Chapter 117 — Are You Fucking Jealous?

Chapter 117: Chapter 117 — Are You Fucking Jealous?

~ Raven ~

Nobody had to be told to move.

The students occupying the nearest squares gathered their wraps and stepped away, while everyone behind them shifted forward to fill the space. Within seconds, an empty ring had formed around one court, with Raven standing at the edge of it.

The talking sank into whispers.

Marvellous.

She had come here hoping to be uninteresting for one hour.

Two girls in Prymont trim stood off to her left, watching her with expressions that had very little to do with the Hunt. One leaned toward the other and whispered behind her hand.

Neither looked pleased.

Farther along the line, Celeste stood among another group with her arms folded.

Her face barely moved.

It didn’t need to.

Half this yard would trade places with me, and I would happily let them.

"Rivers. In the square."

Raven turned toward her roommates.

Brielle suddenly discovered something fascinating at the far end of the court.

Tessa began adjusting a wrist wrap Raven had watched her tighten four minutes ago.

Even Thalia, silent and strange since the bridge, chose that exact moment to become deeply interested in the ground.

Cowards. All three of you.

Raven walked into the square.

The instructor followed and stopped between her and Dante.

"Rivers is Awakened. Prymont is Dominant. I want everyone watching to understand that before we begin. Nobody is judging this exercise by the result."

Then he looked at Dante.

"No Lattice. Nothing from your House. No Alpha pressure. Physical combat only, and you will control your strength."

"I know."

That was all Dante said.

No smirk. No comment about how much he intended to enjoy this.

Nothing.

Raven’s unease deepened.

The instructor stepped away.

Dante came for her immediately.

Raven got her guard up in time, and it made absolutely no difference. His strike crashed through the middle hard enough to knock both her arms apart and send her backward two steps before she could recover.

Before she could reset her feet, Dante swept one leg out from under her and sent her flat onto her back.

The impact knocked a breath from her, and for a second Raven could only stare up at the sky.

Four seconds. He’d put me down in four fucking seconds.

Heat climbed into her face as she forced herself back onto her feet.

The second exchange was worse.

Raven was faster now. She knew that much. Since the Hunt, her body reacted sooner, recovered quicker and carried more strength than it ever had before.

Raven used all of it.

Dante closed the distance before she could do anything with the space she’d made.

He caught her arm before the strike landed, drove a hard blow into her guarded ribs and sent her back to the ground.

Raven stayed there for a second, more frustrated than hurt.

I’m stronger than I’ve ever been in my life.

And against Dante, it meant absolutely nothing.

That was what got to her. Not the fact that she was losing. Raven had spent most of her life losing to people stronger than she was.

It was knowing that something inside her had finally changed, that she had climbed from Nascent to Awakened, and discovering that Dante could still make the difference look meaningless.

She got up.

He never gave her a rhythm.

Once he attacked before she had properly set herself. The next time he waited for her to commit and punished the opening. He came high, then low, gave her space and took it away before she could use it.

Nothing elaborate.

He was simply faster, stronger and better trained.

Raven attacked again.

Dante blocked her and drove her backward hard enough that she nearly lost her footing.

She recovered and came straight back.

He caught her across the shoulders, turned with the force she had given him and dumped her flat.

Raven pushed herself upright again.

Dante said nothing still.

That was starting to bother her almost as much as the pain.

Normally, he would have found three reasons to annoy her by now. A comment when she hit the ground. A smile when she got angry. Something designed specifically to make her want to hit him.

Today, his eyes barely left her and his expression hadn’t changed once.

Say something.

She went at him harder.

Dante stepped inside her guard and hit her hard enough that the air left her chest before she reached the ground.

"Prymont."

The instructor had moved closer.

Dante looked at him.

"She’s Awakened. Watch your strength."

"I know."

Raven pushed herself onto one knee and listened to two men discuss how much of a beating she could take while the entire class watched.

She stood.

Dante came again.

Raven started putting more force into everything, and it only made her sloppier. Dante caught her forearm, dragged her off balance and sent her down again. She barely had time to get back on her feet before he put her there a second time.

On the next exchange, she came at him harder.

Dante blocked the strike, and for a split second his eyes flared with light.

Raven almost missed it.

It vanished before she could properly register what she had seen, leaving no heat behind it, no Fire Lattice showing beneath his skin and no Alpha pressure in the air.

But she had seen it.

Raven frowned up at him from the ground.

Dante carried on as though nothing had happened.

Raven came at him again.

Dante stopped her arm, caught her high on the shoulder and drove her down hard enough that both palms scraped across the stone.

Pain burned through her hands, but she pushed herself back up.

By then, the whispering around the court had started to change.

Someone sniggered.

Another laugh answered from farther around the circle, followed by a voice muttering, "Seventh Seat—"

Raven’s head snapped toward them, and several students immediately found somewhere else to look.

Then she saw Celeste.

She was smiling.

It was small and satisfied, the same quiet expression she had worn countless times in Blackthorn whenever Raven was the one being humiliated and Celeste got to stand there and enjoy it.

Watching her get thrown into the ground over and over in front of the academy clearly hadn’t changed much.

Something tightened in Raven’s chest.

She glanced at the instructor. He looked uncomfortable now, like even he knew the spar had gone too far, but he still hadn’t stopped it.

Across from her, Dante stood waiting with his hands loose at his sides, completely serious.

Then another snigger came from the crowd.

That did it.

The exercise stopped mattering. So did the difference between them, the technique she was supposed to be learning, and every warning her body was giving her.

All Raven could think about was wiping that look off somebody’s face.

"Fuck you—"

She charged.

There was nothing clever in it anymore. Raven dropped her guard and threw everything she had into reaching him, driven by nothing except the sudden need to hurt him.

Dante caught her before she got the chance.

One moment she was moving forward. The next her balance disappeared beneath her, and he drove her flat onto the court hard enough to empty her lungs.

Raven tried to breathe.

Nothing came.

"Enough."

The instructor’s voice cut sharply across the yard.

Raven stayed where she was, mouth open as she fought to drag air back into her chest, her fingers curling against the stone while the entire court went silent around her.

Dante stood over her.

For the first time since the spar began, something changed in his expression. The anger was still there, but now there was something else beneath it, as though seeing her sprawled at his feet had finally made him realize how rough he had been with her.

He reached down.

Raven slapped his hand away.

The crack carried across the square.

Raven forced herself onto one knee and then her feet, dragging air painfully back into her chest. Both palms were bleeding by the time she straightened.

She rounded on him.

"What the fuck is your problem?"

Dante’s expression closed again.

"You stopped thinking."

Raven stared at him.

"That last attack. You lost your head and threw yourself at me."

He was right, which only made her want to hit him again.

"That’s not what I asked."

Dante said nothing.

"You’ve been like this since you arrived."

Still nothing.

Raven wiped her mouth with the back of her wrist, irritation climbing all over again.

"What, did Cassian piss you off again?"

Dante went still.

One moment he was standing there watching her, and the next every part of him seemed to lock into place.

Raven caught it.

She should probably have left it alone.

She didn’t.

"Because I’m beginning to think I’m paying for it."

The pressure hit her without warning.

It crashed across Raven’s chest and shoulders hard enough to force her down before she caught herself. Around the square, students stumbled backward almost as one. A kit bag struck the stone somewhere behind her, and one of the girls nearest the front dropped straight onto one knee.

The entire court went silent.

He isn’t allowed—

"Prymont."

The instructor’s voice cracked across the square.

The pressure vanished almost immediately.

Dante pulled it back under control, but the tension in his jaw remained.

Nobody moved.

Raven stared at him.

"What the hell are you doing?"

He gave her nothing.

She waited another second before becoming aware of everyone around them again, and her eyes landed on one of the Prymont girls from earlier.

The girl had just watched Dante throw Raven into the ground repeatedly, and somehow she was still looking at Raven like she had gotten something worth envying.

Raven’s temper flared.

"If you’re that jealous, come take my place." She gestured sharply toward the square."Please. I’d love to trade."

The girl’s mouth snapped shut.

Raven started to turn back toward Dante.

Then stopped.

Jealous.

Her gaze returned to him.

She had said Cassian’s name, and Dante had nearly flattened half the square with his aura.

He had walked in angry, chosen her without even looking at anyone else, and spent the entire spar acting nothing like himself.

Raven felt the anger slowly leave her face.

Dante watched her expression change, and for the first time all morning, something uncertain slipped into his expression.

Raven turned fully toward him, bruised, bleeding and still fighting to get her breathing under control.

"Dante..."

He said nothing.

Her eyes narrowed.

"Are you fucking jealous?"