Chapter 197 — Not Her Type

Chapter 197: Chapter 197 — Not Her Type

~ Raven ~

Dante’s fingers closed around Raven’s hand, and before she properly understood what the bastard intended, he drew her straight out of Nikolai’s hold and against himself.

Raven blinked.

Nikolai stared at Dante for a second before a laugh escaped him.

"Really?"

Dante looked entirely unbothered as he adjusted his hand at Raven’s waist.

Nikolai shook his head, amusement still written across his face, then turned toward a nearby woman who seemed considerably more delighted by the sudden opportunity than offended on Raven’s behalf.

Within moments, he was dancing again.

Raven slowly looked back at Dante.

"Did you just steal me?"

His mouth twitched. "I wouldn’t call it stealing."

"You took my hand while I was dancing with somebody else."

Dante shrugged as though that were a minor technical detail.

Raven stared at him. "That is almost the exact definition."

His smile widened.

She should have been annoyed.

Unfortunately, she was also trying not to laugh, which ruined most of the effect.

Dante noticed that too, because of course he did.

They continued moving, and Raven let the music carry them for another few moments before her attention wandered toward the side of the ballroom again.

Thalia was gone.

Her smile faded as she searched the area where her friend had been standing, then checked the nearby crowd.

Nothing.

Odd.

Thalia had been strange all evening, and Raven had already caught her searching through the arriving students before the Ball properly began. Whoever she had been waiting for clearly had not been the man she had just sent away.

Then a memory surfaced so suddenly Raven almost lost the rhythm.

There’s something I wanted to tell you.

The infirmary.

Thalia had been sitting near the end of Raven’s bed after everything with the drugging and the First Circle had finally stopped being an argument between them. She had grown quiet, looked directly at Raven and started to tell her something—

then the nurse had walked in before she could finish.

Raven’s brows drew together.

She had never asked again.

How the hell had she never asked again?

There had been Cassian, the Dreamwalker, Isolde, the Court and one disaster after another, but the realization still settled unpleasantly beneath her ribs.

Thalia had tried to tell her something.

And Raven had forgotten.

"Raven."

She looked up to find Dante studying her.

"What?"

His brows lifted slightly. "That was my question."

Raven blinked.

"What’s wrong?" he asked, his hand shifting slightly at her waist as they moved.

"Nothing."

The look Dante gave her made it clear he did not believe a word of that.

Raven opened her mouth to say something else when movement near one of the exits caught her attention.

Thalia.

She appeared between two groups of students for barely a second, glanced around herself and slipped through the doorway.

Raven stopped so suddenly Dante nearly walked into her.

"Raven?"

"Sorry."

She pulled her hand free.

His brows rose higher as he looked from her to the exit. "What are you doing?"

"I need a minute."

"For what?"

Raven’s gaze remained fixed on the doorway.

"I don’t know yet."

Dante stared at her for another second, clearly unconvinced by everything happening in front of him.

Raven was already backing away.

"I’ll be back."

She turned and started through the crowd.

Getting across the ballroom proved considerably harder than expected with half of Valerius apparently determined to stand between her and the exit.

Raven slipped around one couple, squeezed behind another group near the tables and kept her eyes fixed on the doorway Thalia had disappeared through.

If she lost her now, Raven doubted she would have any idea which direction to take once she reached the corridor.

She accelerated through the final stretch and almost walked straight into somebody.

Raven twisted aside at the last second, but a pair of hands still caught her arms before she could stumble.

"Raven?"

She looked up.

"Tessa?"

Tessa stared back at her, Julian standing beside her with the mildly confused expression of a man who had apparently been enjoying a perfectly normal date until Raven Rivers nearly crashed into it.

"What are you doing?" Tessa asked, still holding one of Raven’s arms.

"Nothing."

Tessa glanced over her shoulder. "You’re practically running."

"I need to get something."

"From—"

"I’ll be back."

Raven gave her a quick smile, slipped free and continued before Tessa could finish the question.

The ballroom doors closed behind her moments later, taking most of the music with them.

Raven looked down the corridor.

Empty.

Her stomach tightened.

Then movement appeared near the far end.

Thalia.

"There you are."

Raven quickened her pace just as Thalia turned another corner and vanished again.

By the time Raven reached it, the music behind her had already dulled into something distant, muffled by thick stone and the growing stretch of empty hallway between herself and the Ball.

She followed.

Thalia was moving quickly enough that Raven caught only glimpses of her now: the edge of her dress disappearing beyond an archway, the movement of her hair farther ahead before another turn swallowed her.

The bright passages nearest the ballroom gradually gave way to corridors nobody had much reason to use tonight, and Raven’s worry began returning with every step.

Where the hell was Thalia going?

If she merely needed air, there were balconies much closer to the ballroom. If she wanted something from Hale, she was heading in completely the wrong direction.

Another glimpse of her dress appeared ahead before Thalia turned into a narrower corridor.

Raven slowed.

Something about following her any farther suddenly felt considerably more intrusive.

Then voices reached her.

She stopped before rounding the corner.

"Took you long enough."

A girl.

Raven frowned.

Thalia answered immediately, irritation obvious in her voice despite the relief underneath it. "I thought you weren’t coming."

"I said I would."

"You also said that nearly an hour ago."

A quiet laugh followed.

Raven remained where she was as the worry in her chest gradually shifted into confusion.

Thalia had not wandered out here because anything was wrong.

She had come to meet someone.

"You look beautiful, by the way."

Silence followed for a beat.

Then Thalia answered considerably more softly than Raven was used to hearing from her.

"Shut up."

The girl laughed again.

Raven’s eyebrows slowly climbed.

Oh.

Right.

This was—

The voices stopped.

A softer sound replaced them.

Raven’s eyes widened.

Oh, Goddess.

She immediately stepped backward.

Absolutely not.

Thalia was alive, apparently extremely well and very clearly did not require Raven to rescue her from anything.

Which meant Raven had officially followed her friend much farther than any decent person should have.

She turned carefully, already preparing to disappear before Thalia discovered that Raven had accidentally listened to whatever this was.

Behind her, the girl murmured something Raven could not quite catch.

Raven took another step.

Then the voice came again, clearer this time.

She stopped.

Something about it—

Her brows drew together.

Raven remained completely still as the girl spoke again, followed by Thalia’s muffled laugh.

Recognition struck.

Her eyes widened.

No.

There was no fucking way.

Raven slowly turned toward the corner.

For a moment, common sense told her to leave anyway. Whoever Thalia was meeting was still none of her business.

Then the girl spoke again, and any uncertainty disappeared.

Raven knew that voice.

She rounded the corner.

And stopped dead.

Thalia was pressed against the wall with another woman standing against her, one hand still resting at Thalia’s waist while Thalia’s fingers remained tangled in the fabric at her side.

Their faces were much too close.

Their mouths even closer.

For one ridiculous second Raven’s mind refused to process anything beyond the extremely obvious fact that Thalia Wren had been making out with a woman in a deserted corridor.

Then the woman turned.

Raven saw her face.

Her stomach dropped.

Seventh Seat.

One of Adelaide’s women.

Thalia went completely white while Seventh Seat froze beside her, whatever softness had been in her face vanishing the instant she saw Raven.

Nobody spoke.

Raven looked at Seventh Seat, then at Thalia and back again as two completely separate pieces of information fought for space inside her head.

Thalia had been secretly seeing someone.

A woman.

And that woman was one of the people Raven had spent the last several days associating with Adelaide Fenn’s side of the Court.

"What the fuck?"

Neither of them answered.

That somehow made it worse.

Raven pointed between them, her eyes finally settling on Thalia.

"Thalia! Just what the hell is going on here?"