Chapter 158 — This Is Going to Be Awkward

Chapter 158: Chapter 158 — This Is Going to Be Awkward

~ Raven ~

"Are you out of your mind?"

Raven had barely made it far enough from the cafeteria doors for the noise behind them to fade when Thalia caught up beside her and asked the question with such genuine horror that Raven didn’t even need to ask what she meant.

She adjusted the strap of her bag and kept walking. "What did you expect me to say?"

"Yes?"

Raven looked at her. "Immediately?"

"Yes!"

"Why?"

Thalia made a strangled sound and turned toward the others as if Raven had just asked why people needed air.

Brielle laughed.

Raven pointed at her. "Thank you."

"I’m not agreeing with you." Brielle’s amusement only deepened. "You’re just a fucking riot."

"How am I the problem here? He walked into a cafeteria where everyone was already staring at me, sat beside me like he owned the table and asked me to the Ball in front of half the academy. What exactly was I supposed to do, fall over myself saying yes?"

"You told Dante Prymont you would think about it," Thalia said.

"I am thinking about it."

"That is not helping."

Raven rolled her eyes, although remembering the scene did nothing useful for the warmth trying to creep back into her face.

After Dante had asked her, she had spent several seconds staring at him while the entire cafeteria waited so quietly that the silence itself had started to feel embarrassing.

Eventually, because nothing better came to mind and because saying yes while hundreds of people watched felt suspiciously like surrendering under pressure, she had told him she would think about it.

Dante had smiled.

Not disappointed. Not offended. If anything, the bastard had looked as though her answer amused him.

Then, instead of leaving and allowing Raven to recover what remained of her breakfast, he had stayed.

He had talked with Thalia, Tessa and Brielle as though joining them had been his plan all along, occasionally dragged Raven into whatever they were discussing and generally made it impossible for her to pretend nothing unusual had happened while students at surrounding tables continued listening with all the discretion of wolves standing behind a thin door.

By the time breakfast finally ended, Raven had somehow been more exhausted than she had been after publicly dismantling Petra’s story and declaring war on the Court.

"I gave him a perfectly reasonable answer," she said.

Thalia stared at her.

"What?"

"You really believe that."

"Yes."

"That might be the worst part."

Brielle laughed again.

They turned into the next corridor with the morning crowd moving around them, students separating toward different wings of the academic buildings while instructors and older students threaded through the traffic with considerably more purpose. Raven was about to tell Thalia that the subject was closed when she noticed Tessa walking unusually quietly beside them.

That alone was suspicious.

Tessa had contributed almost nothing since leaving the cafeteria. She wasn’t even enjoying Raven’s suffering, which meant something had to be wrong.

Raven glanced over. "What’s wrong with you?"

Tessa looked at her. "Nothing."

"You’ve been quiet for almost five minutes."

"I’m capable of being quiet."

"Not while Thalia is accusing me of insanity."

Thalia nodded. "What’s going on, Tess?"

Tessa’s mouth tightened. For a moment she seemed to consider ignoring all of them, then she looked ahead and said with suspicious casualness, "I already have a partner for the Ball."

Raven stopped walking.

So did Thalia and Brielle.

Raven slowly turned toward Tessa. "You have a what?"

"A partner."

"With who?"

Tessa frowned. "Why are you saying it like I announced I’m wanted for murder?"

"Because you have a partner for the ball."

"Yes, Raven. I heard myself."

Thalia had recovered from the initial shock and was already moving closer. "Who?"

Tessa took one look at her expression and apparently decided survival required a distraction.

"Brielle has one too."

Silence.

Raven’s head turned.

Brielle’s did too, but hers went toward Tessa with considerably more menace.

Tessa smiled.

"You absolute traitor," Brielle said.

Raven stared at her. "You have a partner too?"

Brielle folded her arms. "Keep your voice down will you?"

That was when Raven saw it.

Colour had appeared across Brielle’s cheeks.

Raven had watched Brielle angry, embarrassed, bloodied, frightened and furious enough to throw pressure across their bedroom. She had even watched her try to pretend she wasn’t pleased after being selected for the Founders’ Hunt.

This was different.

"You’re blushing."

"I am not."

"You are."

Thalia looked personally betrayed. "Both of you have dates?"

Tessa had become extremely interested in the corridor ahead now that nobody was interrogating her.

"And neither of you told me?" Thalia continued. "How long has this been happening?"

"It hasn’t been happening," Brielle said.

"That is exactly what someone hiding something would say."

Raven fell into step beside them again. "Who is it?"

"No."

"Is it someone we know?"

Brielle stopped so abruptly Raven nearly walked into her.

"There are wolves everywhere."

Raven looked around.

Several students were passing in both directions. Two boys near the wall had slowed enough that Raven strongly suspected they had suddenly developed an interest in whatever Brielle was refusing to say.

Brielle noticed them too.

"I am not discussing my private life in a corridor full of people who can hear a whisper from twenty feet away."

The two boys immediately started walking faster.

Raven pressed her lips together.

"Fine."

Thalia looked considerably less willing to surrender, but Brielle’s stare eventually convinced her that attempting to extract names here might result in violence.

They started moving again.

Raven lasted perhaps half a corridor before another question occurred to her.

"So what exactly is this Ball about?"

Thalia turned to look at her.

Raven frowned. "What?"

"You really don’t know?"

"I didn’t know it existed until Dante sat down beside me."

Thalia stared at her for another second before sighing. "Right. We never actually got around to that part."

Considering everything that had happened since Raven arrived at Valerius, that was hardly surprising.

"We told you about the Concord," Thalia continued, "but the Ball is different. It’s one of the formal events held during a Renewal year before everything really starts. We probably would’ve mentioned it eventually if this place hadn’t spent most of your time here trying to kill you."

"That does keep happening."

Tessa made a quiet sound that might have been agreement.

Thalia carried on. "It’s not just a dance either. Court members attend, the Great Houses make a whole thing out of it, and anyone representing the academy gets watched far more closely than they probably want."

Raven’s expression tightened slightly.

"And the upper Seats get even more attention," Thalia added. "Especially when the Cardinal heirs choose who they’re attending with."

Raven’s expression slowly changed.

Thalia noticed. "There you go."

"What?"

"You’re finally understanding why everyone reacted like that."

Raven frowned.

"The Cardinal heirs attending with partners is always a big deal," Thalia continued. "People talk about it before the Ball, during the Ball and probably for weeks afterward if anything interesting happens."

"People here desperately need hobbies."

"They have hobbies. This is one of them."

Brielle smiled at this.

Raven thought about breakfast again, only this time the scene rearranged itself with considerably worse implications.

She had announced in front of half the academy that Ninth Seat wasn’t enough and that she intended to take Second. Then, before she had even managed to finish eating, Dante Prymont had sat beside her and publicly asked her to accompany him to one of the most visible formal events of the Renewal.

Wonderful.

Two scandals before breakfast was apparently something she could accomplish now.

"You’re making too much of it," Raven said.

Thalia looked at her. "He asked you in front of everyone."

"And I haven’t said yes."

"You said you’d think about it."

"Exactly."

"The academy is not going to care about that distinction."

Raven was beginning to suspect she might be right.

The whispers had already followed them out of the cafeteria.

By the time they reached the main academic building, Raven had already heard enough whispers to realise the two stories were beginning to merge. Her declaration about Second Seat and Dante asking her to the Renewal Ball had apparently become one enormous piece of gossip before she had even made it to class.

Wonderful.

When Bellringer heard even half of this, Raven suspected she was going to become someone’s entertainment again before long.

At the next junction, Brielle stopped.

"We’re this way."

Thalia glanced down the opposite corridor and groaned. "Right."

Raven looked between them. "You two aren’t coming to Advanced Sigil?"

"No," Brielle said. "Thankfully."

"That sounded personal."

"It was."

Tessa shifted her bag higher. "Come on. Berry will skin us if we’re late."

Thalia pointed at Tessa as she began backing away. "We are continuing the date conversation later."

"No, we aren’t."

"We absolutely are."

Brielle caught Thalia by the sleeve and dragged her away before she could say anything else.

Raven watched them disappear around the corner, still amused, then turned with Tessa toward the upper academic corridor.

For once, she was actually looking forward to Advanced Sigil Writing.

That was almost insulting considering she had entered the course by accident, lied badly to Berry and then discovered that being able to copy a sigil did not mean she understood enough to avoid ruining somebody’s leg with one.

Unfortunately, Berry had been right about something.

Raven wanted to understand it now.

There was another reason she wanted to reach the classroom, though.

Isolde.

Raven had searched for her during breakfast and found nothing, but Advanced Sigil Writing was different. Isolde attended it. More importantly, it was one of the few places Raven knew with certainty that they would eventually be in the same room.

After admitting in front of the cafeteria that she had only approached the First Circle because she needed access to Isolde, Raven was curious whether Marchmont had already heard about it.

After announcing Second Seat, she was even more curious.

They were almost at the classroom when voices carried into the corridor ahead.

Raven slowed.

Tessa took another step before noticing.

"—Prymont asked her?"

"In the cafeteria."

Raven shut her eyes.

Of course.

Another voice answered from inside. "She said she’d think about it."

"You’re joking."

"I watched it."

"She made Dante Prymont wait?"

Raven opened her eyes again and stared at the classroom door.

Apparently breakfast had beaten them here.

At that moment another memory surfaced, one she had been considerably happier without.

Thalia had told her before that Isolde fancied Dante.

Raven’s stomach sank.

"This is going to be awkward," Raven muttered.

Tessa glanced at her. "What?"

"Is Berry in there?"

Tessa tilted her head slightly, listening.

The conversation inside continued.

"No."

Raven stared at the door.

"We could wait," Tessa said.

For one deeply appealing moment, Raven considered it.

Then she imagined standing in the corridor until Berry arrived simply because she didn’t want to walk into a room where people were gossiping about her and decided she already had enough problems without becoming a coward before first lesson.

Raven exhaled.

"Fuck it."

She reached for the handle while the conversation continued on the other side and pushed the door open.

The room went quiet.