Ravensong (Green Creek 2)

The rain poured down.

I said, “There were wolves. With the human.”

The Omega nodded slowly.

“A brown wolf. Big.”

“Yes,” he said. “Yes, yes.”

“Was he hurt?”

“I don’t—no. I don’t think so. Everything happened so fast, it was—”

“Richard Collins. Where is he?”

“I can’t—”

“You can,” I said, rolling up the right sleeve of my jacket. The rain was cold against my skin. “And you will.”

“Tioga,” he gasped. “He’s been in Tioga. Omegas came to him, and he told them to wait. That the time would come.”

I said, “Okay. Hey. Hey. Calm down. I need you to listen to me, okay?”

His eyes were bulging.

“Do you still hear him? Does he still call for you? In your head. Like an Alpha.”

“Yeah, yes, I can’t, it’s so loud, it’s like there’s something more, and he’s calling me to him, he’s calling for all of us to—”

“Good. Thank you. That’s what I needed to hear. Do you know there are mines underneath this town?”

His chest heaved. “Please, please, I won’t go to him no matter how hard he calls, no matter what he does, I won’t—”

“You’re an Omega. It won’t matter. Live long enough and you’ll lose your mind. You said it yourself.”

“No, no, nononono—”

I snapped my fingers in his face. “Focus. I asked you a question. Did you know there are mines under this town?”

His head snapped side to side. It looked painful.

“Just gravel and sand, mostly. But if you dig deep enough, if you go into the earth, you will find things that were missed.”

“What the hell are you—”

I pressed my hand flat against the ground. The raven’s wings twitched. Two wavy lines on my arm lit up. I breathed in. I breathed out. It was there. I just had to find it. It wasn’t the same as it was back home. It was harder here. Green Creek was different. I hadn’t realized how much.

“Witch,” the Omega hissed.

“Yes,” I agreed quietly. “And you just had an Alpha’s claws around your throat and lived to tell the tale. You went to my home and were shown mercy. But I am not a wolf. And I’m not exactly human. Veins underneath the earth. Sometimes so deep they will never be found. Until someone like me comes along. And I’m the one you should be scared of. Because I’m the worst of them all.”

His eyes turned violet.

He began to shift, face elongated, claws scraping along the brick of the alleyway.

But I’d found the silver in the earth, buried far beneath the surface.

I pulled it up and up and up until a little ball of silver struck my palm, molten and hot. The raven’s talons dug into the roses, and I slammed my hand against the side of the Omega’s head as he reached for me. The silver entered one side of his head and exited the other.