Free In the Land of Tea and Ravens by R.K. Ryals Page A

not my property. It’s the county’s .”
    “And that’s beside the point.” Juliet’s expression sobered. “You need people, Lyric. You need man people. It’s crazy as hell that you don’t date. And I say good for you if you’re foolin ’—”
    “We had tea,” Lyric interrupted, her cheeks turning red.
    Juliet froze. “What? Lyric—”
    Lyric swallowed, her gaze falling to the counter. She shoved the glass away, the soda untested. “It was supposed to scare him off.”
    Juliet’s hands came down over Lyric’s, her flesh warm and rough. “The boy’s got gumption if it didn’t. What the devil were you thinkin ’?”
    “I wasn’t.” Lyric laughed. “I wasn’t thinking …” Her eyes fell closed. “You’re right,” her gaze opened to find Juliet’s sad eyes, “I’m lonely. Damn it all to hell!”
    Juliet’s hand squeezed hers. “There ain’t nothing evil about your family. There ain’t nothin ’ evil about you. Remember the song. Keep singing the song. Keep remembering where you came from and how it all started.”
    Lyric swallowed. “My mother—”
    “She should have taught you better!” Juliet hissed. Several heads lifted, and she lowered her voice. “Look, you know what the Grayson boy did, right?”
    Lyric shook her head.
    Juliet sighed. “He was a young, stupid bastard is what he was. Raised with money, he struggled with school. Managed to graduate, but college was too much.” She paused, releasing Lyric before taking a large swallow from the glass Lyric had abandoned. “He quit and went to work. It was honest work at first, but then like all young men without much sense, he started lookin ’ for adventure in all of the wrong places. Got tangled up in some gambling scams on the Gulf Coast. You just don’t get involved with the kind of people he got involved with and live to tell about it.”
    Lyric stood, her gaze shooting to the door. “I really don’t want to know. It’s not my trouble.”
    Juliet’s hand shot out, her old grip surprisingly strong where it circled Lyric’s wrist. “You need to know.”
    Lyric pulled at her arm. “I really don’t—”
    “He got scared,” Juliet interrupted. “He got scared and decided he wanted out. There was a standoff that his sixteen-year-old brother, Ben, innocently walked in on. Both Grayson and Ben were injured. Ben was shot and Grayson was slashed by a knife that managed to puncture his lung. Both were taken to the hospital. Only one of them came out.”
    Lyric tugged at her arm again, but Juliet refused to let go.
    “Correction,” the old woman said. “Neither one of them came out of that hospital. Grayson’s still there. Even after several years in prison for his involvement with the gambling ring, he’s not been able to let that night go. He was only nineteen. We’re all stupid at nineteen.” Juliet’s grip tightened further, the hold becoming painful. “And seven-year-old children don’t kill their mothers.”
    Lyric jerked herself free. “You don’t know …” she whispered.
    Juliet shook her head. “I do know, child. I do.”
    “She won’t speak to me, Juliet,” Lyric gasped.
    They both knew who she was talking about. It was the one raven Lyric kept drinking the tea for.
    “She doesn’t speak,” the old woman murmured, “because you’re not ready to hear her.” With that, she pointed at the exit. “Find that damned book if you’re so set on it, but quit runnin ’.”
    Lyric sauntered to the door, her hand pausing on the frame. “We drive them mad.”
    Juliet laughed. “You can’t drive a man mad when he’s already insane.”
    Those words followed Lyric out of the door. They chased her to her car. Those words shoved her down the dirt roads to the old house that once belonged to her Ma’am. Those words helped her up the rotting steps. Those words carried her to the peeling rocking chair on the porch. Those words lifted her face, her gaze falling on the Kramer property.
    You can’t drive