Page 23 of The Raven

Blinding hot agony scorched my body, burning me from the inside out. The knife fell from my hand as my legs collapsed under the weight of the excruciating torture pounding through my body. Yet, as I writhed on the floor, I didn’t miss Grim cruelly drop the lifeless body of my raven.

“That was easy enough,” he said, picking up his knife and strolling toward me.

I couldn’t think straight. Couldn’t form a scream. Couldn’t see past the flashes of red flames dancing in my vision. The anguish gripping me was worse than ever, even worse than the first time I woke up in the in-between.

“You know, things could have been so different, Raven,” Grim said conversationally, as if he wasn’t talking to someone who was dying in front of him.

Because that was what was happening. I was sure of it.

I was dying.

Slowly.

Painfully.

Helpless but to listen to Grim’s words, I closed my eyes and wished for death to claim me.

“You never noticed me, did you? You thought I was mean to you because I hated you, but it was the only way I could get your attention. You were too wrapped up in that fucking boy.”

My eyes shot open when he reached me and he kicked my knife away from where I’d dropped it. It skidded across the ground, landing several feet away from me. Even if I had the energy to use it, I wouldn’t have been able to grab it.

Grim towered over me, his wicked eyes boring into mine and holding me hostage, just like the time he’d pinned me to the bed.

“I loved you, Raven, from the minute I met you. But I was never enough for you. I thought you’d give me a chance when Mason left town, but instead, you got me kicked out of my own fucking home.

You made my dad disown me, and then to rub salt in my wound, you swooped in and claimed him for yourself!

” he suddenly bellowed, crouching down to grip my chin, his snarling face an inch from mine.

Rage swirled in his bloodshot eyes, and I was certain that this was the moment he ended me forever. I closed my eyes and let the image of my and Mason’s last night together play in my mind.

But it wasn’t enough to block out Grim’s voice. Not when he shoved the tip of his blade against my cheek, piercing the skin. Blood trickled from the puncture, his eyes tracking it. Silently, I prayed for it to heal, but deep down, I knew it wouldn’t. Not now my raven was gone.

“You want to know what the sad thing was, Raven?” he continued, moving the knife away from my cheek.

“I still loved you. I watched you, waiting for the right moment to tell you how I felt and for us to be together, but you had to be a little whore, didn’t you?

I thought you would never get over Mason, and then one day, you were all over Eric, smiling up at him like you should have been smiling at me,” he hissed, spittle landing on my lip.

“I watched you for two fucking years fawning all over that prick, and then I found out you were engaged.”

He threw his knife across the room, shifting to straddle me so he could wrap both hands around my throat and squeezed. I didn’t think I had air in my lungs, but somehow, the force at which he squeezed made my eyes bulge and my lungs burn.

“That’s when I realized,” he said, hovering low enough that if I had the strength, I could have headbutted him. But I didn’t have the strength, and as he continued to grip my throat, darkness started seeping into my vision. “You would never be mine, so why should you belong to anyone else?”

His mouth kept moving, saying words that I couldn’t hear, because by now, the darkness was not only consuming my vision, but every single part of me. My eyes grew heavy, and slowly, they began to close.

But just before they closed for the last time, a loud bang sounded nearby, followed by a voice I would have known anywhere.

“Raven!”

A dark shadow crashed into Grim, knocking him off me and freeing his grasp on my throat. Still writhing in pain, I managed to lift my hands to rub my neck as grunts and groans, and the sound of fist against bone echoed around.

When the darkness began to clear, my head fell to the side. A mixture of relief and panic rushed through me like a hurricane at seeing Mason on top of Grim, throwing punch after punch into Grim’s face.

I blinked several times, not really believing that Mason was here, but all thought went out the window when Grim managed to reach into a pocket in his black jeans and pull out a flick-knife.

“Ma…Mason.” I tried to call out to warn him, but I was too weak, helpless to stop Grim from raising the knife and plunging it into Mason’s side.

Mason roared, the stab wound distracting him long enough for Grim to move. He rolled over, now straddling Mason as he yanked the knife out of his side. Blood oozed from Mason’s wound, and he attempted to buck his hips to throw Grim off, but it was clear he was in too much pain.

My gaze darted around the room, looking for something, anything, I could use to help Mason. Both knives were out of my reach, but my eyes landed on the baseball bat propped against the table nearby.

With sheer determination, and with the soundtrack of Grim’s punches raining down on Mason, I lifted myself to my hands and knees and crawled to the table to grab the bat. Summoning the little energy I had, I managed to stand, holding back the winces and cries of pain that wanted to escape.

Once I was standing, I wasn’t sure my legs would hold, but I had to try. I refused to stand back and watch Grim take away someone else I loved. With strength I didn’t know I had, I hobbled quietly to where Grim was still pounding his fists into Mason, his back to me.

Agony coursed through my body when I raised the bat, and with as much force as I could muster, I swung it against the side of Grim’s head, a stomach-churning thud vibrating through my bones from the force of the hit.

Grim slid off Mason, blood pouring from the wound in his head, and he lay prone on the floor. My gaze flicked to Mason, raking over his body to find his shirt stained with blood, and his face swelling from the blows Grim delivered.

I took a step toward him, stopping when Grim began to stir, groaning as he attempted to pull himself to his knees.

I needed to end this.

Once and for all.

Picking up the knife Grim used to stab Mason, I staggered over to him, trying my damned hardest to ignore the pain threatening to swallow me whole.

Grim mumbled something incoherent as I reached him, his dazed eyes widening as I grabbed a fistful of his hair and pulled him up to his knees. Standing behind him, I lowered my mouth to his ear.

“Say hi to the others for me when you join them in hell,” I whispered, my voice choking with emotion.

This was it.

This was the end.

Everything he had done in our lives had led to this very moment.

With a firm grip on the knife, I slid the blade across Grim’s throat. His shoulders shook as blood cascaded from the gash, spilling down his body and creating a pool around him within seconds.

I released his hair, and his body slumped forward, unmoving.

Dead.