A Wicked Raven: A University of Morgana Novella (University of Morgana: Academy of Enchantments and Witchcraft Book 4)
Page 4
“Lucifer?” Mika asked.
Corbin didn’t listen. He studied Mika – the last blood witch. Well, the only one they knew about.
Audrey came in with something, but he still wasn’t listening.
He loved Mika, he knew that, but he wasn’t ready to say it out loud yet.
There was a lot he had to figure out still, and he didn’t think telling her what Armad had said was a good idea yet. Not after this. He needed to ease her into it all, because even though he had only known her for a few weeks, Corbin could confidently say Mika would freak out about an entire flock being pledged to her.
Mika scooted off the couch and Corbin saw her looking toward Malachi.
He couldn’t blame the guy for sulking, Corbin felt much the same way about abandoning Mika when she’d needed him most.
Malachi had tried to protect her, even knowing it meant his death. Corbin gave him props for that. He just needed to remind her to be careful. “You’re still healing,” he told her, checking her skin. It would be best if she stayed on the couch. “You should let the blood do its job. There was a lot of damage.”
“How does that work exactly?” Lucien asked, peering closer without touching Corbin. “Can it be anyone’s blood?”
Corbin watched as she headed out to Malachi anyway. As always she did whatever the hell she wanted which was one of the things he loved about her.
“Yeah, it can be anyone’s blood,” he admitted, watching her lean against the railing.
Oddly, the one emotion he didn’t have at the moment was jealousy.
“It only works for blood witches though,” Corbin told Ethan and Lucien. They might need to do it for Mika one day, and he wouldn’t always be around. “Her body is made to take what she needs from the blood. It will take the power from that blood and use it to make her stronger, faster, or just to heal. Whatever she needs.”
Ethan shared a look with Lucien.
No matter how much they annoyed him at times, Corbin knew these two were smart. He’d watched them over the past few weeks just as closely as he had Audrey.
It amused him the fox thought he hadn’t recognized what he was, but Corbin had kept his observations to himself. He didn’t want the fox feeling threatened.
“How do you know all this?” Ethan asked suspiciously.
Corbin sighed and ran his hand over his braid. He couldn’t tell them too much without telling Mika first, and he wasn’t ready to have that conversation with her. “We have a lot of old books,” he finally said. “It’s available for any raven to read.”
Best answer with the truth, especially since foxes were notoriously good at sniffing out lies.
Corbin looked up at Jessica, knowing that only Eisheth and Lucifer knew of their connection. The demon witch grimaced. She’d been worried about Mika, and now she was worried about Lucifer.
The demon was content to watch Mika out on the balcony, eyes narrowed as he drank a scotch he hadn’t had a few moments ago.
A loud pop and then Lucifer was standing in the center of the living room, taking up more space than he should based on the size of his human body. Corbin would never get used to how normal he looked.
“An apology,” Lucifer said, tossing a witch to the ground before Mika as she and Malachi walked in. “I was an ass last time, as Jess so eloquently told me with words that made my ears burn.”
Corbin couldn’t help his smirk. Prince of hell and Jess still managed to boss the big guy around. Why didn’t that surprise him?
“I’ve wiped anything incriminating from his memory,” Lucifer explained. “He doesn’t know what you are, or that he’s someone’s father. And then I’m going to have Jess turn him into the Council which will clear your name.”
It was nothing to slip through the room to stand by Mika. Corbin knew that the moment this male was turned in, his contract would be complete. They would no longer need him to watch the blood witch.
How was he going to make this work? How was he going to find the time to be by her side anyway? There was still so much he had to explain.
Lucifer blinked and smiled at Corbin. “Hello assassin. Looks like your services will no longer be needed.” The prince of hell looked between Mika and Corbin and his smile dropped. “But I assume your service will always be available to this one.”
Not for the reason he thought, but yes. Corbin knew he couldn’t ignore what he felt no matter how crazy it made him feel. Mika was his blood witch to guard, protect, and – if she let him – love.
“Always,” Corbin responded, not once blinking as he held the devil’s gaze. In one way or another, he would always be there for her.
Loving someone wasn’t weakness according to Wade. Corbin was still learning that, but they had time while he helped her learn what she needed to about being a morrigan.
He had to deal with the Council soon, and tell someone else in his flock there was a blood witch…but should he wait until he had her permission? Corbin eyed Mika. She’d made his life more complicated since day one, and at first he’d hated it.
But now he could honestly say he didn’t know what he would do without her around to pester him.
Corbin watched as Lucien and Ethan stuck close to her other side as well.
At least she wouldn’t be alone while he figured things out.
6
The look on Mika’s face when she had to leave him behind in the Council room was the hardest thing Corbin had ever had to watch.
Years of this work and yeah, that was the hardest thing he’d had to do.
To just stand there, hands clasped behind his back as he waited for the Council to determine if the contract was truly complete or not. There’d been some debate and then signatures were done, and Corbin was free.
Free to report back to his flock.
Staying behind to see Mika wasn’t a good idea, or safe. Corbin didn’t want the Council knowing that if it had come down to it, he would have betrayed them and their contract to protect her.
If they had ordered him to assassinate her…
Corbin had never failed an assignment before, but this time he was more than ready.
That it hadn’t come down to that was a relief. The Council was still in the dark.
For now.
But being back at the eyrie, knowing she was still on campus…Corbin didn’t like it.
It was her last day on Morgana Island and he needed to see her.
Armad was pushing him to bring her to the eyrie, but Corbin knew Mika wasn’t ready. There were still so many things she didn’t know and understand and bringing her to the flock would potentially start a civil war.
He needed her more prepared before he threw her to the Enclave. Corbin would have to take advantage of the summer and the fact that she was going back home, somewhere far more accessible to him.
It wasn’t hard to hack into the university’s files to see she hadn’t signed up for any summer classes.
Once Mika was home, he would keep training her, and hopefully she would let him help her unlock the secrets of what she was – even if it was just as her friend and companion.
He circled the forest that covered a large portion of Morgana Island as he looked for her. Silently he dove when he spotted her, shifting just before he hit the ground.
“Thought I would find you here,” Corbin said, feeling a strange warmth spread through him when she whirled around, tears in her eyes for him.
“You came back,” Mika murmured, as if she didn’t quite believe it.
There was a small pang in his chest when he realized Mika really hadn’t thought he’d come back. Corbin felt guilty, another emotion he wasn’t particularly fond of, for not having sent a message or a text.
He’d honestly thought it would be best to leave her alone so she could focus on finals and the tryouts, but maybe he’d been wrong.
Corbin tried to act like he hadn’t noticed and grinned at her playfully instead. “I’m not currently contracted with the Council. They can’t tel
l me who I can and cannot see. And then there’s the little matter of them forgetting about this.” He waved his school I.D. around his finger, making Mika smile.
“Did they forget it, or did you steal it back?”
Clever witch.
“Does it matter?” Corbin asked, taking a step forward into her space.
Mika’s breath caught as she stared up at him. “No, I suppose it doesn’t,” she admitted. “What are you doing here? You disappeared and then showed back up just in time to save the day. Then you disappeared again.”
There was so much to tell her, but Corbin was too busy drinking in the sight of her. He tilted his head and his smile widened. He couldn’t believe how much he’d missed her over the last few weeks.
“I went home to speak with my brother,” he confessed. “And then I was doing as you had commanded – finding those who wanted to hurt you so I could deal with them.”
There was still a bit of space between them, but Corbin left it there to see what she would do.
That she cared at all gave him a weird feeling in his stomach. Mika had never outright said anything to him. He assumed she liked him, but it might be nothing more than a friendship.
“You seem to care an awful lot about my whereabouts,” Corbin teased, hiding the fact that he desperately needed to know what she really felt.
Mika narrowed her eyes and Corbin loved when she got riled up like this. “And you stole an I.D. to come and go as you please. Who’s more desperate?”
Damn, the sass on this one.
Corbin reached out with his finger and brushed the line of her jaw, unable to help himself. He wanted to touch her, to feel her silky soft skin, and just wonder at the fact that contact with her didn’t make his skin crawl.
She was going back to San Francisco, not as far as Morgana, but still too far. Corbin needed to find a way to stay as close as he could without freaking her out. But…did she even want to see him again?
“We thought all the morrigans were gone,” he admitted. “I need to sort some things out with the other flocks. But I’m not ready to say goodbye either.”
It was now or never. Corbin hated how hard his heart was beating, and how nervous he was, but he was more worried about what would happen if he never laid all his cards on the table.
He leaned down and brushed his lips against hers.
The way she gasped made him wild and Corbin could barely think at the taste of her.
Before he went too far, Corbin pulled back and studied her face. Mika’s eyes were wide, and she looked shocked, but not angry.
He needed her to know one last thing. Even if she wasn’t interested in him like that.
“I know things are complicated right now,” he told her. “But I want you to know I’m here if you ever need me.” Then he handed her the rare token – a raven favor that many had killed for – wrapped in a slip of paper with his real email and phone number on it.
Then he shifted, releasing a feather to remember him by – a stupidly romantic gesture that only bird shifters would recognize. Corbin was almost glad she wouldn’t realize how stupidly soft he was for her – him, the best assassin in his flock.
The feel of her skin on the tips of his wings was something he would never forget.
A few powerful strokes and he was through the dense trees and into the sky, cawing his pleasure at the wind and the sun.
Mika didn’t know it yet, but he had no intention of disappearing from her life again.
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Other Books UK Links
Reverse Harem Paranormal Romance*
Chaos of Foxes Series
For Fox Sake
All Foxed Up
What the Fox
University of Morgana Academy Series
Something Wicked
Wicked Games
No Rest for the Wicked
A Wicked Raven
Wicked Blood
Standalones
Spotted Her First
Seeing Spots
Vaudeville Runaway
Bandits
A Bandit’s Prequel
To Catch a Bandit
Blue Mountain Wolf Pack (M/F Wolf Shifters)
Alpha Wolf
Broken Wolf
Wolf Moon
The Draga Court Series (Polyam/RH like Game of Thrones in space without the incest)
Princess of Draga
Crown of Draga
Jasmine of Draga
Heir of Draga
Queen of Draga
Fate of Draga
Prequel Novella – Royal Guard of Draga*
Christmas Epilogue Novella - Winter Solstice in Draga
*Can be read as a standalone before or after Princess of Draga, but in the timeline takes place before Princess.
*All paranormal stories are in the same universe - the Council of Paranormals.
Want updates on when the books are released and my
progress with them?
Sign up for my newsletter @ emmadeanromance.com
Other Books CA Links
Reverse Harem Paranormal Romance*
Chaos of Foxes Series
For Fox Sake
All Foxed Up
What the Fox
University of Morgana Academy Series
Something Wicked
Wicked Games
No Rest for the Wicked
A Wicked Raven
Wicked Blood
Standalones
Spotted Her First
Seeing Spots
Vaudeville Runaway
Bandits
A Bandit’s Prequel
To Catch a Bandit
Blue Mountain Wolf Pack (M/F Wolf Shifters)
Alpha Wolf
Broken Wolf
Wolf Moon
The Draga Court Series (Polyam/RH like Game of Thrones in space without the incest)
Princess of Draga
Crown of Draga
Jasmine of Draga
Heir of Draga
Queen of Draga
Fate of Draga
Prequel Novella – Royal Guard of Draga*
Christmas Epilogue Novella - Winter Solstice in Draga
*Can be read as a standalone before or after Princess of Draga, but in the timeline takes place before Princess.
*All paranormal stories are in the same universe - the Council of Paranormals.
Want updates on when the books are released and my
progress with them?
Sign up for my newsletter @ emmadeanromance.com
Other Books AU Links
Reverse Harem Paranormal Romance*
Chaos of Foxes Series
For Fox Sake
All Foxed Up
What the Fox
University of Morgana Academy Series
Something Wicked
Wicked Games
No Rest for the Wicked
A Wicked Raven
Wicked Blood
Standalones
Spotted Her First
Seeing Spots
Vaudeville Runaway
Bandits
A Bandit’s Prequel
To Catch a Bandit
Blue Mountain Wolf Pack (M/F Wolf Shifters)
Alpha Wolf
Broken Wolf
Wolf Moon
The Draga Court Series (Polyam/RH like Game of Thrones in space without the incest)