Page 97 of Whispered Warnings: Part Two

Raiden chuckles and then does it just as easily as he appeared to unfurl them. We all watch as Griff and Reed give Raiden pointers until they manage to get him in the sky. He’s a little bit wobbly, which I’m sure isn’t helped by how windy it is up here, but his smile is so big and proud that it has us all grinning and cheering him on.

“I’ve only ever seen reapers in the books and a couple of times in person and they all have wings that are cream coloured, or some variation of it. Raiden’s are almost like an oil slick; they’re black, but every now and then, even in this dull light, they shimmer with navy, dark green, and I swear I saw purple too.”

Ransom nods, “Yeah. We aren’t actually sure why Raiden’s wings are different from other reapers.”

“So it’s not normal?” I ask, my eyebrows furrowing. I thought I just hadn’t seen a different color, not that it wasn’t supposed to exist.

Ransom shakes his head, “No, normally reapers have wings in variations of cream like you mentioned.”

“So if the Reaper Council do call him, they’re going to be even more interested in him?” I ask.

River nods, his expression serious for a change, “Yeah. It’s likely. We need to do some research or something to find out what it could mean.”

“We need to speak to a reaper elder,” Doc comments.

“Yeah, but do you know a reaper elder that’s not a pretentious asshole and who wouldn’t immediately run to tell the council?” Ransom asks.

Doc shakes his head, “Nope.”

“I can ask Sully,” I suggest. “He knows a lot of people, he might know of a reaper elder, or know of someone who knows a reaper elder who isn’t an asshole.”

Evander smiles, “That would be amazing if you could.”

“The reapers are so secretive with their information that the chances of us actually being able to find any information that we need in the books that are available about them is pretty fucking slim,” Doc adds.

“I can do that,” I say, as I pull out my phone and send Sully a message straight away. If I wait there is a chance that I may forget, and I don’t want to forget something as important as this. “Done.”

“Thanks, Neith,” River says, pulling me under his arm and kissing my forehead.

I smile, “No problem.”

Griff and Reed both land next to us.

“What’s no problem?” Reed asks curiously.

“I’m going to see if Sully knows a reaper elder that isn’t an asshole, who might be able to fill us in on the significance of Raiden’s wings being a different color than the other reapers,” I explain.

“That’s a great idea,” Griff replies with a smile.

“He’s picking it up really quickly,” Reed adds.

We all look up again and start to watch him. Raiden looks like he’s getting better already.

As rain begins to fall, Doc says, “I hate to say this, but we should probably head to the cliff if the weather is going to get worse.”

“Yeah, you’re right,” Van agrees, then raises his voice so Raiden can hear him, “Sorry man, I know you want to practice some more, but we really should get going.”

“That’s okay, you guys carry on. I’m going to try and follow you from up here,” he calls back down.

“Just be careful not to go too high. It’s really windy,” I call up, most likely worrying about something that I don’t need to worry about.

“We’ll go up with him,” Reed reassures me before he launches himself into the air.

“It’s really good practice for him to fly in conditions like this,” Griff tells me with an excited smile and then follows up after them.

As we continue walking and get closer to the cliffs, our smiles are quickly wiped off our faces. It’s fucking cold and has now started to rain too. Glancing up at the guys flying, I see that they are handling the weather pretty well. Even Raiden is flying really well and has picked it up surprisingly quickly. If you didn’t know that he had never flown before, you would think he had been flying for years. Even with the wind smacking him in the face and the icy rain dripping down his cheeks, he still has a broad and proud smile pushing his cheeks up. I’m so freaking proud of him. The Reaper Council really concerns me, but I know that we can handle whatever they try to pull because I wasn’t making idle threats in the cabin.

Hell, for Raiden, I’ll even speak to Dimitri. Of course, that will only help us out if Dimitri doesn’t want to kill me, and if I’m being honest, I’m not sure what his intentions are anymore. The point is, I really am that serious and I will go to whatever lengths that I have to in order to ensure that he is safe.

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