Chapter 25

Raven

Neil led me through the narrow streets of the town, our cloaks billowing behind us in the wind. He didn’t tell me where he was taking me, although his hand was oddly warm and reassuring around mine.

When we finally made it to our destination, though, I wished I hadn’t followed him.

The moment I saw that body on display on the wall just outside the town, I retched up all of the ale I had consumed—and then some.

Then, when I was finished expelling my guts onto the side of the road, I screamed and whirled toward Neil. He barely had enough time to leap out of the way before my fist went flying past his face.

“What the hell?!” I shrieked, clutching my stomach with one hand. “Why would you show me this?! You fucking asshole!”

Neil’s eyes blew wide at that. He took a step back, looking genuinely confused—as if he couldn’t for the life of him understand why I would be furious over seeing my pilot’s dead body on display.

“I thought you might want to see,” he said. “Pay your respects…”

I shook my head vigorously, refusing to look at the body. They had him… strung up on the wall. Hanging from a noose. With a sign that read ‘WEREWOLF SPY’ pinned to his chest.

At least they kept his clothes on; although the crows had already begun to make quick work of the sea-beaten fabric. As for his skin… They must have just killed him today, maybe yesterday. Thankfully, he wasn’t terribly decomposed yet, although he already looked bloated and blueish.

The crows were waiting for him to ferment for a little while longer before they began to feast. Not that it made it any less gruesome.

“Pay my respects?” I hissed, resisting the urge to gag once more. “What makes you think that I’d want to see a fellow Werewolf’s body hanging from the village wall?”

Neil just stared at me incredulously for a moment before reality seemed to dawn on him.

He shook his head. “I forgot that Werewolves do not view death in the same way we do.” He gestured to the body hanging behind me. “His soul is long gone by now. It’s just flesh.”

I pressed my hand into the stone wall to steady myself. “It doesn’t matter where his soul is, Neil. Are you really that dense to think that I wouldn’t be horrified by the sight of a fresh body on display? Or are you trying to terrify me into not running away from you?”

Neil was silent for a beat before he said, “Perhaps both.” He glanced up at the gruesome display with a slight grimace. “You should keep this—what my brothers are capable of—in mind if you try anything stupid again. But I will admit that it is a bit… much.”

“You think?” I growled, pushing away from the wall. “This was more than an execution. It was a message.”

The prince set his jaw hard, his eyes fixed on the body behind me. He remained quiet, but I got the sense that he didn’t necessarily disagree with me.

Still, no matter how horrible it was, I forced myself to turn and look at the pilot. Poor John—I’d hoped that they had killed him quickly, like the execution I’d seen in the forest. A beheading, lights out before he even noticed.

But this…

“I can’t leave him like this,” I whispered, my voice trembling as I looked up at him swinging slightly in the breeze. “It’s not… It’s not right.”

Neil glanced at me. “What are you—”

“I don’t know what sort of rites you have here, but in my land, we bury our dead,” I growled. “Without the proper ceremony, his soul might be trapped here. In pain. For eternity.”

“We cannot take him down,” Neil said a bit incredulously, turning to face me. He still smelled a bit like ale. “My brothers will investigate if someone moves the body of a political prisoner.”

I grit my teeth. “I know you’re cold, but you’re not that cold, Neil.”

For a long moment, the Lycan prince just gawked at me, lips slightly parted, eyes wheeling back and forth between my own. I could practically hear the gears in his head turning from here, but I held his gaze, just as I had held Ember’s, silently daring him to disagree with me.

“You know we could get caught,” he said.

“I can’t leave him here.”

Neil clenched his jaw and shook his head at my stubbornness. “Fine. But we have to move quickly.”

I nodded, steeling my stomach against what we had to do. I watched as Neil deftly scaled the wall, gripping protruding stones to hoist himself up. Once he was close enough, he slipped a knife out of his belt and sawed at the rope.

I turned away and plugged my ears while I waited for the body to fall.

Once Neil was back down, we wrapped the pilot’s body in our cloaks and picked him up. He was heavier than I expected, but with Neil holding his shoulders and me holding his ankles, we managed to quickly move him away from the wall and into the nearby forest.

Somehow, taking a few breaks along the way, we managed to move the pilot far enough into the forest where it would be unlikely for anyone to find him. Neil had stopped at a barn along the way to ‘borrow’ a shovel, which he used to start digging a hole.

As he worked, I began the rites. I picked some nearby wildflowers and herbs, as well as a couple of smooth stones. I held my breath, biting back tears, as I took the pilot’s stiff hands and moved them over his chest, then slipped the flowers into his icy grasp. Then, I placed the stones over his eyes.

“Moon Goddess,” I whispered, bowing my head over him, “please accept John into your embrace…”

Neil’s digging slowed, his labored breathing quieting as if giving me the space to pray.

When I was finished, I opened my eyes to find Neil standing at the edge of the hole with a solemn look on his face. I hadn’t realized it, but tears were now streaming openly down my cheeks.

“Okay,” I whispered, rising on shaky legs as I wiped my tears away with my sleeve. “Let’s bury him.”

Neil was silent as we carefully wrapped the pilot’s body in our cloaks once more and lowered him into the hole. Once we were finished, I grabbed a fistful of dirt from the pile and gingerly sprinkled it over the body, sniffling miserably.

I glanced at Neil, whose eyes were fixed on the body. In the moonlight, his raven black hair shone with a pale glow, gently ruffled by the breeze. There was something soft about him, something… contemplative.

Noticing my stare, he looked up at me and held my gaze for a moment before glancing down at the dirt staining my freshly-clipped nails.

He then clenched his jaw and took a fistful of dirt, sprinkling it over the body just as I had. I was silent as he bowed his head and clasped his right fist to his chest. He muttered something under his breath before he began to shovel the dirt back into the hole.

By the time we made it back to the castle, covered in dirt and exhausted, dawn was nearly breaking across the horizon. I had cried all the tears I had in me, leaving my eyes swollen and my face aching.

We stopped outside my door.

“Thank you,” I whispered, turning to him. “For helping me do that.”

The prince just nodded grimly. I felt my heart sink a little as he said, “Do not try to run again. Unless you want to wind up like him.” He paused, licking his lips briefly. “You have to trust me, Raven. So long as you do that, I won’t let you turn out like your pilot.”

Trust.

I swallowed hard, considering. Neil had stuck his neck out for me on multiple occasions now—maybe I could trust him, even if doing so was terrifying. If I couldn’t trust him, then I likely wouldn’t have even been alive tonight to bury John.

“I understand,” I managed.

With that, Neil turned on his heel to leave. But before he could go far, I grabbed his wrist and pulled him back. Without thinking, I raised myself onto my tiptoes and pressed a kiss against his cheek. He tasted like ale, sweat, and earth.

He looked just as surprised as I felt at that moment.

Without another word, I turned and slipped back into my room, shutting the door behind myself. Only then did I let out the rush of air building in my lungs, my heart pounding at the taste of his skin on my lips. I raised a trembling finger to my mouth as if a piece of him might still be there.

I didn’t hear footsteps outside my door at first—he was still there.

And for the briefest of moments, I felt his presence through our mate bond. Reaching out to me.

But then he was gone within an instant.