Feathers So Vicious (Court of Ravens, #1)

by Liv Zander

Chapter Sixteen Galantia Present day, Deepmarsh Castle With my back pressed against the stone frame and one leg stretched out on its sill, I sat inside the corridor’s window since it offered the most light this late in the day, the book resting on my lap bound in blackened leather. It had appeared by my door the morning after the library atop a few others with no note. Not that it had needed one. The title gave away my ever-so-vexing benefactor. Ravens: a Compendium of Gifts. As far as gifts went, there existed four major types of Ravens: weavers, fates, pathfinders, and voids. Except for the pathfinder, all came with variations, such as voids who could absorb other’s shadowsgifts, temporarily wielding them as their own. They called them echos—a rare gift, but not nearly as rare as its third variation. The thief. I ran my fingertip along the lines in the book as I read… There once was a Raven, blessed with the gift of the thief. So empty was the void at his core, so desperate for shadows, he stole the gifts of three deathweavers and wielded them as his own. Great was the power he gained for the house Khysal, crowning himself king. Greater even was the burden he carried, the rage of stolen shadows within. Until, one fateful night, they swallowed him whole, turning blessing to blight.