Ravensong by Cayla Fay

Author:Cayla Fay
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers
Published: 2023-03-14T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER SIXTEEN

The shop was closed, but Alexandria stayed until the shift would’ve normally ended, asking so many questions that Neve’s head spun with them all.

Also, kissing.

Bay was notably absent as Neve walked through the front door and into an ambush by the Daughters. The buzz in Neve’s veins fizzled somewhat at their expressions.

“Keep that up and your faces are going to get stuck that way,” Neve said. She tried to breeze past them, but the Daughters weren’t having it.

“Explain yourself, young lady,” Daughter Clara demanded.

Not that young, Neve thought automatically. “I’m going to need you to be more specific.” Her voice was sharp, but the squirmy feeling returned to her stomach. She’d broken so many rules lately—told so many lies and too few truths—that she really did need the specificity.

“I don’t know what’s gotten into you,” Maeve said, planting her hands on her hips. “Phone calls home, getting called into the office, cutting class? Help me understand what is going on and why you insist upon causing trouble.”

Neve knew that she should just let it go, take her punishment, and go to her room without calling any more attention to herself, but after Alexandria’s revelation, Samhain, the dreams and laughter that now filtered into her waking hours, it was too much.

For the second time that day, Neve’s temper snapped.

“Trouble?” Her voice pitched high, the harmonics shifting as if she was building to a scream. “Cutting class isn’t trouble. Almost dying is trouble. Spending my lifetimes fighting a war I don’t remember starting is trouble. Getting slaughtered once every hundred years only to be reincarnated to do it all over again is trouble. Not to mention that the rest of our family just up and disappeared and no one seems to care where they went or if they’re even still alive, or worry that all this has been for nothing if we vanish too.”

Neve took a deep breath through her nose, squaring her shoulders and leveling her gaze at each of her stunned guardians in turn. “You guys are the ones who always insist that I embrace humanity or whatever, so congratulations, you got what you wanted. I’ve decided that I actually want to live this time around before I’m ripped to pieces, so forgive me if I’ve got better things to do than waste my time at Newgrange Harbor fucking High School!”

There was a collective inhale and Neve used the split-second pause to break past the Daughters.

The convent felt crushingly claustrophobic, the high walls and vaulted ceilings pressing in on her and making it impossible to breathe. Instead of going to her bedroom, Neve slipped out the back door and into the wildest part of the garden. She inhaled deeply, the sea air immediately tempering her anger. She was hollow without it, and the wind whistled as it blew through the hole in her chest.

Above her, Poe cawed from his roost in the enormous oak tree before screeching into the sky.

Neve watched the sun begin to descend below the horizon, leaching the world of color and replacing it with the same darkness that had taken root inside her.

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