30. Chace #3
With a quick shift and twist, careful not to disturb Raven, I climbed off the bed and stalked toward the door. “Shut up. Did you bring—”
Kira stepped around the corner, coming into view. Her afflicted twin slid into the room behind her.
“She needs to get better.” Kira bit her lower lip. “Tomorrow’s the party, and Mom made her a pretty dress.”
The girls had shown me pictures of the dress, and I really wanted to see Raven in that gown. But not at the risk of her health.
“The party doesn’t matter.”
Both twins’ gazes snapped to me.
My head jerked back. Not creepy at all.
“But the party does matter,” Kira said, spearing a knowing glance at her sister. “It matters a lot.”
“Can you help her?” Winter slipped a foot into the room as Aoes, Earl, and the twins’ mother, Camilla, gathered in the hall around the open door.
Nose tipped high, and with a wave of her hands, Kira moved past me like a surgeon coming to assess her patient. Which, on some level, I guessed she was. Her fingers danced lightly across Raven’s cheek and brow.
Raven’s eyes fluttered open. “Hey.”
Myla shuffled to the side of the bed and laid a hand upon Raven’s arm, the blanket a layer between them. Kira nodded and guided Raven’s arms free from the covers. Pulled back her sleeve, revealing a long, scabbed-over cut.
“That’s where she drew the blood to heal me.” Earl shook his head. “I was such a glaikit arsepiece.”
I filed the fact about the source of the wound away and held my attention on what Kira was doing to Raven.
Aoes murmured, “You’re not a foolish asshole, Earl. Never have been. Never will be.”
I found that sentiment debatable. But my focus was on bigger things to bother voicing my opinion.
The girl gently unwound the bandages on Raven’s hand, exposing too many scarred stripes. A few of the cuts still lingered as scabs. And one horrifyingly tender-looking cut still seeped blood.
Both Winter and I sucked back sharp breaths.
“Can you do it, baby?” Camilla asked from the doorway.
Kira spun to the group, her gaze lingering on me before darting to Winter. “I don’t think I have enough power to heal her quickly.”
“That’s okay,” Raven said softly.
But she wasn’t watching Kira. She had her hand pressed to the afflicted twin’s neck and was drawing her close. Whispering something in her ear. I detected a slight glow against the girl’s skin.
“It’s not okay.” I pulled the girl from Raven’s reach. “Especially not now.”
Raven pushed up on her elbows. “You all worry way too much. All I need is a little rest, and I’ll be back to my normal self.”
“No,” Kira said softly, drawing my gaze.
Winter kneeled at the girl’s side. “What if I could offer you a power-up?”
Kira’s attention snapped to Raven before swinging to her afflicted sister, then back to Winter. “I don’t think I could do it, but Myla says…”
I frowned. I hadn’t heard Myla say a damn thing.
“What if I pass more magic to you?” Winter asked, tipping his head toward me…or possibly Raven.
“Winter, no,” Camilla squeaked at the same time her daughter agreed with a quick “yes” and a nod.
Winter rose to his feet and strode toward Raven.
“Oh, brother.” Aoes snagged Earl and pulled him down the hall out of sight.
“What?” I scrutinized Winter. Scrutinized everyone in the room. “What’s going on here?”
Winter took a seat at Raven’s side and whispered, “This is to help you. Understand?”
Panic, fear, resolution. I could have sworn all those emotions and more flashed across Raven’s eyes.
I wanted to rip Winter away and toss him across the room, but before I flinched a single muscle, Winter’s lips touched Raven’s, and he was…
sucking! Sucking her very essence. Tiny particles of who and what she was visibly slipped through space from her to Winter.
Her body jolted, her back arched, and my world bled red.
I lurched, grabbed Winter, and yanked him away. The prince’s eyes shone brightly with Raven’s power. I released a roar and slammed the pad of my heel into Winter’s chest, sending him crashing into the far wall.
“Don’t ever touch her again,” I seethed.
Kira skidded to Winter’s side, and…what the fuck was I seeing? Ignoring the screams of her mother in the hall, Kira pressed her mouth to Winter’s, and Raven’s essence changed hands. Kira rose to her feet, the new vessel of my Black Bird’s power.
Kira stepped toward Raven. “Ready to do this.”
I didn’t move, my body feeling oddly trapped in tar. My desire to stop Kira from using Raven’s essence warred with my want for the girl to heal my fellow reaper. My Black Bird.
“Here goes nothing,” Kira quipped, then placed her hand on Raven’s sedate form.
Light radiated from the girl’s hands, and Raven’s coloring began to brighten.
“Hey.”
I turned to the sound of Winter’s voice. The prince stood beside me, his eyebrows flattened, his gaze narrowed and stormy.
When did he move so close, and why didn’t I hear him?
“I owe you something,” he said.
A moment flashed before his fist, powered with ice and blizzard magic, slammed into my face.
The world exploded into a kaleidoscope of color married with Camilla’s screams. Then everything fell silent and black.