Page 95 of Third Offense

RAVEN

“You saw it,didn’t you? The portal in the ocean?” Sayir asked, his black-tipped white wings bristling around him in clear agitation. “Raven. Tell me you saw it.”

Ugh.“Why is this becoming a thing?” I asked, sighing. “Can’t a girl sleep without her insane father bothering her dreams in the middle of the night?”

“Raven,” he growled. “We’re running out of time. I need you to focus.”

“I could do that a lot better if you stopped interrupting my sleep.”

“Consider for a moment that there is a reason I’m here,” he pressed, the sense of urgency in his voice one that drew my gaze to him. “This isn’t a dream or a nightmare. This is real. I’m trying to help you.”

“Help me,” I repeated. “Riiiight.” Because he’d been so helpful before.

“You need to save Prince Ketos. He and Layla are the keys to everything. You have to trust me.”

“Why the hell would I ever trust you?” I countered, sitting up and glaring at him.

The Reformer stood several feet away from the bed, and while I knew I was asleep, it was a bit of a surreal experience to see my two mates passed out and unaware beside me.

“If you would just listen to me,” my father insisted, “you’d see what I’m saying is true.” He stabbed a finger at the balcony. “You saw the portal, Raven. You saw what this mirage is trying to hide.”

I yawned in response. Just because I was still technically asleep didn’t mean I was resting. Not when the Reformer kept bothering me.

“I almost drowned,” I reminded him. That harrowing experience had been a living nightmare, one I didn’t want to repeat.

“But you didn’t.”

“Because my mates saved me,” I countered.

My father started pacing as if I was the one irritating him and not the other way around. “Raven, I don’t know how to say this any differently. This mirage is a trap. The Nora Warriors are coming.” He slammed his hands onto the end of the bed, making me jolt. “You need towake the fuck up.”

I curled my fingers into the sheets.

Something wasn’t right. My father was always so calm, cool, and collected.

He was a calculative monster, not a roaring one. And even at his worst, he’d never yelled at me.

Never even cursed at me.

He preferred to exude his usual elegant façade.

I parted my lips to speak but didn’t know what to say.

This felt so real, as if my father truly was speaking to me. Except I’d never seen him like this.

He looked at me.Reallylooked at me. “They’re coming, Raven.Today.And if you don’t heal Prince Ketos, you and your mates will die.”

My brow furrowed. “Heal Prince Ketos?”Heal him from what?

“Ketos is the only one who knows where all the secrets are kept. Save him to save yourselves.”

With that, he turned on his heel, and the air blurred around him as a circular spiral of black and purple magic rippled through the room, revealing a portal.

One that the Reformer used to leave.

My lips parted.That certainly hasn’t happened before.

And the burning scent that followed was new as well.