The Raven Four Books 1-3 - Jessica Sorensen Page 0,57

intense day, though, and Zay doesn’t handle emotions very well. Whenever things get too chaotic or intense, he replaces whatever’s going on inside him by bleeding it out of him or someone else.

Hunter turns around in the passenger seat to look at Zay. “What’s your deal today? This is the second time you’ve tried to pretend you’re all about the rules, but we all know you’re not.”

Zay slants forward and rests his arms on his knees. “If we bring Raven into the group and you fuck her, it’s going to cause drama. And I hate drama more than I hate rules.”

Hunter rolls his eyes. “Newsflash, brother: you’re the walking definition of drama.”

“Not girl drama,” he stresses. “That’s your thing.”

True. Hunter has been sleeping around since he turned thirteen and has never been with one girl more than once. But he has some deep, dark issues; ones that Zay and I are aware of, but no one else knows.

And Zay is the exact opposite of Hunter in every way. He never sleeps around; can barely stand being touched, which is another reason I’m worried he might have cut today—because of how much touching he did with the raven that fell into our lives.

But bringing it up with him is a complication. I know he’ll get pissed and probably throw my own issues into my face, which is part of the reason I’m not going to bring it up right now. The other reason is we all need a clear head right now. We need our masks on, the ones we put on when we’re around anyone else but each other. It’s how we keep our secrets a secret.

We’ve done a lot to make sure no one finds that out about who we really are. We’ve told lies and spread rumors to bury who we are.

It’s what we do. Have each other’s backs no matter what. Make sure no one knows our weakness so they can’t use them against us. This is how it’s been since we were old enough to realize how screwed up our families are. Then, when we turned twelve, we created The Raven Three just to set in stone who are and who we vow to be. It also a way to protect ourselves from all the evils in this town. And that’s how things have been since then. Just us three.

Until today, when Raven jumped off that damn bridge.

The three of us made a vow a long time ago that if anyone were ever brave enough to jump off the bridge, we’d bring them into our circle. Mostly it was just a joke and we never thought anyone would actually do it because to do it, you’ve got to be either a total adrenaline junkie or completely messed up in the head. We never thought some beautiful, scarred girl with the saddest eyes I’ve ever seen would be the one to do it.

But it’s not like we had to make her one of us just because we made some vow forever ago. We could’ve easily not told her after Zay pulled her out of the river. We could’ve just driven her home, but something about her sad eyes, the scars, her defiance, the loneliness seeping from her, the stuff Zay found out about her… She’s almost as fucked up as us and that made us want to bring her into our group.

But bringing a female into our group could complicate things, which is why we need rules. I just hope everyone will follow them, but none of us have ever been good at following rules.

As Zay and Hunter continue to argue, I focus on setting more rules. “We have the rule I set earlier when Raven was around, but I want to make another rule for just us that kind of goes with that one. So rule number two is no sleeping with her.”

“That doesn’t sound fun at all,” Hunter gripes, twisting back around in the seat.

“Rules aren’t meant to be fun,” I say as I slow down the car to make a turn. “Rule number three: no fighting over her. If there’s something that needs to be addressed that has to do with her, we’ll discuss it privately. I know that technically we’re going to bring her into our circle, but when it all comes down to it, if there’re any problems, it’ll end with just us three. Got it?”

Hunter melodramatically rolls his eyes. “Whatever, big brother. I get that you’re totally bossy.” When I continue