The Grim (Ravens #3)

xxv. to trust a stranger

A/n: I procrastinated way too much on my homework while writing this chapter, so you better appreciate it. 

Also if you can recognize this chapter title you're a true og and huge props to you.

 Mai did not go home that fateful evening. She couldn't even if she wanted to. To have slept in her own bed would have meant tearing herself away from Sebastian, leaving him in the motel room with the other four, his face still bruised and swollen and his body lacking the energy and strength to fully function. Besides, they usually rotated guard duty between the five of them. With Sebastian injured, they needed a fifth to fill his spot.

It was in the earliest hours of the morning that Mai had taken her turn on watch. With all the blinds drawn shut and the doors locked, the position truly entailed simply being awake, as they had just as much visibility to the outside as those looking in on them. She was seated beside Sebastian's bed, Skylar's pistol on the bedside table while she gently placed a cool washcloth against his forehead. His hairline was still matted down with blood that had long since dried and now clung to his dark brown roots.

He was vulnerable now. Weak. But the transition of power into her own hands surprised her less than she'd expected. In their months apart, it seemed she had forgotten every time before when he broke apart, every other time she was the one left to pick up the pieces. Yes, in the past the blows were emotional, but she realized now he was just as fragile physically. She had forgotten. Embellished him, glorified him, immortalized him when he was just as human as the others, maybe even moreso.

"Hey," a voice said behind her, quiet in the room of sleeping bodies. Mai turned over her left shoulder to see Skylar standing over her. Dressed in only an oversized t-shirt, the older girl's hardened expression was offset by a soft concern, her attention focused on the injured boy. "How is he?"

"The swelling's gone down," Mai shrugged, once again drawn to the purple bruises that painted his undeserving skin. She bit her lip, biting back the tears that seemed to inevitably ries when her lover had fallen. "I just—I don't know how they could do this to him. He did nothing."

Skylar nodded, but there seemed to be a waterfall of words pressing against her lips, her jaw clenched to keep them from spilling out. Eventually, the static friction broke, and on a nervous exhale she had made her decision to speak. "I need to talk to you." She gestured that Mai follow her towards the closed windows, a spot far enough away that anyone who might be awake would not be able to hear so long as they kept their voices down.

"Have you talked to Grey yet?" Mai asked, hardly louder than a whisper muted by the generator's hum. Again, Skylar nodded, although the other girl realized something far heavier was weighing on her mind.

"Do you trust her?" Almost instantly, she whipped her head away, as though she regretted opening this floodgate of a topic.

"President Grey?"

"Emma."

At first, Mai was unsure how to respond. The prospect sounded so absurd: Emma, untrustworthy? This was a girl who had risked her life on multiple occasions to protect the people she cared about. She had protected him just the night before, come to Mai with a warning that could be deemed as traitorous by her people.

Skylar, however, picked up on the resulting silence, reading Mai's confusion easily. She continued, "It sounds crazy, I know."

"She warned us about this," Mai said, her voice rising slightly, then trailing off when she realized what was happening. She was defending Emma. In the woods, she'd always been the first to accuse her behavior as reckless, to condemn her decisions, to question her rationales. But now, for the first time she was ready to fight for her, to defend her honor. For in truth, they were still each others' people, still a Raven at their hearts, a historic bond so strong it could never be sliced apart.