The Necklace: The Trial Realm

Chapter Twenty Four: We Go Or I Go

Fifteen minutes pass with horrific slowness.

Raven and I stay huddled to one side of the cave, hidden in the shadows. As much as I want to trust him after everything he's done since I met him, I also have a barrier up just in case he tries to cross me.

Sitting there in the dark with not much more to do but think, I'm fighting the urge to cry. So much has happened since the moment Oliver pushed me into that lava pond that I haven't even gotten the chance to process the betrayal. I'd trusted him, really trusted, with everything. Despite everyone's warnings I just couldn't see the monster they all wanted to depict him as. He was strong and sweet and made me...feel special.

Reda's words pop into my head and I hug my arms around myself. It had all been a lie then. Every look, touch, whisper...all fake to gain my trust and make me believe there could be something between us, all so in the end he could kill me? But why? What reason would a guy from my own group have to try to murder me?

"I'm not him." Raven whispers beside me.

I turn to him, blinking up into those dark eyes. "What?"

He gives me a knowing look and then glances away from me. "I can feel it, you wanting to trust me but then backing down. I know the reason, so I understand, but I'm not him."

I choke on the air, trying my best not to cry. Now is not the time to finally have the break down I need to have. Right now we are being hunted by every soul, demon, reaper, whatever else in Hell. I could be dead any minute and I don't need to die wallowing in pity that the boy I thought I liked wanted to kill me and lied to me the whole time.

"You can read my mind?" I ask and he almost smiles.

"Not exactly." He tells me. "I can't feel specific thoughts, but I can sense your emotions...I know your fears, we use them to get inside of the soul's mind. It helps us pick triggers to cause more fear or seek out deceptions."

"What am I afraid of?" I stare at the side of his face until he looks back at me, puzzlement in his expression, dark brows knitted together.

"That's the thing about you." He says. "You have fears, but they aren't rooted in yourself. Your fears aren't self-centered or a concern for your wellbeing, it reaches beyond that. Like right now I can tell you're afraid we're going to be caught, but instead of fearing what they'll do to you, I know you're fear is for someone else."

He was right, which was just as creepy as thinking he could read my actual thoughts. Somehow my feelings felt even more personal. But if I really thought about it, I was scared something bad would happen to me, but mainly because if I died then who would go after Mags and Tawny to either rescue or avenge them? And Yael and Bryn and Noah and Maxum...They needed to know the truth, that I didn't just desert them. I never would have just left without a word if I'd known I'd never make it back. I think it would break Yael's heart.

"I have friends who need me, and I am afraid I'll get stuck here and have no way to help them." I admit allowed what he already seemed to know. "I trusted Oliver, and he probably went back there, where my other friends are. What if he goes back to The Hub and either says I ran away, which would hurt my friends, or worse...what if he does this to someone else? What if he's done this before?"

Raven sits still at my side, his voice even. "I could sense him too." He says plainly. "He wasn't all bad, but there were forces inside him causing him to make the choice that he did. If it helps at all, he was pained and truly remorseful."

"Well he can take his pain and remorse and suck it." I snap. "I'll never forgive him."

"I'm not saying you should, only thought you'd like to know he wasn't entirely evil. That's why I didn't kill him."