Page 30 of White Raven (Nevermore Duet #2)

BALANCE

“I just need to know what I’m walking into, Decc,” Athan said, toweling his damp hair and walking barefoot towards the bed while he dodged swept up piles of broken shit throughout the apartment.

“Well, I for one, did not enjoy any second of it. Devin on the other hand?” Clanging glasses and loud Irish folk music clouded the background, and he heard Devin’s voice chime in.

“I got pressed elbow-to-elbow with the most luscious little traveler! They gave us as much booze as we wanted, and I ate my weight in pretzels…which, by the way, is now one of my favorite sn—” The phone shuffled, and Decclan cursed before getting back on it.

“It was the most miserable eighteen hours of my fuckin’ life, mate. ”

“Well…thankfully this flight won’t be that long. I’m just not keen on the idea of being shoved inside a tin can thousands of miles in the air. We can survive a lot…but from that altitude?”

“Thank you! My thoughts exactly. Try being shoved in a tin can beside a dodgy window and seeing nothing but ocean for that long. Next to a belligerent asshat.”

Athan chuckled through his nose. “What about Tony? How’d he fare through the ordeal?”

“Psh…the sorry sod slept through most of it. He’s been gone over a week now and hasn’t checked in.”

“You takin’ a piss? Where’d he go?” Athan asked, looking over his shoulder at Sarah, who was sitting on her knees by the bookshelf digging through the box from Dahlia’s office.

“Scotland. He told us he’d send word when he settled down somewhere.

I think he just wants to fly solo for a while.

Maybe travel a bit. I hope he finds himself a nice burly lass.

Somebody that’ll—” The phone shuffled again.

“Somebody that’ll wet his—” There was a string of curses and an abrupt end to the call and Athan snorted, shaking his head as he dropped the phone to Sarah’s old blanket.

“Fun never ends for him, does it?” Sarah laughed, pulling another piece of paper up and narrowing her eyes as she held it in front of her.

“Hardly,” Athan agreed, tossing the towel onto the bed and making his way to her. “I forgot all about that damn box.”

“No, you’re avoiding it.” She dropped the paper back into it and picked up the ledger she’d begged to burn.

“There’s nothing in here that I can see about John Allan.

Looks like just a bunch of shit regarding EverLife and the blood supply.

There’s paperwork about the liquor orders and the revenue reports from the bar.

Nothing helpful. It can probably be trashed. ”

He crouched down beside her, and they both peered at the ledger, her slender inked fingers wiping dust from the binding. “I’m not avoiding it. It’s just not important anymore.”

“Can I open this?”

“Go ahead.” He kissed the top of her head and stood, staring at more old books from his collection, and the small figurine sitting on the shelf.

His chest ached, thinking about Poe. It was like they were missing some vital part of their connection without him here.

Like losing a beloved member of the family.

He took it in his hand and flipped it over, the little glass vial sliding out and the rolled-up piece of parchment looming inside.

A slight buzzing started in the back of his head, and while it was quieter than he remembered, the distinct sound of voices whispered.

Sarah’s own voice broke his concentration—confusion—whatever…

“Jesus…your name is in here a lot. Is this in French?”

Athan replaced the vial and set the statuette back on the shelf. “Yeah, that’s where Madame Olivia and Lady Gerlene were from. They moved around and ended up in Old London. They made too much money off of us to leave again.”

“Oh, my God…here it is.” She skimmed over a page, her fingertip stopping on a name. “She didn’t even use a fake name. Like she wanted people to know exactly who she was.”

“Does that surprise you?” Athan flinched.

“Five hundred pounds? How much was that worth back then?” she asked, shocked.

“A lot.”

Sarah tossed the book back into the box, the pages fluttering before the book snapped shut against the contents. “Fuck her. Fuck this. I wish you’d burn it.” She snapped up from her spot on the floor and before she could storm off, he turned her around and brought her against his bare chest.

“It’s over, love…she’s gone and I’m here. I’ve got you .”

“I wanna watch her catch fucking fire all over again for what she did to you, Athan.”

Footsteps clunked up the steps outside the apartment and were followed by a hurried knock.

Athan pressed his lips to her hairline and sighed, kissing her before he loosed his hold around her shoulders, and then trudged to the door, opening it to find Rhaena standing with a plastic bag—John Allan’s note inside.

“I fucked up,” she huffed, pushing past him into the apartment.

“Christ,” Athan bit, shutting the door. “What now?”

Rhaena stopped just past the kitchen counter and looked around.

“What in the name of Christmas happened in here?” Her eyes darted at every pile of rubble, and every crack in the walls.

When neither of them answered, she turned and teetered her attention between them both, slowly raising her finger to point at them. “You two have fucking problems.”

“What happened?” Sarah asked, stepping over the mess to walk towards her.

Rhaena handed her the plastic bag. “I was wrong about Cap. He didn’t know Lindsay Trainor investigated those attacks.

I don’t know exactly what she figured out, or what member of your coven she was looking for…

or maybe working for…but Foley didn’t have anything to do with it.

He’s pretty convinced she was trying to go around him to get promoted.

There was some personal shit going on there. ”

“What does that have to do with you? And what do you mean ‘ working for’ ?” Rhaena fixed her eyes on him for a moment, seemingly hesitant to answer.

“Well for one, who gave her these cases? Who tipped her off? And as far as how badly I messed up…” She paused, rubbing the back of her neck and glancing over at Sarah. “He knows why I missed a lunar cycle this month. I should have known better. I told him I let you inject me with your blood.”

“You did what?! ” Athan spat, storming towards her. Every nerve in his body twitched with rage. Every protective instinct to rip the throat out of anybody who’d come after Sarah called itself to war and immediately situated itself on the front lines. “How the fuck could you do that, Rhaena?”

To her credit, she didn’t flinch. She took his wrath like a soldier, standing tall and accepting her mistake. “I didn’t realize he’d react this way. You’re right, though. You have every right to wanna annihilate me. You both do. I wasn’t thinking.”

Sarah moved with impressive speed between him and his partner. “Athan, stop. Give her a chance to explain.”

Athan grit his teeth. “Sarah, she just gave a werewolf who can’t control himself a reason to come after you for your blood .”

“That’s not even the worst of it,” Rhaena admitted, lowering her head and squeezing her eyes shut.

“He had the same reports sent to him from the M.E.; Sarah’s DNA is the only one applicable to the samples taken from the wound.

I tried to call you, but you didn’t answer.

Foley knows Sarah murdered the guy in the subway terminal. ”

He could barely contain himself. Athan turned on his bare heel and speared both hands through his hair, gripping it in frustration. “You have got to be fucking kidding.”

“So if I leave to find John, he’s gonna put a warrant out for my arrest?” Sarah asked.

“And possibly Athan’s if he wants to be a grade A prick. Poe’s involvement is enough to incriminate you, Athan. Or at least put you there.”

“Poe’s not here to compare evidence,” Sarah added, facing him as he turned around to look at her. “They can’t really prove it was his bird if there isn’t anything to test that theory. All they really have is me.”

“You’re not offering yourself up again. I did that once, and I’ll be fucking damned if I do it again.

In the span of a couple of months, I agreed to help you give yourself over not once, but twice .

The second time…you died.” Athan crossed his arms and stared at the determined look he was beginning to know too well in his mate’s face.

“I’ll bite it, and book us both on an uncomfortable flight over the pond before I let this shit happen.

And John Allan can come find us himself.

Don’t think for one second I’m bluffing, Sarah. ”

The tension between the three of them was thick enough to cut with a knife. Sarah drew her attention back to Rhaena and folded her arms across her chest. “Did he actually say he’d arrest me? Did he threaten to come after me for my blood? I don’t mind giving—”

“No. Absolutely not. The last thing we wanted was for you to become somebody’s pincushion, or a fucking piggy bank, remember? Foster warned us about it, and you specifically said—”

“ I know what I said, Athan! I know exactly how I feel about the whole situation. None of that has changed. What you seem to forget is that not only is he your captain …who knows exactly what we are, he also took a bullet when they went after Wren, and could have died doing so. He’s right to think he’s deserving of it, and I’m sure that’s the only thing he’s meaning to get across. He’s never done anything but help us.”