Chapter 27
DRAVEN
The rain is coming down hard tonight. It’s as if Melancholia is crying for us all.
I take cover under the overhang on the veranda and light up a poison-dipped cigarette.
With each drag I take in, I feel the tension start to slowly leave my body.
But the raven knows it’s fleeting. I’d have to inebriate myself a hell of a lot more to chase away the demons on my back.
As I gaze out into the darkness, so dark that there aren’t any visible stars, the hairs on the back of my neck prickle.
He’s here. The monster I spawned from is here.
He’s never far, but tonight he’s particularly close.
Perhaps he senses the dark energy here in this house. It’s emanating from the damn rooftops.
“Show yourself or be gone. I’m in no mood for your incessant stalking tonight.
” I’ve been avoiding him for months, pretending he’s not there.
I figured if I lied to myself and denied that part of me, then it would just cease to exist. But his presence has only gotten stronger.
What started as just an apparition, barely visible in my peripheral vision, has turned into solid dark matter with glowing eyes and visible limbs that cast shadows under the moonlight.
The one who follows me hisses. He darts behind me first before crouching on the wet grass below the veranda. “Mine,” he rasps.
I snicker. “No, I am not yours. I belong to the people inside this house. You have about as much hold on me as the man my mother married.”
The creature stands, and I instinctively step back when he towers over me.
He has black horns similar to Nox. His massive frame barely fits inside his black cloak.
Through its opening, I can see that his body is sculpted to perfection.
He’s nothing but solid muscle and tendons, as strong as he is agile.
“No,” he continues. “She was mine.”
My stomach drops. “My mother… did you love her?”
The dark entity, who I look nothing like, nods his head. “Of course, I did. She was mine. I was hers. I shouldn’t be allowed to exist without her.”
It’s become very clear to me, in this moment, that my sadness, my melancholy, is from him. We may not resemble each other physically, but his spirit is like a dark mirror to mine.
I offer him a cigarette. “Where is she?”
“In a place I cannot go.” He takes the cigarette and allows me to light it for him. “Mmm. It’s been a long time since I’ve had one of these.”
“I’ll never be able to go there either.” I think about the After more than a man should.
“Because of me?” he asks.
I shake my head. “Because of Mia.” I nod toward the mansion. “She is cursed to wander this realm even after her death. And I won’t leave her. So I will die by poison and wander with her.”
He nods, understanding. It is odd, but I can sense this connection to him. This invisible thread that pulls me toward him. I am made up of his dark matter, and it’s responding like a magnet in his presence.
“You are a lucky man who can choose such things. What I would give to hold her one more time…” His gaze fills with mixed emotions, his eyes watery.
“What did she call you?” I ask. It is something that I’ve often pondered. Names give meaning. It makes things more tangible. I need him to be real and not just an apparition.
At this he smiles. It’s faint, the corners of his mouth turning up ever so slightly, but I can see that it warms him. “She called me Fate. Because she knew better than to tempt me.” He closes his eyes, his grin stretching in remembrance. “Because we were always meant to be.”
A well of sadness springs up inside me. My mother was an unhappy woman, cold and distant to most. But she loved me fiercely. And it seems she did him as well. What a shame that they cannot be together. “I’m sorry for your loss,” I murmur.
“As I am for yours, my son.”
“Can you stay here with me?” I never understood how much I’ve longed for this until now. When it’s right in front of me and on the brink of never existing again.
He shakes his head. “I’ve dreamed of it. But I cannot. It’s enough that you’ve asked. That I will cherish.”
I choke back a sob, suddenly feeling like a child again. “Why can’t you?”
“Because it is unnatural for me to be here, son. I should never have been.”
“And me? Aren’t I unnatural too, then?” Every emotion I’ve ever suppressed is welling up like a volcano inside me, daring to erupt at any moment. I fear the slightest word or brush of wind could send me over the edge.
“You are perfect. Half human, half nightmare. You have a foot in both worlds. But you were born here. You belong to this world. Not mine. Just as I don’t belong here. Now, you and your friends need to close that veil and send us all back. Not all nightmare men are as kind as I am.”
“That’s what Nox said… What if I don’t want you to go?” The thought of losing my father before I’ve even had a chance to get to know him fills me with dread.
He pulls me in close, half hugging me to his side.
“You’re a strong young man, Draven. You don’t need me.
I will watch over you through the raven.
You can gaze into his eyes and know that you’re looking into mine.
But I must go. Things that are far darker than me are trying to get out of that wretched tree. You must stop them.”
I loosen my tie and unbutton the top of my shirt. Despite the cold and the rain, I’m burning up. “How do we close the veil?”
He turns to me and cups my face in his clawed hands.
“It must end how it began. Centuries ago, this town was founded by seven families. With the raven’s blade, they pledged an oath to the Wishing Tree.
They formed Nocturnus, an order that worshipped ravens in exchange for great power.
And for protection. But the devil is a trickster. For every oath comes a curse.”
“Like Bishop women being forbidden to enter the After. And the daughters of Ever Graves cursed with nightmare men…” The devil gives, and he takes. But the cost is always much higher than the reward.
My nightmare father smiles. “Yes. Exactly. Even your woman, Mia, is now cursed because of the bargain she made for Nox. The veil must be closed and no more oaths pledged. Ever Graves will always be blanketed in darkness but if your people continue to make deals with the devil, this town will be nothing but a black hole.”
I sigh. “Except that we have to make one more. One final deal before we cut the devil off for good.”
He nods in understanding. “For the Skelker… I’d advise you to let him go, but I know you won’t.
So I’ll just say that you must be quick about it.
Then gather the women. It must be the women, for they wield the most divine energy.
One from each founding family, Graves, Blackwell, Thorn, Bishop, Crane, Harker, and Wickford. ”
The Skelker. It’s hard for me to wrap my head around that one. On one hand, he’s my best friend’s little brother. I’m happy and relieved that he’s not dead as we once thought. For decades, we’ve watched Bones and his family suffer that loss.
But on the other hand, he’s staked a claim on my Mia.
A claim that none of us approved or agreed to.
He’s barreled in from the Wishing Tree with his bloodlust and thirst for vengeance, blaming Mia for the mistakes of her entire bloodline.
And yet he’s fallen for her the same as we have. And she has fallen for him.
I must accept that. Even as it threatens my resolve.
I can’t control her any more than she can control me.
That’s what drew us to each other. From the first night that I drove into her iron gates in a lust-fueled rage, I knew we were going to be dangerous together.
There was so much passion and provocation that we could barely handle it.
Even now, I want to strangle her sometimes…
“Your love for her is fierce,” my father observes.
I nod and light another cigarette. “More than I thought I could ever love another.”
He tilts his head to the side and sniffs the air. “Another nightmare is waiting in the shadows to speak with you. I sense it’s important. I will go now and let you sort it all out.” He turns to walk away.
“Wait, um… Father… Will you wait for me back at Blackwell Manor? Please.” I have so much more I want to say, and I don’t want him disappearing into the darkness again. We only have so much time left to spend together.
He cups my cheek in his palm. “Of course, my son. I’ll always wait for you. Either in this life or the next.”
And with that, he’s gone before my eyes will allow me to process him where he once stood.
I let out a quivering breath. Fuck. I can’t explain it, but there is a lightness in my feet and in the center of my belly.
Is it because of the connection, or is it relief?
I feel less weighted by the sludge that typically worms around in my soul.
“He’s right. I came to find you to tell you the same. And to bring you this.” Nox hands me a bucket glass filled to the rim with gin. “Neat, just how you like it.” His tail slithers between my legs and curls around my upper thigh.
The scent of juniper fills my nostrils as I take a big sip, comforted by the liquor and the beast at my side. “Thanks. I needed this.”
We stand in each other’s presence without speaking, listening to the rain pour down on the grass and the stone veranda. It’s one of my favorite things about Nox and me that we can relish these small things together.
“I didn’t mean to eavesdrop on you and your father, but I didn’t want to intrude, and I didn’t want to go back inside. Aries and Bones are insufferable right now. And Mia is resting.”
I clasp his warm hand in mine. “Don’t be silly. I have no secrets from you. You’re welcome anywhere I am.”
“What will you call him?” The nightmare men do not have names until they are given one.
“My mother called him Fate, but I will call him Father.” It felt strange saying it out loud, but I’ve been screaming it in my head since I first encountered his shadow.
“Besides, it feels more natural than when I used to say it to Noble Blackwell. That pathetic leech didn’t deserve the title.
” I want to wallow again, tempted by the heaviness in the air.
Sadness is like breathing for me. It feels as right as this rain.
Nox murmurs something under his breath. A sympathetic gurgle for my plight.
“You’ve had many men in your life who have let you down.
But more who have had your back. Rodrick, Bones, Aries, and now me…
But as your father said, it is the divine energy of women that is needed now. And one last sacrifice…”
“I’ll do it. I’ll make the deal. A soul for a soul.
I don’t care about the After anyway. If Mia is not in it, then I won’t be either.
I’ll give up my place there in exchange for Sonny to remain here with us.
” I slip my tie completely off and stuff it into my pocket. But the sensation of the noose remains.
Nox shakes his head. “You can’t, beautiful one. I’m sorry, but it has to be a Crane. Only Bones, Lettie, or Felix can trade their soul for his. Blood begets blood.”
My stomach curdles. Fuck. I down the rest of my drink. “Damn. Bones will not let them sacrifice themselves. And that’s going to break Aries’s heart.”
“It breaks mine thinking about it. That they won’t be together in the After or here…” Nox laments.
I step out from under the veranda and turn my head up to the sky. I close my eyes as the rain pounds against my face and drenches me. There has to be a way to keep us all together forever.
“I will not accept this!” I yell. The thunder roars above us, shaking the ground beneath our feet. I open my eyes just as an electric bolt lights up the sky. It’s enough to reveal what lurks in the dark. Beyond the trees, shadowy figures gather. Fuck.
Nox pulls me back. “Come. Let’s go back inside before those things get any closer.”
I’m tempted to run toward it. The same way one feels the pull of gravity on top of a high-rise building. It’s unexplainable and ridiculous, but it beckons, all the same.
“Draven, please. They aren’t like us,” Nox pleads as he tugs me back.
I shake my head and pull myself out of my stupor. “I will not accept this,” I repeat.
As soon as we’re back inside, I spin around and press my face to the window. There’s nothing but darkness as far as the eye can see. As if those things were never even there.
A burning pit of dread sits in my stomach. All our lives are about to change forever…