Chapter 175: Your Majesty

Chapter 175: Chapter 175: Your Majesty

~Raven~

"No."

The answer came so quickly that Isolde had barely finished speaking.

Raven did not flinch. She did not look away. She simply stood there with the same flat expression she would have worn if Isolde had asked whether she planned to jump out the window.

For several seconds, Isolde said nothing.

Then the corner of her mouth began to rise.

Raven immediately disliked that.

"Oh."

"What?"

Isolde’s smile spread wider. "You’re lying."

Raven’s expression shifted before she could stop it.

The realization came a beat too late.

Stillheart.

Of all the people in this academy she could have answered automatically—

Isolde didn’t need some grand confession. Raven had denied it far too quickly, and Stillheart was built to catch the distance between what someone said and what they actually meant.

Isolde caught the change in Raven’s face, her eyes sharpening with immediate understanding.

Her entire face brightened.

"Oh, that is priceless."

"It proves nothing."

"It proves I’m right."

"It proves I don’t want to answer your question."

"Yes." Isolde nodded with infuriating satisfaction. "Because you’re the Alpha Queen."

Raven glared at her.

Despite looking like she had not slept in a week, Isolde straightened with an air of victory and placed one hand lightly against her chest before dipping into an exaggerated bow.

"Your Majesty."

"Stop that."

Isolde laughed.

The sound caught Raven slightly off guard.

It was the first real laugh she had heard from her since Isolde walked into the cafeteria. There was no strain beneath it and no edge of panic, just the same troublesome amusement Raven had discovered hiding beneath Isolde Marchmont’s public composure.

Raven stared at her until the laughter finally eased.

"You were practically unraveling in that corridor twenty minutes ago."

"I thought I was going insane twenty minutes ago."

The answer came easily, but some of the amusement faded from Isolde’s face afterward.

"Now I know I’m not."

That silenced Raven.

Isolde allowed the moment to sit for only a second before the satisfaction returned.

"Besides, I should have realised sooner. The Blackthorn twins were already strange enough."

Raven frowned. "What do they have to do with anything?"

"They were both your mates."

Raven’s expression tightened slightly, but Isolde continued before she could interrupt.

"Then you arrived here and Cass became..." She paused, apparently searching for the correct word. "Cass."

"That explains absolutely nothing."

"It explains plenty if you actually know him."

Raven resisted the urge to ask what exactly that meant.

Isolde noticed.

Naturally.

Her smile deepened before she continued. "Then there’s Dante, who apparently decided subtlety was a personal insult the moment you arrived."

"Dante has never been subtle about anything."

"Exactly."

Isolde leaned back slightly, looking increasingly pleased with herself. "And then there’s the way your wolf reacts around both of them. Put that beside what the old records say about the Alpha Queen and her mates and suddenly the impossible starts looking considerably less impossible."

Raven watched the triumph building in her expression.

"If the records are right, that would mean there should also be—"

"Don’t."

Isolde stopped.

The look she gave Raven was unbearable.

Raven narrowed her eyes. "Not another word."

"I wasn’t going to say anything."

"You absolutely were."

"I was going to think it very loudly."

Raven rubbed a hand over her face.

This was somehow worse than when Isolde had been terrified.

"Goddess," Isolde murmured, already drifting toward another thought. "Do you have any idea what this would do to Valerius?"

Raven looked up sharply.

Isolde’s eyes were beginning to brighten in a way Raven had learned to associate with Bellringer and bad decisions.

"The former wolfless servant of House Blackthorn secretly being the Alpha Queen?" she continued. "I wouldn’t even need a proper opening for tonight’s broadcast. The title alone would probably crash half the academy’s slates."

"Isolde."

"Imagine the First Circle."

"Isolde."

"And the Blackthorns—"

"If you put this on Bellringer, I swear to Goddess—"

Isolde laughed again.

Raven stopped as the realization arrived slowly.

"You’re fucking with me."

"Obviously."

"That was not obvious."

"It became fairly obvious when you looked ready to murder me."

Raven stared at her.

"Relax." Isolde waved one hand. "I’m not broadcasting anything."

"You are genuinely insufferable."

"Sheesh." Isolde settled back against the bed, still smiling. "You’re remarkably tense for a queen."

Raven folded her arms harder.

"You dragged me out of the cafeteria shaking, nearly crushed my arms in a corridor and told me some bastard hadn’t let you sleep in two days. Why are you suddenly acting as though this is entertaining?"

This time the smile faded gradually.

Isolde looked down at her hands, rubbing one thumb slowly across the opposite palm.

"Because now I know there was actually something there."

Raven waited.

"For two days I’ve been wondering whether I imagined it," Isolde continued. "Whether I was exhausted, whether Stillheart was reacting to something I misunderstood or whether I’d somehow frightened myself badly enough that I started inventing explanations."

She raised her eyes.

"Then you asked if I’d seen him."

There was something different in her expression now. Not fear exactly, but Raven recognised the relief beneath it because she had felt something similar the first time Cassian looked at her and simply believed what she was telling him.

"I’d rather there not be a Dreamwalker inside Valerius," Isolde said, "but if there is one, at least I’m not losing my fucking mind."

Raven understood that far too well to make light of it.

For a moment neither of them spoke.

Then Raven remembered the considerably more dangerous secret Isolde had discovered along the way.

"You really won’t tell anyone?"

Isolde looked up. "About the Alpha Queen?"

Raven nodded.

"No."

The answer came without hesitation.

"Why?"

Something shifted in Isolde’s expression. She looked away briefly, and when she spoke again, her voice had lost most of its earlier playfulness.

"Because I know what it’s like to have a part of yourself that nobody else is supposed to know exists."

Raven did not need anything more.

Bellringer.

The entire academy knew Isolde Marchmont as First Seat, Marchmont heir and a woman who seemed almost incapable of losing control.

Almost nobody knew about the person who sat behind an altered voice and mocked half of Valerius for entertainment.

Raven’s shoulders relaxed by a fraction.

Isolde noticed but, for once, chose not to comment on it.

"I don’t know why you’re keeping this secret," she said instead. "Maybe you have a good reason. Maybe you’re simply stubborn."

Raven gave her a look.

"Either way, it’s yours. If you want it kept quiet, I’ll keep it quiet."

The simplicity of that promise caught Raven more than some grand declaration would have.

She nodded once.

Then something Isolde had said earlier returned to her.

Cass.

"You said Cassian was behaving differently around me."

That knowing smile returned immediately on Isolde’s face.

"Well, I know Cass well enough to recognise when he—"

"Do you know where he is?"

The smile vanished.

Isolde stared at her for a second before shaking her head.

"No."

Raven felt the answer settle uncomfortably in her chest.

"You looked for him?"

"I went to the Headmaster."

Raven’s brows rose. "And?"

"She knew he had formally taken leave. Early evening, the day he left."

Raven stopped listening for a second.

Early evening.

Cassian had already taken leave by then.

Yet before actually leaving, he had still come to see her.

Warmth moved unexpectedly through Raven’s chest at the thought, but it barely lasted before something colder followed it.

The fact that he had made time to see her before disappearing should have been comforting.

Instead, it made Raven considerably more worried about whatever had been important enough for him to leave immediately afterward.

"Has he done this before?"

Isolde shrugged, although the movement lacked the carelessness she was probably aiming for.

"Taken sudden leave? Yes. Plenty of times. Cass has a habit of disappearing whenever House matters become complicated."

Raven waited because there was obviously more.

Isolde sighed.

"He doesn’t usually stay gone this long without anybody hearing from him."

There it was.

Raven looked away for a moment.

"I was already starting to worry before all of this happened," Isolde admitted. "He disappears, but he usually resurfaces before anyone has enough time to wonder whether something went wrong."

"Can’t you ask his family?"

Isolde shuddered.

Raven turned back so quickly that Isolde must have realised immediately she had seen it.

"What was that?"

"Nothing."

"Isolde."

She looked away.

Raven stared at her. "What is wrong with House Blade?"

"Ask Cass."

Raven’s frustration sharpened. "You just visibly shuddered at the thought of contacting his family."

"And I’m advising you to ask Cassian why."

Raven held her gaze for another moment, but whatever openness had existed between them suddenly stopped there. Isolde was not going to tell her.

Fine.

Cassian could explain his terrifying family himself whenever he finally decided to return.

Raven dragged a hand down her face and pushed the entire subject aside before it managed to consume what little patience she had left.

"No. Enough."

Isolde raised an eyebrow.

"No more Alpha Queen. No more Bellringer. No more Cassian, his family or whatever else you’ve successfully used to avoid the reason we’re actually sitting here."

"That sounded almost organised."

Raven ignored her.

"You dragged me out of the cafeteria because you haven’t slept in two days. You thought you were losing your mind, and somehow I’ve been here this long without you telling me what the Dreamwalker actually did."

The amusement disappeared from Isolde’s face.

One moment it was there, and the next the exhaustion Raven had noticed in the cafeteria seemed to settle over her all over again. Isolde looked down, her fingers slowly curling against the blanket beneath them.

When she finally spoke, her voice had gone quiet.

"The fucker came into my head."

Raven stopped moving.

Isolde did not look up immediately.

For a few seconds, she simply sat there staring at her hands before drawing in a slow breath and nodding toward the chair beside the bed.

"If you want to understand what happened, you need to hear the whole thing."

Raven pulled the chair closer and sat.

Isolde leaned back, closed her eyes briefly and let out a tired breath. Whatever relief had allowed Bellringer to surface over the last several minutes disappeared with it, leaving only the woman Raven had seen walking toward her through the cafeteria with shadows beneath her eyes and fear held tightly behind her composure.

When Isolde opened her eyes again, she looked directly at Raven.

"Alright," she said. "This is what happened..."