Total pages in book: 158
Estimated words: 154037 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 770(@200wpm)___ 616(@250wpm)___ 513(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 154037 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 770(@200wpm)___ 616(@250wpm)___ 513(@300wpm)
Wistfulness tugged hard at my heart. “It’s going to be so hard not living with my little man.”
“And not with me?” River razzed.
I let go of a soft laugh. “Don’t fool yourself, big brother. Nolan is the life of my party.”
He chuckled, too. “Kid is going to miss you.” He hesitated then said, “And I’m gonna miss you, too.”
TWENTY-TWO
RAVEN
NINE YEARS OLD
Raven was having another nightmare. The same one that came every night.
“No, no, no. Daddy, please, no.” She used her heels to slide across the carpeted floor, trying to get away from him. But she couldn’t. She never could, no matter how hard she tried. No matter how quiet she tried to be. No matter if she hid beneath her covers or at the back of her closet.
He always found her when he was mad.
And he was mad right then. She could see it even though his face was twisted in a grin.
“Told you that you’d be punished if you left the light on again.”
“I didn’t, Daddy. I didn’t.”
He flicked the lighter and she screamed.
Screamed and screamed.
Her scream echoed through the dark room as she awoke, so small in her tiny bed, and she flailed her arms as she tried to get away. She had to get away.
“Shh, Raven, it’s okay. It’s okay. It’s me. Otto. You’re safe.”
Her breaths kept heaving out of her, and her heart beat so hard that it hurt, her chest squeezing tight as she tried to process where she was.
She blinked through the shadows that covered the room, and it took her a minute to be able to make out who was there.
It was Otto.
His face was pinched up like he was mad, and his breaths were hard, too, but his blue eyes that shined in the dark chased away the feeling in her stomach that she might be sick. She felt sick a lot, a yucky sense inside her that made her feel like something was always wrong.
But it’d always been wrong, at least most of the time.
But it didn’t feel wrong right then.
“You’re safe,” he murmured again, his voice low. “You’re safe.”
She nodded to tell him that she understood since she couldn’t make any words come up her throat.
He nodded, too. “Okay.”
Then he plopped down on his butt beside the little bed that Theo and Kane had brought for her and put in this room because they’d said a princess needed her own special space. “Bad dream?” Otto finally asked.
She nodded again.
He roughed a hand through his brown hair that was kinda shaggy and long. “I’m sorry.”
“It’s okay,” she whispered.
He sighed. “Hate it for you…that you feel scared here. Mean it when I tell you that none of us will let anyone get to you here.”
She nodded again.
He seemed to waver then stood as he mumbled, “Wait right there.”
He was gone for a minute before he returned, and he knelt with two different things in his hands.
Interest sparked in Raven, and she sat up a little bit as he passed her a mirror with a handle. In the dark she could tell it was silver and looked old, a crack through the mirror that cut her in two.
“That used to be my grandmother’s, and I’ve kept it for a long, long time,” Otto said quietly. “And now I want you to have it.”
With a frown, she stared at her murky reflection. “Why?” she whispered.
“Because when you look at it, I want you to see the way I see you. I want you to see this brave, strong, smart girl who’s amazing. Who’s a fighter. Who even when she’s scared, she knows that she’s going to rise above it.”
Her heart felt too big as she looked at herself in the night.
“You think I’m brave?” she asked.
“Yeah, Raven, I think you’re really, really brave.”
A long sigh puffed from his nose, then he shifted and handed her the other thing he’d brought in with him.
“And I want you to have this, too.” He passed her a notebook that was covered in pink fur.
“What is it?” Her voice was quiet.
“It’s a note from my sister. I told her about you today, and she thought it’d be a good idea if you two were friends, too.”
The sickness in her stomach shifted to something else.
Excitement, though she also felt nervous. She’d never had a friend before. Her mom wouldn’t let her.
“Really?” she asked.
He pointed at the notebook. “See for yourself.”
She set it on her lap, unsure, though Otto passed her a pen and said, “You don’t have to write back, but if you end up wanting to, I can take your message back to her.”
“Okay.” The single word sounded small.
Otto eased toward the door that was broken and didn’t shut all the way. “Try to go back to sleep and know I’m in the room right there.”
He pointed behind him.