to the same parents. They were nearly identical. But one was older. She was the chosen one. The sacrifice. Given to monsters as a ticket of safety. Even the boy she loved chose her little sister. She was swallowed whole, spit out, and chewed up. Over and over for years. But then something happened, her body began to break down, to not work quite right. She asked questions. First it was the wrong questions to the wrong people. But then she realized those same monsters might have the right answers.” Ana traced lines on her pants, not looking up at Griffin.
Little figure eights over and over again.
“And she realized that not only had they stolen her innocence, they had destroyed her future too.”
This conversation felt oddly familiar. “Do you know Illiyana?”
Ana laughed softly. “I know everyone, Griffin. I have been everywhere. Endured a lifetime of suffering. And in it, I have found my stride. Soon a girl will become pregnant. She will gain the interest of the Creators; it will lure them here, because I will make it so. And then, when the time is right, you will need to rescue her.”
“Why?”
“Because a Cherished woman is the only hope we have for changing anything. It is the only way your countries, the Sacred Trinity,” she spat the words, “may step in.”
“But they won’t care or know about it. And it is clear none of the occupants here are concerned.”
Ana got to her feet, turning to leave.
He stepped forward grabbing her wrists. “Ana—”
She pulled her hand free, her eyes alight in rage.
“My name is Anadil!” Her lips flattened into a line before speaking again.
“Or you can call me Nightingale. Save the pregnant girl. I will figure out the rest, and when the time is right, I will come for you. Trust me, this will be the change that is needed to usurp the leaders.”
“Wait! How will I know who she is?”
Anadil cut her eyes back to him. “She’ll look just like me.”
And then she was gone.