The Raven Four Books 1-3 - Jessica Sorensen Page 0,36
He sits up straight, removing his arm from my shoulders and plastering on a smile. “But whatever the reason you did it, you are now officially one of us.”
“And what if I keep refusing to be part of your circle?” I ask. “What will you do to me?”
“Nothing. And you want to know why? Because you’re not going to refuse.” He laces his fingers through mine and stands up, pulling me up with him. “Not after you hear the benefits.” He pauses, as if waiting for something, then his head bobs back as he lets out a frustrated groan. “Oh, come on, you’ve got to give me something other than silence.”
“Okay… But I’m not sure what you want from me.”
He groans again then looks at me, wetting his lips with his tongue. “Do me a favor and try not to say stuff like that to me, okay? Jax is gonna make up these stupid rules that won’t let me answer that kind of question truthfully. At least not with you.”
Catching on to what he’s saying, I nod. “I’ll never ask it again.”
“Don’t say never, little raven.” He grins impishly.
“Good God,” I groan. “Stop calling me that.”
“But it’s so fitting.” The corners of my lips twitch as I narrow my eyes at him. “Oh come on. Stop giving me that look. Deep down, you know you’re meant to be one of us. Not just because you’re crazy as hell, but because of your name. I mean, it’s like fate brought you to us or something.”
“Yeah, I don’t agree with you.” I pause, wondering something. “Why did you guys end up calling yourselves The Raven Four?”
His eyes sparkle mischievously. “I’m going to let you in on a little secret, but you can’t tell Zay, okay?” He waits for me to nod, then leans in. “When Zay was little, he was really into birds. He would make Jax and I go bird watching with him for like hours every day. It was the most boring thing I’ve ever done, but I did it for him because while Zay and I aren’t technically blood related, he’s my brother in every way that counts.”
“So you named your group The Raven Three because Zay was really into birds?” That’s really the entire story?
“Not completely.” He hesitates. “Zay actually used to have a pet raven.”
“Is that even legal?”
Hunter gives me a really look. “Does Zay seem like the kind of guy that’d care if it wasn’t?”
“Good point.”
He offers me a small smile, but then it fades. “But anyway, Zay had this raven that he called Raven.”
“No way,” I say. “You’re messing with me.”
He looks at me in all seriousness. “I swear I’m not. He named it Raven because his dad told him that giving something a name, or nickname, made them more important to you, and that made you weak, so Zay rarely uses people’s names, or gives people nicknames. And his dad used to—and still does—refer to Zay as Kid. It’s really messed up… But that’s kind of the story of all our lives… But anyway…” He clears his throat, looking a way for a second before glancing back at me. “To make a long story short, Zay’s dad killed his raven on the same day we created our group. Zay was upset, but he wouldn’t admit it. So to honor the bird, we decided to name our group after it.”
So many questions fill up my mind, like why did Zay’s dad kill the raven? And why is Zay calling me princess if he doesn’t give nicknames?
“That’s really messed up.” My heart hurts a little for Zay. “I mean, that his dad killed his bird.”
He offers me a sad smile. “Messed up is what we are, little raven. And I think, deep down, you’re just as messed up as us.”
I want to argue, even though it might be a lie, but then some old clock chimes off the time, making me aware of how late it is.
Crap. I can’t even text my aunt to let her know where I am. Not that she’ll be worried. No, she’ll be irritated that I wasn’t home in time to clean the house, something she makes me do whenever I misbehave like I did this morning … So, yeah, I clean the house a lot.
“I need to get home, like, soon, especially since someone threw my phone out the window.” I narrow my eyes at him, but it’s kind of a playful move.