Landed Wings - By Skylhur Tranqille Page 0,37
by force if necessary.”
By force? Ash’s mom is crazier than I thought.
“Will you be there?”
“No. The rebels sent a message out, saying the Ash was somewhere else, but my spies are better than theirs. I’m not going so that they will feel like their plan is working. Oh, and Obsidian? When you are around her…watch your thoughts.”
“Wha-”
She hangs up.
“What did she say?”
I’d forgotten Ivory was here. I want to go somewhere quiet and think about what Ash’s mom said, but Ivory is here and I have to explain everything to her. I feel a seed of frustration, but it is my fault. I had called her here.
“She knows where Ash is. And she lied to me. Ash…Ash went voluntarily.”
“Why would Ash do that?”
“Well, I asked her, but she sort of…well she made Ash sound like someone who’s just looking for an adventure.”
“That doesn’t make sense to me. Ash wouldn’t leave unless she had good reason to. And we already knew that Ash went voluntarily. The note remember?”
“No, Ive, I thought we had decided she had been forced to write that.”
“Well we know now, don’t we Ob? And I never believed she was forced to go. I know Ash, and she’s not stupid or naive. She wouldn’t just run off. I know you wanted to believe that she was forced, so I didn’t say anything but I never believed it.”
It makes me mad that I’m so transparent. Volatile Raven calls me.
“They want me to go to some event on Friday where Ash is performing.”
“Why will Ash be performing?”
“I don’t know, her mom says, she’s helping the rebels.”
“And what are you supposed to do there?”
“Convince her to come back with me, by force if necessary.”
“Are you crazy? You’re not serious, right? Because if you are-”
“I have to.”
“Why do you have to?”
“Because I asked her about Raven. She tried to tell me she has no idea where Raven is. But I know she does. I think that bring back Ash, they’re going to tell me where Raven is.”
“And how do you know all this? Did she tell you that too?”
“No…she didn’t but she did ask about my parents. She wanted to tell me she knows more than she’s saying. It’s not what she said, it’s what she didn’t say. If I get Ash for her, I get my
family back. I know you don’t understand Ive but…I just have this feeling.”
Chapter 23: PAIN
RAVEN
The lights flickered above Raven’s head and water dripped down in a deadening pattern of drips. Raven listened to the drips and tried to let it distract her from her pain. It didn’t work, but then she hadn’t expected it to. Raven thought, in an abstract kind of way, about all of the books she read. She remembered when the heroine was taken away to some dark dungeon and tortured but the thought of her love blocked all pain from the moment. Well, Raven had tried that and she now knew that didn’t work. She knew that pain wasn’t something you could just will away. No, thoughts could do nothing. All you could do was deal with it. And it didn’t make the pain any less. There was no accepting the pain, or ignoring it. There was no out of body experience or sudden surge of strength. There was just it. And you just had to deal. Raven looked at her broken wing. It was lying uselessly by her side. She didn’t remember how it had happened, but the fact of it was there, and couldn’t be ignored. She wished she could remember how it happened. Who had done it…how. Because when she gets out, she wants the anger and pain in her memories to give her the ammunition to take them down.
Chapter 24: FANTASY
ASHLYNN
We leave the building without incident and head back to what is now our home.
“Mocha! We have to talk.”
“We do nothing but talk.”
Wow, that hurts, what’s his problem?
“I know you don’t want to talk about it, but I have some
questions about the gala.”
He makes a face and plops on to the couch.
“How will I know who the person is? The one I’m supposed to get to talk to me?”
“I’ll point him out to you.”
“So you have permission to be there?”
“I don’t need permission Ash, I’m wing trained and
everything.”
“Funny.”
“What would you be doing Mocha? If you weren’t doing this?”
“I can’t imagine not doing this.”
“Mocha, you don’t want to spend your whole life fighting, right?”
“No it’s just…well I never thought about doing something else. What would you do?”
“That’s easy. I