Chapter 125 — The Name She Never Gave

Chapter 125: Chapter 125 — The Name She Never Gave

~ Raven ~

Raven didn’t know what to say. Before she could respond, the man beside the cabinet moved to sit opposite her.

"My name is Harrow," he said. "I’d like to ask you a few questions about your background."

Raven nodded, keeping her hands on her knees.

"Do you know where you were born?"

"I don’t know."

"Who raised you?"

"I grew up in the Blackthorn household."

"With your parents?"

"No. I know almost nothing about them."

Harrow glanced at his notes.

"How long were you there?"

"For as long as I can remember, until I left for Valerius."

"As a servant?"

"Yes."

The woman by the window turned a page while Harrow continued.

"Before coming here, did anyone ever approach you about the Moonless Court?"

"No. I’d never heard of them before Valerius."

"Do you remember seeing their symbols anywhere?"

"Not that I can recall."

"During the Hunt, did any of the attackers address you by name?"

Raven tried to remember. The fighting came back more easily than anything they had said, along with the noise and how hard she had been trying to stay alive.

"I don’t remember hearing it."

"Did they tell you what they wanted?"

"No."

Harrow wrote something down. Raven wondered what he could possibly be getting from this, beyond how little she knew about her own life.

"Did you believe they were trying to kill you?"

"Yes."

But as she said it, she thought back to the Hunt and hesitated.

Harrow looked up.

The attackers had killed and injured people without hesitation. With her, though, they had kept forcing her to react, cornering her and threatening the people around her.

If all they had wanted was to kill her, why hadn’t they taken the chances they’d had?

"Miss Rivers?"

"They had opportunities," she said slowly. "But they kept pushing me into fights."

"Go on."

Raven frowned, trying to explain.

"They’d put someone in danger, and I’d have to do something. It felt like they were watching to see what I would do."

"The surviving feeds suggest the same," Harrow said. "They were willing to kill the people around you. Their behaviour toward you was different."

"Then what exactly do you expect me to tell you?"

"Anything you remember that might help us understand why."

"I’ve been asking myself that since I woke up in the infirmary."

He studied her for a moment, then returned to his notes.

"Let’s go back to your assessment."

~~~~

They questioned her about the entrance assessment, the Guardian Court and her advancement during the Hunt. By the time Harrow asked about the corrupted wolves, her fingers had tightened around the fabric over her knees.

"When you gave the command, did you expect them to obey?"

"No. I just wanted them to stop."

"Had anything like that happened before?"

"Not like that."

"What did you feel when you did it?"

Raven struggled to find an answer that would tell him anything useful.

"I don’t know how to explain it." She took a breath, trying to keep the frustration out of her voice. "Everyone keeps asking how I did these things. Has anyone worked out what happened during my assessment yet? Because nobody’s told me."

Harrow waited, which only irritated her more.

"Before I came here, I was treated as wolfless. Then Valerius couldn’t classify me, and I left the Guardians with more questions than answers."

Raven glanced at the file the woman was holding. "If the Moonless Court knows something about me, I don’t know what it is. Does anything in there explain it?"

The woman lowered the file and turned to the Headmaster.

"You still haven’t established what caused the assessment results?"

"No. The readings contradicted one another. We’re still trying to understand why."

"Did her recommendation give you any reason to expect that?"

"It said her records didn’t fully represent her abilities and asked that she be allowed to sit the assessment. Nothing that explains what happened."

Raven loosened her grip on her knees. At least they could hear it from someone else.

"We’re not expecting you to explain powers you don’t understand," Harrow said. "But anything you remember could help us establish why they targeted you."

"I’ve told you everything I can remember."

He paused, then set down his pen.

"Then let me explain why the Crown is concerned."

~~~~

"Valerius houses the children and heirs of the most powerful Houses in the kingdom," Harrow said. "Someone altered the Ward protecting them and knew enough about the security procedures to avoid detection through repeated inspections."

"The Headmaster told us that."

"Then you can imagine what their families want to know. Did those inspections fail, or did someone inside Valerius help the attackers?"

Raven glanced at the Headmaster, who let him continue.

"Some Houses blame the academy. Others suspect their rivals. Several are asking why the Crown failed to find the Moonless Court before they could do this."

"We’ve already received requests for private guards and independent inquiries," the Headmaster added.

Raven could imagine how that would go. The Houses barely tolerated one another when nothing was wrong. Let them bring their own guards into Valerius and start investigating each other, and she doubted they would agree on anything.

"Then there’s the Renewal Concord," Harrow said. "In one month, we’re expecting vampire delegations here under an agreement between the Alpha Crown and their authorities. The postponement has given us time, but we need to establish how the breach happened and whether the danger remains."

One of the seated investigators leaned forward.

"We’re asking them to trust Valerius with their safety. They’ll want to know why they should, when someone managed to bring armed operatives into a sealed Hunt Ward."

Raven looked at him. She had known the Concord was important, but she hadn’t considered what the attack would mean to the people still expected to visit.

"Your connection to this matters whether or not you did anything wrong," Harrow continued. "The Moonless Court had been quiet for two years. Then you arrived at Valerius, and they resurfaced with an operation focused on you."

Her jaw tightened.

"Are you accusing me?"

"No."

"You’ve just put those things together as though—"

"Because other people will," he said. "And when they ask what connects them, we need to have more than speculation to offer."

Raven sat back, looking at him.

She had just walked through the academy listening to people judge her over a photograph. Most hadn’t even bothered to ask her what had happened.

What would the Houses decide when they heard the Moonless Court had come for her?

"Were they really gone for two years?" she asked.

"We have no confirmed public operation of this scale since the incident two years ago."

She thought of what Rowan had told her in the garden.

"House Arden?"

The investigator taking notes stopped writing. Harrow’s expression tightened, and Raven glanced between them.

"What do you know about House Arden?" he asked.

"Seven of them died. I heard the Moonless Court was connected to it."

"Who told you?"

Raven hesitated. She hadn’t meant to bring Rowan into this.

"Is it wrong?"

"What else have you heard?"

"Very little. Nikolai Hale survived."

Harrow kept watching her, apparently waiting for more. Raven was beginning to regret asking. She had hoped they might explain something, but somehow she had only given them more questions.

"There is no reason to treat her knowledge of Arden as suspicious," the Headmaster said. "She came here through an Arden recommendation."

Raven turned toward her.

"What?"

"House Arden recommended her?" Harrow asked.

"It was a personal recommendation, not formal House sponsorship."

"From whom?"

"Melissa."

The woman by the window lowered her file, and Harrow looked back at Raven before addressing the Headmaster again.

"When did she last put forward a candidate?"

"She hadn’t contacted Valerius in years. She had refused to recommend even members of her own family, yet she wrote to me personally and asked that Raven be allowed to sit the assessment."

Two of the investigators exchanged a look.

Raven stared at the Headmaster, trying to follow what she had just heard. She knew Melissa had recommended her. What she didn’t understand was why they were suddenly talking about her as though she had something to do with—

"What the hell are you talking about?"

The Headmaster turned to her.

"A recommendation from Melissa carries considerable weight, Miss Rivers."

"That isn’t what I’m asking. What does she have to do with House Arden?"

The Headmaster’s expression changed.

"She never told you?"

"Told me what?"

Instead of answering, the Headmaster studied her, and Raven leaned forward.

"What does Melissa have to do with the people who died?"

"Melissa is an Arden."

Raven went still.

"Her full name is Melissa Arden."