Ravenous by Sierra Prynne

Author:Sierra Prynne [Prynne, Sierra]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Luring Press LLC
Published: 2024-05-02T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 20

Another hour saw the band packed and redressed in black silk robes embroidered with the crest of the Raven Court, downing pain pills with the rest of us. Everyone save the king stood in the rookery wearing those black robes, waiting on a slick of plastic laid out on the floor. Even Maja was there, her oversized robe pooling on the marble at her feet.

I did not envy the person or people who had to scoop the viscera off the floor after the fact, and I made a quick mental note to ask Mrs. Margolyes who had been doing it at Bear Glen so I could give them a raise.

So late in the summer, the reds and peaches and tangerines of the sunset had lingered; it was nearly ten o’clock before indigo surged across the sky, draping the rookery in deep shadows.

“Three minutes,” someone toned.

“Stop fidgeting!”

“Am I supposed to be itchy like this?”

The meds were kicking in, swaddling me in a buzzy warmth that made me think of summer vacations and mindless fun. I glanced around at the assembled party. Six of them, I’d learned, were having their first alteration here tonight; their eyes were glassy with anxiety, darting to the rest of us for cues as their impatient fingers ran along their robe belts. Hopefully, their pills worked; hopefully mine worked. Both of my unmedicated transformations had felt like being flayed, unwoven at the seams, and then sewn back together. Not the best way to have any first experience.

But I was excited to see Molly the magpie among them. She’d approached me when I entered the rookery to show off the tiny white feathers growing between her fingers. Tonight was her night.

I sent out a silent wish that tonight was Cass’s night, too.

I was surprised by the apprehension on the faces of those in the rookery who had already experienced transformations, though…until I wondered if they’d had pain meds to help them all the other times. From what I’d gathered at Bear Glen, accessible medication seemed to be the exception rather than the rule. It hurt my heart to imagine that pain experienced each month, the unfairness of having to suffer through monthly torment without guaranteed relief. Most women knew what this was like—it was their month-to-month reality—but it didn’t make it right.

So, I smiled warmly, reassuringly, anytime someone looked at me. Just in case one of them needed that. And I was glad to see I wasn’t the only one; Corby’s unflappable white grin was like a slice of early moonlight, joyous and glorious.

“Is the king coming?” asked Deryn, to no one in particular.

“Wouldn’t that be a treat,” said Corby. “To be able to say I saw a king own the sky!”

“His highness alights from his own wing,” Maja chirped.

“You heard why, right?” I hadn’t caught this person’s name, but I recognized him—the honey-nut guy from the library.

I didn’t know why I wanted to know. “Why?”

“I heard he’s not a real raven,” the guy said. “That his mum might have slept with a visiting magpie.

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