Then I remember what happened before that, and my heart skips.
My pulse stutters. I smooth my blouse down. Or what’s left of it. Torn open in clean claw arcs. If I tug any harder I’ll just rip it all the way off.
I meet Nathaniel’s eyes.
“Talon and I fucked,” I say.
There it is.
Nathaniel’s eyes fly wide. Cassian’s head whips toward me so fast I’m bracing for a vertebra ricochet. Somewhere behind them, Talon exhales sharply through his nose.
“Well, that’s one way to skip the small talk,” he mutters.
“You asked what we talked about,” I say with a shrug. “Technically, it was more of a… nonverbal exchange of ideas.”
“Uh, alright. That’s an unusual event, sure. But how come it made the crows flock?” Nathaniel asks.
“I… don’t know. Honestly, I’m not even sure that was it—it took them a while to show up after we were… finished.”
My tongue burns a little. I glance at Talon over Nathaniel’s shoulder. He gives me the sliest little smirk.
“I concur,” he says.
Nathaniel’s fingers drop from my jaw. He turns away, rummages for something, and comes back with antiseptic in hand.
“Anything else happen?” he asks.
“No,” I reply. “But I think I know what it’s about—and it’s not really between me and Talon.”
“What is it, then?” Cassian asks.
“Remember how I told you that the teenage kid was actually Pain—my raven?”
“Vividly,” he says.
Nathaniel wets a wipe and presses it to my cheek. It stings.
“I didn’t have a chance to tell you, but I actually met him today,” I continue. “Right after Nathaniel left me alone upstairs. I knew he was part of me, so I figured he might show up if I called for him. He did. That’s when he warned me about… other Grims.”
Silence folds between us.
Before I became human again, I thought these three knew everything there was to know about the supernatural. Turns out they know a lot, but not everything. There’s a whole world out there none of us are ready for.
I guess this is one of those things.
“Other Grims?” Talon asks. “What do they have to do with anything? They’re pretty much shells. They have no free will. Not like you did.”
“Yeah,” I say. “That’s why it was so weird. Pain didn’t explain. Just said I’d ‘see.’”
Cassian’s brows pull together. “And you think this was it? Them—” he gestures toward the world outside, where the crows have finally settled, “—swarming you?”
“I think it’s too much of a coincidence not to be.” I lean back against the wall, feeling the cold bite through the holes in my blouse. “Pain shows up, drops this cryptic crap about other Grims, gives me some of his power, and not an hour later… this.” I motion to the scratches on my face.
Nathaniel tilts his head. “He gave you power?”
“Yeah. Apparently he could’ve done it any time in the last three days but didn’t.
Cassian’s jaw ticks, but he stays quiet. Nathaniel studies me like he’s trying to assemble a puzzle with half the pieces missing.
