Chapter 420:Shirley.

Chapter 420: 420:Shirley.

Antony was still talking to Rebecca several meters away and hadn’t noticed Shirley’s name.

Silver lowered his voice.

"So what are we going to do?"

She looked at him.

"I don’t know..."

Silver squeezed her hand.

Ravenna exhaled.

"I’ll deal with it."

"I know."

She looked toward him. He didn’t offer to solve it. He didn’t tell her he’d handle Shirley or ask whether she wanted him to interfere.

She could handle her own family while he simply remained beside her. Her expression softened slightly.

Then a female voice came from behind them.

"Ravenna?"

She went still.

Silver turned.

The girl approaching them was beautiful with a carefully composed expression that initially showed surprise, then uncertainty, then something considerably more complicated.

Shirley.

Her eyes moved over Ravenna first, then their joined hands. Her gaze followed Ravenna’s arm to Silver.

She stared at him for a few seconds.

He immediately realized something. She didn’t know who he was, not by appearance.

Shirley recovered quickly.

"You’re actually here."

Ravenna’s expression remained cool.

"So are you," she flatly replied.

Her smile faltered for only a moment.

"I didn’t mean it badly. I just hadn’t heard anything after you left."

"You weren’t supposed to."

Silver remained silent.

This wasn’t his conversation to interfere.

Shirley’s eyes moved toward him again then their hands.

Her smile returned.

"And this is...?"

Ravenna answered without hesitation.

"Silver."

Shirley’s expression went blank but she immediately masked it.

Her eyes returned to him, then down to his uniform, then back to his face.

"Silver?"

He nodded politely.

"Silver Ruddington."

That did it.

Shirley now fully stared without the usual fake bashfulness.

"You?"

He almost smiled but Ravenna didn’t.

Shirley realized how she’d sounded.

"No, I didn’t mean..."

"You did," she said.

Shirley looked toward her.

"I was surprised."

"Clearly."

Shirley’s gaze moved back to him. There was doubt there, as though someone had described one person to her and Ravenna had just introduced someone entirely different.

Silver could almost see the questions forming.

His former reputation.

His appearance.

The uniform.

The fact Ravenna was holding his hand.

Especially the leadership board.

Shirley glanced toward the enormous screen displaying the top twenty preliminary leadership candidates nearby.

At the top:

1 - SILVER RUDDINGTON

Her eyes widened slightly, then she looked back at him.

Silver’s registered Soul Capacity was seven. That information wasn’t secret, neither was his family name.

Whatever Shirley had expected, apparently it hadn’t been this.

"You’re first."

He followed her gaze.

"So they tell me."

Shirley stared in shock.

"With Soul Capacity seven?"

Ravenna’s expression cooled further.

He answered before she could.

"Apparently the academy evaluates more than Soul Capacity."

Shirley quickly smiled.

"Of course. I didn’t mean anything by it. I was only surprised because I’d heard..."

She stopped.

Silver waited for her to continue digging the hole.

Ravenna’s eyes narrowed.

"Heard what?"

Shirley looked toward her.

"Nothing important."

"Then don’t bring it up."

Silence settled between the sisters.

Silver felt Ravenna’s grip tighten again. He rubbed his thumb slowly across the back of her hand. Ravenna noticed and some of the tension left her fingers.

Shirley noticed that too.

Her gaze lingered on their hands.

Then Silver leaned slightly toward Ravenna.

"You okay?"

"I’m fine."

He looked at her.

Ravenna knew that look.

She sighed.

"I’m irritated."

"That’s more believable."

Ravenna almost smiled. Silver kissed her cheek, right there, in front of Shirley.

He simply wanted to.

Ravenna’s irritation visibly softened. She turned and kissed his cheek in return.

Shirley stared in pure horror.

He noticed this time. The shock wasn’t merely about who he was, she was shocked by Ravenna and the affection. Perhaps she’d expected their relationship to look different.

Ravenna turned back toward her stepsister.

"We’re in the same class."

Shirley’s eyes moved toward the board.

"I saw."

Neither sounded thrilled.

Silver almost felt sorry for their future instructor.

An announcement sounded overhead.

"FIRST-YEAR STUDENTS, CLASS ASSIGNMENTS ARE FINALIZED. REPORT TO YOUR DESIGNATED CLASSROOMS BY ZERO-EIGHT-THIRTY."

The courtyard immediately became chaotic again. Students began separating.

Class One moved toward the northern academic building. Class Two toward the adjacent eastern wing. Each board displayed directions.

Antony returned.

"Class Two is leaving."

Silver nodded.

"Then go."

He looked offended.

"No emotional goodbye?"

"We live together."

"You didn’t have to destroy it like that."

Rebecca waved toward Silver and Ravenna.

"See you later."

Ravenna nodded.

Antony pointed toward Silver.

"Don’t let Class Four develop an ego because they have first and third."

Ravenna raised an eyebrow.

Antony reconsidered.

"Actually, develop a reasonable amount of ego."

Silver laughed.

"Go."

Antony left with Rebecca.

Gareth headed toward Class Six. Jude toward Five. Dillian eventually moved toward Class One with the others, Cruella and Flencher somewhere within the same stream of students.

Silver watched him briefly. It was like different lives within the same academy.

There would be time for everything else later.

He turned toward Ravenna.

Shirley stood several steps away.

Ravenna looked at the direction marker.

CLASS FOUR - ACADEMIC BUILDING C - ROOM 4A.

He squeezed her hand.

"Ready?"

Ravenna looked toward Shirley, then back at him.

"Yes."

They started walking.

Shirley followed several steps behind. Silver and Ravenna remained hand in hand.

Halfway across the courtyard, she leaned closer.

"I’m glad we’re together."

He smiled.

"So am I."

"I meant the class."

"I know."

"You were about to make it sound romantic," she quietly mumbled.

"It is romantic," he whispered back.

"It’s a class assignment."

"We’ll suffer academically together."

She laughed.

"That’s your idea of romance?"

"Shared hardship builds strong relationships."

"We already survived Death Row Valley."

"Then we’re ahead."

Ravenna shook her head. Silver kissed her cheek again. She smiled... then, without breaking stride, Ravenna leaned over and kissed his.

Behind them, Shirley watched in silence.

Whatever she had believed about Ravenna and Silver before this morning, one thing had become impossible to deny.

Her stepsister wasn’t merely travelling with him, enduring him, or attached to him because circumstances had forced them together.

Ravenna was happy.

And for reasons Shirley clearly didn’t understand yet, that seemed to surprise her more than Silver’s name sitting at the very top of Alpha Three Academy’s first-year leadership board.

And she was not happy with that result.