The Last Raven: An Urban Fantasy Noir (Riftborn Book 1) by Steve McHugh

Author:Steve McHugh [McHugh, Steve]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Podium Publishing
Published: 2022-11-07T16:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

There are two places you can leave the embers from on Earth. One is where you consider your home. The second is where you have something personal that means a lot to you. In my case, both of those options meant there was only one place I could go. My apartment in Brooklyn.

I opened my eyes and found myself sat on the floor of my apartment bedroom. My room was still as I’d left it. No one knew that I lived there; the entire apartment and all of the bills were under the name Matthew Nelson, so I wasn’t concerned that I’d arrive to a battalion of Mason Barnes’ private army.

I wondered if Dale had told his Sovereign Humanity buddies that we lived in the same building, but there wasn’t much I could do about that right now.

I opened my wardrobe and unearthed the safe. I hadn’t expected to be opening it again so soon, but if my life had taught me anything, it was to expect the unexpected.

I entered the code on the keypad, opened the safe door, and removed the contents, placing them all on my bed. I opened the black-velvet drawstring bag first, staring at the medallion as it tumbled into my hand. It looked identical to the one in Mason’s private room: a shield with a hammer and sword crossed over it, and a Raven perched atop. There was a space between the shield and hammer, where the two crossed, and I removed the green gem from my pocket and placed it inside.

The medallion flashed twice as the crystal fused itself to the metal, and when it was done, it flashed once more. The promise crystal would not be removed until the oath was fulfilled. However long that took.

I slipped the medallion over my head, feeling the cold metal chain against my skin. While I knew there was no going back to my quiet life, placing the medallion against my chest once more made everything feel even more real.

I opened the duffle bag, which contained a half a million dollars in bills and five more velvet pouches, each one containing another Raven medallion. I zipped the bag shut. I didn’t need them right now. There was also the larger velvet pouch, which I opened, removing the hooded mask inside. The mask was black with a dark grey hood, and there were dark grey marks around the eyeholes, and identically coloured slashes along either side of the mask. The mask of a Guild Talon.

I stared at the mask for several seconds. Talons are trained to remove threats to the Guild. Both internal and external. They’re trained to quietly deal with any problems that arise so that the Guild is kept safe and the members don’t need to be concerned with such matters. There are two Talons to every Guild, and they’re meant to keep their Guild safe. The second Talon had died defending the Guild. We had failed to keep our Guild safe. It was not a failure I would repeat.

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