Before the Dawn (10 page)

She stared at him. "Oh, my God. You said it.
I can’t believe you said it. You're the first person to mention the
m word and I've been carefully avoiding it all this time. I don't
wanna think it could be magic or something like that because then
all the rules don't apply anymore." Aline sighed and looked around
for a spot where she could sit down for a bit and take the pressure
off her feet. There was a stump beside Trevor that she thought
would do nicely and, at a gesture from her, he quickly helped her
get settled on it. She smiled up at him. "Thanks." She was getting
to really like how thoughtful he was, and how he kissed, and
generally everything else about him. What an inconvenient time to
start seriously falling for a boy when all sorts of weird stuff
were happening.

His bangs had fallen over his eyes and he
brushed them away carelessly. He took out the plastic case where he
kept the silver leaf, opened it, then gently placed the leaf on his
palm. Then he looked around them expectantly.

"What are you doing?" Aline wondered.

"I don't know," he replied. "I was hoping it
would react in some way to being here." He chewed on his bottom lip
for a moment. They waited, both praying for something to happen and
dreading the possibility at the same time. But the leaf just lay
still on his palm, glinting up at them in the cheery sunlight of
the day. Trevor shrugged. "Guess not. Looks like it's just a leaf
with a bloodthirsty tendency to cut you if you're not careful." He
started to put it away, but before he could drop it back into its
case, a blur of black swooped down on the two of them. They both
shouted in surprise and fear, and Trevor's yell turned to pain when
sharp talons cut into his palm and tore the silver leaf away from
his grasp. Then they heard a triumphant-sounding croak and a large
familiar-looking black bird circled above them once and flew
away.

"Hurry!" Aline cried out and started to run
after the bird, the pain in her feet completely forgotten for the
moment in her desperation to catch it. It was the same black bird
she had seen twice before, and she was sure that it was merely a
disguise for Raven. She should have made the connection sooner once
he told her his name. "He's getting away! We can't let him!" Trevor
cursed and started chasing after the bird, too.

Raven looked back at them running after him
and let out what sounded like a mocking laugh. That just made Aline
angrier as she tried to go faster. The flying jerk must have
decided then to have some fun with them because he started to glide
on the currents, making lazy loops over their heads and flashing
the silver leaf he held to spur them on their chase. But it turned
out that taunting them with the leaf he had stolen wasn't the only
thing on his mind. He flew in swirling patterns over their heads
and Aline soon lost track of where she was going. She didn’t know
how long she must have run after him. All she knew was she just
kept running and running and letting him lead her ever deeper into
the woods. She thought she heard Trevor calling out her name,
asking her to slow down, but she didn't even glance back to check
if he was keeping up. She was totally focused on following Raven
and getting the silver leaf back from him somehow.

Suddenly, her foot caught on a dead branch in
her path and she stumbled. When she stood up again and looked
around her, she could see no sign of a black bird. Trevor was
nowhere to be seen, either. She was alone, and she was in the
middle of a small clearing bordered by trees that rose up out of
the earth in dark, twisted shapes. The sky above her had lost its
bright blue color and now had a milky green luminosity that
reminded her of light shining through water. A dreaming silence had
also settled over the woods.

"Stupid!" she cursed myself. "Stupid! Stupid!
Stupid! He was leading me away. This is some kind of trap and I
fell for it. Ugh." She felt like screaming in anger. Well, she
wasn't going to stay in one place and make things worse by waiting
where anyone could get at her. She marched right to the edge of the
clearing and slipped through the trees, trying to retrace her
steps. She also took out her cellphone, hoping she could call
Trevor but, as she had already suspected, the phone turned out to
be useless. So she just kept walking. Eventually, she knew she'd be
able to come out on the other side of the woods.

Aline kept walking for what seemed like a
really long time. She eventually noticed that the pain in her feet
no longer burned and she became worried that maybe it meant she was
killing off all her nerves or something and she wouldn't know it if
she was already suffering from a bad infection that could end up
with her getting her feet amputated. All these morbid thoughts just
made her walk faster and she felt more desperate than ever to find
her way out of the woods. "Please, God," she muttered under her
breath, "just let me get out of here and find Trevor, and I'll
never chase after mysterious birds that may or may not be people
ever again." She hoped that God would appreciate her sense of
humor.

Maybe God, or someone, heard her, but she
soon became aware that the spaces between trees were getting wider.
Just up ahead, there was warm sunlight and what looked like a path.
She quickened her steps, thinking that maybe she had managed to
walk all the way to the road near the town's limits. She pushed
back the last few branches and shrubs blocking her way and, at
last, she found herself—right in the
same
clearing where she
had started. She screamed in frustration.

Masculine laughter floated in the air towards
her and her eyes narrowed as she saw Raven settle down on the
branch of a nearby tree. He was still in his bird form, but then he
shook his head and his wings, and made his feathers scatter in a
burst of inky black, and Aline was suddenly looking at the handsome
young man she last saw in the Prince's ballroom. He was wearing a
coat of black velvet and his dark hair was unruly, but his face was
still as perfect as ever. Before she even realized what she was
doing, her right fist had lashed out and landed a solid punch on
his nose.

"
What in the bloody hells?!
" He said
something that sounded really vicious in a weird language and
struck out his hand towards Aline. A blast of wind knocked her off
her feet and her back hit the trunk of a tree. She felt the breath
whoosh out of her lungs from the pain and she collapsed to the
ground, dizzy and on the verge of passing out.

"You crazy mortal! I should kill you!" Raven
hissed as he glared down at her, his amber eyes glowing like
flames. Bluish blood was trickling slowly from his nose, but it
looked completely fine otherwise. Aline was dismayed. She had hoped
that she'd been able to break it when she punched him. He made a
strange gesture with his hands and she was then lifted to her feet,
propped up on a flat boulder that had risen from the ground, and
all the pain she was feeling just disappeared. He scowled at her.
"You, silly girl, are very fortunate that you have the Prince's
favor, or you would be suffering unspeakable torments right now,"
he said testily. "Now if you would kindly restrain yourself from
attacking me like a common hooligan, there are things I wish to
discuss with you."

"I'm not listening to any lies your precious
Prince has told you to say!" she declared. "Let me out of these
woods and find Trevor, and I won't punch you somewhere more
delicate next time!"

He raised an eyebrow at her defiance. "I am
not here on behalf of the Prince," he told her. "Well, I am, in a
way, but not because of any orders he has given me. I have come to
talk to you out of my own interest and desire to do so." He paused
and casually brushed some imaginary dirt from the shoulders of his
coat and ran a hand through his hair, slicking it back, and it
straightened underneath his fingers as if he had used a comb and a
ton of mousse. Then he looked at her again. "Will you swear to
listen to my case and consider my proposition fairly and without
any of the unpredictable violence that you humans tend to include
in all of your interactions with others?"

"And if I swear to do that, what do I get in
return?" she retorted, still bristling from her desire to pummel
his face.

"What do you want in return?" he asked while
looking down his nose at her.

"For you and the Prince to leave me and
everyone I know alone," she responded promptly. "No more weird
dreams, no more dancing, and no one getting hurt anymore. And I
want Gracelyn back healthy and well."

"You are quite demanding, aren't you?" he
commented, then shook his head. "Regretfully, I cannot do any of
those things for you for the following reasons: first, the
enchantment lasts until the mortal it was woven for or the
enchanter himself breaks it; second, the dreams and the dancing are
part of the enchantment; third, your friend surrendered to the
spell of her own will, so there is no getting her back unless she
wishes to be free; and fourth, the only one who has been hurt
around here is myself because of your violent temper." He rubbed
his nose gingerly and shot Aline another glare.

"Then I guess I don't have to listen to
anything you have to say because there's nothing you can do for
me." She stood up from the boulder and began to walk away.

"Sit." He flicked one of his fingers in her
direction and she found herself back on the boulder without the
ability to budge from it even by an inch. "You
will
listen
to me. I may not be able to free you from this enchantment, but I
can give you something that might help you in another way."

"Oh? And what would that be?" She kept trying
to struggle, but it was useless. It was like she was glued to her
seat. So she wasn't really paying attention when Raven told her
what he had to offer. It took a few seconds before his words
registered in her brain and she had to ask him to repeat what he
had said in order to be sure that she had heard him correctly.

"The truth about the past?" she echoed. "What
exactly do you mean by the
truth about the past
?"

He gave her a smug smile. "By that, I mean
that I am willing to tell you about your past, about the Prince,
and why all of this is happening now. Again."

"Everything about the past?" She wanted to
make sure of that. "Including how it all turned out?"

He nodded. "Of course."

It was a good deal. Heck, it was a very good
deal. If he told her the whole truth about why and how this was
happening, he'd also have to tell her how the enchantment was
broken the last time. "Every little detail?" she pressed.

"Yes, yes," he replied. "I will tell you
everything about your past. I give you my word." He sounded
offended that she didn’t seem to think he was all that
trustworthy.

"And, in exchange, you just want me to listen
to a case you're going to make?" Aline was still trying to figure
out if there was a catch anywhere in the deal he was offering.

"You must consider my proposition fairly as
well," he quickly added.

"And what case and proposition would that
be?" she wondered, sure that it was going to be outrageous since he
was willing to share very important information with her.

He seemed to puff up importantly, making
himself appear grand and regal. "I wish to ask for your
assistance," he said in his most pompous tone, "in freeing me." He
then looked at Aline like he was daring her to laugh.

Of course she laughed. "What do you mean free
you?" she asked. "What? You're a slave?" It was ridiculous. He
acted more arrogantly than a prince.

"No, I am not!" he snapped. "I am simply
bound to the Prince's service and I wish to be free of it."

"The two of you seemed pretty close when I
saw you together," she observed. "Can't you just ask him to free
you?"

"Don't be absurd." He looked irritated at the
suggestion. "One does not ask one's bond master to release one from
a bond."

"Then what does one actually have to do to
make that happen?" she copied his tone exactly to mock him.

Instead of answering her, he sighed
dramatically and plopped down on another boulder that had appeared.
"I was quite mischievous in my youth, you know," he said with an
air of embarrassment. Aline realized that he was about to make a
confession and she groaned to herself. This had better be quick.
"Of course, I am still considered quite young among my people, but
in the first few centuries of my life, I was a complete scoundrel,"
Raven continued. "No decent House wanted me befriending their sons
for fear I would lead them to ruin." She decided to ignore the
centuries part of his story for now. She didn't want her head to
explode.

"I was very fond of making mischief," he went
on, "and, one day, I thought it would be very amusing if I placed
an enchantment on the daughters of a mortal king whose lands
bordered our own secret passages to the world." Her eyes widened in
question, and he nodded. "Yes. My request and the truth about your
past life share a connection."

"Go on," she told him, totally consumed by
curiosity now.

"So I enchanted the princesses of that mortal
kingdom. There were twelve of them born of the king's two
wives—"

She couldn't help it, but she had to
interrupt him. "He had two wives? That wasn't in the story."

His eyes flashed. "Yes,
two
wives.
When the first one died, he married another. Now can I please
continue?" He looked very annoyed now.

"Oh," Aline nodded, feeling slightly
embarrassed. "Oh, yeah. Sure. Go on."

"As I was saying," he gave her a look that
warned her not to interrupt him again, "I enchanted the princesses
and spirited them away to the Strangelands every night so they
could entertain us with their dancing. My companions and I enjoyed
making those girls dance and dance until their shoes were filled
with holes." He chuckled at the memory but sobered immediately when
he saw Aline give him a murderous glare. "But then, something
unexpected happened. The Prince, that fellow who’s inexplicably
obsessed with you, heard about the enchantment and he invited the
princesses to his castle so he could see them dancing for himself.
And—he fell in love with one of them, the eldest."