Chapter 157 — Do You Have a Partner?

Chapter 157: Chapter 157 — Do You Have a Partner?

~ Raven ~

The cafeteria was still arguing about Second Seat when Raven reached the food counter.

She could hear the words following her through the room, repeated with different levels of disbelief by people who apparently had nothing better to do with their breakfast than discuss whether Raven Rivers had finally lost what little sense she possessed.

"She said Second."

"She’s Ninth."

"That’s the point—"

"Raven!"

Thalia caught up first, nearly walking into Raven when she stopped beside the counter.

Raven glanced at her. "What?"

"That was so fucking cool."

The enthusiasm on Thalia’s face caught Raven completely off guard.

"What was?"

"All of it." Thalia waved toward the Court table behind them. "The part where you told Celeste to be quiet, the thing with Petra, and then you just—" She straightened dramatically. "’Fuck Seventh. I’m taking Second.’"

"I didn’t say it like that."

"You absolutely did."

Raven reached for a plate before Thalia could reenact the entire confrontation for everyone still watching them, although the smile pulling at her mouth made pretending to be annoyed considerably harder.

Brielle appeared on her other side and caught it immediately.

"Don’t encourage her."

Thalia frowned. "Why?"

"Because she already has enough terrible ideas without receiving praise for them."

"That wasn’t a terrible idea."

Tessa joined them last. "She publicly announced that she’s taking Second Seat despite having no idea how she intends to do it."

Raven looked at her.

Tessa raised her eyebrows.

Unfortunately, there was no useful defence against something that accurate.

"I’ll work that part out."

"When?"

Raven picked up some bread. "Preferably after breakfast."

Brielle laughed under her breath.

They moved along the counter together, collecting food while Raven became increasingly aware that their little walk away from the Court table had done absolutely nothing to make the cafeteria lose interest.

People were still staring.

Some attempted subtlety, lowering their voices whenever Raven looked their way before resuming the moment she turned around. Others had apparently decided dignity was unnecessary and watched openly. Several Linkslates remained on tables with their recording runes still glowing.

Yesterday, that kind of attention would have tightened something unpleasant inside her.

It still made her uncomfortable. Raven doubted she would ever enjoy walking into a room and discovering that everybody inside already had an opinion about her.

But this felt different.

Nobody had cornered her into this.

Petra hadn’t arranged the audience. Celeste hadn’t chosen the story everyone would hear before Raven understood what was happening. Raven had walked into the cafeteria herself, told everyone to record and then given them something worth talking about.

For once, the stares belonged to something she had chosen.

Raven found that she could live with that.

While Thalia argued with Tessa about whether two pastries counted as breakfast or greed, Raven let her gaze travel across the cafeteria.

She checked the Court tables first.

Then the tables near the windows.

Then farther toward the opposite side of the hall.

No Isolde.

Raven looked once more before taking her drink.

After everything she had just said, she had half expected to find First Seat somewhere in the room watching the disaster unfold. Raven had publicly admitted that Isolde was the reason she had ever gone near the First Circle, then announced that she intended to take the Seat directly beneath hers.

Raven followed her roommates toward an empty table and sat with a sigh.

The noise around them gradually recovered. Not completely, because people kept glancing over, but enough that Raven could finally hear her own friends without also hearing three separate arguments about whether she could actually reach Second.

"I still can’t believe you said it."

Raven tore off a piece of bread. "You’ve mentioned that four times already."

"Because you’re Ninth."

"I know where I am."

Brielle took a drink. "For what it’s worth, I think it could either be the best thing you’ve done since coming to Valerius or an absolutely spectacular disaster."

Tessa looked between them. "Those aren’t mutually exclusive."

Raven laughed before she could stop herself.

"Could everyone give me until I finish eating before demanding an actual plan?"

"That long?" Brielle asked.

"Generous of you," Tessa added.

Raven pointed her bread at both of them. "I can still decide I hate having friends."

Thalia smiled. "Too late."

The conversation eventually drifted away from the Court, which Raven appreciated. Tessa reminded her again about the lessons she had missed while recovering, Brielle informed her that she was still not supposed to train properly no matter how much better she felt, and Thalia returned to Celeste’s expression often enough that Raven threatened to start charging her every time she mentioned it.

Somewhere between arguing over whether Raven could reasonably call walking across a combat court "training" and Thalia stealing something from Tessa’s plate, Raven realised she was enjoying herself.

Really enjoying herself.

It was almost strange.

Half the academy was still watching her, she had created a ranking problem she had no idea how to solve and there were probably several women across the cafeteria planning creative ways to murder her reputation before lunch.

And Raven was eating with her friends.

Laughing.

For several minutes, Valerius felt almost normal.

Raven was still looking down at her food when she noticed the silence.

Even Thalia’s voice was nowhere to be heard.

That alone was suspicious enough to make her look up.

All three girls were staring somewhere behind her.

Tessa had gone completely still. Brielle looked caught off guard in a way Raven had learned was particularly difficult to achieve, and Thalia’s eyes had widened until Raven became genuinely concerned for them.

Her stomach tightened.

Please don’t be Celeste.

Raven had already dealt with Celeste once this morning. She had no desire to discover whether the woman had recovered enough dignity to come back for another attempt.

Except Brielle wasn’t preparing to get up.

Tessa didn’t look to be on guard.

And Thalia looked less frightened than she did like someone had just placed the greatest piece of gossip in Valerius directly behind Raven’s chair.

Raven started turning.

She had barely made it halfway before a finger touched the tip of her nose.

Raven froze.

Dante Prymont stood directly behind her, looking entirely too pleased with himself.

"Morning, Rivers."

Raven stared at him.

Dante walked around the table before her brain could decide how to respond and took the empty seat beside her as though joining four first-year girls for breakfast was something he did every morning.

Nobody said anything.

Raven looked across the table.

Thalia’s expression had changed into the most painfully strained smile Raven had ever seen on another human being. Her eyes were fixed on Raven with a message so obvious that words would have been unnecessary.

What the fuck?

Raven widened her own eyes slightly.

I don’t know.

That was when she noticed the rest of the cafeteria.

It had gone quiet again.

A few conversations stumbled on for another sentence or two before their owners realised nobody was listening anymore. Chairs scraped softly against stone as students turned, and Raven caught more than one person very obviously angling their body toward her table.

One boy two tables away leaned sideways until his friend caught his sleeve and dragged him back.

Raven looked at Dante.

He either hadn’t noticed or didn’t care.

Considering it was Dante, she knew exactly which one it was.

His attention moved across her roommates instead.

"I don’t think we’ve properly met."

Thalia made a tiny sound.

Dante smiled at her. "Dante Prymont."

"I know."

Thalia shut her eyes.

Raven bit the inside of her cheek.

Dante, to his credit, didn’t laugh. "And you are?"

"Thalia Wren."

"Tessa."

"Brielle Vance."

Brielle gave her surname with far more composure than either of the other two, although Raven noticed how closely she was watching him.

Dante acknowledged each of them before looking back at Raven.

Raven immediately became suspicious.

"What?"

His mouth curved.

"I watched what you did."

Raven glanced around the cafeteria, muttering. "Apparently everyone did."

Dante didn’t look away from her. "You handled them well."

That wasn’t what Raven had expected.

"Oh."

"You sound surprised."

"I am."

His smile deepened slightly. "You were impressive."

Heat climbed Raven’s face before she could stop it.

Absolutely not.

She looked down at her food as if there might be something there capable of fixing this.

There wasn’t.

When she glanced across the table again, Thalia looked delighted.

Raven narrowed her eyes.

Thalia immediately lowered her gaze, although the smile remained.

Traitor.

Raven leaned slightly toward Dante and kept her voice low.

"What the hell are you doing here?"

"Asking you something."

Unlike Raven, he made absolutely no effort to lower his voice.

She stared at him.

Around them, the cafeteria somehow became even quieter.

Raven glanced over Dante’s shoulder and caught two students snapping their heads away so quickly that one nearly knocked his cup over.

She turned back.

Dante looked perfectly comfortable.

"The Renewal Ball is coming up."

Raven frowned. "The what?"

Something changed across the table.

Thalia looked at Tessa.

Tessa looked at Brielle.

Brielle slowly lowered her cup.

Raven noticed every bit of it.

"What?"

Nobody answered.

"Why are you all looking at me like that?"

Dante was enjoying this now. She could see it.

"The Renewal Ball," he said, "is one of the formal events during the Renewal. Court students attend, the upper Seats handle some of the representation, Houses make too much of everything and everyone spends the evening pretending they aren’t watching everyone else."

"That sounds terrible."

"It usually is."

Raven frowned. "And?"

"And the Cardinal heirs attend with partners."

Understanding began creeping across Raven’s mind slowly enough that she had time to resent every second of it.

She looked at Thalia.

Thalia’s eyes were enormous.

Tessa had the expression of someone watching a carriage roll downhill toward an unsuspecting crowd.

Even Brielle looked as though she knew exactly where this conversation was going.

Raven turned back toward Dante.

He was smiling.

A very bad feeling settled in her stomach.

"Do you already have a partner?"

Raven stared at him.

"A partner?"

"For the Ball."

She looked helplessly toward her roommates again.

Not one of them moved to save her.

Thalia, in particular, looked like intervention was the furthest thing from her mind.

The cafeteria had become so quiet Raven could hear cutlery moving somewhere several tables away. Students weren’t even pretending anymore. Heads had turned openly in their direction, and more than one Linkslate had appeared above a table.

Raven’s stomach sank.

She had walked into breakfast wanting to annoy Celeste.

Somehow that had become a public destruction of the First Circle, followed by a declaration that she intended to take Second Seat.

Surely that was enough drama for one meal.

Apparently Dante Prymont disagreed.

He leaned back in his chair, entirely unconcerned by the hundreds of ears waiting for his next words, and smiled at her.

"Come to the Renewal Ball with me, Raven."

Raven stared.

Across the table, Thalia looked ready to burst.

Somewhere behind Raven, someone dropped a fork, the small metallic clatter carrying beautifully through the silent cafeteria.

Raven closed her eyes for half a second as the scale of the next disaster opened itself in front of her.

Of fucking course.