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Hawks.
Always Hawks she dreamed of, safe for the one dream of Oleanders and her Ma's severed fingers in the mud.
Ruthless Hawks with their bronze tipped spears, cold eyes and greedy hands. Hawks who will take what they want from Crows, any Crow even, for they are helpless for their birth as Crows already. No birthright to protect them from the hunting caste's weapons or the splendid caste's sneers, no place among even the common caste, only the road with the funeral pyres and the stench of burning flesh.
Yet Fie loved the way 'Hawk Boy' sounded when the name rolled from her tongue, the way that Tavin reacted, all shimmering eyes and that smile even the dead gods would have willingly died for. Tavin, the Hawk who would say he was sorry, the Hawk who called her Chief, the Hawk stampeding as a Crow. The Hawk who gave her his bastard heart. And Fie, the Crow who accepted it.
The name was an insult at the beginning, because of course it was; the crown prince's pet Hawk, trying to win Pa's band over with a few sympathetic glances and oh-so-thoughtful remarks about how the Crows lived. As if he would ever be able to understand; the lackwit lived in the royal palace in Demusa, never having to worry about an empty stomach or the steel grip of a Hawk taking what he wanted.
She was distrustful of him, of the Hawk in Crow's clothing, when he flashed his weapon on the first night they met; a useless display of arrogance and intimidation, for Crows weren't allowed to bear weapons, safe for Pa's broken blade he brought mercy to the sinners with. The one she would bring mercy with when the time came. She was distrustful of him walking alongside her when they brought sinners to their last pyre, before they would welcome them as Crows on the road. She was distrustful of him when he taught her how to play with the gambling shells, even when their hands brushed and lingered for longer than they should've.
But now when she whispered the insult in his face, he would smile at her. His golden eyes flickering with emotions she could interpret in at least a thousand different ways and she knew that even if he was a Hawk, he wouldn't hurt her. Never again would a Hawk hurt her, for that matter. Not when Hawk Boy was with her.