Raum stalks toward the light. He is quicksilver pouring through the shadows of the cave. He was raised in darkness and it is here, in the depths of the cave that the Crow is most at ease. The curious chink of loose stones continue to draw him out toward the scathing heat of the Terrastellan sun. Blue eyes flash, for once as hot as flame, and fix upon the growing maw of the cave’s mouth. Scolding sun reaches for him as hot as liquid gold.
He is barely there before Bexley so suddenly appears. She steps into the red-yellow light pouring down between the canyon walls. Raum barely avoids her as he leans back. Silver ears fall to his skull, his eyes flashing electric blue. Those eyes promise to burn her, to scold her, to set her every nerve ablaze. Yet whilst is eyes spark, his body turns statue still. His heart thunders, fury roars like a lion within him, but it is nothing compared the fear that surges over him like a tsunami. Oh, he had never felt fear like this, he always kept the emotion at bay, yet now, now with Rhoswen, with their child… Fear surges unchecked.
His lips peel back, reason barely slipping into the corners of him. It smothers the fear slowly, slowly until it loosens his stiff limbs. Then it has him scrambling with a snarl like a dog. Serpentine, his neck snakes forward at her curse, teeth snapping at her throat.
The girl’s words are lost beneath Acton’s laugh and Raum’s fury. They all join to send more rocks tumbling, this time at the back of the cave.
His teeth snap again towards her throat – oh for his knives! But Acton is there, a flash of orange – a tiger slinking out from the shadows. He is wicked fast, a blade catches the light, singing with a song Raum knows so well. His blade sings as it slashes across Bexley’s face at Acton’s command. It is a song of skin and blood and savagery.
The Ghost is not sure what it is, whether he shouts, whether he makes any noise at all, or whether it was merely Acton’s laugh and the violent chime of his blade, but the cave begins to cry in outrage. Rocks creak, the whole roof above them rumbles. He looks up, away from blood upon gold, up, up to the roof that branches cracks as easily as melting ice.
Then they begin to fall.
Dust and stone collapse into the cave. The canyon’s roar is so loud is deafens the quicksilver Crow. “Acton!” He cries and shoves past Bexley, scrambling for the closing mouth of the cave.
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![[Image: x341oLX.png]](https://i.imgur.com/x341oLX.png)
You're one microscopic cog
in his catastrophic plan
in his catastrophic plan
