Page 13 of Raven's Dawn

“No, but for someone who has been reading her mind for half his life, I’m surprised you don’t see it,” Ezra said. “She’s worried about you.” He wagged a finger at Warren. “And you, too. So she’s being her usual bubbly self, but kicked up a notch or two. She’s not stupid. She understands all of the risks that we have here. But she feels like you do, Graham. That two things are true at once. She’s excited to see the beauties of this world, but she has realistic expectations of the things that aren’t so pretty.”

“Well, thank you for the therapy session,” I said. “If I were bothering her so much, she would tell me so.”

“She certainly tells me.” Adjusting his blanket again, this time bringing it up over his head to retain more warmth, Warren said, “She’s convinced I’m on the verge of a breakdown.”

“You aren’t?” I asked.

I knew that may have seemed insensitive, but I shared a home with this man. I’d woken up to his screams on a near nightly basis. I’d watched his face turn green every time Jake made a sly comment under his breath. Of all of us, I thought Warren was the worst off.

“I was.” He shook his head. “But I’m not now. Doing this, being here, being able to help people, that makes it easier.”

Balancing the scales, I guess.

“I get it,” I said. “But nobody blames you for what happened. You were manipulated.”

“Somebody blames me.” Craning over his shoulder, Warren glanced at Jake on Laila’s flying wolf. “He has the right to.”

Ezra only frowned.

And I sighed.

Did I feel like Jake had the right to resent Warren? In some regard. But it wasn’t Warren. Warren didn’t start this.

When it all came to fruition, when I found Jake’s ring in Warren’s basement, I thought he had done something awful. By technicality, yes. He had done something awful. But it really wasn’t his fault.

The blame fell on Jake’s shoulders. Jake started it. Warren fucked up, sure. But Jake’s fuck up was worse.

Jake was using Warren as a scapegoat. It was easy to paint Warren as the villain in the immature mind of a child. Realistically, though, Warren was the reason we brought him back. Warren was the reason we realized he was still alive.

Jake refused to take accountability for his actions. He wouldn’t acknowledge that he was the reason he ended up in that soul prison for a decade.

Maybe I was biased. These days, I was closer to Warren than I was with Jake. The reasons for that were obvious. Maybe I should’ve held some resentment for Warren, but I just couldn’t find it in myself to blame him for any of it. Now that I knew the story, how could I?

Then again, that reasoning may have been the result of Jake’s demeanor thereafter. There was annoyance and frustration for Warren in the beginning, and then we got Jake home, and then I saw the way that Jake treated Warren. Like a kid throwing a tantrum. As if Warren was a parent who had wronged him.

But he wasn’t Jake’s parent. He righted his wrong the best he could. Ever since, Jake had done nothing but walk all over him, and it made me sick.

“Don’t do that,” Warren said, shaking his head slightly.

“Don’t do what?” I asked.

“Make excuses for me,” he said. “I fucked up. Now I have to reap the consequences. And I’m okay. I can handle Jake’s attitude. I can’t handle being the reason you two fall out.”

“We’re not falling out.” Looking at him behind Laila, tucked up against her back, I shrugged. “Especially not over you. We just don’t look at life the same way anymore.”

“You’re a man now,” Ezra said. “I’d hope you’d matured by now.”

The question was, when would Jake?

She must have caught my glance, because Laila pulled the reins on her white wolf. Floating closer to us on the cushion of air that held us in the clouds, she flew just before Kilyn’s left-wing. Over the howling wind, she called, “Follow my lead for the landing, Graham!”

I held up my thumb.

As I unhooked my seatbelt, Ezra asked, “Do you know how to land a dragon?”

“Aye,” I said. Although I had never landed one this big before, it was a lot like riding a bike. Once you learned, you never forgot. “Grab a hold of the seatbelt in front of you, keep your head and torso as close to Kilyn’s back as you can, and don’t let go.”

“Can’t we just fly off of her back?” Warren asked. “Do—do we have to land her?”

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