Free Raven by Shelly Pratt

don’t need to worry, I’m not about to steal your virtue,” he laughed. It was the first time she had heard him laugh. It was incredible – a raven’s cackle, high pitched and throaty – it made her smile instantly.
     
    “Of course not,” she replied, thinking it was just as well he couldn’t read her thoughts or he would have seen himself undressing her right at that moment. She went quiet then, regretfully remembering the conversation she’d had with Harmony. He perceptibly noticed the shift in her demeanour and gave her a puzzled look.
     
    “We need to talk,” she said, “Come inside where we can talk freely”. He followed without hesitation and looked around her apartment with interest.
     
    “You have a lot of pretty things,” he said admiringly.
     
    “Ah, thanks – I think. You like décor?” she asked surprised.
     
    “I don’t know – it’s a bird thing – I have all these behaviours a raven would possess and sometimes I act on them, whether I want to or not. It’s like it is just programmed for me to act a certain way sometimes. In the wild we would collect things for building a nest,” he said as he swivelled around to face her.
     
    “You saw your sister?” he asked abruptly, leaving several unanswered questions she had for him with regards to his ‘behaviours’.
     
    “Yes. Why did you want me to see her? You obviously know more than I do about everything,” she said.
     
    “I do. But I wanted to give you the chance to hear it from someone else first,” he said.
     
    “Why, so I would believe you?” she said.
     
    “Partly, but mainly because I just wanted you to stay as far away from this whole mess as you could,” he said.
     
    “I thought I could help you, but I can’t,” she said simply. In her mind she knew she would rather the whole population of the ravens stay the way they were rather than have to sacrifice him just to right a wrong that her grandmother had set in motion all those years ago.
     
    He took a step closer to her and held her shoulders in his strong hands.
     
    “I know you know a way to break the curse,” he said.
     
    “I do, but I can’t give you what you want Eilam,” she said.
     
    “It’s not for me I wish you to break it. The others, they grow stronger every day and their numbers grow. Your grandmother didn’t anticipate that the first of our kind would be able to procreate – but they did, and now – their numbers grow quicker than those of the humans,” he said.
     
    “I’m sorry Eilam, but in order to help you I have to hurt you,” she said.
     
    “I’m willing to do whatever it takes to make things right. You don’t have much time to decide Aiyana. The ravens, they have eyes everywhere and if they even for a minute suspected that you were the one who could break the curse than you would be marked immediately,” he said, a deep look of consternation written all over his features.
     
    “I can’t,” she said, her voice catching in her throat. She stared at the floor to avert his gaze for she felt sure that if she looked into those eyes that she would do whatever he asked her to.
     
    “You don’t understand, Aiyana. When your grandmother set the curse it was meant to rid the world of these people who were causing such atrocities. The ravens were meant to be like normal birds that just flew away, never to be seen again. But something went wrong. Instead of fixing the problem it got worse. These people suddenly had powers they could only dream of. They were strong, invincible and had the ability to come and go as they pleased, never being caught for all the demonic things they did,” he said.
     
    “But you’re not bad, I know you’re not. There must be others like you also?” she said, still not looking him in the eyes. He lifted her chin so that her eyes would meet his gaze.
     
    “No I’m not bad, as you put it, and yes – there are others like me. We stay in a flock away from the others, but if they knew even