Raven Girl

Chapter 26

It felt very satisfying for Nadine to punch Elias in the face as hard as she did. Upon seeing him, all her rage and hurt and betrayal had flared back up, white-hot and all-consuming. Because, she thought as she dived on him, it was him who was the cruel one; it was him who would have told the others to leave her, who wouldn't have wanted to risk his neck with a daylight horror.

"Nadine –" he began, but was forced to block her next punch. Flat on his back, his eyes widened as she lunged, driving her knee towards his wound.

As she'd expected, his assassin's instinct kicked in and he sent her reeling away, leaping to his feet. He kicked out but she dodged and jumped up, her shoulder colliding with his chest. He grabbed an arm and twisted it behind her back. They struggled together. Nadine clawed at his face with her free hand and he let go. She spun around but he knocked her feet. Off-balance, it was easy for him to push her to the ground and straddle her body.

Nadine wheezed, but she was still full of fire. She struggled and lashed out, eventually rolling so that he was underneath her. Her nails dragged down his arm. He pulled a knee free and hit her in the gut.

Pain spiked through her belly, dulled by the protection of the scale armour. Nadine realised that her eyes were full of tears and she was trying to postpone answers – she didn't want to know how fast they had been to abandon her.

She gripped Elias's hair, slamming his head against earth.

Everyone had abandoned her.

Her parents, when they died.

Gavriil, when he got sick.

What was a fourteen-year-old to do? She couldn't have afforded to wait and finish school. She had had to drop out and become a thief, because she'd have starved. There were no orphanages in Arkanovsk, nowhere for lost children to go.

So she had hardened her heart and done whatever she could.

She'd been left in the jaws of death and had emerged as a thief.

She'd been left in the jaws of a daylight horror and had emerged as its rider.

"I'm sorry," Elias snarled, reading her expression.

She huffed a laugh. She could barely breathe. "Sounds so genuine when you say it like that." She tightened her grip on his head. A few hairs came loose in her fingers. "Did you do it? Tell the others to leave me when I fell?"

He swallowed. "Yes, but–"

Nadine punched him, hitting in the same spot as last time. The blow echoed.

Elias worked his arms free and gripped both of her wrists, splaying her arms on either side of him. She struggled to get free – she wanted to fly away on Ares and never look at him again – but somehow he'd dislodged his legs, too, and hooked them around hers. She was pinned against him.

"Nadine, I saw you and the monster fall, and I thought there was no chance of your survival," Elias said, his breath warm on her face. Her entire body trembled with the exertion of trying to overpower him – he was too strong. His dark eyes were earnest. "Trust me, I'd have gone down there if I knew you were alive. Remember when I told you about how useful you were? But you knew as well as I did that we were all going into this mission wanting to save our own necks."

Tears of fury ran down Nadine's nose. She curled her hands so her nails would bite painfully into Elias's wrists.

"But you seem to like defying the odds and surprising me," Elias said softly. "Nadine the Dragon Rider. With your armour." He let go of her wrists and a hand trailed up her back, undoing the straps. The top part of the flying suit fell from her as if she was shedding it the way Ares had. Beneath, her shirt was clinging to her with sweat. Elias left his hand on her back, his eyes darting between her and the strange armour.