Chapter 153 — I Wasn’t Lying

Chapter 153: Chapter 153 — I Wasn’t Lying

~ Raven ~

The farther they got from the infirmary, the more Raven noticed people watching her.

Some were only curious. A boy she vaguely recognized from Sigil Theory asked if she was feeling better, while another girl smiled at her as they passed.

Others waited until she was a few steps away before leaning toward their friends, but Raven didn’t bother trying to catch every word this time.

Thalia was talking about what they had saved for dinner, while Tessa had already decided Raven was eating properly whether she liked it or not. Brielle walked on Raven’s other side, occasionally glancing toward anyone who stared for too long.

Raven dimly thought of the walk back from the cafeteria after Petra’s accusation, when every whisper had seemed impossible to ignore and students who used to greet her suddenly found something else to look at.

She had hated how much it got to her then.

Now, with her roommates beside her, it was easier to keep moving.

By the time they reached Hale Wing, Raven was more tired than she wanted to admit.

The common room was busy enough that she heard it before they entered. Someone was arguing over a slate near the fireplace, several students had taken over the long table in the centre, and a group near the windows had books open without appearing particularly interested in reading them.

The noise dipped when Raven walked in.

A girl sitting nearest the entrance looked up first.

"Raven?"

Raven stopped.

"You’re alright?"

Raven raised an eyebrow. "Yes..."

The girl looked relieved. "Good. You scared half the Wing earlier."

Raven frowned. "I did?"

"You came out of your room looking like hell and then disappeared before anyone knew what was happening."

That drew attention from a few more students nearby.

"We heard you ended up in the infirmary," someone else said. "What happened?"

Before Raven could decide how much she wanted to explain in the middle of the common room, Brielle answered.

"She was drugged."

The room quieted further.

Raven looked at her.

Brielle didn’t seem particularly concerned by the attention she had just attracted.

Someone near the long table frowned. "By who?"

"The same people who set up that rubbish in the cafeteria."

A murmur moved through the room.

Raven closed her eyes for half a second.

So much for easing into it.

"That’s true?" someone asked.

Brielle folded her arms. "Yes."

A second-year Raven had seen around Hale several times leaned back against the edge of the table. "I think the whole thing with Petra was planned."

"So did I," another girl said. "It looked strange even when it happened."

Raven’s attention shifted toward her.

The girl shrugged. "She walked up in front of half the cafeteria, brought you food and water, then started talking about some recording nobody had ever heard of. Convenient."

A few people nodded.

Raven felt some of the tension leave her shoulders.

She hadn’t expected everyone to suddenly believe her, but hearing someone else say what she had been thinking that day felt better than it should have.

Then a boy near the windows spoke.

"Doesn’t mean Rivers didn’t threaten her."

The relief disappeared.

Raven looked toward him.

He wasn’t sneering or smiling. If anything, he looked genuinely uncertain.

"Petra looked terrified," he continued. "Whatever happened with the First Circle after that, she wasn’t pretending."

Brielle took a step forward, her mouth already opening, but Raven caught her wrist.

"Don’t."

Brielle looked at her, clearly unhappy about it, but Raven let go and faced the room herself.

"I didn’t threaten anyone," she said. "I didn’t blackmail anyone, and there was never any recording."

A few of the students exchanged looks.

Raven could tell some of them still weren’t convinced, but she was done letting other people speak for her.

"What happened in that cafeteria was set up to make me look guilty. Believe me or don’t, but I know what I did."

"That doesn’t prove she lied," another student said.

"No," Raven replied. "It doesn’t."

The student looked mildly surprised that Raven had agreed.

Raven was too tired to turn it into another shouting match.

"She might have been scared, but that doesn’t make the accusation true. I didn’t threaten her."

The boy by the window glanced toward the others.

"You’re Seventh Seat now. She dropped out of the Top Ten because of you. There’s at least a reason you wouldn’t want her challenging you."

Irritation rose before Raven could stop it.

"If someone wants Seventh Seat, they can challenge me for it. I don’t need to threaten them to stay away."

The boy hesitated. "That doesn’t mean you’d want to lose it."

Raven frowned. "Wanting to keep my Seat and blackmailing someone are two very different things."

The irritation was there, but she swallowed it before it could turn into another argument. The last thing she wanted was a repeat of the cafeteria, with everyone watching while she lost her temper.

"If you think I threatened her, then believe it," Raven said. "I know I didn’t."

The room went quieter.

Raven continued before anyone could interrupt.

"I can’t show you a recording that doesn’t exist. I told you what happened. That’s all I have."

The boy looked away first.

A few students exchanged glances.

Some seemed convinced. Others didn’t.

Raven realized she could stand there for the rest of the evening explaining herself and there would probably still be someone who thought she was lying.

The thought should have bothered her more but it didn’t.

Maybe she was just tired.

Thalia touched her arm.

"Come on."

Raven looked around the room once more.

A girl near the stairs offered her a small smile. Another student asked whether she was feeling better now, and when Raven said yes, he nodded and returned to his book.

Nobody said anything else or demanded proof.

It would have to be enough.

Brielle was already steering her toward the stairs.

"I can walk by myself."

"I know."

"Then stop pushing me."

Brielle gave her a flat look but didn’t move her hand. "I’m barely touching you."

"You have the hands of a prison guard."

Tessa snorted beside them.

Brielle looked genuinely offended. "That doesn’t even make sense."

"It made sense to me," Thalia said, already laughing as they started up the stairs.

Brielle shot her a look over Raven’s shoulder.

That only made Thalia laugh harder.

By the time they reached their floor, Raven’s irritation had mostly faded.

Their room looked exactly as they had left it, which somehow made it feel better than usual.

Raven dropped onto the edge of her bed and immediately realized how hungry she was.

Her stomach cramped hard enough to make her press a hand against it.

Tessa noticed almost immediately.

"I knew it."

Raven looked up. "What?"

"You haven’t eaten properly."

"I was in an infirmary."

"They have food there."

"It was terrible."

Brielle crossed to the cabinet beside her bed and pulled out a covered plate.

Raven stared at it. "You kept food for me?"

Thalia smiled. "We figured you’d complain about whatever the healers gave you."

"I did not complain."

All three of them looked at her.

Raven sighed. "Fine."

Tessa handed her the plate. There was roast chicken, potatoes covered in gravy, roasted vegetables and a bread roll tucked along the side.

The smell alone made Raven’s stomach twist with hunger.

"Oh, Goddess."

Thalia laughed. "Eat."

Raven didn’t need telling twice.

She settled back against the headboard and began eating while the others moved around the room.

It occurred to her somewhere around the fourth mouthful that they did this often now.

They saved her food, dragged her back when she pushed herself too far and made space for her without asking whether she wanted it.

Raven looked down at the plate for a moment, then kept eating.

She wasn’t going to make it strange by saying anything.

Thalia filled her in on the lesson Raven had missed, Tessa corrected half of what Thalia remembered, and Brielle complained that one of the instructors had assigned enough reading to ruin the rest of the week.

For a while, Raven listened and ate. Nothing exploded, nobody accused her of anything, and nobody tried to enter her head. It was nice.

By the time they started getting ready for bed, the exhaustion Raven had been ignoring all day had caught up with her.

She changed, climbed under the covers and hugged her pillow against her chest.

Then she closed her eyes.

The white room came back almost at once.

Raven opened them again, her heart already beating faster.

Across the room, Tessa was still arranging something beside her bed. Brielle had turned onto her side, while Thalia muttered about someone stealing half her blanket.

Raven looked toward the window.

Nothing.

She thought of Cassian holding her hand in the infirmary.

I won’t leave you alone tonight, Raven.

For a moment, she wondered if he had only meant while she was there.

But no. That wasn’t how he had said it.

Raven shifted onto her other side.

Minutes passed.

One by one, the room settled.

Tessa’s breathing became slow and even. Thalia stopped moving. Somewhere beyond the walls, Hale Wing quieted until Raven could hear the faint rustle of leaves outside the window.

She looked at it again.

Still nothing.

Her wolf stirred restlessly.

Raven pressed her cheek deeper into the pillow.

"Idiot," she whispered.

She wasn’t sure whether she meant Cassian or herself.

Probably both.

She closed her eyes again and tried to stay there.

A soft tap came from the window.

Raven’s eyes opened.

She turned.

There was nobody there.

For a moment, she wondered if a branch had struck the glass.

Then her wolf lifted its head.

The reaction came so quickly that Raven went still.

Warmth spread through the bond, faint but familiar, and the restlessness inside her eased almost at once.

Raven stared toward the dark window.

Cassian.

Her mouth curved before she could stop it.

He was there.

She couldn’t see him, but somehow she knew.

Raven settled deeper beneath the blanket, still looking toward the glass.

"Thank you," she whispered.

There was no answer.

She hadn’t expected one.

Her wolf settled almost immediately, content in a way Raven found slightly embarrassing, and this time when she closed her eyes, the white room didn’t come back.

The fear was still there somewhere, just farther away.

Raven listened to the quiet room, aware of that familiar presence beyond the window until even that became difficult to hold on to.

Her grip loosened around the pillow.

A few minutes later, she was asleep.