Page 1 of The Raven Queen

1

Fin

Sometimes, I could feel the soft curve of her cheek in my palm and the warmth of her skin against mine. Sometimes, I could still taste her lips and smell the lavender in her black, curly hair, silky between my fingers.

But her form and features were a mirage, like so many things in the desert, blurred and undefined, and the memory of her was just as fluid. It evaded me when all I wanted was to see her, hoping that if I did, she would stop haunting me when I closed my eyes.

Del was one more ghost from my past. One more regret.

Blinking, I stared up at the cave ceiling. Scant morning light seeped in from the wooden door, illuminating the cool stone walls that were both a reverie and a cursed, daily reminder of my naive childhood hope.

Remembering the woman I’d found comfort in last night, I looked to my left, the cot beside me surprisingly empty. Exhaling, I rubbed my hands over my face. Another night of vague dreams and restless sleep, followed by another day in the desert.

I sat up, and the earth was cold against my bare feet as they hit the dusty ground. I wondered how many new folks we’d have by the end of the week.

“Sir?” came a chipper voice from outside. I groaned and stared at my closed door as Callon’s footsteps crunched closer. “Are you up yet,sir?” He called me that to rankle me, and it worked.

Elbows on my knees, I waited for my best friend to dare to open the door.

“Oh,sirrr,” Callon sang.

“What?” I growled.

“You wouldn’t happen to have company in there, would you?” he asked with a smile in his voice.

I tugged on my pants. “Why? That’s never stopped you from interrupting me before.” I took three steps to the door and opened it, meeting Callon’s gleeful brown gaze. “It’s too early for you to be so...annoying,” I grumbled.

He smirked, his teasing grin one I’d counted on many times over the past ten years and half-heartedly despised for as equally long. His dark eyebrows danced over his slightly slanted eyes as he peered over my shoulder, surveying my quarters. “I didn’t want to intrude,” he said insincerely.

“Since when?” I muttered and met Tick’s coyote gaze from her burlap bed outside my door. Her tawny, fluffy tail thumped languidly as she stretched in a patch of morning sunlight.

“I saw you leave the fire last night with the new girl,” Callon explained and stepped inside.

I grabbed my boots beside my bed.

“The tall one,” he whispered, leaning in conspiratorially. Callon’s gaze swept my quarters again—over the rickety table, the carved-out shelf in the cliff wall, my unmade cot and the trunk of clothes at the end of my cot—everything with a thin layer of sand covering it.

“You think she’s hiding somewhere?” I asked dryly, lacing my last boot.

“No, but it seems she got the drop on you,” Callon mused. “She left before you could and before the sun rose, even. Someone must have tipped her off to your usual ways.”

Callon was an amazing tracker and one of our strongest human Telepaths—he could communicate with familiar minds from miles away—but he was also a pain in my ass most of the time. I would never change that about him, except for most mornings.

“Are you finished yet?” I asked and rose to my feet. “Because you only prattle on like this when you’re procrastinating.” Needing to wash the night away, I splashed water on my face from the bowl on the table. It was chilled from the cold night, and I reveled in it.

“I’ll admit,” Callon conceded as I wiped my face dry. “I was sussing out your mood.”

“By making it worse?” I retorted, and when Callon’s silence lingered, I peered over my shoulder at him. He was suddenly very sober, which was un-Callonlike. “What is it?” I turned to face him. “Is it Dylon? Has he gotten worse?” One of our newest arrivals had a sick son, and we weren’t sure if he would make it. It was likely the result of a weak constitution and the stress of so much travel as they fled their home in the north. The journey through the desert wasn’t easy.

Callon’s expression was cautious as he shook his head. “Not Dylon,” he hedged. “Some, uh...uninvited guests arrived in the night.” He held up his hand as my body tensed, my stomach dropping instantly.

“And you’re onlyjusttelling me this?” I bit out.

“There was no point in saying anything until we knew what was going on, Fin,” he said defensively. “We have twenty pairs of eyes and ears on them. I wanted more intel before I, um—” He glanced at my cot again. “Disturbed you.”

I stiffened, and I glared at him. “That’s not for you to decide,” I gritted out, and any ease and comfort I’d found last night evaporated. I rubbed my forehead instead of shoving Callon against the wall for assuminganythingwas more important than the safety of the 1,012 people who relied on us to keep them safe. “Who is it? And how many are there?”

“A small team set up camp in the Rainbow Hills. About two dozen of them.”

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