Chapter 126 — Nothing Should Have Done That

Chapter 126: Chapter 126 — Nothing Should Have Done That

~ Raven ~

"Say that again."

"Melissa Arden," the Headmaster repeated.

Raven stared at her, trying to reconcile the name with the woman she knew.

"The seven who died," she said. "They were her family?"

"Yes, Miss Rivers."

Raven waited, but the Headmaster offered nothing more. Harrow was watching her, and the woman by the window had returned to her file.

She thought of the lodge, the wards surrounding it and the silver-headed spear beside the door. She had wondered why a woman living alone needed so much protection.

Then there were the maps and the notes, all those years Melissa had spent studying corruption.

Melissa had told her that the last time she had seen corrupted wolves capable of thinking and coordinating had been two years ago. Raven remembered the silence that followed and how she had let the subject drop.

Had Melissa been talking about the attack that killed her family?

Raven lowered her eyes to her hands. She had sat at Melissa’s table and told her about Blackthorn, never guessing what the woman listening to her had endured. Melissa had given her food, shelter and a way into Valerius, then made sure Raven could still reach her afterwards.

She hadn’t said a word about the people she had lost.

A name surfaced suddenly, along with the memory of Melissa staring at her when they first met.

Laura.

Raven looked up.

"Do you know someone called Laura?"

The Headmaster frowned. "What do you mean?"

"Someone Melissa knew."

She paused, studying Raven.

"I knew of a Laura. Melissa’s prized student, though I never met her myself. Why?"

Raven remembered the way Melissa had looked at her before realising her mistake.

"Nothing," she said, lowering her eyes.

The Headmaster didn’t look convinced, but Raven wasn’t ready to explain something she barely understood herself. She swallowed and turned to Harrow.

"The Ardens. Did the Moonless Court kill them?"

"The connection was established during the investigation."

"What connection?"

"Several elements of the Hunt attack resemble evidence recovered two years ago. I can’t discuss the details."

Raven turned to the Headmaster.

"Nikolai told you what happened."

Harrow’s pen stopped.

"He gave you a statement," she continued. "It was sealed afterwards."

"Who told you about that?" Harrow asked.

Raven kept her attention on the Headmaster.

"Is there anything in it that could explain what happened during the Hunt?"

Harrow watched her for another moment before the Headmaster answered.

"That record is restricted."

"But if the attacks are connected—"

"I cannot share his statement with you, Miss Rivers."

Raven sat back, pressing her lips together.

They had asked about her parents, Blackthorn and every part of the Hunt she could remember. Yet the moment she asked something that might help her understand why she was involved, nobody could tell her anything.

"So I’m supposed to answer all your questions, but you can’t answer mine?"

"Some of them, no," Harrow said.

"You brought me here because they were looking for me. Doesn’t that give me a reason to know?"

"It gives you a reason to ask. It doesn’t mean we can disclose everything we know."

His tone hadn’t changed, which made it harder to keep hers level.

"I’m the one they came after."

"And we still don’t know why. Until we do, we have to be careful about what we share."

Raven wanted to argue, but he was watching her with the same patience he had shown throughout the questioning. She doubted raising her voice would get her anything except another reminder that she was a student.

She looked away, thinking of Melissa’s maps again.

There had to be something they could tell her. They had more than old evidence and a sealed account this time. Valerius had taken one of the operatives alive.

"What about the prisoner?"

The Headmaster glanced at Harrow.

"You said he died before you could properly question him," Raven continued. "How?"

Harrow set his pen down.

"We’re working on the possibility of an internal failsafe."

"A what?"

"Something placed inside an operative before they’re sent out, intended to kill them if they’re captured."

Raven frowned.

"Like poison?"

"That’s one method. It could also be a concealed sigil or another working embedded in the body. Something a search wouldn’t easily uncover."

"What makes you think that’s what happened?"

"He was alone in a secured cell. The wards recorded no unauthorised entry or approach, and there was no weapon available to him. So far, we haven’t found evidence that anyone reached him from outside."

"That doesn’t mean he had something inside him."

"No," Harrow said. "It doesn’t."

The admission made her pause. The woman by the window was no longer reading.

"We’ve found no concealed working and no recognised toxin," Harrow continued. "There was also none of the damage to his essence channels that our specialists would expect from a sigil activating inside his body."

Raven glanced at the Headmaster, but she was watching Harrow.

"What actually happened to him?"

"He began bleeding several hours before dawn."

"From where?"

"His nose, then his ears and eyes."

Raven’s fingers tightened against her knees.

"The guards opened the cell and called for healers. He was still alive when they reached him, but he was convulsing. They couldn’t find an external wound or identify what was causing it."

"Did he say anything?"

"No." Harrow glanced down at the report. "According to the guards, he appeared to be trying to scream, but no sound came out."

He said it carefully, as though he wasn’t sure what to make of that detail.

Raven could picture it too easily: a man alone in a cell, blood running down his face as he opened his mouth and tried to call for help.

She forced herself to look at Harrow’s notes instead.

"What killed him?"

"Severe damage inside the skull."

"From the bleeding?"

"The examination found extensive destruction of the brain tissue itself. The healers couldn’t account for it through bleeding alone."

He paused, glancing toward the Headmaster before continuing.

"One of them described it as though the brain had been crushed. There was no corresponding damage to the skull."

Raven felt her stomach turn.

She had expected poison, perhaps something the guards had missed. She hadn’t imagined anything like what he was describing.

"And you think he did that to himself?"

"We haven’t established that."

"You said it was a failsafe."

"I said that was a possibility. Even if we found one, we would still need to determine whether he activated it or someone else did."

Raven looked between him and the Headmaster.

"Could someone have killed him without entering the cell?"

"The ward record is complete," the Headmaster said. "I’ve reviewed it myself. Nobody entered before the guards responded."

"That isn’t what I asked."

The Headmaster looked directly at her.

"You know nobody went in," Raven said. "Do you know that nobody could have reached him another way?"

Harrow studied her for a moment, then drew the report closer.

"No. Which is why his death remains under investigation."

Raven kept her hands still.

"We have to consider that he triggered something himself, that someone activated something already inside him, or that he was killed by a method we haven’t identified," he continued. "At present, we can’t prove any of those explanations."

Raven remembered a passage from one of the books Cassian had left her: agony inflicted on a mind without an obvious wound on the body.

She drew a slow breath, aware that Harrow was watching her. She wasn’t ready to tell him what she had been reading, especially when she still didn’t know whose mind was safe.

"Whatever killed him prevented us from questioning the only operative taken alive," Harrow said. "He might have identified the others, explained how they entered the Hunt or told us who sent them. We have none of that."

Raven thought of Melissa again.

She had described following trail after trail, only for each one to end before she could reach whoever was responsible. Raven had listened to her frustration without understanding how much it must have cost her to keep looking.

Now the Crown had lost its chance to question someone too.

Raven looked at the four investigators. They had access to the cell, the body, the complete ward records and the guards who had witnessed his death. Crown healers had examined him, and specialists had searched for whatever might have caused it.

Yet they still couldn’t explain how a man had died inside a cell that was supposed to keep him secure.

Harrow closed the report and rested his hand on the cover. For a moment, he looked down at it, his jaw tight. When he met Raven’s eyes again, there was an unease in his expression she hadn’t seen during the questioning.

"An internal failsafe remains our working conclusion," he said. "But there is one problem."

Raven waited.

"We cannot find the failsafe."

Her stomach tightened.

A man had sat alone inside a secured Valerius cell while blood poured from his eyes, nose and ears. Something had destroyed his brain.

And apparently, it had done so without ever entering the room.