Ashes of Revenge

Chapter 16: Home at Last

Readjusting her legs to be crisscrossed on Herbert, Raven winced. They had been traveling all day, and Colt and Raven were beginning to lose their patience.

Colt could only do so much sharpening of his already sharp knives, and Raven could only do so much shifting and rearranging on Herbert before she ran out of positions. Richard was perfectly content.

Looking to the side, Raven saw Death riding his horse – comprised of bones, black liquid dripping around them. He was perched on the saddle as he looked around.

"We are almost in the Kingdom, my dear." Raven breathed in deeply. "Aren't you excited?!" he exclaimed. "This is thrilling!" He leaped off his horse and landed in a crouched position in front of Raven. He leaned down and gently grabbed her chin, feeling her muscles twitch and tense from the small contact as he brushed his thumb over her textured skin. She moved away from his grasp, pretending to stretch once more.

"Cheer up, my dear!" Death pushed himself away and floated down to the back of Richard's horse. "You're back home!" He outstretched his arms and motioned around as he smiled.

Raven couldn't believe how much she hated Death.

She didn't know it was possible to hate someone this much.

She didn't know how it was physically or emotionally possible to hate someone this much!

"But in all seriousness." Death's smile disappeared, and he squatted down. "Remember our deal. If you break it, I will hurt your friends." He leaned himself against Richard's wings and traced his finger along the top of one.

He smiled.

Raven gave the faintest of nods so as not to allow Richard or Colt to see it. All she wanted to do was scream at Death not to touch Richard.

The smile widened, seeing the mixture of fear and hate coming from her from his simplistic gesture to the Farian. Death lightly slapped her cheek. "Very good, my dear." He rose again and hopped back onto his horse. "Now, if you will excuse me, I have to go prepare." Sitting back down on the saddle, he grabbed the reins, and his horse ran forward and into a tree, disappearing.

Raven reached into her side saddle and pulled out a hot bottle of Birra that she still had from the Monstro villages. Taking a giant swig of it, she cringed at the burning sensation, nearly vomiting.

Colt reached over and grabbed the bottle from her. The liquid ran down his throat and immediately tried to climb back up, making him cough and gag. He gestured for Richard to take it, who shook his head as his face scrunched up at the terrible memory of the bitterness.

Raven pushed the cork back into place and dropped it into the side bag, her favorite of the bags.

Looking up and shoving aside the pain, Raven saw the end of the tree line, meaning they were reaching the village. Not just any village, the Mundus Castle village. So many emotions were running through her body that she couldn't decipher all of them. Instead, she decided to pinpoint one – anger.

Her hands tightened around the reins until they were shaking, and her raw hand was stinging. Bile began to rise in her throat at the thought of what the Mundus King had done.

Colt made his knives retract into his skin again and began to run his fingers through his hair. With his old Kingdom neighboring this one, he knew what the majority of Mundus' thought about the bloodthirsty disgusting creatures known as Shifters. Grabbing his hood, Colt threw it over his head and covered the rest of his body, making sure the silver lines were hidden.

Richard's wings went back to the original form, and he did the same with his cloak. He pulled down his sleeves and made sure no markings were even close to being seen.