Chapter 139 — You Don’t Belong Here

Chapter 139: Chapter 139 — You Don’t Belong Here

~ Raven ~

"Is that what you wanted to hear Raven?"

Raven glanced at Thalia, waiting for her to say something, but her roommate was still holding her hand and smiling as though nothing unusual had happened.

"Brielle, what the hell are you talking about?"

Brielle laughed.

Raven pulled her hand away from Thalia’s. "What’s so funny?"

The bed suddenly vanished beneath her.

She stumbled and caught herself before she fell. Her blanket slipped from her lap, fading before it could reach the floor.

"What the—"

The desk across the room faded. Tessa’s bed followed, its wooden frame turning transparent until Raven could see straight through it.

She spun toward the door.

The walls were disappearing.

"Thalia?"

Her roommate was still beside her, but the white was spreading through her body.

"No. No, wait!"

Raven reached for her, only for her fingers to pass through Thalia’s arm.

"Thalia!"

Her roommate’s smile never changed. She continued looking at Raven as her face grew faint, then disappeared altogether.

Tessa was fading too.

Raven turned toward her, but there was nothing left to grab. Within seconds, both girls were gone, and the last pieces of the dormitory dissolved into the endless white surrounding her.

Brielle remained.

She was still laughing.

Raven backed away. "Stop it."

Brielle tilted her head. "Stop what?"

The skin along her cheek loosened.

Raven froze as it began sliding down, exposing the pale bone beneath. Brielle’s smile stretched wider, tearing through the flesh around her mouth until Raven could see her teeth.

"Fuck!"

She stumbled backward as Brielle’s nose collapsed. The flesh around her eyes peeled away, leaving two empty sockets above a grinning skull.

The laughter continued even after her lips were gone.

Then the skull began fading too, and a moment later, Raven was alone.

She stood in the white dreamscape, staring at the place where Brielle had been.

The apology. Thalia holding her. Tessa telling her they knew she hadn’t threatened Petra.

None of it had happened.

A slow clap sounded behind her.

"Well. That was lovely."

Raven turned.

The Dreamwalker stood several paces away. His face was still blurred, but she could make out the mocking curve of his smile.

"You should have seen yourself," he continued. "I almost felt bad interrupting."

Raven’s hands curled into fists.

"You fucking bastard."

He chuckled. "There she is."

She glanced around, searching for some sign of the dormitory, but there was nothing except the white stretching endlessly in every direction.

She had never escaped.

The bastard had made her believe she was awake, watched her accept her friends’ apologies, and then taken it all away.

Raven swallowed the lump rising in her throat.

"What do you want from me?"

"Must we return to that question?"

"Then answer it!"

He took a leisurely step toward her.

"You know, I could keep you here for a very long time."

Raven’s stomach tightened, but she refused to let him see how badly the thought frightened her.

"You’ve made your point. Now get the fuck out."

He studied her for a moment.

"You’re an anomaly, Raven."

She frowned. "Is that supposed to mean something to me?"

"It means I’ve spent a considerable amount of time trying to understand you, and every time I think I’m getting somewhere, you find another way to surprise me."

"Sounds like a you problem."

He laughed softly. "Perhaps."

Raven shifted her weight.

The uncomfortable warmth she had felt earlier was getting worse. It had been there since she first arrived in the dreamscape, and now it seemed to be spreading beneath her skin.

She pressed a hand against her stomach.

The Dreamwalker noticed her discomfort.

"Something bothering you?"

Raven lowered her hand and looked at him. "What did you do to me?"

"Me?" He chuckled. "You’re giving me far too much credit."

"Then how the hell did you get into my head again?"

His smile widened.

Raven took a step toward him.

"I forced you out last time. You know I did. So why can’t I even reach my wolf properly now?"

"Perhaps you should ask yourself that."

"What the hell is that supposed to mean?"

His gaze moved over her, lingering on the hand she had pressed against her stomach.

"You can barely keep your thoughts together, Raven, and your body seems to be giving you quite a bit of trouble. You weren’t exactly in a position to keep me out tonight."

Raven stared at him.

The heat beneath her skin, the heaviness in her head, the strange distance between her and her wolf. She had noticed all of it, but until now, she hadn’t considered that the sensations might be connected.

"What happened to me?"

The Dreamwalker smiled.

"Something that made getting into your head considerably easier."

Raven’s stomach tightened. "What was it?"

"Now, where would the fun be in telling you that?"

Raven wanted to hit him. Instead, she forced herself to take a breath, trying to gather her thoughts despite the warmth spreading through her body.

"So that’s it?" she asked. "You’ve been crawling around in my head because you think I’m interesting?"

"I wouldn’t put it quite like that."

"Then how would you put it?"

He smiled instead of answering.

"Oh, for fuck’s sake. Between you and Bellringer, I’m beginning to think nobody in this academy knows how to answer a bloody question."

His smile faltered.

Raven noticed.

"Wait."

He said nothing.

"Are you Bellringer?"

The Dreamwalker went still.

"Is that it? You go digging through people’s heads, find out who’s been doing what with whom, and then announce it to the entire academy?"

"Don’t be ridiculous."

"Why? It would explain a lot."

"I have better things to do than gossip about which Cardinal you’ve been throwing yourself at."

Raven bristled. "I haven’t been throwing myself at anyone, you—"

She stopped.

The Dreamwalker’s smile had vanished, and for the first time, he looked genuinely irritated.

"Bellringer," he muttered, his irritation plain in his voice. "Of all the people in this bloody academy, he’s the one person I haven’t been able to find."

She frowned. "What?"

"I do wonder who the bastard is."

Raven stared at him. Of all the people in Valerius, Bellringer was the one person he couldn’t find?

Then a possibility occurred to her, and her eyes widened.

Oh.

She looked at the blurred face in front of her, and despite everything that had happened, a laugh escaped her.

The Dreamwalker turned back.

"What?"

Raven shook her head.

"What the fuck is so funny?"

She pressed a hand against her mouth, trying to stop laughing, but that only made it worse.

"Have you finally gone mad?"

"No." Raven lowered her hand, smiling. "You just told me who Bellringer is."

His head tilted. "Did I?"

"Yep."

The Dreamwalker scoffed.

"So this is what you’ve resorted to? Lies?"

Raven shrugged. "Believe whatever you want."

"What do you think you’ll accomplish by pretending you know something?"

She smiled at him.

He had no idea who she was thinking of, and she wasn’t about to tell him.

But his admission had reminded her of something else.

Raven looked around at the white stretching endlessly behind him.

He could make her see things that weren’t there. He could hurt her, frighten her, and make her believe she had escaped when she hadn’t.

Whatever had weakened her enough to let him enter this time, it had worked.

But he was still inside her head.

My head.

She looked back at him.

"You know what? You just reminded me of something."

"Do tell."

"You know things about me that I don’t even know myself. You know who my parents are, and apparently you’ve found some way to get into my head whenever you bloody please."

"I’m glad we agree."

"But this is still my head."

He watched her.

Raven took a step toward him.

"You can make me see whatever you want. You can make me think I’ve woken up and that my friends have forgiven me. You can even hurt me." Her voice tightened, but she kept going. "None of that changes whose head you’re standing in."

The Dreamwalker smiled.

"You seem to be forgetting something, Raven."

"What?"

He stepped closer.

"This won’t end the way it did last time."

The pain struck before she could answer.

Raven screamed as something seemed to drive straight through her skull, sending a burst of agony behind her eyes. She grabbed her head and staggered, but her knees gave way before she could steady herself.

She hit the ground hard, barely feeling the impact as the pain intensified. It was as though someone had driven nails deep into her head and was slowly twisting them, each turn sending another unbearable surge through her skull.

"AAH!"

Raven doubled over, pressing both hands against her temples. Her fingers dug into her scalp as she desperately tried to reach whatever was hurting her, but the pain came from somewhere inside her head, beyond anything she could touch or stop.

She pitched forward onto her hands, only to collapse onto her side when the pain struck again.

"FUCK!"

Her jaw locked. She tried to draw a breath, but another burst came before she could fill her lungs, forcing a scream from her throat.

Through her blurred vision, she could see the Dreamwalker standing in front of her.

"Still think this is your mind?"

Raven tried to answer.

The pressure tightened, and she curled up, clutching her head.

Every heartbeat sent another wave of agony through her temples and down into her jaw. Her teeth chattered uncontrollably, and when she tried to force them together, pain flashed behind her eyes so sharply that she screamed again.

She wanted it to stop.

Goddess, she wanted it to stop.

Her mouth opened, ready to beg him, and she bit down on the inside of her cheek instead.

The taste of blood spread across her tongue.

The Dreamwalker crouched beside her.

"Had enough?"

Raven squeezed her eyes shut. She could barely think, and the effort of drawing another breath made her dread the pain that would follow it.

"Raven."

She heard the amusement in his voice.

"Have you had enough?"

Something escaped her throat.

It took her a moment to realize she was laughing.

The sound was thin and broken, hardly more than a gasp, but it was laughter.

The Dreamwalker fell silent.

Raven dragged one knee beneath herself and tried to push up. Her arm gave way, and she nearly struck her face against the ground before catching herself with both hands.

Another burst of pain tore through her head.

She screamed, and the scream dissolved into a laugh that she couldn’t seem to stop.

"Fuck... you."

"What did you say?"

Raven lifted her head. Tears had blurred her vision so badly that she could barely make out his outline.

"I said..." She swallowed, trying to get enough air into her lungs. "Fuck you."

The pressure increased.

Her elbows buckled, but she forced her hands flat against the ground and kept herself from collapsing.

She would have given anything for the pain to stop.

Anything.

But she wasn’t going to ask him.

Not again.

"Do whatever the fuck you want," she managed. "I’m not submitting to you."

She planted one foot beneath herself.

Her leg shook, and another wave of pain almost brought her back down, but Raven forced herself upright.

She needed a way out.

Desperately, she reached inward, searching through the agony for the familiar presence she had barely been able to sense since arriving in the dreamscape.

Please.

The pressure tightened around her thoughts, and she almost lost hold of what she was searching for.

Please, I need you.

Something answered, faint but unmistakable, and Raven went still as she felt her wolf stirring beyond the haze.

She reached for it with what little strength she had left, and the connection slowly grew clearer.

Then a low growl rolled through the white.

The Dreamwalker stopped moving.

Raven felt her wolf behind her, its enormous body straining against the chains that still held it in place.

Its attention was fixed on him.

The Dreamwalker stood close enough that Raven could have reached out and touched him.

Close enough for her wolf.

Raven dragged herself fully upright, trembling.

Restrain him.

The growl became a roar.

Chains struck the ground behind her, and an enormous white shape surged past her shoulder.

The Dreamwalker turned.

He was too late.

The wolf lunged, its chains scraping across the white as it drove forward. The links pulled taut, stopping it before it could advance farther, but its jaws had already closed around the Dreamwalker.

He cried out.

The pressure inside Raven’s head faltered, and she dragged in a breath as the wolf hauled him backward.

Then she felt it.

His panic.

For the first time since he had entered her mind, the bastard was afraid.