Chapter 23 - Death Calls Ravyn
1201 Words
The air in Velmara smelled like smoke and endings.
Three days had passed since the fall of Madam Orella’s empire. The trafficking compound was gone — nothing but rubble and ash. News channels screamed headlines:
"Underground Trafficking Ring Destroyed in Vigilante Assault"
"Anonymous Tip Leads to Explosive Raid"
No one mentioned Ravyn.
No one mentioned the Ash Blades.
And that was how she wanted it.
But peace was never built for people like her.
Not the kind of peace that lasted, anyway.
---
Ash Blades Hideout — East Sector
Nyra lay in the medical bay, pale but healing. Her body bore the bruises of captivity, her mind even worse. She stirred often in her sleep, whispering names. Screaming. Sometimes weeping.
Ravyn sat beside her every night.
Lucien tried to get her to rest. She wouldn’t.
She hadn’t touched a blade in three days. That scared the crew more than anything else. A warrior who didn’t sharpen her weapon was either healing — or breaking.
Mira hovered near the doorway, hesitant. “Are you okay?” she asked gently.
Ravyn didn’t look at her. Her gaze remained fixed on the sleeping girl, her voice low. “I don’t think I know what ‘okay’ means anymore.”
She rose, brushing back a loose braid. Her movements were slow, calculated, like someone holding herself together with string and sheer will.
“I need air.”
---
Outside — Midnight
The streets were quiet. Only the hum of distant traffic and flickering Street lamps broke the silence. Ravyn walked with her hoodie up, hands in her pockets, trying to feel human again.
But the ghosts followed.
She saw them in alleyways.
In her reflection.
She smelled the fire every time she closed her eyes — that awful scent of burnt skin and gasoline. Her boots scraped against broken concrete as she walked, but the echoes felt louder, heavier, like footsteps behind her.
She turned a corner… and froze.
A woman stood in the middle of the road, dressed in full black — veil covering her face, her presence heavy like shadow.
Something in Ravyn’s chest went still.
"Who are you?" she called, hand instinctively moving toward her blade.
The woman didn’t answer.
Instead, she tilted her head.
"You survived the flames," the woman said softly. “But you didn’t walk away untouched.”
“Step back,” Ravyn warned. “Or I’ll make you.”
"You carry too many deaths on your shoulders," the woman whispered. "And more are coming. One, very soon."
Ravyn narrowed her eyes. "Is that a threat?"
"A calling."
And with that, the woman turned.
Fog thickened. The streetlights flickered.
And she was gone.
Like a curse whispered into the wind.
---
The Next Morning
Nyra awoke screaming.
Her voice cut through the hideout like glass, sharp and splintered.
Ravyn rushed in, grabbing her hand.
“It’s okay,” she said, voice shaking. “You’re safe. You’re safe.”
Nyra gripped her tightly. “I saw her. In my dream. Orella. She was alive.”
Ravyn stiffened.
Lucien stood at the door, jaw clenched, his knuckles white as he gripped the frame.
“Dream… or something else?” he asked quietly.
No one answered.
But in Ravyn’s chest, the warning echoed again:
“One death is coming. Very soon.”
---
Later That Day — Underground
Mira burst into the war room, breathless. Her eyes were wide, her voice shaking.
“Ravyn. Kade’s team — they’re gone. All of them.”
Ravyn turned slowly, her voice dangerously calm. “What do you mean gone?”
“They went to intercept a cargo route at the eastern port. The van was found torched. No bodies. No signs. Just one thing left behind.”
She handed Ravyn a folded piece of black velvet.
Ravyn unwrapped it slowly.
A single playing card.
Queen of Spades.
Ravyn’s blood ran cold.
Selene’s mark.
The silence in the room was suffocating. Everyone knew what it meant.
“She’s not just back,” Ravyn murmured. “She’s hunting.”
---
Somewhere Across the Border
Orella blinked under dim lights. Her body ached, wrapped in bandages, healing slowly. She could still feel the heat from the explosion in her bones. But she had survived. That was all that mattered.
Selene stood by the window, arms crossed.
“Time to start over,” she said, her voice like glass — cold and sharp.
Orella smiled faintly. “Let’s make her bury everyone she loves.”
Their revenge would not be swift. It would be cruel. Calculated. Poisonous.
---
Night Again
The hideout was quiet — too quiet.
Nyra was asleep, her breathing shallow but steady. Lucien had finally stepped out after hours of failed attempts to get Ravyn to open up.
She sat alone in the dark, on the floor of her room, the Queen of Spades card still in her hand.
She turned it over. Again. And again.
Each time, the same dark symbol stared back.
A queen with blood dripping from her mouth.
A crown half-burnt.
Selene’s message wasn’t just a taunt. It was a promise.
Ravyn’s fingers trembled around the card. She hated that.
Not from weakness. Not from pain.
But from fear.
Real fear.
The kind she hadn’t felt since the night she first escaped the compound. The night she crawled through sewage and shadows. The night Zaria died and Ravyn was born.
And now… it was back.
She pressed her palm to her chest.
Her heart was racing.
Not because of Orella.
Not even because of Selene.
But because for the first time in a long while…
She didn’t know who would die next.
And that uncertainty terrified her.
Because death wasn’t just calling.
It was circling.
Waiting.
Watching.
And it might not come for her.
---
Somewhere Else — Unknown Location
Selene sat at a black desk, flipping through a file. Pictures of the Ash Blades were pinned across a board behind her — names, locations, movements.
“Kade’s team was just the beginning,” she muttered. “We take the lieutenants first. Then the girl.”
“She won’t fall easily,” came Orella’s voice from the shadows.
“She doesn’t have to fall,” Selene replied. “She just has to watch everyone else crumble.”
---
Ravyn’s Room — Just Before Dawn
A soft knock.
Lucien entered, holding a cup of tea.
“I figured you haven’t slept.”
She didn’t respond.
He set the tea beside her and sat across from her, legs folded.
For a while, there was only silence.
Then, softly, “You’re scared.”
She looked at him, eyes hard. “Shouldn’t I be?”
“No,” he said. “You should be ready.”
Ravyn swallowed.
“I’m tired of losing people,” she whispered. “I’m tired of being the fire that burns everything down.”
Lucien leaned forward, his voice low. “You weren’t the fire, Ravyn. You were the girl who survived it.”
A silence settled between them — deep, heavy, almost sacred.
And in that silence, Ravyn made a vow.
No more running.
No more waiting.
If death was circling…
Then she would meet it with her blade drawn.
- Writer
