Page 17 of Sticks and Stones and Broken Bones

We were going soul hunting. For Hades, the King of the Underworld. Could this day get anymore surreal? Not only that, but I was also going to get revenge on my coven when I went topside. My magic liked that idea. It tumbled through me like butterflies, fluttering with excitement at the thought of finally having enough power to challenge my grandmother. That old witch was going down. And I was going to make sure she felt as helpless and pathetic as I had done.

“You okay there, Lilac?” Rook asked dragging my attention back into the room. I realised I’d stopped walking, and I was stood in the middle of the sitting room I know knew was the Revenants’ home. I guess it was my home now too. And Hawk’s. Although I didn’t know how the others felt about me adopting the guy like a stray. But I couldn’t help it. He was mine. Just like they were.

Not that I understood why. Or how.

I looked at Rook, his green eyes sparkling with amusement. “Can you feel it?”

“Feel what?”

I placed my hand on his chest, just above his heart. “This connection? Whatever it is that’s tied us all together.”

“Yes,” he replied breathlessly.

Relief flooded through me at his simple acknowledgment. I hadn’t realised how much I needed to hear it.

“I am not sure what spell your coven used, Raevyn, but it has affected us all.” Korbin came to stand in front of me, his footing sure and pace steady. It amazed me that he was so comfortable and confident even though he couldn’t see. He raised his hands in front of may face. “May I?”

I nodded then shook my head at my stupidity. The guy was blind.

You need to use your words, idiot.

“Yes,” I replied, my tone a little shaky.

“Don’t be nervous, I’m going to show you what I see,” Korbin said softly. “Close your eyes and relax.”

I did as he asked, and his fingers traced the arches and planes of my face.

“Pretty sure you’re copping a feel there, love,” Rook chuckled, and I felt my face heat under Korbin’s fingers. His hands stopped and he went to pull them away, but I grabbed his wrists.

“Don’t stop,” I said. “Please.” I was enjoying his soft touch, the way he was learning the shape of my face.

Korbin audibly swallowed but he started to move his hands again. His thumbs swept over my cheek bones before stopping on my temples, his fingers tangling in my hair at the back of my skull. “Hold tight. This might feel like a shock.”

He was right. The world exploded into a myriad of colours behind my eyes. Each one of them impossibly bright, all moving and swirling together. Then they shifted into something similar to what I had seen before I closed my eyes. I could sense Korbin in front of me, his aura I guess, and Rook behind him. There was a link between them, a bright thread spun with gold binding the two of them together. Was that their love?

Then I looked down and I gasped. Spreading from my chest were five lines, each of them a different colour and connected to the five men. I instinctively knew which thread belonged to which man. Silver for Korbin, a bright emerald for Rook. Casimir’s was red, Nox’s midnight blue and Hawk’s a vivid amber.

“You are tied to all of us, Raevyn. We are yours, just as much as you are ours,” Korbin said as he let go of my face.

I blinked my eyes open, the room coming back into focus although it seemed much brighter than before. “That’s how you see the world? All the time?”

Korbin smiled, but there was a sadness to it. “No, not always. There are moments when I see things in blinding clarity, others like the one I showed you where it’s all colours and auras but mostly, there’s just nothing.”

I cupped his face, moving slowly so I didn’t startle him. “Well, thank you for sharing that with me. For letting me see as you do. It was beautiful.” I stepped up on my tiptoes and brushed my lips against his cheek. His breath hitched and his hand tightened on my hip. Maybe whatever this connection was, affected them as much as it did me.

I stepped back and looked around the room, wanting to take in all their expressions except one of them was missing. “Where’s Hawk?”

A thud came from the other side of the door. “Let me in, assholes.”

I had a feeling these guys were going to drive me insane. I rolled my eyes and went to open the door, but Nox grabbed me around the waist and pulled me into his lap as he sat down.

“Raevyn, we need to talk,” he said as he twirled his fingers in my hair.

“What do you want to talk about?” I asked sweetly, knowing full well he was talking about Hawk. By bringing him back with us I knew I was upsetting whatever the dynamic was between the Revenants. But to be honest, I figured I’d already upset the equilibrium when I dropped on a stone slab, so what’s another guy gonna do to it?

Nox’s eyes darkened. So far, he’d always seemed so playful but this chaos I could feel brewing under his skin had me intrigued. And yep, you guessed it, a little turned on.

“I don’t like Hawk. I didn’t like him when he was alive the first time,” he said simply, slowly twirling my hair around his fingers. “In fact, just looking at him fills me with this compulsive urge to rip him limb from limb. I want to gauge his eyes out when he looks at you and I need you to let me do that, pretty girl. I’m not sure if he can die twice, but for you, I’d be willing to try.”

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