by Emma Dean
“Did you leave your position as assassin because of your emotions?” Corbin asked.
Would the same thing happen to him?
Wade shook his head. “No. I left because I want the next generation of ravens to know we can be more than machines built for war. I want them to know they can still be what they…that they have a choice.”
Corbin considered his brother’s words, and the jobs he’d done in the past. Would he make a different decision with his emotions pushing and pulling at him in the future?
“Not because you couldn’t go through with the job?” Corbin asked.
Wade grinned that vicious smile that had always made the pretty birds flock to him. “Going through with a job isn’t any different with them on or off. I simply question more. Our morals may be different than most, but we still have them. Emotions or not.”
That was true.
Even with his emotions off Corbin couldn’t kill Mika, knowing what she was. His kind had sworn to the goddess long ago to protect her daughters. But with them on? Only the reason became different, not the action.
Corbin wouldn’t kill her because he loved her.
That thought surprised him.
Did he love her?
Did he love the witch who made him want to tear his hair out? Who confided in him? The one who looked at him like he was something beautiful instead of terrifying?
Corbin didn’t know what else he would call this soul-consuming feeling but love.
“I’ll be around until classes start at the Obsidian Academy,” Wade told him, rolling his shoulders back as he stared up at the hidden eyrie in the sky, no doubt thinking of that pretty, wicked little thing with jet black hair. “If you need anything just ask.”
Then his brother launched into the sky, one moment human and the next a large raven beating his powerful wings to reach the clouds and the stars beyond.
It was the first time in his life Corbin had asked his brother for help and he didn’t feel like it would come back to bite him in the ass.
2
The library was silent as a tomb.
The celebrations below in the ballroom would go on for most of the night. No matter how emotionless and contained ravens were the majority of the time, they still loved a good party. Contrary to popular belief you didn’t need to be constantly feeling to have fun.
Corbin walked through the stacks that went on as far as the eye could see. The physics inside the eyrie didn’t obey normal laws. The shelves were all floor to ceiling and chock full of every book under the sun, in this reality and others, including realities that didn’t even have a sun.
The windows on the east side made up that entire wall, the lattice shutters offering shade when the sun was at its brightest. Tables and chairs were placed around the space in luxurious fabrics, comfortable and cozy.
The strange magic ravens had, and their connections, had gifted them with libraries and knowledge that rivaled the foxes – although the comparison and competition was all in good fun. The exchange of knowledge and occasional visits to libraries were massive events, even larger than the graduation ceremonies.
Getting a fox into this eyrie was a pain in the ass, but it could be done thanks to their witches.
Hopefully the caretaker and cataloger was awake and in the library instead of asleep or down in the ballroom.
The sound of Corbin’s phone ringing was loud in the heavy silence. He cursed and pulled it out of his pocket. Corbin hated himself for being too distracted after his conversation with Mika to remember to turn the damn thing off before entering the eyrie.
“I could report you for that,” the caretaker grumbled, appearing out of nowhere.
Every raven was trained as an assassin before receiving their assignments, even the caretaker.
“I apologize, Armad. I have to take this. I’ll be quick.”
Corbin winced at the look on the caretaker’s face as he turned, facing a stack of books so he didn’t have to see the old man glaring at him. “What is it?”
“You wanted information on witches practicing blood magic, right?” a female voice snapped. “Sound a little more pleasant when you answer.”
Corbin pinched the bridge of his nose. “Jessica, I don’t have time for this.”
She sniffed but miraculously didn’t argue. “You also told me there was a kid involved?”
“Yeah, get to the point.” Years of working odd jobs here and there with the infamous Jessica James, calling on each other for support, and Corbin knew he was walking a fine line with the demon witch, but his emotions were getting the best of him.
Worry wasn’t something he was used to experiencing.
“Geez, what crawled up your ass and died? Anyway, it might have something to do with the case I’ve been working on for Lucifer. You said the boy is from Vegas, right? I went and did some recon there, tracking him and his mother and their activities for the last year. Thanks to a hacker friend of mine I got the footage I needed to confirm. It looks like it might be the Hellfire Society. They’re the only ones I know of at the moment trying to open seals to hell.”
Corbin processed those words, trying to file them into some kind of order so he could make sense of them.
He’d never heard of something called the Hellfire Society. Why would anyone want to open seals to hell?
“Corbin?”
“Yeah, I’m still here.”
A deep, exasperated sigh from the cataloger couldn’t even break through the panic that was slowly building inside him.
“What did you need this info for again? Your mark? Why are you protecting someone you have to kill?”
It was only a cover story, but the Council had said the words and they were written in the contract in case someone came snooping. Only if the witch was a part of the sacrifices and the group responsible, was he to kill her.
“Mika Marshall,” Corbin finally managed to say. “I’m guarding her. Only if she becomes a threat do I take her out.”
The silence on the other end made his heart jump.
“I’m supposed to be meeting with her tonight,” Jessica finally admitted. “She’s been unofficially adopted by my guardian.”
Fucking fantastic.
On one hand Corbin was proud of Mika for using his absence so cleverly. On the other hand, her being his contact’s unofficial cousin – and a ward of the Morrigan’s demon…
This complicated things. Even more so than before.
“Did she say what she wanted?” Corbin asked, trying to figure out what she could possibly need from Jessica.
“Only that she needed to speak to Lucifer.”
Even better.
Corbin sighed and ran his hand through his hair. He didn’t want to know more, not now, not yet. “This Hellfire Society wants her. She’s a blood witch.”
“Yes, I know.”
Well, that made things a little easier, if not necessarily better.
“And does Lucifer?”
“Yes.”
Silence between them.
“What are you going to do?” Corbin asked, wondering if he could somehow make this work to his benefit.
Jessica sighed. “I’m going to help her, Corbin. Even if that means going up against you.”
Their relationship was at best acquaintances. They worked well together, and Corbin would even say they were fond of each other, but this witch was her cousin. Years of having each other’s backs couldn’t get her to switch sides.
Not that he wanted her to.
“Good.” Corbin turned to face the ever-patient cataloger who now looked intrigued. “Tell me where these bastards are so I can take them out.”
Jessica hesitated. “You’re going to protect her, because of your contract?”
“I am going to protect her,” Corbin agreed. “Against everything, even if that includes the Council.”
“Do you love her?”
Admitting it out loud somehow made it more real – something he had to confront instead of ignore
until he was forced to look at it. This wasn’t just about doing his job anymore. It was so much more than that now.
Corbin knew he had strong feelings for Mika, but he hadn’t decided if he was going to do anything about those feelings. He hadn’t figured out how to accept them, let alone acknowledge them out loud.
If he admitted it to the demon witch, there was no going back.
Was he going to open his heart and let Mika have it? Was he going to let her into his life in a way that no one else had ever been, not even his family and flock?
Wade had told him love wasn’t a weakness. Corbin still wasn’t sure about that, but he knew he couldn’t pretend anymore. Somehow Mika had made him fall for her – hard.
“Yes, I love her.”
“Don’t fuck it up, raven,” Jessica warned. “I don’t have the exact location yet, but I will. I’ll text it to you as soon as I can.”
Then the hunter hung up and Corbin felt an odd weight leave him.
For some reason acknowledging his feelings had eased some of the chaos inside. Corbin took a deep breath and eyed the cataloger who was now smirking at him.
“A blood witch you say?”
Corbin nodded.
“Then come with me.”
3
“This is our section on the Morrigan and her daughters,” Armad explained, crossing into a subsection of the vast library. Warm lighting in lamps lit the space, keeping it cozy.
Corbin couldn’t say he ever remembered coming to this part of the library before.
Their goddess was part of their life – their world, in a way that didn’t require book learning. But every raven took the class that explained the origin of raven shifters and blood witches.
Two sides of a coin.
Why the Morrigan gifted certain witches with her power had never been made clear. There were theories that she’d wanted children of her own and this was the only way. And the ravens she’d created weren’t like other shifters…they were a group apart.
It was why many assumed they didn’t mate.
“It’s been a long time since anyone has found a blood witch,” Armad explained as he walked through more stacks of books with Corbin trailing after him. “Most of them don’t realize what they are, and almost all of them hide who they are since the purge.”
The purge.
When the Morrigan disappeared and the majority of blood witches were slain on Morgana’s island.
That incident was the real reason the ravens had pulled away from the other paranormals except a chosen few. There were other reasons of course, but that was the main one. Corbin knew the coyotes had always been allies, but mainly because they shared a lot of the same land.
Scavengers were the few shifters who worked well together.
Especially when it came to keeping secrets from the rest of society.
It was why the raccoons and foxes were practically siblings. All four races were private, secretive scavengers with no real territory of their own, but working together they’d managed to carve some small pockets of the world out for themselves.
Their little get togethers under the Raven Moon were his favorite time of the year.
“What’s the protocol?” Corbin asked, watching as Armad scanned a shelf.
“There used to be too many blood witches to pledge an entire flock to one, but one raven pledged their life to one blood witch – paired for the rest of their lives. It wasn’t as barbaric as it sounds. As always, the Morrigan prefers free will for her creations.”
Armad handed him a book and then walked down another row. Corbin glanced at the title and tried to quell the doubts he felt rising.
“The raven gave his life to her willingly,” Armad explained, pausing to grab another book before continuing down the dark row. “The witch also had to accept the raven. There used to be another celebration after graduating from the Obsidian Academy that helped pair blood witches with ravens for a trial year. Then if they were compatible, they’d become blood bound.”
Corbin’s heart skipped a beat as the cataloger added two more books to the stack.
“In return the blood witches gave us magic and protection from the larger shifters. The relationship was symbiotic. It’s why we have so many treasures,” Armad said, waving his hand at the eyrie – a gift from witches long ago.
“We still have witches,” Corbin reminded Armad.
What the other witches considered ‘lesser,’ the non-high society ones. Ravens spent time recruiting them after years of watching them.
It wasn’t difficult and many witches ended up paired with ravens, producing more witches growing up in the flock. When they came of age they chose where they wanted to go.
“Yes, but before them we had blood witches. We had a foot in their world unlike any other shifter.” Armad slammed two more books down on Corbin’s stack. “We lost just as much as they did.”
“So, Mika?” Corbin asked, following Armad to his office.
“She will have the entire flock pledged to her.” The cataloger said it as a simple statement, but it wasn’t simple.
“You realize what that means?” Corbin asked, plopping down on the chair in front of Armad’s desk.
The office was large, but it felt small with towering books in various states, tables covered in parchment, and flameless lights to protect the precious knowledge gathered throughout millennia. There were scrolls that dated all the way back to when the Morrigan had walked the earth along with the other gods.
“Of course, I realize what this means,” Armad snapped, leaning against his desk, looking down his nose at Corbin. “The Enclave will no longer rule us, and it will fracture raven society. What if another is found and another flock is pledged? It isn’t simply one raven any longer who will leave his flock so as not to cause loyalty problems.”
His hands felt numb as he tried to figure out how all this was going to change the scope of the paranormal world.
Voids and blood witches…
Things were already changing. This was just going to nudge it even further toward whatever the universe had planned for them all.
“Can she really overrule the Enclave?” Corbin found it hard to believe. They were immovable and immortal – as permanent and powerful as the Council of Paranormals.
“She is Witch Queen; she can do whatever she wants.” Armad narrowed his eyes at Corbin and crossed his arms over his chest. “And she cares for you?”
Witch Queen.
Corbin’s head was spinning as he tried to process. He’d said it as a teasing joke but…
“Only the most powerful morrigan can be Witch Queen, right?” Mika was not going to be happy about this.
“She is currently the only blood witch,” Armad reminded him. “If others are found they can challenge her.”
Corbin sighed and glanced down at the stack of books Armad had given him. “Is it an automatic thing?”
The cataloger nodded gravely. “It’s why I think they disappeared completely. The Council didn’t like the power the Queen held – neither did the Head Witch.”
Fucking witches and their damn politics.
“So, what are these then?”
“How to take care of your blood witch.” Armad shrugged a shoulder. “But if she chooses you, you will become a leader of our flock, higher even than the Commander. It would be wise to bring her here as quickly as possible.”
The weight of the books in his lap seemed to grow heavier and Corbin was even less sure than before.
Having feelings for Mika wasn’t as simple as a girl and a boy ending up together.
But she would be pledged to a raven at some point. Did he really want someone else to take that place despite how much it would change his whole world to accept the position?
Corbin cracked open the first book. “What do you advise?”
As the cataloger Armad would have more wisdom and knowledge than anyone else in the flock. He wasn’t caught up in being the ‘best’ or the most ‘powerful.’ Armad h
ad never tried to be more than what he was, but Corbin still saw him practicing at the break of dawn every morning whenever he was back at the eyrie.
Armad wasn’t soft or weak.
“If you love her, do whatever you need to for her to choose you. Her coven should be one of blood witches and she has none. She will be lost and confused as she tries to learn everything that was taken from her people. And if she’s the only one? Corbin…imagine being the first and last of something.”
Despite their emotionless ways and the distance put between each other, Corbin didn’t know what he would do without his people.
“Do we have what she needs to learn what she’s missing?” Corbin studied the titles of the books and was surprised to see one labeled Blood Magic for a Blood Raven.
“As much as possible. She needs other blood witches, but we will have to do.” Armad sighed and tugged at his closely cropped grey beard. “As the first Witch Queen in a thousand years she’s going to need as much protection as she can get. We’ll need to alert the Guardian and the Diplomat so they can start reaching out to other flocks we can count on. I don’t envy you this. Everyone is going to want her dead.”
Armad shook his head and walked around to a large hutch behind his desk. “I have a few books for her as well.”
It was a lot to take in, but Corbin felt more grounded now that he knew the plan, now that he knew he wasn’t going to be alone in this. He had his flock to help him protect the only known blood witch.
There was just one problem.
“What if she doesn’t want to be queen?”
Armad scoffed. “She doesn’t have a choice. The laws of the Council were written in blood at its inception, before the Morrigan disappeared, back when Morgana ruled from her island.”
Corbin grimaced and accepted the second stack of books.
Mika really wasn’t going to like this.
4
The sound of his phone ringing woke him up and Corbin nearly rolled off his bed trying to get to it.