Ravyn thought about those words for a few seconds. She thought about everything that had happened to her in the past couple of weeks since she’d stolen that dagger. Running fast, feeling stronger, seeing ghosts on the street.
“I stole the dagger and the dagger has power.”
Hearing those words in her voice was jarring. Since when did she believe in any other being on this earth other than humans? Since that woman with the stunning body had disappeared in a cloud of red smoke, holding Cree off the ground with one hand.
“I believe that’s true,” he replied.
She shook her head because while she was thinking she had a grasp on this story, she really didn’t. “But you said you saw me in your dream a few months ago. I didn’t have the dagger then, so why would I have been on the Reaper’s list?”
“I don’t know the answer to that,” he said. “At first, I just thought my power was going wonky, that your name being on the collection list was a mistake. So I wanted to correct that mistake. I even led the Reaper to a different soul in place of yours, but then I had another dream. You were in it, but you weren’t talking like you. Then Opal was there and then... Temptra was there, or at least her voice was.” He scrubbed both hands down his face and Ravyn crossed her arms over her chest because she wanted to touch him.
“I think Temptra—she was the one at Robles’s house—needs you alive and the dagger for something, but then she may kill you afterward. But you’re also still on the Reaper’s list for some reason. So, it’s a race to see which one of them can get to you first,” he said.
“Oh, wow.” She wasn’t really sure what her response to that was supposed to be. Two people or rather, things, were trying to kill her. And her father said she’d never amount to anything. Well, she was important to these two even if that importance ended with her death. And now she’d completely flipped if she was thinking being on two hit lists was a good thing.
“But neither of them counted on me stopping them.” He came closer to her now. “And I am going to stop them, Ravyn. I won’t let you die.”
Yesterday, her instinct would’ve been to argue with him that she could protect herself, that she didn’t need to be saved by any man. Today, after all that had just happened, all she wanted was for Cree to be safe. If that meant going along with Steele’s professions to protect her, then so be it.
“I won’t let Cree die,” she said vehemently.
“You love Cree?”
At first it sounded like a statement, but Ravyn realized it was a question and that Steele was looking at her as if he were holding his breath, waiting for the answer. She wasn’t so amazed by all that she’d just learned that she could ignore the quick stroke to her ego at the thought that he might be jealous. Even if it still wasn’t clear what she and Steele were doing. He was a Dream Reaper and she was just her. How could they work as a couple?
She couldn’t think about that right now.
“I love Cree as if he were my brother. He saved my life. So, I want you to tell me what I have to do to get to him and then kill that bitch for daring to touch him?”
He smiled, his lips spreading across even white teeth.
“Fearless,” he said.
She nodded. “Right. Okay, I’m fearless. Show me what you really are. You said a Drakon but I’m not familiar with that word. I’d rather you just show me. Right here, right now.”
“I thought you wanted to find Temptra.”
“I do. But I need to know what I’m dealing with, who’s with me and who’s against me.”
“I’m always going to be with you, Ravyn. Never doubt that. No matter what happens from this moment on, don’t doubt that I’m with you.”
He hadn’t needed to say those words, because she felt it. With every breath she took Ravyn realized she’d felt his presence. From the nights she knew he was following her around the city, to the night on the roof when they first touched, and to last night when she’d wrapped her arms around him and kissed his scars. Even this morning, when she’d awakened in her bed at Safeside, she’d felt him, lingering inside her mind and, so help her, her heart.
“Show me,” she insisted.
With a curt nod he pointed a distance away. “Go stand over there.”
She almost asked why, but changed her mind. Instead she did what he said, walking at least twenty feet away to stand near a fallen tree.
When she turned back to look at him, he took a deep breath and released it slowly. His head lowered and with the glow of his eyes gone the clearing was cast into shadows. She thought she felt the ground tremble beneath her but Ravyn kept her gaze locked on Steele. His body moved slowly, arms hanging by his side, legs slightly spread apart, but something was happening. Those arms didn’t stay the same and neither did his legs. Everything grew, expanding out and up, twisting and churning until she had to crane her neck to follow the metamorphosis that was Steele turning into a Drakon.
Trees leaned to the side as the breadth of the magnificent beast filled more than the available space. Leaves rustled and heat filled the air by the time it stopped moving. Her mouth had gaped open, her eyes going as wide as they possibly could as she looked at something she would have
