Raven
"What are you doing here?" Lilian snapped, fury etched across her face, her lips curling in open disgust as her sharp gaze raked over me like I was something filthy dragged in from the dirt.
It was hard not to look past her, hard not to let my eyes drift to the woman behind her, the woman I had called mother for so many years.
She sat on the ground with her back against the wall, her body slumped, her face hollow and lifeless as if whatever spirit she once had had been stripped away completely. Her husband was dead. Leon was dead. And from the look of her, she hadn't recovered from either.
"I need to talk to you," I said, forcing my gaze away from her and fixing it firmly on Lilian instead, even as her expression twisted further like my presence alone offended her existence.
"We're talking now," she snapped immediately, her tone sharp and cutting, as though she wanted nothing more than to tear into me and be done with it.
