Page 151 of White Raven
BANG!
That incredible brain splattered on the wall, coating the raven who leapt from the bust. The long-tormenting sickness went with it. Poe’s body went limp, Sarah ramming her hand into his chest, and holding him steady as she wept. Tony came to the other side of the body, taking one arm, as Athan took the other, holstering his gun. The sound was sickening, as the limbs were ripped away from his torso. They threw the arms to the floor. The thud echoed with flaps of wings, and the call of the raven. Athan gripped Poe’s head with both hands, twisting it off his shoulders, and it too, hit the floor. Tony took off a leg. Athan ripped off the other. Dark blood was everywhere. Sarah’s wrist twisted, and she pulled back his heart as the rest of Poe’s body thudded against the wood. The raven called again, the sound haunting them from the hallway beyond the bedroom door, as dawn crept through the window.
She held the silent heart in her bloody hand and stared at its ghostly calm.
“We only have three hours before this museum opens,” Tony said, gathering limbs, and brain matter. “What do we do?”
Sarah slowly turned; her fingers still wrapped around the heart. Her eyes were a deadly mix of pleasure, and pain.Vengeance, and heartbreak. A molotov of pure darkness. “Rip up the planks,” she said, meeting Athan’s gaze.
An ending written by the dead itself.
Tony helped, as Athan did exactly as she asked. They stuffed the body into the floor. His severed head rested on the torso. The arms were positioned to hold the final piece—the piece Sarah placed herself—into the hands that crafted the most sinister of tales. With the blood becoming sticky on their fingers, they worked to get the planks back in, hiding the body from view. The last plank covered his face…his depthless eyes, as they glazed over and stared forward.
Athan knelt over the boards, glancing at Sarah, who sighed with something like…relief. Like a tremendous weight had been lifted from her, and for the first time in such a long time…she couldbreathe.
She solved the case. She took down the bad guy. She’d saved his life.
She’d saved Poe’s‘poor soul’.
“I’m gonna go downstairs and see if I can find something to clean this up with,” Tony offered, plopping his cap back onto his head. Athan dipped his chin, and Sarah seemed…confusedas he looked back at her.
“I know this is…you know, probably a stupid thing to ask, but…are you alright?”
She glanced around, nervously.
“Where—where is Poe? It’s too fucking quiet.”
It took him a moment after everything they’d just learned—everything they’d just done—to realize she was talking about thebird…not the poet. Athan stood, remembering the sound of wings and caws down the hallway. He headed for the other bedroom, Sarah on his heels, and there…on the floor beneath the large rendition of Poe’s family tree…was their lifeless companion. Sarah gasped, rushing to where he lay, wingsoutstretched, and bent in unimaginable ways. Athan’s heart cracked.
“No,”she whispered, emotion clogging her throat. This was gonna break her harder than the man they’d just killed. It would break him too. Whatever Poe was…his soul—his existence—was paired with his true master…who was no longer alive. It hadn’t crossed either of their minds that he would die with him.
Athan lowered himself beside them, trying to figure out a way to say goodbye to the symbol of who he was.
Who he’d always be.
Tony wasn’t sure which was harder to believe: the fact that every detail of Poe’s story fit with everything they’d learned about him, or the fact that they’d just executed and dismembered the most famous poet in the world—in the exact way that he’d murdered a man in one of his most well-known stories. Every bit of this night was preposterous. They’d dug Athan out of a grave meant for a writer they’d just buried in the floor. This was the second museum they’d been in, where they found a hell of a lot more than they’d expected to. Now, he was trudging up a flight of stairs with a broom, a mop, and a bucket of soapy water from the janitor’s closet on the first floor, about to clean up the remains of—this wasinsane.
He tried to wrap his head around it, barely noticing that Athan and Sarah were in the other room…on the floor.
“What’s going on?” he asked, confused as Sarah’s tear-stricken face stared up at him. Athan’s bird. “Oh, no…”
“I’m not leaving him here,” she wept, cradling his limp body to her as the bird’s head hung to the side. “He’s ours. He’s always been ours.”
Tony considered something. It might have been just as ludicrous as the rest of this shit, but…maybe it was worth a shot.
“Um…mate?” Kane looked up at him. “In light of…everything that man just unloaded in there…I would gather that…she’s right.”
“What?” Kane asked, lowering his brows. Sarah’s light of hope shone in her hazel orbs.
Tony leaned on the mop handle and gestured towards the dead bird. “Well, he first belonged to Poe, right? Her blood saves. Heals. He just spent the past hour begging you guys to redeem his legacy. The birdisyours…technically.”
“A new master…” Sarah whispered, stroking the raven’s fluffy breast. “That’s it!” She bit into her wrist and dripped her essence into its beak. At first…nothing happened. Tony wondered if he’d given them false hope and was about to be overcome with guilt for the idea. Until…
His wings shuddered. The bones cracked into place. His beak clicked, and the haunting eyes, once again, sparked to life. The raven turned its head, staring up at its new owner, who cried as she smiled, and adjusted him to perch on her healing wrist. Kane dragged both his hands through his hair and blew out a harsh breath of relief. Tony nodded in happiness, smiling as he turned around to go clean the carnage from the other room. As he approached the doorway…he heard something.
Kane and Sarah were cooing, and celebrating the resurrection of their companion as he looked back at them, completely unaware of what he knew he wasn’t mistaking. Tony stepped closer to the planks they’d placed to hide Poe’s body…and beneath it…
Thump-thump…thump-thump…thump-thump…
