The Raven and the Wraith Book 2 (Completed!)

The Raven and the Wraith 2 Chapter 44

The Raven and the Wraith 2 Chapter 44

"You're my Queen?"

The silver-haired creature nodded. She had a perfectly regal bearing, a poise and presence that spoke of great willpower and unrelenting confidence. Even that nod carried the undertones of authority. She was definitely a queen, but I wasn't convinced she was my Queen.

"I don't even know you."

She arched one, delicate eyebrow at me. "No? Perhaps this form is confusing you."

There was a shimmer of piercing silver points all around her, a cutting light that I could not bear. When I looked back at her, she was gone. But there was a small, silver cat where she had been standing. A Werecat. No wonder I had been unable to hide from her.

It's eyes were an emerald green, so deep and clear that looking into them felt like looking into the depths of an unknowable ocean. Familiar eyes.

"Now you remember me." Now her voice was not on the air, instead cascading through my thoughts, similar to the panthers voice.

I did remember her. I had multiple memories of her.

"You! I remember you! Always there, watching me, right before some of the worst things that have ever happened to me. Was that you, then? Did you make those things happen to me?"

The silver cat sat still and regal, it's feathery tail curled about its feet. Just the way it held itself, the way it looked at me, made me illogically furious.

"All of your life, all Paths, all Strings, are part of the Web. I walk the Web, I watch over the Web, but rarely do I directly steer the Path of a single being."

"So you're saying those things did happen because of you. And somehow the fact you rarely do this should matter to me?"

The cat tilted its head slightly, eyes narrowed. "I said no such thing. And you, kitten, are a Lower Werecat, and I am your Queen. So all things I do matter to you."

My fury, a slow boil that threatened to erupt to something far worse, made me reckless. "You are not my Queen. My Queen, if I had one, would never have come to just cruelly watch me suffer. Were you there when they kicked us out? I was five years old! Five! You, with all your Power, have no clue what that did to me and my mother, you simply cannot relate!"

The cats tail slowly unfurled, starting to swish back and forth behind her. The deep, clear emerald of her eyes now glittered with a frigid light, and her ears were no longer up and forward.

"Is this the little, wounded boy I'm speaking with now? Or is this the Werecat, the one who stands before me, alive and strong, despite the cruelty of Life?"

I opened my mouth, then clicked it shut as her words fully registered. I clenched my fists, a seething, confusing river of old pain, old memories, and old terror racing through my veins. I took a deep breath, clenched my fists tighter, and forced myself to speak levelly.
"Did you make those things happen to me? I do remember you, you were there at different times in my life. Always right before something terrible happened to me. I remember."

Her tail slowed it's fitful motions and her eyes warmed slightly. "I was watching. It is what I do. You are a Weaver, the Strings tied to you travel far indeed. But you are not one I would steer."

It took a moment, but her words sunk in. She was not responsible for the atrocities of my life, she did not deserve my vengefulness. But then I thought about all she had said. 

"Why? I don't understand. How could you come and just sit and let those things happen to me? You are powerful, you could have stopped those things, or at least helped us afterwards. Why just watch, then leave?"

The silver of her fur rippled once, a lightning fast flicker that ran from the tip of her nose to the tip of her tail, so fast I wasn't sure I hadn't just imagined it. She stood, perfectly fluid, perfectly poised, and paced around. As the seconds passed I began to wonder if she were going to answer me at all.

Then she sat again, and fixed her eyes on me. "You are mine. You always have been. It was not easy to see you suffer, and do nothing. But I am bound by the Laws of the Web, I may not change the Path of my own, unless the Chaos rises. So despite what you perceive, I am not cruel."

I couldn't understand what she might mean to all of that, but the undeniable truth to her words, to the admission of difficulty in just observing me as I suffered, comforted me. A small part of my mind wondered at the sense of belonging I felt flash through me when she said I was hers, that I always had been. Was she really my Queen? Was I not as alone as I had always felt?

"I..I'm just so confused. You say you're my Queen, you say I'm a Werecat, but I've been alone. My whole life." My voice was nothing more than a choked whisper, crawling up past the pain. I had intended to add more. Genevieve. The Council. My mother leaving me in that rotting shed, with that rotting lady. I had stopped, because those words would not come alone. They would ride alongside hatred, hunger, and despair.

She nodded once. It was the only motion to her, like a statue that could only move its head.

"Yes. You've been alone. Except for the Seven Strings. The cats you denied. The cats that could have been your constant, unwavering companions."

I gaped at her. Seven Strings? Those black cats that had followed me around so many years? Those cats that blended with me? My power, the part of me responsible for the Council. For Genevieve. For so much pain. She thought I denied them?!

When I spoke, my voice bled with ragged venom. "I denied them. You place that on me. I denied them! You have no idea, no clue, nothing, what they did to me!"