Chapter 225 — Someone Could Be Listening

Chapter 225: Chapter 225 — Someone Could Be Listening

~ Raven ~

Raven had decided that she wasn’t getting out of bed today, and considering everything she’d endured yesterday, she thought that was a perfectly reasonable decision.

She wasn’t interested in breakfast, classes, or whatever ridiculous activity Valerius might have prepared to make her life miserable. For once, all she wanted was to lie beneath her blanket and enjoy a few hours without somebody attempting to murder her.

Unfortunately, her roommates seemed determined to make even that difficult.

"So you’re telling me," Thalia began, sitting cross-legged on Tessa’s bed, "that the bastard could’ve been listening to us this entire time?"

Raven sighed and pulled her blanket higher. "For the third time, Thalia, I don’t know."

"But he could?"

"Yes."

"Even when we’re awake?"

Raven turned her head and gave her an exhausted look. "Are you going to keep asking me the same question until I change my answer?"

Thalia opened her mouth, apparently considering it, before settling back with an unhappy expression.

Across the room, Tessa was unusually quiet. She’d been sitting at her desk for the better part of twenty minutes, occasionally glancing toward the door as though expecting somebody to appear.

Brielle wasn’t much better. She stood beside the window with her arms folded, looking thoroughly displeased by everything Raven had explained the previous evening.

And honestly, Raven couldn’t blame them.

She’d barely believed it herself when the Dreamwalker revealed what he could do.

Until yesterday, they’d all assumed the bastard needed his victims to be asleep before he could enter their minds. Apparently, that was complete nonsense, because he could enter somebody’s head while they were awake, take control of their body, and make them say or do things they might never have agreed to otherwise.

The memory of Deb’s bloodied face made Raven’s stomach tighten.

Goddess, that poor girl.

At least she’d survived.

Deb had regained consciousness shortly after Raven recovered from her collapse, although the girl remembered almost nothing about what had happened. She knew she’d been talking to Cassian, Raven, and her sister, but everything afterward was a confusing blank.

When Isolde tried explaining what had happened, Deb had apparently found the entire situation so unbelievable that she’d initially thought her sister was joking.

Nobody had been particularly amused.

Isolde, especially, had looked as though she’d aged several years overnight. Raven couldn’t forget the expression on her face when Deb finally opened her eyes. Relief had come first, followed by an anger so intense that Raven had almost felt sorry for whoever happened to be standing nearby.

When the question of reporting the incident arose, Isolde refused.

She’d had enough of investigations, questions, and academy officials promising to look into matters while people continued getting hurt. Her little sister had nearly died, and Isolde wanted her out of this damned academy before anything else happened.

Arrangements had been made for Deb to return to House Marchmont, and although Raven understood the decision, she couldn’t help feeling sorry for Isolde.

The woman had barely recovered from spending several days trapped inside the Dreamwalker’s nightmare, only to watch the bastard nearly kill her sister.

If Raven had been in her position, she doubted she’d have remained nearly as composed.

Then again, Isolde had spent most of yesterday crying, so perhaps composure wasn’t the appropriate word.

"Raven?"

She glanced toward Tessa, who had finally turned away from the door. "What?"

"Do you think he can hear us right now?"

Raven stared at her for a moment before closing her eyes.

"I don’t know, Tessa."

"But if he can get inside somebody’s head while they’re awake..." Tessa hesitated, glancing briefly toward Brielle. "Then how would we know if he was already inside one of ours?"

Nobody answered.

The question settled over the room, and Raven became painfully aware of how quiet everyone had grown. Thalia was looking between them with obvious discomfort, while Brielle’s expression darkened considerably.

"That bastard needs to die," Brielle muttered, turning away from the window.

"Preferably before he decides to visit any of us," Thalia added, although her attempt at humor did very little to improve the atmosphere.

Raven rubbed her forehead, wishing she had something reassuring to tell them.

Unfortunately, she didn’t.

They’d spent days worrying about nightmares and protecting themselves while they slept, only to discover that the Dreamwalker could apparently come after them whenever he pleased.

Cassian’s protective sigils hadn’t even prevented the bastard from watching him install them.

That particular revelation still made Raven uncomfortable.

She’d seen the expression on Cassian’s face when Deb mentioned the sigils beneath their beds. He hadn’t said much afterward, but Raven knew he’d taken it badly.

Cassian Blade wasn’t accustomed to discovering that somebody had been watching him without his knowledge, especially when that somebody had been threatening Raven.

Fortunately, the two of them had managed to speak properly after everything settled down.

Their conversation hadn’t been particularly long, considering how exhausted she was, but Cassian had finally stopped trying to explain why Dante was responsible for their fight.

He’d acknowledged that he should’ve handled the situation differently and apologized for disregarding how she felt, and Raven had appreciated that considerably more than another explanation about who attacked whom first.

She was still annoyed by what had happened and had no intention of pretending otherwise, but she was willing to move forward.

Besides, remaining angry with Cassian had become considerably more difficult after waking to find him looking as though she’d nearly frightened him to death.

Raven had seen that expression before, during the Founders’ Hunt, when Cassian had called her back from that strange vision and she’d opened her eyes to find him looking genuinely frightened.

She hadn’t understood his reaction back then, and although things between them had changed considerably since, seeing that same fear on his face yesterday had still affected her more than she cared to admit.

Raven pushed the memory aside before she could dwell on it any further.

Goddess, she really needed to stop thinking about that man.

"Maybe we should stop discussing him altogether," Brielle suggested, finally moving away from the window.

Thalia frowned. "Why?"

"Because we’ve spent the entire morning talking about how he might be listening to us, and nobody seems interested in doing anything else."

"What exactly would you have us do?" Thalia demanded, spreading her hands. "Pretend he doesn’t exist?"

"No," Brielle replied, giving her an unimpressed look. "But sitting here frightening ourselves isn’t going to accomplish anything either."

Raven couldn’t help agreeing.

"She’s right," she said, pushing herself a little higher against her pillows. "We can’t spend every day suspecting each other. That’s probably exactly what the bastard wants."

Tessa looked toward her, still visibly troubled. "But what if he really is listening?"

"Then he can enjoy hearing us complain about him."

Thalia snorted, and Raven shrugged, although the movement sent an unpleasant ache through her shoulders.

"We don’t know how to recognize him, and until we figure that out, there’s not much point frightening ourselves every time somebody says something strange."

Brielle nodded, looking satisfied with the answer, while Tessa reluctantly turned back toward her desk.

Raven understood why she was still worried.

She wasn’t particularly comfortable with the situation either, especially after what she’d experienced inside her own head yesterday.

Her wolf had answered her call again, and another chain had broken. She could still remember the creature’s delighted howl, along with the tremendous pressure that had nearly overwhelmed her.

But that wasn’t everything she’d seen.

For several seconds, Raven found herself thinking about the strange figure standing somewhere within the darkness of her consciousness.

Those blood-red eyes had been watching her, and she still had no idea what the figure was or why its presence had seemed so unsettlingly familiar.

And then there was the vision.

The black-haired girl standing protectively before an enormous tree, refusing to move while masked figures approached.

This time, Raven had finally seen what the child was hiding.

Another little girl.

Who were they, and why did she keep seeing them whenever something happened to her wolf?

Raven stared at the ceiling for a while, turning the questions over in her mind before reluctantly setting them aside. She wasn’t going to find the answers while lying in bed, although that didn’t make her any more enthusiastic about getting up.

A familiar chime interrupted her thoughts.

Tessa reached for her Linkslate, expecting another ordinary academy announcement, but her expression changed as she read the message.

"Oh," she murmured, straightening slightly.

Thalia looked toward her. "What is it?"

"It’s about the Concord."

That immediately caught Raven’s attention, and she lowered the blanket enough to see Tessa properly.

"What about it?"

Tessa glanced at her before reading the announcement aloud.

"Following the latest medical assessment, First Seat Isolde Marchmont has been formally withdrawn from participation in the Renewal Concord. The remaining eligible representatives will continue their preparations under the existing arrangements."

Raven slowly closed her eyes.

So it was official.

She’d known Isolde probably wouldn’t be competing. The woman could barely move around the infirmary without somebody ordering her back to bed.

Still, hearing that Isolde had officially withdrawn was disappointing.

"Well, that’s settled, then," Brielle remarked, leaning back in her chair. "Looks like you’ll be taking charge of the girls after all."

Raven sighed. "Apparently."

Thalia glanced at her with an amused smile. "You say that as though you haven’t been preparing for this the entire time."

"I have been preparing to compete," Raven corrected, shifting against her pillows. "There’s a difference."

"Not much of one when you’re Second Seat and First Seat isn’t available," Tessa pointed out.

Raven couldn’t argue with that.

The possibility had been hanging over her ever since Isolde fell unconscious, and the academy had already been preparing her alongside the other representatives. Nothing about the announcement changed her position or the work she needed to do.

Unfortunately, it did mean everyone would have considerably more to say about her.

And Raven had a fairly good idea who would be the least pleased.

"Adelaide is going to be insufferable," she muttered.

Brielle snorted. "Going to be?"

Thalia laughed, while Tessa gave Brielle a disapproving look that did very little to hide her own amusement.

Raven shook her head, although she couldn’t quite stop herself from smiling.

She understood why Adelaide might be unhappy. The woman had spent years preparing for competitions like the Concord and possessed considerably more experience than Raven did. Unfortunately, there was very little Raven could do about the fact that the other students preferred her.

She hadn’t asked them to.

Besides, she had enough to worry about without adding another argument with Adelaide Fenn to the list.

"Whatever," Raven muttered, pulling her blanket higher. "I’m not dealing with any of that today."

Thalia raised an eyebrow. "You do realize you can’t hide in bed until the Concord is over?"

"Watch me."

Brielle laughed again, and Raven closed her eyes, determined to ignore all three of them.

She was going to enjoy what remained of her morning, and if Valerius somehow managed to find another reason to make her life miserable before lunchtime, somebody else could deal with it.