Page 144 of White Raven
No matter what happens in there…just remind yourself you’re not his…you’re mine. You’ve always been mine, Sarah St. James.
Sarah glanced over and smiled softly. The first sign of life in those hazel eyes that he’d seen since they left the little church down the street.
Nobody will ever tear us apart again. I think…I think it’s time for some changes. Never again.
He smiled back at her as they crept closer to the house.
Nevermore.
Sarah’s smile grew, and she nodded.
Nevermore. Yes.
“Kane…” Tony whispered, as they approached the steps to the front. He nodded towards the door, and they realized it was cracked open. An invitation. Possibly a death sentence. Sarah started up the stairs, and Athan jerked her back by the hand.
“Wait,” he said, meeting her hard stare. “When we went after Dahlia…we had a plan. A plan I didn’t like at all. I wasn’t able to walk through that door with you. We’re not doing that this time.” She stilled, and her gaze tore him open. “Together.”
Sarah nodded, and Tony stepped in close behind them as Athan joined her on the top step. They pushed the door open, finding the house dark and empty. It was obvious the place had been made into a high-traffic exhibit. The first room was turned into a gift shop. T-shirts were hanging with Poe’s face on them. Memorabilia lined shelves, and there was a register on the small counter in the corner. There wasn’t a sound in the place aside from Poe’s sputtering and uncomfortable noises at Sarah’s shoulder. She reached up and brushed a knuckle down his breast, but it did little to calm him. There was another room down the short hallway. It looked like it used to be a dining room, or maybe a kitchen. Odds and ends were scattered around, waiting to be photographed, and awed over.
“I’m tired of looking at this shit. He’s here somewhere. I can feel him. Don’t ask me how, but I do.” Sarah kept hervoice low, and he could hear the irritation in her voice. No one could blame her, and he certainly wouldn’t, but it was the sound of someone who was so fed up with lies and secrets that she’s given up completely. Athan starved for revenge…but it wasn’t his to take. To say that everything she’d been through was utterly unfair was a slap in her face at this point. His mate needed the same peace he longed to get after Dahlia’s heavy fall.
Tony poked around, shining the flashlight from his phone on miscellaneous things, but not breathing a word. There wasn’t much to say. They all rounded the corner, and a narrow flight of stairs winded up the wall. Poe trilled, and danced on Sarah’s shoulder again, growing increasingly agitated. The air felt colder as they got to the landing at the top of the stairs, and Sarah dug out Athan’s phone to shine a light of her own in the room they came to first. A bedroom. There were quotes on the walls, some by Poe, himself…others by other famous authors, inspired by his works. On the other wall was a family tree. The next, a timeline of Poe’s life. Tony went straight for it.
We’re being watched…
Sarah shone the light towards him as his voice flitted through the bond, whispering like anyone other than the two of them could hear it. He jerked his head to the door, and a shadow cast by moonlight draped over the wooden floor of the adjacent bedroom…a shadow with the most familiar likeness.
“Wait,” Tony breathed, squinting at the family tree. He drew his brows and looked over at them. “He married his cousin?Thatwas the long story?”
Sarah chuckled through her nose. “Fun trip, yeah?”
“That’s weird even for me,” he sighed, shaking his head. Athan couldn’t help but smirk.
The light mood quickly disappeared as Poe leapt from her shoulder, and the echo of wing beats bounced off thewalls. He disappeared into the darkness, and straight into the bedroom, where the shadow on the floor was joined by his raven.
“Is it you?” Sarah called, gripping Athan’s hand. A bitter chill raked down his spine, and she stiffened next to him. Tony went still as death behind them. “You went through a lot of trouble to get us here. You coulda saved me some by at least saying hello to your daughter…Edgar.”
The shadow shifted, and a voice like death itself spoke out into the dark.
“Man’s real life is happy…chiefly because he is ever expecting that it soon will be so.”
Sarah’s grip tightened. Athan didn’t have words…but she seemed to have plenty. “Only an asshole would quote himself, after an eternity of fame. Especially in the face of his only blood. You expect me to believe you’re happy?”
The poet’s chuckle was as creepy as his work. “But I am. Please,” he started. “Come here. Let me see you.”
This was the moment. A moment for something extraordinary. A moment for something dreadful. A moment that would change everything they knew about the world…about themselves. It would never be the same after tonight. He could hear Sarah’s heartbeat. Her scent changed. Her blood raged. His joined it, ready to shed for her if necessary. One step…two…three. They entered the room, and Athan’s eyes raised to the window, where tendrils of moonlight made a silhouette of the man he’d once wished he could be.
“You have no reason to be happy. I’m going to kill you tonight,” Sarah promised.
“Well…” he breathed. “Thank Heaven. The crisis…the danger is passed. The lingering illness, is over at last…”
“And the fever called living is conquered at last…” Athan finished.
Silence.
“Did you believe that I orchestrated all of this tolive?You’re of a mind filled with the inner workings of what most believed to be insanity. But you’re still of that mind, Lenore.Mymind. Myblood. You’re far more intelligent than that.”
“I’m not your Lenore,” Sarah bit through her clenched teeth. “I’m not youranything. You want your death? I’ll gladly give it to you. But not until you answer every question I have.”
