Chapter 115 — Two Years Ago

Chapter 115: Chapter 115 — Two Years Ago

~ Raven ~

"Seven members of House Arden died."

Raven waited for Rowan to continue.

He was looking past her toward the hedge on the other side of the courtyard rather than at her, his hands hanging loosely between his knees.

"Arden," she repeated.

"You wouldn’t know them."

She didn’t.

The name settled somewhere among the dozens of House surnames Raven had been forced to learn since arriving at Valerius, most of which she still could not reliably attach to a face.

"How did they die?"

"That’s the part nobody made public."

Raven leaned forward.

"Several of them were close to Hale," Rowan said. "Not politically. They were his friends. He was with them when it happened."

Nikolai.

That caught her attention immediately.

"By the time anyone reached them, all seven Ardens were dead." Rowan paused. "Hale was the only one still alive, and barely. He had lost enough blood that for a while nobody knew whether he would survive either."

Raven waited for the rest.

She could already see the obvious questions waiting behind it.

Who had attacked them?

What had happened before help arrived?

And why had Nikolai been the only person left alive?

Rowan said nothing.

Raven looked at him.

"And?"

"That’s it."

She frowned. "That isn’t it. That’s the beginning."

"It’s what there is."

Raven turned more fully toward him.

"What actually happened to them?"

"I’ve told you what I know."

"You’ve told me seven people died and Nikolai didn’t. Who killed them?"

"Nobody outside a very small circle knows."

"Somebody must have said something afterward."

"Hale didn’t."

Rowan said it without hesitation, but there was something resigned about the way he spoke, as though he had stopped expecting that part of the story to make sense a long time ago.

"He never explained what happened to the students. He didn’t explain it to everyone who asked afterward either, and there were plenty of people asking. As far as I know, he gave one complete account of that day."

"To who?"

"The Headmaster."

Raven’s eyes narrowed.

"And that was it?"

"That was it."

"What did she do with it?"

"She sealed it."

Raven stared at him.

"The statement was never released, and the records connected to the incident were restricted. After a while, people stopped asking because there was nothing they could access."

Raven slowly leaned back against the bench.

That explained more than Rowan probably realized.

Thalia had given her several different versions of what happened two years ago, each contradicting the others in some small way. One older Ashbourne student had mentioned shadow wolves and injuries before abruptly saying everyone had been told to stop asking questions. Brielle’s mother had changed the subject. Melissa had almost said something and then stopped herself.

Raven had assumed they were all keeping the same secret.

They weren’t.

Almost none of them knew it.

That was why every version sounded different. There was no complete story underneath the rumours for them to agree on.

Seven members of House Arden had died.

Nikolai Hale had survived.

Everything important after that had disappeared behind the Headmaster’s door.

"Was it them?" Raven asked. "The Moonless Court?"

"That’s what eventually reached the Houses. The Arden deaths were connected to them."

"Connected how?"

Rowan gave a small shrug. "That was the word we were given. Nobody sat my father down and explained exactly what the connection was."

Raven’s frustration began to return.

"What did Nikolai tell the Headmaster?"

"I don’t know."

"What killed the Ardens?"

"I don’t know."

"Why was Nikolai there in the first place?"

"They were his friends, Rivers. That is the part I know."

Raven stared at him.

"Did he ever explain why he survived when none of them did?"

Rowan met her eyes.

"No."

Raven shut her eyes and pressed two fingers against her forehead.

Of course.

She had chased Rowan through the Central Hall, argued with him in an empty garden and spent the one piece of leverage she had over him because she had expected an answer.

Instead, he had handed her another locked door.

Nikolai knew what happened.

The Headmaster knew whatever Nikolai had told her.

Everyone else at Valerius seemed to know exactly enough to understand that an entire piece of the story was missing.

Raven opened her eyes again.

She had come here hoping to make the mystery smaller.

Somehow Rowan had managed to make it larger.

He watched her for another moment before standing.

"If that’s everything, I’m leaving."

Raven straightened.

She had almost forgotten the other reason she had followed him.

There was another question too, one she had deliberately kept away from Rowan.

Isolde.

She had thought about asking him while he spoke. Isolde was in Ashbourne Wing, ate at Rowan’s table and had been carried out of the Hunt badly injured. Rowan could probably put Raven in front of her tomorrow if he wanted.

But then he would want to know why.

Raven was not ready to give him that.

Not yet.

"What do you know about the Moonless Court?"

Rowan paused.

For one hopeful second, Raven thought he might sit back down.

Instead, he started walking toward the garden path.

Raven half rose from the bench.

"Rowan."

He raised one hand over his shoulder without turning around.

"Honestly? Nothing that helps you."

"That’s not very useful."

"They had no public presence before the Hunt. No territory anyone could point to, no name people were openly using, nothing." He kept walking. "Whatever the Headmaster learned after the Arden incident, she didn’t send it to my father. And my father doesn’t send me information he never received."

That appeared to be all she was getting.

Rowan disappeared around the hedge without looking back.

Raven slowly sat down again.

For a while she stayed there alone, staring at the empty path where he had vanished.

Then she let out a long breath.

"Everyone in this place is completely insane."

The hedge offered no disagreement.

Seven people dead.

One survivor.

One account, given to one woman, and then sealed away from everyone else.

Raven leaned back against the bench and rested her head against the stone behind her.

She knew more facts now than she had an hour ago, but somehow understood the situation less.

At least before speaking to Rowan, the missing piece had seemed small enough to have edges.

Now it stretched through Nikolai, the Headmaster, House Arden and the Moonless Court, and Raven had no idea which end she was supposed to pull first.

She closed her eyes for a moment.

Then a voice tore through the quiet garden.

"Raven!"

Her eyes opened.

Thalia was coming up the path with one hand wrapped around Tessa’s wrist, apparently having abandoned any attempt to drag Brielle as well. Brielle followed several steps behind at her own pace, looking at Raven with the expression of someone who had been presented with a deeply irritating bill.

Tessa had a cloth bundle tucked beneath one arm and looked like a woman who had been marched through half of Valerius against her better judgement.

"Do you know how long we have been looking for you?" Thalia demanded while she was still several yards away.

"We went to the dining hall first," Tessa said. "Then Hale Wing. Then the drill court."

"And she was in none of them," Thalia continued. "Then Marla tells us she saw you disappear through the west arcade with Rowan Ashbourne."

Brielle reached the end of the path and stopped.

"Rowan Ashbourne."

The way she said his name made it sound like a formal accusation.

Raven looked at the three of them.

A few minutes ago, she had been thinking about seven dead Ardens, a sealed statement and an organisation that had managed to stay invisible until it entered a protected Hunt and turned the entire academy upside down.

Now Brielle Vance was standing in front of her, clearly furious about something Raven could understand without opening a single forbidden book.

A smile escaped before Raven could stop it.

Brielle’s eyes narrowed immediately.

"Why is she smiling?"

Tessa looked at Raven. "I don’t know."

Thalia stopped beside them.

"Why are you smiling?"

Raven stayed exactly where she was and watched them come the rest of the way toward her.