Chapter 3 – The Raven's Mark
Chapter 3 – The Raven's Mark (Part 1)
The raven haunted her dreams.
Its wings were spread wide, black as midnight, inked across the back of a man's wrist. Every time Sadie tried to see his face, blood splattered across the image, and the dream dissolved into the deafening crack of gunfire.
She woke with a gasp.
The heart monitor beside her bed sped into a frantic rhythm.
A nurse hurried in.
"Easy, Ms. Brooks. You're safe."
Safe.
The word felt almost insulting.
Safe people didn't wake with phantom pain in five different wounds.
Safe people weren't guarded by armed men in tailored suits standing outside a hospital room.
Safe people didn't become headlines overnight.
The nurse adjusted her IV and smiled reassuringly.
"Your fever has come down."
"That's good, right?"
"It is."
"And the guards?"
The nurse hesitated before answering.
"They're... not hospital security."
Sadie already knew that.
Across town, Gideon Vale stood alone in the greenhouse.
The damage had been cleaned.
Every pane of shattered glass had been replaced.
The orchids had been replanted.
To anyone else, it looked untouched.
To Gideon, it looked like a grave.
His mother entered quietly, leaning on a polished walnut cane.
"You haven't slept."
"No."
"You blame yourself."
"I invited death into this house."
Beatrice looked toward the chair where she had been sitting the morning of the attack.
"No."
She spoke firmly.
"They came for me."
"They nearly killed her instead."
Gideon's jaw tightened.
"I owe her everything."
Beatrice studied her son.
Most people feared Gideon because he rarely showed emotion.
She feared him most when he did.
"You cannot repay a life by giving away money."
"I know."
"Then what are you going to do?"
His answer came without hesitation.
"Find the man who ordered the attack."
"And afterward?"
A dangerous calm settled over his face.
"He'll never threaten anyone again."
Meanwhile, Detective Mia Torres sat in an evidence room beneath police headquarters.
The enlarged photograph of the raven tattoo lay on the table before her.
She had seen it before.
Not in a case file.
Not in a gang database.
Somewhere else.
She opened an old archive box marked UNSOLVED.
Hundreds of photographs spilled across the desk.
Hours passed.
Then she froze.
A crime scene photo from six years earlier.
A murdered federal informant.
The victim's wrist had been photographed beside a blood-soaked notebook.
Standing behind the body, blurred but unmistakable, was a man reaching for the notebook.
On the back of his wrist—
The raven.
Torres whispered to herself.
"You're still alive."
She reached immediately for the phone.
"Get me Captain Reynolds."
"I think the greenhouse shooting is connected to the Mason informant case."
At the hospital, Sadie finally convinced her doctor to let her stand.
It took two nurses, a walker, and every ounce of determination she possessed.
The first step felt like fire.
The second nearly made her collapse.
She gritted her teeth.
"I'm okay."
"You don't have to prove anything," one nurse said gently.
"I do."
The words escaped before she could stop them.
"If I can't walk..."
She couldn't finish.
A familiar voice answered from the doorway.
"You'll walk."
Sadie looked up.
Gideon.
He had arrived without a sound, dressed in a charcoal suit, rain still clinging to his overcoat.
She sighed.
"Do you always appear at dramatic moments?"
"Usually."
One corner of his mouth lifted—barely enough to count as a smile.
She hated that it softened his face.
She hated even more that it made him seem human.
"I don't need an audience."
"I'm not here to watch."
"Then why are you here?"
He looked directly at the walker in front of her.
"To make sure you don't fall."
Before she could answer, a sharp crack echoed from somewhere outside the hospital.
Then another.
Not gunshots.
Car windows shattering.
The hallway erupted into shouts.
One of Gideon's guards burst through the door.
"Boss!"
"What is it?"
"They found us."
Every muscle in Gideon's body went still.
"How many?"
"Four vehicles."
"Armed."
"They're coming through the emergency entrance."
Sadie's blood ran cold.
"This is a hospital..."
Gideon met her frightened eyes.
"They know."
He turned to his men.
"Seal this floor."
"No one gets near her."
The guard hesitated.
"What about you?"
Gideon's expression became as cold as winter steel.
"I'm ending this before it reaches her room."
He strode toward the door.
Sadie called after him.
"Gideon!"
He paused without turning.
"Be careful."
For the first time since they'd met, silence stretched between them.
Then he inclined his head once.
"I intend to."
May you like
The door closed behind him.
Seconds later, the first gunshot echoed through the hospital corridor.
