The Raven’s Court (The Ravens #2)

Chapter 1

Chapter One

DAYbrEAK

Warmth. It wraps around me, better than the softest of blankets. The wonder of a human body, holding me close.

Michael stirs. ‘What time is it?’ His chin-length blond hair is tousled, his blue-grey eyes sleepy.

‘I don’t know.’ My voice is a rasp. We’re lying on a velvet sofa, tangled together. ‘It’s morning, though.’ Pale light slants through timber shutters, striping the wooden floor, the colourful rug, the pale blue walls.

‘Hmmm. We should probably get up.’ He doesn’t move, though, running lazy hands down my spine, waking flickers of pleasure.

‘We probably should.’ I absolutely do not want to get up.

‘Morning, lovebirds.’ The whispered greeting is accompanied by a giggle.

Laurel, my roommate, tiptoes across the living room towards the adjoining kitchen.

Faint trails of glitter are visible on her neck above her grey sweatshirt.

I’m sure there’s more elsewhere on her body, hidden beneath the matching sweatpants.

I sit up, running a hand through my hair, straightening my crumpled skirt. ‘Shall I make coffee?’

‘Already on it,’ Laurel replies, accompanied by the hiss and whirr of the coffee machine, the buzz of beans grinding.

‘Did we even watch the end of that film?’ Michael swings his long legs around, sitting up.

‘We didn’t watch much of any of it.’

He grins, then leans in. ‘I suppose not.’

I close my eyes, my lips meeting his. He smells like butterscotch and smoke, with a faint hint of violets. I could breathe him in for ever.

It’s been two months since I moved to the Safe Zone.

I’ve been with Michael for one of those months, slowly getting to know him.

Slower, perhaps, than he would like. But there’s still a part of me that’s healing.

He knows, and he understands. About Kyle, how I loved him, how he betrayed me.

And how I had to kill him. I told him everything.

Well, almost everything.

When you’re getting to know a boy it’s difficult to find the right moment to tell him your family killed his father. I know there was no love lost between Michael and Mistral, that he barely knew him, and what he did know of him was cruelty and abandonment. But he was still his father.

So, I haven’t told him that Mistral was behind the North Wind rebellion, and my kidnapping. Or how he’d burned in a throne of metal on a field of snow, blood spreading like a flower beneath him. I know I should tell him. I don’t know why I can’t.

It’s not like he doesn’t know Mistral is dead.

It was big news, when it happened. The heroic lieutenant, giving his life to protect his ruling family.

That was the story we spun to the press, anyway.

No one needed to know that Mistral was a traitor, that there was such weakness at the heart of Raven.

Everyone who witnessed the actual execution was sworn to secrecy; there were still rumours, of course, about the extent of Mistral’s involvement in the rebellion, but we shut them down, the families closing rank to protect us.

And Michael doesn’t seem to want to talk about his family or his past. The fact it happens to be convenient for me is something I probably need to address.

It’s the only thorn in what’s been pretty much a sea of roses since we started dating. Even when I told him who I was, he didn’t back away like I expected him to.

‘I’m with you, Emelia Raven,’ he said, as we stood on the beach at the turning of the day. ‘Your secret is safe with me.’ Then he took my face in his hands and kissed me.

We haven’t really stopped kissing since.

I mean, we have. But when we’re together, it more often than not involves us being wrapped around each other, as though we can’t get enough of each other’s warmth. I think he’s been with human girls before; at least, he’s hinted at it. But I’ve never been this close to another human.

Not that we’re truly human. Vampire born, both of us, though we appear like everyone else.

Yet we hold a faint scent of violets, echo of our dangerous kin.

Heal faster, run faster, than regular humans.

I thought myself weak for so long, it was strange to find out that I do have power.

I suppose I have Kyle to thank for that.

Laurel reappears, holding a tray with three steaming mugs. She puts it on the coffee table and takes one of the mugs, cradling it to her. Her auburn hair is sleekly curled, her make-up flawless. But there are purple circles under her eyes and her cheeks are pale.

‘Long night?’

‘Hmm.’ She takes a sip of her drink. ‘Your parents had guests.’

‘There should be more iron tonic in the fridge. I got some last time I was home.’

‘Already had a shot.’

‘You want to watch a movie with us? We won’t mind if you snore.’ Michael grins, picking up the remote and flicking on the TV.

His smile slides away. We all stare at the screen. Horror blooms in my stomach, a cold and vicious flower.

The vampire newsreader is shadowed, illuminated only by faint silver light.

There’s nothing unusual about this; vampires can only handle low-strength light, like that of the moon, or the electric candle-lamps that light my parents’ home.

Darkness is their natural habitat. There’s enough light on-screen, however, to see the bodies bobbing, face down in dark waters.

Then shadowy dark figures, like fleeing ghosts, a few seconds of grainy footage captured by one of the coastal guard towers.

I clutch Michael’s arm. The newsreader’s voice, cool and seductive, fills the room.

‘The attack on Safe Zone Seven-Alpha is one of several recent atrocities on the South coast, all of which resulted in significant stock casualties, as well as the loss of five vampire guards. Seven-Alpha is, of course, close to the Southern edge of the Great Forest, home to lawless Reaper gangs.’ The newsreader pauses, their dropped fangs the only sign of their agitation.

‘The timing, for the House of Raven, is not ideal, with the recent rebellion and the coronation of the heir just months away. This newsreader would like to know when they’re going to step up and put an end to this Reaper scourge once and for all.

Lives are being lost, their attacks becoming bolder, and—’

Whatever else they’re going to say disappears in a click, as Michael turns off the television. Laurel puts down her mug. Her hands, pale against the dark crockery, are shaking.

‘I had … I think I had family there, once,’ she says. ‘Before.’

Before. Before the Red Rising, the great vampire conquest of the planet, a single night of carnage where every human country was subjugated beneath the might of the four families.

Before vampires turned towns into farms, caging humans in one place, forced to donate blood every month for the rest of their lives in return for light and power and safety, for the chance to live as they once did.

I know, now, that they do nothing of the sort.

Seven-Alpha, I also know from my research into conditions at Safe Zones, was once a port where people could catch ferries to the Channel Islands and across to France, back when they were allowed to do so.

The fact they no longer can is something I’m trying to change. Along with everything else.

‘It’s not Reapers.’ Michael frowns, his jaw tight.

‘Who the hell else is it, then?’ Reapers, vicious vampire gangs hunting the Great Forest and its environs, who hold fealty to no one, are rapidly becoming a problem.

It’s something I’ve been following, as much as possible, along with all the other learning I’m trying to cram in before I take the crown.

There’s a sound like a sob, then Laurel’s footsteps padding down the hallway, followed by the click of her bedroom door. I stand, but Michael catches my hand.

‘Leave her, E,’ he says, his voice gentle. ‘Give her a moment.’

I’m only really starting to grasp the enormity of what vampires did to humans.

The shattered lives, the trauma, the loss of almost everything they held dear.

It’s a weight of guilt that almost drags me under, some days.

It’s why I’ve vowed to dedicate my reign to undoing as much of the damage as I can.

‘Come here.’ Michael gets to his feet, pulling me into his arms. I try to relax but can’t get the image of those floating bodies out of my head. Stock casualties. They were people, like me and Laurel and Michael.

‘It’s not your fault,’ he murmurs, as though he can read my troubled thoughts.

‘I know,’ I mumble, even though I feel like it is. I love living here as Emily Reynolds, just another human. But this latest news is a reminder that I can’t do it for ever. I bury my face in his shoulder, feel the press of his lips on my hair.

‘You okay?’

‘I’m fine.’ I’m not fine.

‘Why are you so tense, then?’

Why do you think it wasn’t Reapers? I don’t say anything, though. Just hug him a little more tightly.

‘Is it because you’re going home later?’

I still don’t speak. He’s right. It’s not just Reapers playing on my mind.

But I can’t tell him why this particular trip home is making me so nervous.

Not yet. It’s also, if I’m honest with myself, why I haven’t told him about his father.

It feels as though he’s slipping through my fingers.

As though everything is. In a few months I’ll be eighteen, and crowned Raven.

My life will change completely. And that’s why I can’t tell him all my secrets, not yet.

Because I don’t know if he can be part of who I’m going to be.