A Gift from the Goddess

Book Two-Ch.# 37 “NO!” Kieran roared.

And right as the dagger pierced the surface of my shoulder, Daniel was promptly pushed off me.

“I said *don’t touch her*,” he growled.

The weight of his words fell over everyone in the room, and once again | experienced the tangible sway of his order.

“Kieran,” Daniel huffed out, unable to get back up to his feet. “She-.” “No, enough! You're hereby forbidden from moving until further notice,” Kieran said. ” That goes for you too Allison. Sit down. Now. And | don’t want to hear another word from either of you.” Allison gritted her teeth but did as she was told.

“What... What is that?” | asked. “What did you do to them?” Kieran looked defeated as he straightened back up, unable to meet my eyes. He simply stared at two people he held dear as they were trapped on the floor.

“An Alpha heir order,” he said. “It'll only hold them long enough until a full ranked member arrives though.” “Kieran-.” “Leave... Rae,” he said quietly. “I can’t do anything else for you now.” The pain in his voice was clear, an echo in it that stung me. | didn’t want to upset him further, and so, with one hand covering the shallow new wound to my shoulder, | hobbled back to my feet to grab the book and dagger.

“There's a cupboard to your left which has an emergency hidden staircase inside it. Use that and follow it all the way down. It'll take you to the car park outside safely without being seen.” Just as he'd said, upon inspecting the cupboard, there was indeed a staircase inside. But as | stared into the dark passage ahead, | hesitated once more.

...This was the last t| might see him. Did | really want to leave things like this? With lies intended to push him away and a head full of questions? “Kieran... I...,” | said, my voice trailing off.

So many things | wanted to say, to explain, to ask about. All of which would take too long to get through. And so, in the end, | settled for one thing.

Just one line.

“...I'm sorry,” | whispered.

And | slipped through the doorway without another word, beginning the descent down.

“This isn’t over, Rae,” he called out behind me. “I'll find you. | promise.” But | just wiped at the stray tear that had escaped my eye and kept walking.

There were a lot of promises that were made lately. Too many.

“Do yourself a favour for both our sakes, Kieran,” | said quietly. “...Forget about me. My survival might just rely on that very thing.” | knew what awaitednow. The only remaining path left.

A path that would leadto the one place | ever truly belonged.

Back into the shadow of my father.

But first... first | had a job to do.

And as | got into the car and drove like hell out of Ashwood, | was reminded of the fact that my absence had been long. Perhaps too long for an impatient man such as my father. | knew it would be punishable to return like this empty-handed.

| felt numb as | went through the motions. | wasn’t quite ready to acknowledge everything that had happened, simply just trying to get through the day without breaking down. To keep moving without remembering his face or how much...

-No. | couldn’t think about Kieran anymore. He didn’t exist as of today.

Now, it was onlyvs... them.

Long gone were my naive days of the past. Now, I'd need to work even harder to hide my presence, an entire species probably soon intending to huntdown. Because if a war could span over fifty years because of one pack, then | was sure that they weren't keen to just letdie of old age naturally.

The look of hatred on Allison's face still hauntedevery t| blinked.

“Here you are...,” | said to myself in the confines of a dark office.

The safe stared up atfrom within the floorboard, promising to givethe very thing that had started all of this. What my father had been desperate to get his hands on all this time.

“My entire life was ruined because of you. Perhaps if you'd never existed, | could have lived my life in ignorance until death cfor me. That sounds better than this... than now living with this pain.” | bit my tongue. There was no pain because | was fine. Completely fine. Just... a girl doing her job. And | pushed back the feelings threatening to break me.

It only took a couple of minutes to crack into the lock, Miles clearly not investing enough in security, but soon enough | caught my first glimpse of the coveted contents.

...The documents my father had been after.

And | could see why.

It was years worth of business transactions, photos and other pieces of evidence that would be enough to crumble my father’s business to dust. Yes... Miles was a smuggler, but at spoint he must have switched sides. Probably working for someone who had it in their best interest to see my father finally go to jail. Sof the information in here would have taken years to acquire.

This was... everything. Enough to risk it all to get back... even if it meant losing his daughter. All to save the business.

Though, as | was shuffling the papers back together, | did catch one thing. Something that wasn’t quite like everything else. It looked almost like a journal entry in my father’s handwriting, one dated a few years ago.

Miles had written pencil notes around it, wondering if the passage pertained to an associate or partner in crbut... but I wasn’t so sure.

‘... The woman ctoagain last night and | basked in her glory,’ it read. ‘What | have, | owe to her, and | am reminded of that fact every day by my fortune; with my business and my Raven. It is through her continuous instruction that | have loyally served and been rewarded for my efforts.” | frowned as | read the snippet, confused by who he was talking about. Because for as long as | could remember, my father had always been alone; both in business and in personal life. Never even so much as bringing a casual one-night stand over to the house, let alone ever speaking about a woman with such adoration; not like in the way he did in this entry.

No, the way he wrote here... it was nothing like the man | knew of. Not the cold-hearted, business focused father who I'd lived with for years.

Not Eric Reid.

...And | instantly snapped the folder of documents closed, no longer wanting to read anymore.

| shouldn't have gone looking through it to begin with, such a thing would getin trouble. But I'd figured since I'd already broken every rule, that adding ‘snooping’ to the list wasn’t that bad.

However, it seemed I'd been wrong about that, if only for unexpected reasons. The new information merely added more questions to my already confused head.

And | sighed.

It felt like the more | looked into the reality of my world, the more dark truths | discovered. Truths that would only leadinto situations | was better avoiding. Just like how chasing after Kieran had ledto the state | was in now.

Feeling... broken... evil... a mistake. Undeserving.

| gritted my teeth and got back into the car, throwing the documents on the passenger seat. My father could have them back and secure his business, just as he wanted. It was a testament to my loyalty, if nothing else.

But it was as | threw them down that the juxtaposition of my life really cinto focus.

...Because it fell next to the book I'd stolen from the Ashwood Archives. One I'd picked up out of curiosity at the tbut then somehow hung onto during the chaos.

And it now opened a new path of opportunity forto take, one that could possibly lead to more answers.

| stared at the two choices as they laid side by side.

My father’s documents... or a book with a title topic | was slowly starting to despise.

“The Council of the Silver Mist’ the front cover read. ‘A history of The Winter Mist and Silver Lake’.

A book of my birth family’s history. Or... as was told by Ashwood, at least. | could only imagine the bias | would find inside upon reading. Though sinformation was better than nothing. Better than... being spat. at for being a Devil.

But was | really going to chase down another search into who | was? And as | thought about it smore, my heart ached for Kieran for the millionth time. It felt as though I'd had a part of myself torn away when I'd left, tearing more and more the further | went.

My other half.

My... mate.

The person | lo-.

No.

No, | wasn’t going down this path. Not again.

| wasn’t Rae or Rheyna... | was Raven.

And it was tforto go home.

Which is exactly what I did.

It took several hours of driving before | finally got back to Lockdale City. The familiar scent of my hgreetedas | entered the house, the place quiet now within the late hour of the night. This was my longest tbeing away and it felt almost... safe being back here. An odd feeling considering the nature of my life, but a welcone.

A needed one.

Atop of the staircase, a light shone brightly through, emanating from down the hallway. | knew what it meant.

...My father was awake.

| felt nervous confronting him. Would he be angry? Had he somehow discovered what I'd been up to in my absence? A part ofresented him for everything he’d putthrough and yet, despite that, | still craved his presence now. Because if his cage could keeptrapped this whole time, then it could keep others out. Only he had the power to makedisappear once more. He'd already done it once, doing so without realising just how important it was to my survival growing up.

| was only alive because of him. Because of his name.

And had he not putthrough the rigorous training and pain he had, | never would have made it out of Ashwood in one piece.

I needed him.

He was... all I had left.

...And so | knocked on his office door.

“Cin,” said his voice.

| took a second to calm my breathing before entering, the documents in hand.

“Father... I'm-.” “Raven,” he quickly said, looking almost surprised to see me. “You're home... You're ... bleeding?” | looked at my clothes, now covered in my blood from where the silver dagger had pierced both my hand and shoulder. Both thankfully healing... albeit painfully.

However, the physical pain was the least of my worries.

“I'm fine,” | said, brushing off the concern. “Nothing I can’t handle. I'm sorry it took so long but I-I got the documents for you. Here ... see?” Looking upon his face again, those grey eyes. ... | hated how comforted | felt. But, at the end of the day, he was still my father. The person I'd loved for over sixteen years.

“Who did this to you?” he said, walking over. “The boy?” But | shook my head, feeling as my eyes started to water over the mention of Kieran.

| couldn’t cry here though. My father hated it when | cried.

Just a little bit longer and | could go to my room to be alone.

“Was it Victor? Someone else in the town?” But | just shook my head again to both.

“I need to know, Raven. | thought this was just infiltration. If someone attacked you whilst undercover then | ne-.” “Please, daddy... I'm fine,” | said as tears escapedinvoluntarily. “Please let it go. I- | got what you wanted. | got the documents. | -1 did it... | did it for you.” And as | feebly held them out towards him, he simply took them fromand placed them back down on the chair next to us.

...He placed them down... and proceeded to pullinto a hug.

| tensed in his embrace for a few seconds. until everything crumbled inside, sobs wracking through my body. It was as if all my pain surfaced all at once, everything I'd pushed down deep inside.

Kieran... Ashwood... my birth family... the confusing devil revelations....

...The fact that | was finally home, safe, under the protection of my father. The only person able to now protectfrom being hunted.

All of it overwhelmedas | clung to him, crying into his chest.

“I didn’t know if you were coming home,” he said. “I haven't heard from you in weeks.” “I-I'm sorry.” “I'm just glad you're back, my Raven. You're safe now.” And as he patted my head, | momentarily let go of my anger towards him. Long enough to lie to myself that there was at least one person who could truly acceptfor what | was. One person who knew of everything I'd done, of what I was, and could still love me.

Yes... this was fine. 5 This was my life. The only one a devil deserved.