Page 30 of A Court of Ravens
“Or the best one.” I pull her a little closer. “But I don’t care about the odds, love. I’m all in. Shadows and all.”
She exhales a soft laugh, her resolve slipping into something more vulnerable.
“I want to see you tonight,” I say, my tone light despite the weight pressing on my chest. “Join me for dinner.”
The flicker of hesitation across her features cuts deeper than I care to admit. “Like a date?”
I’m out of my depth. Fae don’t date. Not like this. But for her, I would rewrite every rule. “Aye. A date.”
Her smile is slow, reluctant, but real. “Seven?”
“Seven.”
She leans up, brushing her lips to mine. The kiss is soft at first, hesitant—then it burns. My hand moves to the small of her back, pulling her closer as I taste her, letting her taste me. Her body melts into mine, and it’s all I can do to keep my beast leashed. She becomes mine every second I touch her, deeper than any bond or mark could capture. I draw her bottom lip into my mouth, teasing her until she moans softly against me.
The sound sets my blood on fire, but the shadows at the edge of my vision twist and writhe, a reminder of everything bigger than us. Bigger than this moment. It’s me who pulls back, breaking the kiss even though I’d give my last breath to keep her here.
She stares up at me, breathless, her cheeks flushed. “I should go. It’s Cyn’s birthday weekend. She’s going to wonder where I got off to.”
“Aye, you could tell her you got off with me,” I suggest, grinning.
“Incorrigible,” she accuses, but there’s a spark of amusement in her eyes.
“And you love it,” I shoot back. My chest tightens because part of me hopes it’s true.
Her gaze dips, a wicked smile curving her lips as her eyes flick back up to mine. “Well, I’ll leave you to keep your pants on and your hands to yourself. For now.”
“You’re going to be the death of me, Shadow Witch.”
Her laughter lingers as she turns and walks toward Pier House. The setting sun paints her in an ethereal glow, and I swear, for a moment, she doesn’t look mortal at all. No, she’s looks like a goddess.
The door closes behind her, and I exhale, running a hand through my hair. The shadows stretch and coil in my periphery, the whispers of my ancestors clawing at the edge of my mind.
They’ve never interfered before.
The warning is clear:She is neither fully human nor fully ours. Shadowborn Witches belong to the in-between, where even we cannot go.
Shadowborn Witches. The name is a ghost of a memory, a whisper from the dark corners of my ancestors’ tales. I thought they had died out. When we sealed ourselves away from the Ironlands, the last of them fled deep into the Obsidian Court, claiming the shadows as a refuge.
A handful stayed behind, clinging to some misguided belief that humans could be redeemed, that we could live in harmony. Fools. The bloodlines faded into obscurity, diluted and forgotten by time. Or so I thought.
Felicity is a living contradiction to history, to everything I’ve been taught. The shadows cling to her, respond to her, as if they’ve been waiting for her all along. If her power ties her to the Shadowborn, then sheispart of the prophecy, she will bear the one destined to heal and destroy our worlds.
I glance at the door where Felicity disappeared moments ago. If she’s tied to the Shadowborn Witches, then there’s no escaping what’s coming.
The in-between.A place of neither light nor dark, where nothing is what it seems. If Felicity belongs there, I fear we’ve awakened something far worse than shadows.
And it’s coming for us all.
ChapterThirteen
FELICITY FORREST
“Every heart holds both light and shadow. True magic awakens when we dare to embrace the balance between them.”
The Othercrowd Guidebook For Mortals
Icollapse onto the bed at Pier House, my body still humming with the aftermath of Niall. The look in his eyes, like I’m both his salvation and his undoing, makes me shiver. I close my eyes, and his voice repeats in my head.You know what would be fun? A bond with a mortal who doesn’t even know what she is.I huff out a laugh, sharp and bitter.
