Chapter 167: Nikolai

Chapter 167: Chapter 167: Nikolai

The other thing that had changed over the last five days was her training.

Velkarin had finally cleared her to train properly again, and Raven was improving faster than she expected.

She noticed it first because Dante stopped putting her on the floor quite as often.

He seemed to take a personal interest in reminding Raven that improvement and competence were not the same thing, but somewhere between repeating the same movements until her legs ached and having Dante correct every mistake with irritating precision, things had begun fitting together.

Her footing held more often. She no longer lost her balance every time an opponent changed direction unexpectedly, and openings that once passed before Raven even understood what she had seen now registered quickly enough for her to respond.

The strangest part was how quickly certain movements stayed with her.

Once Raven watched Dante do something a few times, her body seemed to remember the movement before she fully understood why it worked.

That was the part she still couldn’t explain.

Dante, of course, remained convinced it had something to do with the Alpha Queen and her affinity with her mates. Raven was less willing to accept that explanation, especially with how pleased he seemed every time he brought it up.

What she did know was that learning from him came far too easily.

Brielle noticed yesterday.

They had been sparring after class, nothing particularly serious, until Raven slipped around one of Brielle’s attacks, adjusted her footing the way Dante had shown her and caught Brielle badly enough to force her back two steps.

Brielle stopped, eyes widening slightly.

Raven lowered her hands. "What?"

"Do that again."

"Do what?"

"That."

Raven repeated the movement.

Brielle came at her again, and Raven adjusted almost without thinking.

By the fourth exchange, Brielle lowered her hands completely.

"What the hell is Prymont teaching you?"

Raven laughed. "Combat?"

"I know he’s teaching you combat." Brielle gestured toward her. "I mean what is he doing differently?"

Raven considered lying.

Unfortunately, Brielle knew her too well now.

"Maybe I’m talented."

"You are."

That stopped Raven.

Brielle said it without mockery.

"You’re infuriatingly untrained, but you have an aptitude for it. Nobody improves that quickly from where you started unless something is clicking that shouldn’t."

Raven laughed again.

More nervously this time.

Brielle noticed.

Raven changed the subject.

She was becoming very good at that.

Dante, meanwhile, had been enjoying himself far too much.

Ever since he decided Raven was the Alpha Queen and somehow turned that discovery into proof that he might be one of her mates, something in him had relaxed.

Not that Dante Prymont had ever looked particularly uncertain about anything.

But there had been questions before.

Now he behaved as though he had found answers Raven had never agreed to give him.

He stood too close whenever they trained and seemed far too comfortable correcting her by hand, shifting her wrist, shoulder or stance whenever he decided she was doing something wrong. Every time Raven caught him smiling after her wolf reacted to him, she wanted to hit him.

Usually she tried.

That only made him happier.

The bastard had spent five days in an almost offensively good mood.

Raven found it irritating.

Mostly.

Which brought her back to another problem she had successfully avoided solving.

The Ball.

Five days ago, telling Dante she would think about his invitation had seemed perfectly reasonable.

Five days later, even Raven had to admit that thinking probably had an expiration date.

The worst part was that Dante had not pushed her. He simply kept training her and behaving as though her answer would come eventually.

He never needed to ask again.

Raven caught the look sometimes.

He knew it was still on her mind.

And she was fairly certain he had already guessed why she had not answered.

Raven refused to examine that thought any further.

Besides, Cassian was still gone.

Raven had attempted subtlety.

She asked once whether Cardinal heirs sometimes left Valerius on House business without warning. She casually mentioned Cassian around students who might reasonably know whether he had training scheduled. She passed through the library more often than necessary and told herself the empty corner table meant nothing.

Nobody had an answer.

Isolde had been looking for him on the first day.

Since then, nothing.

Raven had not told anyone when she last saw Cassian because that would invite questions she had no intention of answering, and asking too directly where he had gone would create a different set of questions she wanted even less.

Cassian Blade could take care of himself.

Raven knew that better than most people.

Whatever he was doing was none of her business.

That argument had worked considerably better on the first day.

By the fifth, she was beginning to resent how often she had to repeat it.

At least she had something else to worry about first.

Her spar with Isolde was in two days.

When Raven had agreed to it, fighting First Seat had sounded reckless enough to be interesting. Now, after waking up in Fourth, it felt different.

There were only three women left above her, and Isolde sat at the very top.

The spar was not a Court challenge, but Raven could no longer look at it as some separate test between the two of them. If she wanted Second, then sooner or later she had to prove she could stand against women at Isolde’s level.

And getting closer to what she wanted only gave her more things to worry about.

By the time they left the academic building later that afternoon, Thalia had returned to discussing Fourth Seat as though Raven might somehow forget about it if given more than ten minutes of silence.

"I’m just saying, if you moved five places in five days—"

Raven gave Thalia a look. "Don’t."

"I was only going to say Second might be closer than you think."

Tessa adjusted the books in her arms. "That is not how Court rankings work."

Thalia frowned. "You could at least pretend to be encouraging."

"I am encouraging. I’m also correct."

Raven smiled despite herself as they crossed into one of the quieter courtyards between the academic buildings.

The late afternoon sun had warmed the stone, and students moved through the courtyard in loose groups, most of them heading back toward their Wings or the training grounds.

Raven was only half listening to the conversation when she noticed someone beneath the far colonnade and slowed.

Nikolai sat alone against the stone.

There was nothing unusual about that by itself. What caught her attention was how still he was. There was no slate in his hands, no book beside him and nobody keeping him company. He simply leaned back with his face tilted toward the sky, watching the clouds drift slowly overhead.

He looked exhausted.

Raven had noticed it before, although never enough at once to make anything of it. The shadows beneath his eyes had grown darker, his attention wandered more often, and lately there were moments when his usual smile seemed to take just a little longer to appear.

Five days had done nothing to improve any of it.

"Raven?"

She looked over to find Thalia several steps ahead with the others.

"Go ahead. I’ll catch up."

All three of them followed her gaze toward Nikolai. Brielle looked back at Raven as though she might ask why, but apparently decided against it.

"Don’t take forever," Tessa said.

"I won’t."

Thalia was considerably less willing to leave without an explanation, but Brielle caught her by the arm and pulled her along before she could start asking questions.

Raven waited until they had moved farther down the path before crossing the courtyard.

Nikolai did not look up.

That bothered her more than everything else.

Usually, Raven could barely enter the same space as Nikolai Hale without him noticing. He seemed irritatingly aware of everyone around him, and when it came to Raven, that awareness somehow became worse. She had caught him watching her often enough that she had stopped being surprised by it.

Yet she crossed almost the entire courtyard in plain sight without drawing so much as a glance.

By the time she came within a few steps of him, his attention was still fixed somewhere above her.

"Hi, Nikolai."

His head snapped toward her.

For a moment, she caught something completely unguarded in his expression before recognition settled in and the familiar smile appeared.

"Raven." He straightened slightly. "Hi. How are you?"

Raven did not answer immediately.

Up close, it was harder to dismiss what she had been noticing all week. The smile was there, but so were the shadows beneath his eyes and the exhaustion he had failed to hide before seeing her. More importantly, Raven Rivers had just walked directly up to Nikolai Hale without him noticing until she spoke.

Something was wrong.

She had spent the last several days pretending she had not noticed because Nikolai clearly preferred it that way, but now her patience with that had run out.

Raven folded her arms.

"Spill."