Page 303 of Midnights
The silence settles, dragging at my body. My head tips back against the chair, just for a second. When I open my eyes, I’m not in my office.
I’m in the woods.
The air smells like pine and damp earth, and I can hear the distant rustle of leaves filling the silence. The wilderness stretches out ahead, familiar in a way it shouldn’t be.
I tilt my head back, watching birds cut through the treetops, dark shapes against the pale morning light. One raven dips low, circling close, and a dry chuckle slips out. Of course my mind would conjure her.
The laugh dies fast, and every instinct tells me something's not right.
The air shifts as the trees stretch taller, their branches knotting like skeletal hands overhead, and I can feel the shadows thicken around me.
A single caw pierces the stillness, sharp enough to command my attention. The raven doesn’t land—it hovers above, circling, waiting. A shiver creeps down my spine, tightening every muscle in my body. Then the stormbreaks and lightning tears across the sky, bathing the forest in white, and for a single blinding second, I see her.
Darkness swallows the forest whole. Thunder tears through the trees, low and earth-shattering, as rain slams into the ground, soaking through the dirt in seconds and filling the air with its sharp, electric bite. I can’t see through it, but it doesn't matter. I know what I saw.
“Raven?”
I push through the downpour, rain slicing into me, but she doesn’t move or react. Every muscle in me coils tight as I take her in. Her lips part like she wants to speak but can’t, and the fire in her eyes is gone, replaced by something hollow and haunted. My gut twists hard. Nothing about this is right.
“What are you doing out here, Princess?”
She doesn't answer. She just stands there, drenched, and pale, staring right through me.
“Princess.” My tone is sharp, threaded with urgency I can't mask. “What’s wrong, what happened?”
She finally looks at me, and the raw, unfiltered fear in her eyes tears at something I don't fucking name. But I feel it. Deep and unforgiving.
Her lips part, and her voice is barely more than a breath, “Something’s wrong.”
My spine locks. Her words cut through me, and it's like something's circling her, reaching for her.
“I can feel it,” she continues. Her brows knit together like she’s fighting to grasp something just out of reach. “I don’t know what’s happening to me…” She trails off, her throat working around the words that never come. Then, her hand flies to her head.
She winces, and her entire body tenses.
“Raven.”
I reach for her, instinct taking over, my hands closing around her waist just as she sways. The second my fingers touch her, the storm doesn’t just surround us—it’s everywhere. And I have no fucking clue what to do. The wind shifts, slamming into us with a force that has the trees thrashing like they’re fighting against something unseen. The air hums, charged with something unnatural.
Lightning cuts across the sky, white fire cutting through the black. It illuminates her and the sight guts me—she's shaking, her whole body rigid with something I can't touch.
“It’s not safe,” she whispers, jerking back. Her voice is so soft, I almost don’t hear it over the storm. “I feel stuck. I can't reach her. I’m sca—”
Her words cut off, a ragged gasp tearing from her throat as her body seizes. The sound carves into me, and all I want is to rip apart whatever's got its claws in her.
“Raven!”
I lunge forward, grabbing her as she screams. A sound so gut-wrenching, it tears through my ribs like a blade. She clutches her chest, fingers digging into the fabric like she’s being ripped apart from the inside, but there's nothing I can do.
Panic claws at my ribs. “Raven, sweetheart, talk to me.”
Her fingers latch onto my bicep, tight enough to bruise, and sharp enough to break skin. The second she touches me I feel a surge of energy explode between us.
Her body jerks violently, and my grip tightens, anchoring her in place. My fingers dig into her waist as I force her to look at me.
“Raven, you have to wake up.”
She stays limp, and it rips a curse out of me. I shake her once, then harder, every muscle wired tight with the need to drag her back.
