Novak Raven (Harper's Mountains #4)(64)

Benjamin was right on her tail feathers. She could feel him getting closer, so she blasted up the stairwell and into the first floor. Frantically, she searched for an open window, open door, something. She made two desperate passes through the dining room and living room.

The house was locked up tight, though. The bedroom doors were closed, and the windows were covered with blinds that would tangle her up. She ducked sharply out of the way of Benjamin’s outstretched talons, flittering this way and that to avoid him. There! The small window above the kitchen sink only had two thin curtains over it, no blinds. Her raven was big, and the window was small. It would be close. She could get trapped and bleed out on the glass, but there was no other way. Benjamin would get her if she stayed in here, and she was running out of time. She had to find Weston. She had to help him.

He was her heart, her blood. She couldn’t live without him.

Avery gained speed, flapping furiously as she angled toward the window. She clamped her beak onto the camera and hoped to hell she kept it secure. And then like a torpedo, she dove for the window, Benjamin right on her tail. She tucked her wings as tightly as she could and smashed through the window. The pain was blinding, not only on her face, but when she opened her eyes and the glass was raining all around her, something sharp and excruciating radiated through her right wing.

The camera slipped out of her grasp, and she watched in horror as it catapulted toward the ground. Determined, she dive-bombed, but something hit her on the back like a cannon ball, and she blasted into the dirt.

Before she even could right herself, Benjamin was on her, pecking, slashing, raking his nails across her breast feathers. Fury rocked her. All these years, they’d trained her raven to be small and submissive. Fuck that. This was where Avery took her raven back and let her be as aggressive and dominant as she wanted. This was where Avery gave her raven permission to be a War Bird like Weston was.

With a battle screech, she rolled him over and slammed her beak into his neck, into his eye, against his skull. He fought, but not like her. And the second she gained ground, dominated, hurt him, she stretched her wings, ignoring the horrible pain that arced like electric currents through her body, and she hopped to the camera sitting in the middle of the sea of glass.

Benjamin was flapping in the dirt, righting himself, but he was shaking his head hard, as though she’d knocked him straight into confusion. Good. Fucker deserved that and worse. One of his eyes was bleeding bad, and the other flashed with hatred and pain in the glow of the kitchen light, but Avery couldn’t conjure a single solitary f*ck right now. She needed to get to Weston.

Camera in her beak, she flapped her wings hard and was nearly immobilized by the pain. Something reflective flashed right by her face, scaring her, and when she banked to the left and arched her gaze, she could see it. A huge shard of glass was lodged in her wing, right at the base, glistening with blood and moonlight. But something else flashed in the reflection of the jagged glass as she flapped upward into the sky. Something orange and glowing.

Avery searched desperately across the tree line. A bonfire had been built in the woods of The Hollow. Bonfires were only for special occasions. They signified Change, or were built when a severe punishment was being decided on.

She wanted to scream in agony with every beat of her wings, but she could hear it now. She could hear the collective caw, caw of the flock. Something awful was happening. And as she struggled over the last line of trees, Avery saw him. Weston leapt into the air, human and naked, covered in crimson gashes, muscles flexing as he reached for a dive-bombing raven. He grasped the bird and slammed it to the ground, and mid-jump, his raven exploded from him and continued to battle. A hundred ravens swarmed around him, pecking and slashing. They surged onto him in a ball of violence as he thrashed and fought. He couldn’t even spread his wings, so he was falling with the rest of them.

Caden was standing to the side, glowing like a demon in the firelight, chin lifted high, eyes full of raw triumph as he watched his people bleed the Novak Raven.

She would kill them all to see Weston live. Kill them all to save one.

Avery swooped lower, dropped the camera into a fern, and flapped furiously toward the battle, pain be damned. Weston Changed into his human form right before he hit the ground, and he fought savagely. His face was full of intensity, not fear, as though he knew exactly how to fight a war like this. The hoard of ravens lifted as Weston ducked, hit, and grabbed. He never missed, and he was so fast he blurred.

And when he ran and leapt into the air with ravens trailing, Avery tucked her wings and smashed into the closest two. Their talons had been out, ready to hurt him mid-Change, but as Avery barreled into them, the power of Weston’s shift blasted through her. Everything slowed as she stretched her wings to catch the currents and Weston, just under her, flipped upside down and stretched for her, war in his eyes. She cawed at him. It’s me, my love. I’m here. The death-bringer in his eyes softened. He answered with a strong, bellowing battle cry, and then he arched his back and fought the hoard following them. Taking his cue, Avery bowed her back and flew over the flock of blood-lusting ravens. She caught one by the outstretched claws and spun the raven around, slammed it into a tree trunk and searched for the next. Weston was engaged with three, flapping his wings desperately, trying to keep them all from slamming back down to earth. He couldn’t bear more weight, so she dive-bombed the fourth, knocked it off course. Above, ravens circled, cawing constantly, drawing more and more of the flock into the battle, and it was her and Weston against the entirety of Raven’s Hollow.