Raven Meadows's Arc

Chapter 1 of 25

Raven Meadows hauled a beam twice her weight across the mud, and it slipped, and she cursed the sky. She wanted a haven here in Marshoak, a home for every outcast creature the world had thrown out. She had the land. She had the plans, pinned to her cabinet beside the herbs and help pamphlets. What she did not have was a second pair of hands. The beam landed on her boot. She swore again and shoved her round glasses up her nose. The guest huts she'd started leaned like drunks. One good storm would flatten them. She knew this. She'd known it for a week. And still she picked the beam back up alone, because the alternative made her stomach twist. Asking for help meant talking to people. People who took one look at her spiky hair and black clothes and scowl and decided she was mean. They weren't wrong, exactly. She was mean. She was also tired, and the roof wasn't going to raise itself. "You're doing it wrong," said a voice above her. Raven looked up. An elf girl sat on the crooked porch rail, gold wings folded twice against her back because they were far too big for her. She swung her sandaled feet like she'd been there all morning. "I'm doing it fine," Raven said. "You're lying." The elf tilted her head. "I can always tell. It's a curse. Truly. I see what's true whether I want to or not." She hopped down and landed light. "For instance. You want to tell me to leave. But you don't want me to go." Raven's jaw tightened. "You don't know that." "I do, though. That's the whole problem with me." The elf grinned and picked up the other end of the beam without asking. "Willow. I've been watching you drop things for three days. It's very sad. You need help and you'd rather die than say so." Raven's face went hot. She almost snapped. The words sat ready in her mouth. Then Willow lifted her end clean off the mud, and the beam went level, and for the first time all week the weight halved. "I'm building a place," Raven said stiffly. "For creatures nobody else wants." "I know," Willow said. "That's why I stayed." They set the beam into the notch together. It fit. Raven stared at it, at the two of them, at the thing that had been impossible one minute ago. "You're a grump," Willow added cheerfully. "I don't mind grumps. Grumps mean what they say." Raven wiped her hands on her trousers. Her heart pounded like she'd run somewhere. "Fine," she said. "You can stay. But you follow my plans." "We'll see whose plans," Willow said, already reaching for the next beam. The haven had two builders now. And Raven, who'd sworn she needed no one, had just let someone in.