The Necklace: The Trial Realm

Chapter Twenty Eight: Welcome Back, We've Got A Problem

I let Tawny rest, backing out of her room as quietly as I could, brushing a tear from the corner of my eye.

I move across the hall to the room across from me, and again my body is filled with warmth. Mags is here, her color already better than when I'd seen her last. She was still frail and barely a hump on the bed where she slept, but she was here and we'd be able to take good care of her. "Bless yee." I whisper as I shut her door back. I don't know what I'd have done if we hadn't gotten to the two of them in time. I thank the gods and whoever else may have been involved in the miracle that we made it out alive in time.

The last room's door is already pushed open and I turn the corner to find Raven.

His long body is splayed out on the bed on his back and his coal black eyes are opened but trained up at the ceiling. When he hears me come in, he lowers his eyes to mine, sitting up slowly.

"You're up." He says, pulling his legs up.

I nod, moving across the room to sit at the foot of his bed. "I am." I say. "We made it."

"Just barely." He tells me. "When we rounded the corner, Tonyedda was turning to leave before she saw Opall running full force towards her. It was too late, but Tonyedda had waited three more minutes."

Of course she did. She swore she wouldn't wait more than that hour, and yet she'd waited. She'd done it because she loved us, and needed us. We were a group, and a group has to stick together. Except of course for Oliver, he clearly doesn't count in that at all after all that he did.

"How are you?" Raven asks softly, tilting his head slightly to get a better look at my face.

I sigh, looking straight ahead at the wall. "I've been better." I admit. "I sure wish I could get a hit of that demon voodoo of yours."

Raven laughs and despite it all, the sound of it is comforting. "I can't be of use anymore." He says after a minute. "Being here makes everything quiet."

"Yeah." I nod, turning to face him on the bed. "The Hub shuts down all abilities."

"Right, that's what they told me." He agrees quietly, his room just as still and boring as my own. "You could always try talking about it if you wanted to. It's my understanding that's what normal people do."

"What do we know about being normal?" I almost laugh.

"Not much." He concedes. "But that's what I've gathered so far."

I look into those deep dark pools of his eyes and I'm struck by how a son of Lucifer himself could look so beautiful. His features are all so angular and perfectly crafted that it doesn't seem right that he'd be descended from evil. I guess not all bad people are ugly though either. Oliver wasn't ugly.

My intuition tells me I can trust Raven, but I'd done the same thing with Oliver, so I feel closed off sitting here with him like this. Oliver had made it seem so easy to pretend to be someone he obviously wasn't. For all I knew, Raven could be doing the same thing.

"I'm not him." Raven says finally, shifting on the bed beside me. "I'm not."

I turn on him, narrowing my eyes. "I thought you couldn't do your demon thing anymore?" I demand and his shoulders slump forward.

"I'm not." He says. "I can just see it written all over your face." He explains to me plainly, not hiding away the truth to protect my feelings. I blush slightly, but other than that I try not to show any emotions about it. "Was he important to you?"

I look away, letting the curtain of my hair fall between us. "No." I say first, then wrap my arms around my middle. "Maybe, I don't know. I didn't really get a chance to find out before he was shoving me to my death."