Chapter 123 — I Have a Plan

Chapter 123: Chapter 123 — I Have a Plan

~ Raven ~

Nobody said anything. Raven still held the darkened slate, waiting for one of them to speak.

Brielle was the first.

"What the hell were you doing with those Seat-hoarding bitches?"

Raven looked up.

"I—"

"Outside our Wing," Brielle continued. "While we were up here."

"It wasn’t—"

Wasn’t what?

She had a reason for speaking to them, but explaining it meant telling her roommates about Isolde, Stillheart and the Dreamwalker. She couldn’t do that when she still didn’t know whose mind he could enter.

"They approached me," she said. "I didn’t go looking for them. I was about to come inside when they stopped me."

"What did they want?"

"To invite me to one of their gatherings."

Brielle stared at her.

"And you said?"

Raven hesitated.

Tessa drew her knees closer to her chest.

"Did you agree because you want their help keeping Seventh?"

"What? No." Raven put her slate down. "I don’t care about keeping the Seat. You know that."

"I know you’ve said that."

"I meant it."

"Then why agree to meet them?" Tessa asked. "You heard what Bellringer said."

"I didn’t know about all of that when they approached me."

"But you know now," Brielle said. "So tell them you’re not going."

Raven opened her mouth, then stopped.

She still needed to reach Marchmont.

"I have a plan."

Brielle folded her arms.

"What plan?"

Right.

She couldn’t even explain why Isolde mattered without bringing up Stillheart. And once they knew she was looking for someone who could detect Dreamwalker interference, there would be more questions.

Questions Raven wasn’t ready to answer.

"I can’t tell you yet."

Brielle’s expression hardened.

"You can’t tell us?"

"Not yet."

"Then what are we supposed to think?"

"That I have a reason."

"You want us to be fine with this because you say you know what you’re doing?"

"I do know what I’m doing."

"Then explain it."

"I can’t."

Brielle stood, and Raven glanced past her.

Thalia was rubbing just above her eyebrow, her eyes lowered. Raven hadn’t noticed when she started, but now she couldn’t stop watching the slow movement of her fingers.

"Thalia?"

Thalia looked up.

"What?"

"Have you got a headache?"

"A bit."

"Since when?"

"I don’t know. This afternoon, I think. Why?"

"Oh, come on," Brielle said.

Raven looked back at her.

"What?"

"We ask you about the Circle, and suddenly you’re asking Thalia about a headache?"

"I noticed her rubbing her head."

"And this couldn’t wait?"

"I wasn’t trying to change the subject."

"That’s exactly what it looks like."

Raven got to her feet.

"I’m not an idiot, Brielle. I haven’t agreed to help them keep anyone out of the rankings. I’m going because there’s something I need to do, and I would have thought you could trust me enough to accept that I can’t explain it yet."

Her voice had risen, and Brielle stepped closer.

A burst of pressure swept across the room. Raven stumbled back against her bedpost before it faded, leaving her staring at Brielle.

"Don’t raise your voice at me," Brielle said.

Raven’s fingers tightened around the post.

"Or what?"

"Raven," Tessa warned.

"No." Raven straightened. "She wants to threaten me? Let her finish."

"Both of you, stop." Tessa moved between them. "Sit down."

"Move, Tessa," Brielle said.

"No."

"She just—"

"I saw. Now stop!"

A quiet sniff came from the bed behind her.

Raven looked over.

Thalia was wiping her eyes with her sleeve, trying to turn her face away. When she realised they had noticed, she shook her head.

"Sorry. I’m fine."

Nobody moved.

Raven felt sick. Thalia had only just stopped crying, and now they were standing over her, shouting at each other.

"I’m sorry," Raven said. "We shouldn’t have done that."

"It’s fine."

"It isn’t."

Thalia looked down without answering.

Raven glanced at Brielle, but neither of them seemed to know what to say now.

She returned to her bed and lay down, turning toward the wall.

~~~~

For several minutes, they barely spoke.

Afternoon light fell through the windows, stretching across the floor while Raven lay on her side, facing the wall. Behind her came the occasional rustle of clothing, the scrape of something being moved across a desk, and Thalia sniffing before going quiet again.

Nobody spoke to her.

Raven stayed where she was until she could think about Brielle without immediately getting angry again.

She understood why the Circle looked bad. She would have questions too if one of her roommates had been photographed with them.

But she still couldn’t explain Marchmont.

Raven rolled onto her back.

Thalia had a headache.

She remembered Tessa mentioning the Wing headaches before, and wondered whether the Dreamwalker could have anything to do with them.

It wasn’t much to go on. Thalia had been crying, and that alone could explain hers. Still, Raven couldn’t dismiss the thought.

Raven’s eyes widened.

Cassian had done the same thing during Advanced Sigil Writing. He had briefly stopped working and pressed his fingers against his temple, his jaw tightening before he lowered his hand and continued.

At the time, she hadn’t thought much of it. Now she lay staring at the ceiling, trying to remember exactly what she had seen.

Could that have been connected too?

If it was, she had been right to keep quiet. She couldn’t risk telling her roommates everything while she had no idea who the Dreamwalker could reach.

Raven shifted against her pillow, more awake now.

At least she no longer believed it was Rowan.

She had gone into that conversation suspicious of him, but his answers hadn’t felt right for someone trying to hide his involvement. He had been irritated, admitted what he didn’t know and told her about Arden.

She couldn’t prove he was innocent. But after speaking to him, she couldn’t make herself believe he was the one entering her dreams.

Which still left her without an answer.

Raven stared at the ceiling, going over what she knew: Tessa’s mention of the Wing headaches, the intrusion into her own dreamscape, and Cassian briefly holding his head during class.

If any of those things were connected, just how many people could the Dreamwalker reach?

How powerful is this bastard?