The Raven Four Books 1-3 - Jessica Sorensen Page 0,105

pendant my sister had when she was younger.”

Oh. “You have a sister?” I ask, retrieving the pendant from my pocket.

He nods, taking the pendant from me. “Yeah, she’s just over a year older than me.” He examines the pendant with a pucker between his brows. “You’ll probably get to meet her soon. She stops by the house sometimes.” He smooths his thumb over the pendant then hands it back to me. “It’s not hers.”

“It’d be kinda weird if it was,” I tell him, stuffing the pendant back into my pocket. “Or, at least, it’d be weird if it was hers and my uncle was trying to burn it in the middle of the night.”

“Maybe he wasn’t trying to burn it,” he says. “Maybe it just happened to be out there in the field by where the fire was.”

“Huh? I hadn’t thought of that.” I doubt that’s the case.

No, this pendant means something to me.

“I’ll be right back,” Hunter tells me with a small smile as he starts to get up. “Jax just send me a text and says he needs my help with something.”

I know he’s lying because he never took out his phone. But he doesn’t give me time to point that out, hurrying away from the table.

I sit there in silence, trying to figure out what’s going on when the entrance door flies open and a raven flies into the diner.

“What the hell!” Mable shouts as she rushes out from the kitchen.

The raven does a quick circle around the space then dives toward me. I duck, covering my head with my hands and closing my eyes.

Flap…

Flap…

Flap…

Feathers everywhere …

Don’t worry. We’re in this together …

My hands around their throat…

Blood on my hands…

Hurt them.

I start to get to my feet.

Flap…

Flap…

Flap…

I blink from the memories as the air grows quiet again. I glance around and the bird is gone, and Mable is closing the door.

“Jesus,” she mutters as she turns to me. “Are you okay, honey?”

“Yeah, I’m fine,” I lie in a shaky tone.

What the hell was that? Why did I feel like… Well, almost like I felt on the day my parents died, as if I dazed off and forgot about everything.

She gives me a quick glance over, like she doesn’t believe me. “Well, I don’t believe in curses, but if I did, I’d say my diner just got cursed.”

“Or I did,” I mutter quietly enough that she doesn’t hear me. “It flew after me.”

And unlike Mable, I believe in curses. So what does a raven flying over my head mean? That I’m cursed again? That I’m going to kill again?

Blood on my hands…

Hurt them…

Kill them…

I swallow hard as for a brief instant I swear I can almost feel myself squeezing the life out of someone. And all that fills my mind in that moment is the noise of flapping wings.

Twenty-Seven

Hunter

I’m trying to be as calm as possible, and lucky for me, I’m a pro at that sort of shit. But eventually, the restlessness becomes too much, so I leave Raven to go back to the office where Jax is. As I enter the hallway, though, he’s just exiting the office.

“Let me guess,” he says when he sees me. “Everyone’s restless to get to school and you came here to tell me to hurry up?”

I shake my head, my chest feeling extremely tight. “No, that’s not even close.”

The uneasiness in my tone makes him instantly tense. “What the fuck is wrong now?”

I glance nervously over my shoulder then shove him back inside the office, shutting the door behind us. “You …” I pause, trying to choose the right words that won’t make both of us lose our shit. Because the subject I’m about to approach is a touchy one for both of us.

Jax crosses his arms, trying to appear calm but tension is flowing off him. “Just spit it out.”

Releasing a loud breath, I slump back against the door. “You remember that time in our life when our fathers made us … play that game… And there was that girl they would bring in … And we … And we … Well … I mean, I can’t remember much of it, but I know we …” I can’t even say it aloud. It’s why I rarely let myself think about it. Because the guilt crushes me. I blow out a shaky breath. “But anyway, remember how we gave her that necklace? And then not too long after that, she stopped being brought to the house and we never found out

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