Page 44 of Raven

She brushed her hair out of her face and beamed at me. “Your mum is with a client. She should be done soon if you want to wait.”

“It’s just a flying visit. I have something else to do. I just thought I’d say hi if she was free. Will you tell her I stopped by?”

“Sure.” She moved in for another hug, squeezing me tight, and I let her. When I went to move back, she didn’t let me go. Instead, she stared up at me, meeting my eyes. Her fox-like eyes flickered. That’s what she was—a fox, hence her small stature. She reached up to me, put her hand on my cheek, and blew out a breath. Something cold travelled through me—a shiver inside my body, but it went just as fast as it came.

Was that what it was like when I reached out with my power?

Sue was a seer. “It’s all going to be alright,” she said.

I frowned. “What?”

Her eyes shifted, not to her fox form, but to a glassy, eerie look that’d make even the toughest shifter shiver. “That’s all I can tell you. It’ll be alright in the end.”

“You’re giving me half a thing and leaving it there?” My voice was sharp, frustration bubbling to the surface.

She pressed her lips together, and the usual warmth in her smile vanished. Sue saw things—flashes, brief moments, scenes. She never told people what she saw. Her ability was a cruel joke. To glimpse someone's future and not be able to warn them ... If she did, fate had a twisted way of changing it. You didn’t mess with fate and get away with it. So it was better not to say.

She hadn’t told me that, but I had heard her talking to my mother when I was younger and they’d thought I was sleeping. She’d seen something she couldn’t tell anyone, and it bothered her. It turned out later, it was one of their girls turning up dead in a politician’s bed—human—and no one giving a damn what had happened.

“I can’t tell you,” she whispered, her voice breaking. “But I can tell you it’ll be alright. You will be alright.” She emphasised the "you," her eyes pleading.

“Something bad is going to happen?” I asked, my heart pounding in my chest and my head going straight to Tia.

Her gaze hardened, her whole demeanour shifting. She took a shaky breath. “I’m sorry. I …” Tears welled in her eyes, turning them into glistening pools, but she didn’t let them fall. “I just needed you to know that. Even when the darkness threatens to consume you, remember that, okay?”

I opened my mouth to speak, but she put her finger to my lips, silencing me. She forced a smile, but it didn’t reach her eyes. “No more talk. Go and do something rebellious.” She winked and backed away. “I love you like my own, little sparrow.” Sparrow, her play on my name. A joke from when I was little. “Remember that too.”

I leant in and kissed her cheek. “We’ll all be alright.”

I went to find Lachlan and pushed out of my mind what Sue had said. I could worry about it and drive myself fucking nuts, or I could go and do what I needed. If fate had something in store for me, there was sod all I could do about it.

Lachlan lived in the underground, despite being one of Malcolm’s tigers and part of Society. But status wasn’t a thing for him. He was low level like me, but he worked for Malcolm. People knew, and no one cared. He just wasn't that important.

It was the weirdest thing with the underground. It was there. Everyone knew it, and Society knew it existed, but everyone pretended no one knew about it. It was a secret place, where strays went because they had no Society, no covens, no places to call home. Technically, it wasn’t allowed to exist. The idea of strays forming any kind of groups was against the rules and often broken up by Society enforcers. But Malcolm allowed this one. As long as the people here caused no trouble, then he caused them no trouble.

The real challenge was Malcolm’s second in command. Not the pack—his son, Stephen—but with Society itself. Trevor MacDonald, alpha to the wolves, ruled with an iron fist, even his sons paid the price. Son, I should say. I had seen him beat on Cade. I had seen the marks. No one did or said anything, but people knew, even if Cade tried to hide it.

Seeing Trevor and Cade made me glad I didn’t have a father in my life because maybe he’d have turned out like that.

“Hey,” came the voice from behind me as I made my way to the stacks where Lachlan lived.

It was Lachlan. “I was just heading to your place.”

"I’ve just got something to do. Meet me at the car?" Lachlan tossed me the keys without waiting for an answer. "It’s parked on Westfield Road. Small black thing."

"Sure. Anything I can help with?"

He chewed his gum, gave a trouble-is-coming smile, and shook his head. "Nah. Won’t be a minute. Just gotta say goodbye to someone." He winked and disappeared.

A lady friend, I got it.

Westfield Road wasn’t far from the entrance—just a ten-minute walk or a five-minute jog for me. It was one of Malcolm’s cars. He had them scattered around the place for us. And by us, I mean his many assets. I wasn’t naive enough to think Lachlan and I were the only ones on his payroll. That alpha had his fingers in so many pies, it was best not to ask. Just be the tool he needed, and he’d always do us right.

I found the small SUV parked on the side street. I didn’t click the fob; I didn’t want anyone alerted to my presence. Even in a street where Others lived, the soft beep-beep would ring out like an alarm.

I slid into the passenger seat and waited. It wasn’t long before Lachlan came back. I handed him the keys, and we set off.

We took the lanes around the river. Easier in the car. Longer, but fine. The humans had built a bypass, which we weren’t allowed to use, but we could go through the small town it bypassed—a little village. To get there, though, we had to first go back into town, past the college area, then through the high street with the bars and clubs, toward the road that would eventually lead us to where Spy Glass stood.

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