Collapse: Book Two (bxb) ✔️

Prologue

Salem Luna
Almost six months ago...

"I knew I'd find you here, Bird." I snuck through the trees with a smirk on my lips as I approached my favorite target. He didn't flinch. He never does. "And you also know I can find you easily, yet, you still show up here. Hmm. Makes you think, doesn't it?"

Raven probably rolled his eyes. I didn't know. I couldn't see his face as he stared out toward the trees from his little bird perch. "You have a drug-dog type of nose, Shadow. I couldn't hide even if I wanted to."

I loved the nickname he created for me. I had no idea where it came from, nor did I understand the origins, but it was a special gift he gave me, and I enjoyed treasuring it with my whole being.

God, I sounded obsessed with him. Probably because I was a little obsessed with him. Besides the point.

I scoffed playfully as I approached, standing behind him as I saw the moon light over the trees from the cliff side. "You're right. I have a Raven tracker in my head. It's my most favorite thing about me. I can find you anywhere. You have a Salem one, so fear not, we're a matching set."

He gave something between a scoff and a laugh. "You're fucking ridiculous."

I carefully sat beside him, tossing my legs over the edge before leaning back on my palms—feeling the small gravel start digging into my palm. "Yes, I know. You're still here, though. Whose fault is that?"

"Yours. One day you popped up and never shut up. Now, here, almost ten years later, you're still opening your yap-hole. I'm the hostage."

"That's not very nice."

"I never claimed to be nice. You get what you get."

I love you just fine. "I happen to like you just fine." I grinned, pinching his cheek. He moved his face away from me, though. "Are we moping today?"

"Brooding, but that's par for the course, Say. You know this. Keep up."

I stared at his side profile, something I tended to partake in quite often. Call it a hobby of mine. He had a perfect jawline with beautiful blue eyes and dark black hair that matched the aura of his name. And listen, his eyes belonged in a museum of art.

Those blue eyes weren't sapphires. They were crystal. Unlike any kind of blue I'd ever seen. If he looked at me for too long, I started losing myself in them. Sometimes, I think he'd realize it and turn his head away.

Raven Fox was gifted to humanity as the perfect being. In my world, anyway. People didn't understand him the way I could, though. They're missing out. Because he never swayed me away from him. If anything, whatever defenses he still had up drew me toward him.

My Papa didn't raise a weak individual. Nope, I was ready for war. Hardly anything could penetrate my armor. I was built for rough and tough personalities.

Raven was that friend you'd have to warn your other friends about. You'd have to say, "Oh, please don't take him literally. He has a touch of dark humor, and sometimes people suck at understanding him." That kind of warning because Raven can come off a little bit dickish. I doubted he exactly meant to, but sometimes, he did.

Ugh, whatever. Someone slap a collar around my neck at this point—the bastard owns me.

Even if I had to sometimes growl at him to be nice. He was introverted to the extreme, and I was a bit more extroverted. Somehow, we clicked. And he'd been traveling through life with me since age twelve.

And... I was kind of morbidly in love with him. Insanely. Like sometimes, if I went too long without seeing him, I had Raven withdrawals. It sounded like an insane disorder that only I'd contracted. And it wasn't going away any time soon.