Raven Ashford's Arc

Chapter 2 of 1

Morning came gray through the stained glass. Raven had slept against the door, the bar still across it. The cat sat on the sill where she had left it, watching the trees. She wanted the man with purple eyes. She had said she would find him. But she did not know these woods, and the thing that hunted her might still be out there. The cat jumped down. It walked to the door and scratched once at the wood. Then it looked back at her, the same look it had given her in the brush. Raven understood. It was offering to lead her again. "You're his," she said. "Take me to him." She lifted the bar. The cat slipped out into the cold. Raven followed, boots crunching on frost. The cat kept ahead of her, never fast, always in sight. When she slowed, it stopped. When she caught up, it moved. It led her past black trunks and pink-and-green leaves, over a stream, up a slope of wet stone. Then the trees opened again. A giant tree stood ahead, taller than any she had seen. Vines climbed its trunk, broad split leaves streaked with pink. The cat trotted to the base and sat. Something shifted in the shadow of the vines. Wings unfolded, deep purple, long enough to brush the roots. The stranger stepped out. His dark hair fell across his face. His hand rested on the sword at his hip, the hilt purple, the blade marked with fine lines. He did not reach for it. He only watched her, the way he had watched the cottage. Raven stopped a few steps away. Her chest ached, the same ache as every time he had vanished. Now he was not vanishing. "You called me here," she said. Her voice shook. "You've watched me the whole time. I want to know why." He was quiet. His purple eyes moved over her face like he was memorizing it. "I called you because I could not stay away," he said. His voice was low and even. "And I watched because I could not keep you safe any closer. The thing in the woods would come faster if it knew what you are to me." "What am I to you?" "The reason I opened the door between worlds." He glanced past her, toward the trees, then back. "I can't tell you the rest here. It isn't safe in the open. Come with me. I have a place with walls." He held out a gloved hand. The cat stood and pressed against his boot. Raven looked at the hand, then at the woods behind her, where the predator had paced in the dark. She took his hand. His fingers closed warm around hers. "Then show me," she said. He turned her toward a path she had not seen. Whatever hunted her was still out there. But now she walked beside the man she had crossed worlds to find, and she was not following a cat anymore.