by Sarra Cannon
“You can stay as long as you need to,” Harper said. “Any fight against evil is our fight.”
“I know where you can go,” Mary Anne said. She put her hand in mine again and squeezed. “We'll take you to the crow village.”
Sweet
Excitement and fear buzzed across my skin.
The crow village. The place where my mother grew up. I was dying to see it, but I was also afraid of what seeing it would make me feel.
“Is it safe there? What about the crows?” Rend asked.
“No one would go back there,” Harper said. “We used it as a staging ground for our army when we were fighting the Order of Shadows. It's safe.”
“If no one can get in besides crows, how did you bring all those people up there?” Rend asked.
I could tell he wasn't completely sold on the idea. I stayed silent, not knowing whether I wanted to see it or get as far away from that place as I could.
“We had Essex make ribbons that were infused with a drop of Mary Anne's blood,” Harper said. “Anyone wearing the ribbon was able to pass through the barrier.”
“Do those people all still have their ribbons?”
I was touched Rend was grilling them so hard. The fact that he wanted so badly to keep me safe was a great comfort. I just wished I knew the real motivation behind his desire. Our late-night meeting to talk it through had been canceled when Venom's entrance exploded, but I hoped we would still be able to find time to talk about it.
Was it weird for me to care about things like that at a time like this? His kiss should be the last thing on my mind, but it wasn't. It was all I could think about.
“We collected the ribbons from everyone after the battle, and burned them,” Mary Anne said. “It's been abandoned since the fall of the blue gates. You'll be safe there, I promise.”
Rend nodded, then met my eyes. “How do you feel about this?”
I raised an eyebrow, surprised he was even asking for my opinion. “I'll go wherever you think is best.”
I just want to be with you.
Rend's eyes flashed with hunger, as if he'd heard that last part. I hadn't said it out loud, but maybe I'd said it with my eyes.
He cleared his throat. “Show us where to go.”
Mary Anne nodded and started toward the back door.
“Wait,” I said. Everyone turned to look, and I laughed nervously. “Do you guys have anything to eat first? I'm starving.”
Rend relaxed and nodded. “Of course, I didn't think about that.” He punched Mordecai in the shoulder. “You didn't think to stop and get her something to eat?”
Mordecai held his hands up in surrender. “All I could think about was getting her here as fast as possible, man.”
“Thanks for that,” Rend said, his voice growing more serious. “I owe you big time.”
Mordecai patted Rend's hand. “No worries. Seriously, anything you need, you just let me know.”
Harper and Zara rummaged through cabinets and the fridge and within fifteen minutes, an entire buffet of food was spread out on the island, along with a stack of paper plates.
“Help yourself,” Harper said.
“Thank you so much.”
I piled a plate with fried chicken, baked beans, biscuits, and cole slaw. Real southern food. Mary Anne even poured me a glass of sweet tea. I nearly choked on it, not expecting something so sweet.
“Wow, that's sweet,” I said with a laugh.
“That's how we do it down here in Georgia,” Mary Anne joked. “Besides, Zara made it. She always puts in too much sugar.”
“I do not,” Zara said, sticking her bottom lip out in a pout. “It's delicious.”
“It's great,” I said. “I've just never had sweet tea before.”
Mary Anne shook her head. “You have so much to learn.”
I laughed, knowing just how right she was.
I took a seat at the big table in the kitchen and soon everyone joined me. I almost forgot to eat, watching them interact with each other. It nearly brought tears to my eyes. My whole life, I'd never had what these people have. True friendship. Family. They loved each other in this house. I wanted to be a part of something like that someday.
Then Rend caught my eye from across the table. He hadn't even made a plate of food. He just sat there, watching me with that same hunger blazing in his dark eyes.
That's when I realized I was a part of something. I was part of the Venom family, and now I had ties to this new group in Peachville. I had a real cousin who could tell me stories about the family I'd never known. And it was all because of Rend. If he hadn't chosen to save my life that night in the alley, I never would have had any of this.
Yes, this new life was terrifying, and dangerous, and confusing, but it was also real and beautiful. It held the promise of finally belonging to something—or someone—for the first time.
Staring into Rend's eyes, my stomach fluttered and my heart beat faster. My body warmed at the thought of those lips on mine again.
I forced my gaze away and concentrated on finishing my food so we could get out of here and get to the village where we might finally be alone.
Footsteps pounded on the stairs, and I turned to face the door to the kitchen. Aerden rushed in.
“Rend, Franki, you guys have to go now,” he said. He was out of breath from running.
“What’s going on?” Rend asked, standing.
“Azure just checked in and sent a message,” Aerden said. “She said the group tracking her in Paris destroyed her glamour. They know you tricked them and now they’re tracking Mordecai’s vehicle. It won’t be long before they figure out where he was.”
“Is Azure okay?”
“Why was she in Paris?” I asked.
“She was a second decoy,” Rend said. “We sent Lyla to Vegas and Azure to Paris.”
“She’s fine,” Aerden said. “She managed to dodge them and get back through the Venom door before they could get to her.”
“Someone just reported four dead witches from a coven near Nashville,” Lea said, coming around the corner. “The vampires could be here in less than an hour.”
“And if they’ve just fed, they’ll be nearly impossible to track from there,” Rend said. I was still trying to wrap my head around the fact that Azure had agreed to glamour herself as a fake me and put her own life in danger. I knew she would do anything Rend asked of her, but I’m sure it killed her to have to wear my face for a while.
As hard as she’d been on me so far, though, I was still thankful she was safe. I didn't want her blood on my hands, too.
“We should just stay here and fight them,” Lea said. “We can take them. I've been wanting a good fight, anyway. Things have been way too calm lately for my taste.”
“He'll just send more,” Rend said. “I'd rather not get you guys involved.”
“We're already involved,” Lea said.
She had a definite attitude on her, but I liked the fact that she didn't seem scared of anything.
“You haven't fought them directly,” Rend said.
“Mordecai killed a few of them,” I said, remembering the way his silver dagger had sliced through the skin of the vampires back at the safe-house.
Everyone grew quiet and I realized after a few beats that they were all looking to Harper for an answer.
Harper finally looked up and met Rend's eyes. “I think you should go,” she said finally. “If it comes down to a fight, we're behind you. But if we can avoid bringing a fight to Brighton Manor, I'd at least like to try.”
Lea grumbled and turned away, shaking her head. But Rend nodded. He took my hand in his and my entire body lit up at his touch.
“I understand,” he said. “Mary Anne, can you show us where to go?”
Mary Anne nodded. “Do you know how to shift?” she asked me.
I bit my lip and shook my head.
She scrunched her nose in disappointment. “Okay, what's the best way to get them both up there without leaving a tr
ail?” she asked. “They'll track Rend if he casts, unless you've had something to drink lately.”
His hand tensed against mine and I swallowed nervously, realizing the bites on my neck were still visible to anyone paying enough attention.
“No,” he said.
My face warmed. I knew I should keep my mouth shut, but we were in danger and running out of time. “You can drink from me,” I said.
Mary Anne's eyes grew wide and she looked from me to Rend, questioning our relationship.
Rend tensed and dropped my hand. “Absolutely not,” he said. “Who here has the ability to fly us up there without being tracked?”
I backed away, hurt that he had been so quick to dismiss my offer. It wasn't like I was telling him to drain me and leave me for dead. One little drink and we would be up in the safety of the crow village in minutes. Instead, he had to be difficult. As usual.
Zara stepped forward. “I can float you up there,” she said. “Come on.”
She and Mary Anne led us out the back door. Mary Anne nodded to Zara and shifted, her body shrinking and transforming in the blink of an eye. A black crow with bright blue eyes cawed at us, then flew into the air.
Zara nodded to us. “Ready?”
Rend took my hand. “Let's go.” He turned back toward the door and nodded to Harper and the others. “Thank you.”
“Let us know if you need us,” Harper said, waving as Zara lifted her hands into the air.
Our feet rose off the ground. I clung tightly to Rend's hand, feeling unbalanced as my body flew forward and up, above the trees. He pulled me close to him and over the sound of the wind in my ears, I was sure I heard him laugh.
“A crow afraid to fly,” he said.
If we had been on solid ground, I would have smacked him. Instead, I held on tighter.
“I'm not afraid to fly,” I said. “I'm just new at it.”
We flew over the tops of the trees. I couldn't believe how many trees. Miles in every direction. Growing up in the city all my life, I'd never seen anything like it.
In the distance, the sun had started to set. I breathed in the beauty of it as Zara and Mary Anne led us toward the village where my mother was born.
Surrender
The place where we landed was nothing more than a platform of air and nothingness. I couldn't see a village here, or a landing zone for that matter, but Mary Anne shifted back to her human form and landed in mid-air.
Zara joined her, setting Rend and me down next to them.
I knew as a natural crow, I shouldn't be scared, but I was seriously about to pee my pants. We were literally standing on nothing, at least twenty feet above the tallest pine tree.
“I'll wait here,” Zara said.
“Thanks for your help,” I said, wondering how exactly we were going to get back down without her. I really didn't want to fall from way up here.
Mary Anne motioned for us to join her. I stepped carefully, unsure what we were even standing on, much less where it started and ended.
“Follow me,” she said. “Hold his hand as you come in.”
She stepped forward and her body disappeared completely. I gasped. I knew I had to trust this, but I was learning more and more that I could no longer trust my eyes. It was a weird feeling.
I squeezed Rend's hand and raised an eyebrow. He smiled and nodded. With a deep breath, I followed Mary Anne, trying my best to place my foot exactly where she had stepped.
My body buzzed with a peculiar energy, similar to the static shock I'd felt when I touched Harper's hand, but more intense and all throughout my body. I shook my head, shivering from the strangeness of it as it pulsed through me.
Then I looked up and truly opened my eyes.
I dropped Rend's hand and brought both my hands to my mouth. Holy crap. The forest of tree-tops was gone, replaced by a small village filled with colorful houses. A real sidewalk—just like in a normal neighborhood—wound around the whole village. Houses lined the walkway on one side and in the middle of the entire village was a large covered pavilion with a stone altar in the middle. I shivered, thinking of what that altar must have been used for. Had the Mother Crow performed dark rituals here? Blood sacrifice?
How was she tied to the Devil?
I looked around, trying to picture what it must have been like when the entire family of crow witches lived here. Some of them were evil like the Mother Crow, but many of them had to be more like Mary Anne and me. There might be darkness inside us, but we were always fighting for more light. We couldn't be the only ones.
Mary Anne gave me a brief hug. “I'm sorry to bring you up here and leave, but I have to go,” she said. “If we're going to face the vampires and prove to them that you were never here, we all need to be there. Especially me. If I'm gone, they might suspect where we've hidden you.”
“Thanks for everything,” I said. “You have no idea how much meeting you means to me.”
“I feel the same way,” she said. “I’ll be back, if I can, when things blow over. We still have so much to talk about.”
She gave us a small wave, then shifted back into the form of a crow and flew down into the cover of the trees.
“Do you think they’ll be okay?” I asked. “Or did we just put them all in danger?”
“They’re tough,” Rend said. “The Devil wouldn’t dare attack them right now. It would start a war he’d be too scared to lose.”
“They’re really that powerful?” I asked. It was a solid group of people, but they were mostly teenagers from the looks of it.
“More than you can imagine,” he said. “They conquered a group of evil witches when all the odds were stacked against them. That’s a war they’re still fighting, though, which is why Harper was reluctant to get involved beyond what she did.”
I walked with Rend through the streets of the small village. Being here felt like an out-of-body experience. The houses and the altar in the center. It was like walking through a ghost town, but the energy of my people called to me here.
This is where my mother grew up.
Knowing this about her and picturing her as a child here in this place changed her for me. Made her more real than she'd ever been, even when she was alive.
“Think of the secrets this village holds,” I said. “What was my mother’s childhood like, I wonder?”
“Sheltered, I imagine,” Rend said. He walked beside me as we passed in front of the empty houses. “Extremely strict.”
“But also filled with family,” I said. “Traditions. Can you imagine the closeness you would feel if you grew up in this small village your entire life and never once got to leave?”
Rend shook his head. “Don’t romanticize it,” he said. “These women and children were prisoners, but they were also expendable if it suited the Mother Crow’s purposes. She had no problem sacrificing one of her daughters to give herself a longer life. Her pursuit of power knew no limits.”
“Knew?” I asked. “I thought she was still alive.”
“Technically, she is,” Rend said. “Or we all assume she is, but after she tried to kill Harper, she was severely wounded and only just managed to escape. The coven scattered for a while, but no one knows if the Mother Crow created a new village for her family and gathered them all back by her side or if many of the ones who escaped are still in hiding, praying the Mother Crow never finds them.”
I shook my head, overcome with emotion. “Why do you think my mother took me away from here?”
“I have no idea,” he said. “There are many possible explanations, but the one that makes the most sense is that she wanted to keep you safe. She didn’t want you to grow up a part of this.”
“I just keep thinking there has to be more to it than that,” I said. I walked up the steps of a two-story house painted the color of rust and looked out on the village. “My mother was never affectionate with me. Growing up, I never felt like I was valued, you know? I never once felt as if she loved me so much she would do anything to protect m
e.”
“What was it like, then?”
“It was like she resented me,” I said. “As if she’d been faced with an impossible choice and took the lesser of two evils—a life raising a child she never wanted.”
Rend grabbed my hand and the connection started a fire in my heart. We were alone now, with so much left unsaid between us. I had no idea how to say all those things. I was terrified of being vulnerable around him again. What if he turned me away again? What if he admitted that Azure was right?
What if I really was nothing more than currency to him and he was here to protect his investment?
“That sounds like a difficult way to grow up,” he said.
I shrugged. Talking about my mother wasn't pleasant, but it was easier than telling him how I felt about him.
“It was all I ever knew, but I’d be lying if I said I didn’t long for her to tell me she loved me,” I said, my tongue stumbling over the word love. “Instead, she spent a lot of time drunk or on drugs, as if she hated her life so much she would do anything to escape it.”
I looked out at the peaceful, quiet village that used to be filled with laughter, solidarity, and commitment, even if it was in loyalty to an evil witch. Yes, the ghost of fear still haunted these halls, but it had also been a place of happiness and love.
“I have longed for love my entire life,” I told him, my heart open so wide it was terrifying. “So much so that my greatest fear became the idea of falling for someone—trusting someone—who didn't love me back. At a young age, I decided the best way to protect myself was to never allow myself to let anyone close enough to have that power over me.”
“Franki—”
“Let me get this out,” I said. “I need for you to understand how important this is for me.”
I took a deep breath and chose my words carefully.
“The problem with that plan was that while I was so busy protecting myself from pain, I was also denying myself the one thing I wanted most in the world,” I said. “Falling in love is not something I could ever take lightly. It’s risky and dangerous and terrifying.