Reaper: A raven paranormal romance (Crookshollow ravens Book 2) Read Free Page B

this every week, and one day, we would bring our children to explore the castle.
    And here I was again, in the same garden, hoping that another man was going to come and save me. It was almost as if it wasn’t a coincidence, as if it was the universe telling me that things would be exactly the same. Cole and Ethan, what evidence did I have that they were really any different? I thought about what Victor had said about Cole killing his son, and I shivered.
    “Are you cold?” Victor asked me.
    “Er … no.” I stood up straight, not wanting to give Victor any indication that what he’d said was getting to me.
    “Good.” He unlocked a gate and showed me into a small courtyard, surrounded by a high stone wall. Large raised beds overflowed with vegetables and sweet-smelling herbs, and grapevines twisted around a large trellis arch, beneath which sat a lovely wooden bench. The place would have been beautiful if it weren’t part of my prison.
    “You can take the air in this area of the garden any time you like,” Victor said. “But I must ask that you restrict yourself only to this area. Do not go through the gate to the lower garden or around the side of the house. If I were you, I would not try another ill-conceived escape attempt.”
    “What’s to stop me from doing that, though?” I eyed the small, low gate at the end of the high stone wall that led around the side of the castle – a pathway to freedom. “You’re not really very good at this whole kidnapping thing.”
    “Oh, I don’t know about that.” Victor pointed up. I followed his long finger to the top of the stone wall, and my chest tightened with fear.
    Perched on the wall was a long line of ravens, each one staring down at me with cold, piercing eyes. There must have been a hundred of them lined up, guarding every square inch of the garden, staring down at me with black, silent faces. I couldn’t believe I hadn’t noticed them there earlier, but they were so still, so silent. Just watching.
    They were the same ravens that had brought me here, and now, they were my prison guards.
    Victor’s eyes burned into mine, his stare as cold as the birds’. I wasn’t going anywhere.

2
    Cole
    “ W ake up , sleepyhead.” A gentle voice cooed.
    I opened one eye, squinting in the bright light. I became aware of pain pounding against my skull. More pain flared through my whole body, a fire in my veins so intense I felt certain I must be burning up.
    So this is what it feels like to go out in a blazing inferno. I tried to focus my vision, but the light burned my eyes. I was trapped inside the fire, burning up. At least death would be a relief from the screaming pain.
    “Cole … can you hear me?”
    If I was dying, then who was speaking to me? It couldn’t be an angel. Bran don’t get visitations from angels. We’re expected to ferry our own souls into the underworld. I opened one eye again, steeling myself against the burning of my retina, and tried to discern what was going on.
    As my eyes adjusted, I saw the figure of a woman standing over me. Belinda. It must be. She was OK. An intense relief swept through my whole body. Belinda was safe, that was all that mattered.
    Slowly – my body protesting every movement – I reached out to her, my whole body pulsing with pain. I’d never known pain like this before.
    “Belinda, what happened? Where am—” I couldn’t finish my sentence. I gasped for air, my throat closing up.
    I tried to sit up, but the world spun crazily. I lost my balance and flopped back down against the soft surface I lay on. A bed. I was in a bed. But why? Where is the fire? Where is Belinda?
    “Don’t move,” the voice said. “You’ve hurt yourself pretty badly.”
    My head swam. I kept my eyes open, waiting for the blurriness to fade. The face looming over me came into view, and my heart sank when I saw it wasn’t Belinda at all, but her friend Alex. Gradually, the rest of my surroundings became clear. We were lying in my