Raven Saga 01 - Raven

believed me when I'd told them what had happened – there was no reason for them not to. But it would be when they met Sammy again that the truth would really sink in. When they saw how much suffering he had been through, not just physically, but emotionally too, they would take him in with open arms. I had no doubt about that.
    And it was this reason that I couldn't wait for the reunion to take place. I willed the hours to pass by, for darkness to fall.
    There was another problem I had to deal with though. As much as I craved to be with Oliver that day, I knew I couldn't. He would have known there was something going on. Something big. And I couldn't tell him what it was. Oliver was as innocent and naïve about the truth of this world as I had been on my arrival to this magical place. If I told him that there were such things as witches who could cast evil spells, he would think I had gone completely mad. Wouldn't he?
    When he had phoned me that morning to organise a time to come and pick me up, I had to make excuses not to go out with him, and that hurt me. I hated lying to him. But what choice did I have?
    It was then that I began to wonder whether our relationship would survive. As much as I was falling for him, I knew that if he was kept in the dark, our relationship would predominantly be based on lies. And what relationship can survive that? But more importantly, it wasn't fair on him. There was love, but a really successful relationship had to be based on many things. Yes, love was at the top of the list, but it was followed closely by trust and honesty. No relationship could survive without all three.
    I was forbidden to talk about our family's raven gene and the fact that I had been raised by a witch. I couldn't tell anyone that I knew this world was not just inhabited by normal animals and human beings, but also by werecats, werewolves, vampires, halflings, changelings, shape-shifters and so on. I had to keep the secret, even if it meant ruining my own chances of love.
    Sadness overwhelmed me but I wasn't ready to give up just yet. I had to try and be a normal teenager. Surely over the centuries, other half human half creatures had successful relationships with other humans... hadn't they?
    I needed to find out and so later that day, I broached the subject with the person I knew would offer me the wisest words, Rose.
    “I knew this subject would come up at some stage, dear, and it's a difficult one to answer. Sure, there have been relationships between changelings and humans. But not all of them have survived, I'm afraid. Yet others have,” she said with a sad smile, as I caught the remnants of a memory flashing across her eyes.
    “What about you, Rose? Did you have someone once?” I asked, eager to find out what she had been thinking about.
    We were standing in her conservatory where she kept a number of beautiful flowers. As she spoke she sprayed them gently with water, carefully breathing more life into the stunning different specimens of roses.
    Her face lit up immediately as she said his name. Walter.
    “He was the love of my life,” she said as she placed the water bottle down and turned to face me. She then opened a cupboard and pulled out an old photo album, the pages had become slightly withered with age.
    She handed it to me and as I opened it, I could see it contained photos from many years ago. Most were black and white. The majority of them were of a very handsome young man with fair hair. There were a few which showed him standing very close to a stunning young woman with dark hair and very familiar cat-like eyes. It was Rose. Although she had aged, she was instantly recognisable. About half way through the album, the pages became empty. I felt a pang of pain for her; I guessed that he had not lived past his thirties, perhaps not even his mid twenties, judging by the images.
    “What happened?” I asked, intrigued.
    It was clearly, even after all these years, still painful to recollect but she spoke gently, “He just disappeared,” she said, taking my hand in hers.
    So that was why it was painful for her to talk about it – because she knew it might be painful for me too. She knew that her words would reverberate with me. He simply vanished. Just as my own father had.
    As she spoke, she flipped to the back of the album where a single photograph had been glued down. This one contained the image of not just the couple in love but of a tiny baby too.
    “One day he took her out in her