Page 138 of Rot In Knotty Pieces

Raven

“This is a fucking awful idea, Raven,” Rose shouts at me.

“It’s the only one we have. In almost four years, we haven’t found anything to find out who he is. We can’t just leave it like this. I have to go back to him.”

He grips my shoulders and shakes me. “No. Out of the question, absolutely fucking not.”

“Rose, you can’t just say no,” I say with a grin. Fuck, he’s adorable.

“Watch me.”

“We’ve been trying for years. We can’t just keep doing the same thing.”

He growls and stalks away from me. “Raven, you can’t. What if he kills you?”

“What if he doesn’t? What if I can get us the information to take him down?”

He stares at me.

“You know it’s a brilliant plan.”

“It’s a horrible plan.”

I reach into my pocket and pull out the gift I had made for him. I set it on the table that’s between us. Rose lives in a shitty apartment, but it’s become the only home I’ve ever had. He takes the box, opening it, and finds the knife and the message I’ve had engraved.

“Trust me when I say making this decision was not easy. I would rather stay here with you,” I whisper. “Rose, I love you.”

It’s the first time I’ve ever said it. The first time I’ve meant it.

“I’m going to come back to you.”

Rose stares at me, but he looks utterly defeated.

“Is it fair if we are happy at the expense of so many other people?”

He exhales, guilt, despair, horror.

“You are the reason I fight, Rose. So I can come home to you. One day, all of us will be able to come home to you.”

I step back from him.

“When you get my call, follow the instructions to the letter. I will find you again. I don’t know how, but I’ll find you.”

“Raven, wait.”

“Goodbye, Rose.”

Merle

I stare at the darkest place, remembering it all. Remembering Robin. My breathing is sawing in and out of my chest. My head aches with all the new that has just revealed itself.

The cold of the factory and that horrible smell of blood and dust forces me out of our memories.

Each of us sharing our information is not something we’ve done, not like this. That plan, the one no one but Raven knew about. That damned evil plan that put us back in Father’s hands.

I want to be angry at her…but I can’t. She was doing what we couldn’t.

That was when we saw Blaze, where we saw the ghost. It’s where Raven stole the Nightingales. She took all his birds away from him. I don’t understand what that means. It doesn’t make sense.