Revenge of the Raven

Chapter 4 - All That Remains

They both sucked in breaths in shock as they looked closer at the bodies of the soldiers. This time it was Asher who broke the silence.

"But why? And what were those bracelets? And-"

I lifted my hand stopping him from voicing the tirade of questions I knew they both had.

"I think we need to meet up with Imani and Barth to go over everything. Come with me, I'll tell them to meet us in the main hall."

The twins nodded and I quickly sent a mental message to the other two before the three of us made our way back towards the main hall. Our coven's building was built three stories tall with each one having one long main hallway that branched off into various side halls. The building was huge and functioned as both the school and housing for all of our members.

The bedrooms, where all of us currently were, took up the entire top floor. The ground floor had all the facilities like the kitchen, dining hall, library, etc. While the basement, held all of the school's facilities and practice rooms.

We entered the main hall of the top floor just as Imani and Barth emerged from two other halls further down. We met halfway down the hall and I could see the question on all their faces. As the coven leader, I was the only one who could sense the other members. And at the moment, that meant I was the only one who knew that we were all that remained.

Barth was the one who finally asked the question. And for the first time since I'd known him, I didn't hear the usual undertone of cockiness and sarcasm in his voice.

"Uh Zea, where's everyone else?"

I looked at each of their worried faces briefly and tried not to think of the best way to phrase this. None of them were just students to me. Everyone who had been a member of our coven had been a close friend. No… not friends. Family.

“Barth. Imani. Aspen. Asher. I… I don’t know how to put this. There aren’t any others. Not anymore. This attack… We were unprepared. I was unprepared. It was my responsibility to protect all of you and I failed all of them… I’m sorry.”

I watched as the shock washed over all their faces. Even I still couldn’t fully believe it. I knew it was true. I’d seen many of their bodies already. But at the same time I couldn’t believe I’d never again get to see their smiles, correct any of their casting, never get to see the triumph in their faces as they finally mastered something new.

Before any of us could say anything further, I heard a soft noise behind me. Expecting another of the guards, I spun on my heel more than ready to take some of my burning anger out on one of them. I raised my hand ready to cast any spell that would cause them a horrible painful death and froze, my hand left hanging motionless in the air.

It wasn’t one of the soldiers. It was Eshe. She was a child we had taken in not long ago after she was nearly killed by her own family. Eshe had lived in a small village not far from our coven. But one day she had accidently produced a powerful blast of magic that had killed another young girl.

The girl had been her best friend and they had grown up together. She was haunted by the death of her friend and blamed herself as well as her magic. But it didn’t matter how many times she had apologized and said it had been an accident. The villagers of her town either didn’t care or didn’t believe her.

They’d chased her back to her house where she had sought refuge with her parents. But the two people who were supposed to protect her from the world didn’t. When they heard what happened they gave her to the mob to be burned alive. Fortunately, while they were building the pyre, an old woman snuck the girl out of the village and brought her here to us.

Eshe had been severely traumatized by all of it and even though everyone had tried to convince her it wasn't her fault it was clear she still blamed herself. She resented herself for it and had refused to speak a word to anyone since she got here.

“Eshe?”

Aspen’s voice was barely above a whisper and I glanced back at them to see the same looks of disbelief on all their faces. I turned back to the girl and stepped forward slowly before kneeling down in front of her. Her face was unreadable but for a split second, I thought I saw relief in the girl’s eyes.

I looked her over carefully but made sure to stay at least arms length away. She was still nervous, particularly around me for some reason. I couldn’t believe my eyes seeing that she wasn’t hurt. I finally looked up and met her empty, emotionless green eyes.

“Eshe, I’m glad you’re safe. Are you hurt?”

She shook her head slowly and I smiled in a way that I hoped would come across comforting.

“How did you get out?”

She stared back at me and just shrugged nonchalantly. I glanced up at Aspen who had come forward to stand behind me. She sighed and knelt down in front of her as well.

“It has to be yes or no questions Zea. She’s not comfortable talking to us yet. And um, frankly, I think you intimidate her. Do you mind if I try?”

I nodded and stood up, moving back to stand with Barth, Imani and Asher. I was glad Aspen had offered to talk to her. Kids and I had never mixed well. I turned back to face the other three as Aspen started talking quietly to Eshe.

“Well, I guess there’s six, not five.”

They nodded and Imani glanced at Eshe curiously before turning to me.

“But, Zea, I thought you could sense everyone in the coven? Isn’t that how you found us? Maybe since you couldn’t sense Eshe, there might be others who survived too.”

I shook my head, a little annoyed that she was doubting my abilities.

“No. I couldn’t sense Eshe because she never became an official member of the coven. When you first came to us don’t you remember the ceremony you had? I wish there were more, I do, but once a member has been blooded I can sense them until they are expelled from the coven or they die. And before you ask, even while both Asher and Aspen had the bracelets on, I could still find them.”

Imani nodded and her face reddened slightly in embarrassment.

“Oh, right. Sorry Zea. I just… I guess I just need some time to process everything.”

I nodded and turned to call Aspen and Eshe over when the faint smell of smoke caught my attention. I turned to investigate just as a new voice echoed through the hall.

“Master! I found you!”

“Oh God.”

I muttered under my breath as I turned to face the military commander I had put under my spell earlier. Honestly, I’d completely forgotten about him. He was sprinting down the hall towards us, a disturbingly happy smile on his face.

“Care to introduce us?”