Chapter 181 — Fuck the Secrets

Chapter 181: Chapter 181 — Fuck the Secrets

~ Raven ~

"What the fuck is happening?"

Raven stared at him.

Dante was still beside her with one hand wrapped around hers, heat rolling from his body in waves while his burning eyes remained fixed on her, waiting for an answer Raven knew she should have been able to give.

Instead, her mouth opened and nothing useful came out.

"I..."

Her voice caught before the rest could follow.

Raven swallowed and tried again, but her thoughts still felt scattered somewhere between the infirmary and the place she had just been dragged out of.

She could not seem to force any of them into the right order, much less into words that would explain what Dante had just experienced.

His expression changed.

Raven glanced down and only then realized her fingers were trembling inside his grip.

Dante tightened his hand around hers, not enough to hurt, just enough that the pressure registered through everything else.

Raven closed her eyes and drew in one breath through her nose, holding it until the shaking eased slightly before letting it out.

When she opened her eyes again, the first thing she saw was the bed beside her.

"Isolde."

Dante followed her gaze as Raven turned sharply toward the other bed.

Isolde had not moved.

For several seconds Raven simply watched her, waiting for some small sign that the woman was awake now that the dream had ended. A twitch, a deeper breath, anything that would prove she was about to open her eyes and start complaining.

Nothing came.

"Isolde?" Raven reached across the space between the beds and caught her hand.

Cold compared to Dante’s.

"Isolde."

Still nothing.

Something tightened painfully beneath Raven’s ribs as she moved closer and touched Isolde’s shoulder.

"Hey."

No response.

Raven shook her gently at first, then harder when Isolde remained completely still. "Isolde, wake up."

The image of her eyes rolling upward returned without warning.

I’m tired.

Raven’s fingers tightened around her shoulder.

"Isolde."

Her voice came out sharper now, carrying enough panic that Dante was already moving closer before she turned toward him.

"Dante."

"She’s not waking." Raven looked back at Isolde and shook her again. "Why isn’t she waking?"

"Raven—"

"Dante, she’s not fucking waking."

He cursed and released Raven’s hand long enough to lean over Isolde, pressing two fingers against the side of her neck while Raven watched his face.

A second passed, then another, and his jaw tightened.

"There’s a pulse."

Relief tried to settle through Raven and failed almost immediately.

"Then why—"

"Nurse!"

His shout tore across the infirmary hard enough that Raven flinched.

Dante checked Isolde again while Raven hovered beside him, suddenly unable to decide whether she should touch her, shake her or leave her alone.

"She said she was tired," Raven said, and Dante looked at her.

"Inside there. She said she couldn’t..." Raven stopped when the words caught again. "She stopped fighting."

"Raven."

"What if something happened when we came out?"

"Calm down."

"What if she—"

"She has a pulse."

"That doesn’t mean—"

The infirmary door slammed open before Raven could finish.

The nurse hurried inside with irritation already forming across her face, but the expression disappeared the moment she saw Isolde.

"What happened?"

She crossed the room immediately.

Dante moved aside just enough to give her space while Raven stayed near the bed. "She fell asleep, then she started convulsing. It stopped, but she hasn’t responded since."

The nurse pressed two fingers against Isolde’s neck before leaning closer to check her breathing.

"Marchmont?"

Nothing.

She caught one of Isolde’s wrists and closed her eyes briefly as a faint shimmer of essence appeared between her fingers.

"Shit."

Raven’s stomach dropped. "What?"

The nurse ignored the question and shifted her attention toward Isolde’s chest, her expression tightening further.

"Stillheart’s barely responding."

"What does that mean?" Raven demanded.

"It means I need room."

The nurse reached for a sigil slate on the table beside the bed, only to pause when she finally seemed to register Dante properly.

Her brows drew together. "What are you doing here?"

Dante stared at her. "Is now really the time?"

The nurse looked as though she might argue, then glanced back at Isolde and apparently decided against it.

"No."

She struck the slate with two fingers, essence flashing across its surface. "Senior healer to the east infirmary. Now. Bring a physician."

Raven could only stare at Isolde while the nurse moved quickly around the bed, checking near her sternum before muttering another curse.

Dante’s hand found Raven’s again.

She barely noticed.

The first healer arrived less than a minute later, and another followed almost immediately behind him.

Within minutes, the entire room had changed.

A physician pushed through the doors while an assistant wheeled in a narrow tray covered with instruments and folded sigil cloth. Someone dragged the curtain around the neighboring bed out of the way to create more room, and Raven found herself forced backward as bodies crowded around Isolde.

"Her circulation?"

"Unstable."

"Stillheart?"

"Depleted. Almost nothing from the secondary response."

"Don’t push it."

"I’m not pushing anything."

"Then stabilize the circulation first."

One of the healers looked sharply toward the nurse. "How long has she been under care?"

"She came in exhausted. No major physical injury."

"And now Marchmont is unconscious with Stillheart barely responding?"

The nurse’s mouth tightened. "Yes."

"Goddess."

Another healer reached for Isolde’s arm while the physician leaned over her chest.

"Has House Marchmont been notified?"

"No."

"Then somebody needs to decide very quickly who intends to explain this to the Crown Wardens."

"That would be the Headmaster."

"Then find her."

Every sentence made Raven’s stomach twist tighter.

She tried to move closer, only for one of the healers to put an arm out in front of her.

"Stay back."

"I was with her."

"That does not make you medically useful."

"I need to know if she’s—"

"Rivers."

Dante’s hand tightened around hers again.

Raven looked at him.

His face had gone hard, although his voice was quieter when he said, "Let them work."

She hated that he was right.

Another physician entered, and somebody behind Raven cursed about there already being too many people in the room.

The senior healer turned toward them. "You two. Out."

Raven’s jaw tightened, but the healer gave her no time to argue.

"Prymont, take her outside."

Dante gave him a look that made it clear he did not particularly appreciate being ordered around, but this time he did not fight it either. He pulled gently at Raven’s hand.

She resisted for half a second.

Then someone called for another stabilization sigil, and Isolde’s arm shifted limply as they moved her.

Raven stopped fighting.

Dante led her toward the door, but Raven looked back once, then again.

The last thing she saw before the doors closed was three people leaning over Isolde while silver light flickered faintly against her chest.

The corridor felt unnaturally quiet after the infirmary.

Raven stood there staring at the closed doors until Dante tugged at her hand again.

"Come on."

She moved because she did not know what else to do.

They had barely gone ten steps when hurried footsteps approached from the opposite end of the corridor.

The Headmaster rounded the corner, moving faster than Raven had ever seen her move outside an actual attack, one hand already reaching toward the infirmary door before her gaze landed on Raven.

She stopped.

"Rivers."

Raven looked at her.

The Headmaster took in whatever Raven currently looked like, stared for one long second, then closed her eyes briefly.

"Why are you always in the middle of disasters?"

Raven opened her mouth, but nothing useful came to mind.

The Headmaster’s gaze shifted toward Dante, dropped briefly to their joined hands, then returned to Raven.

"What happened?"

"Not now," Dante said.

The Headmaster looked at him.

Dante shifted slightly in front of Raven, not enough to completely block her from view, but enough that the intention behind the movement was obvious.

The Headmaster’s expression hardened. "Prymont."

"She can barely think straight."

"I can see that."

"Then don’t interrogate her in a hallway."

Her eyes narrowed.

For a moment Raven thought Dante had finally found the one person in Valerius willing to set him on fire before he managed it himself.

Then the infirmary doors opened behind them.

"Headmaster."

She turned immediately.

A healer stood in the doorway.

"We need you."

Whatever argument had been forming disappeared from her face.

The Headmaster looked back at Raven and Dante. "Stay somewhere I can find you. Both of you."

Dante nodded once.

"That was not a suggestion."

"I heard you."

She gave him one final look before disappearing into the infirmary.

The doors closed again.

Raven stood there another second before Dante started moving, and this time she followed without resistance.

They had almost reached the end of the corridor when Raven noticed several students farther ahead, with more appearing behind them as curiosity drew people toward all the activity.

Their attention moved between the infirmary doors and Raven.

One student already had a Linkslate in hand.

Another was beginning to raise theirs.

Dante noticed at almost the same moment.

"Oh, fuck."

He tightened his grip around Raven’s hand and pulled her in the opposite direction.

"Dante—"

"Walk."

Raven was too tired to argue properly.

He opened the first empty room they passed, drew her inside and shut the door behind them.

Raven turned toward him. "What are you—"

Red-gold essence flashed across Dante’s fingers.

He pressed two fingers against the door and drew a short pattern over the wood. The sigil burned brightly for a moment before splitting into several thin lines that raced around the frame and sank into the surrounding walls.

The change was immediate.

Every sound from the corridor faded until even the distant noise from the infirmary disappeared completely, leaving the room feeling strangely sealed away from everything outside it.

Raven frowned.

Dante lowered his hand. "No one hears anything said in here."

Then he turned fully toward her.

"Start talking."

Raven’s stomach tightened.

"Dante, I..."

He waited.

Raven looked away, rubbing one hand slowly across her face while she tried to decide where to begin.

There were too many things tangled together, too many secrets she had deliberately kept separated for so long that trying to pull one loose suddenly felt impossible.

"I don’t even know where to start."

"Try."

Raven let her hand fall. "I need a second."

Dante stared at her, and she could almost see what remained of his patience disappearing.

"Raven."

"I said I need—"

"Spill it, damn it!"

Heat burst through the room so suddenly that Raven jerked.

Dante’s aura rolled off him before he seemed to realize he had released it, red-gold essence flaring beneath his skin while the sigil near his collar burned bright enough to show beneath the edge of his shirt.

His eyes blazed as Raven stared at him.

Dante dragged both hands through his hair, turned away for half a second, then spun back toward her.

"Fuck the secrets."

Raven’s jaw tightened.

"Dante—"

"No." He pointed toward the door, as though the infirmary sat directly beyond it instead of somewhere down the corridor. "Fuck whatever you think you’re protecting for five minutes and tell me what the hell just happened."

Raven opened her mouth, but Dante kept going before she could answer.

"What was that place? What was that thing? Why the fuck were you and Marchmont both there, and how did my wolf end up inside something I didn’t even know existed?"

"I don’t know how your wolf—"

"That is not the part I care about most right now!"

His voice cracked through the room hard enough that Raven flinched.

Dante saw it immediately.

He stopped.

For several seconds neither of them spoke. The heat remained trapped inside the sealed room, but something in Dante’s expression shifted just enough for Raven to finally see what had been sitting underneath all that anger since she woke.

Fear.

Dante exhaled sharply and looked away before speaking again, his voice lower now even though the frustration had not gone anywhere.

"I walked into that infirmary and found you shaking so hard I thought something inside you was breaking. You wouldn’t wake up, Marchmont wouldn’t wake up, and I had no fucking idea what was happening."

His jaw tightened as he looked back at her.

"I grabbed you because I didn’t know what else to do, and the next thing I knew I was standing in some nightmare with something trying to tear you apart."

Raven swallowed.

"And you expect me to stand here while you decide which part of that I deserve to know?"

"I didn’t say that."

"You don’t have to."

"Dante—"

"You nearly died, Raven, damn it!"

The words landed harder because he did not shout them.

Raven went still.

Something inside her seemed to fold in on itself as she remembered the ground beneath her cheek and the desperate effort it had taken to hold onto two words while everything else began slipping away.

Raven Rivers.

Even that had almost gone.

Her mouth trembled before she could stop it, and Raven pressed her lips together as her eyes began to burn.

"Fuck."

She wiped at them hard enough to hurt.

Dante said nothing.

For once, he did not tease her, move closer or try to soften what he had said. He simply stood there and waited.

Raven dragged in a breath, then another, until she could finally look at him again.

"Fine."

Dante remained silent.

Raven swallowed past the tightness in her throat.

"I’ll fucking tell you."

His attention sharpened.

Raven held his gaze.

"There is a Dreamwalker in this fucking school."