Chapter 182 — You Can Trust Me

Chapter 182: Chapter 182 — You Can Trust Me

~ Raven ~

"There is a Dreamwalker in this fucking school."

Dante stared at her long enough that Raven could almost see the words working their way through everything he thought he understood about what had just happened.

"A Dreamwalker," he repeated eventually. "You mean the things from the old stories? The myths about wolves who could walk into someone’s sleep and—"

He stopped, then gave a short, disbelieving laugh as he dragged one hand over his face.

"Goddess, what the fuck am I saying? I was just there."

Raven said nothing.

When Dante looked at her again, most of the disbelief had disappeared. His expression darkened instead as another realization seemed to settle into place.

"You’ve been dealing with that bastard alone?"

Raven finally let her head rest against the wall.

Now that she no longer had to fight, run or explain why Isolde was unconscious, exhaustion seemed to settle over her all at once. Standing upright had started requiring far more effort than it should have.

A tired, humorless laugh escaped her. "More or less."

Dante stared at her, cursed under his breath and turned away.

He began pacing across the small room, pushing both hands through his hair before letting them drop again. The privacy sigil still glowed faintly around the door, and every few steps the red-gold light caught against his face.

Raven watched him make one pass across the room, then another.

"Who else knows?"

She opened her mouth, but Dante stopped before she could answer and gave another humorless laugh.

"Actually, who the fuck am I kidding? Blade knows, doesn’t he?"

Raven hesitated for barely a second before answering. "Yes."

Dante nodded as though the answer had only confirmed something he already suspected.

"Of course he fucking does."

He resumed pacing, although there was noticeably less control in the movement now.

"And where the hell is that white-haired bastard while you’re dealing with this shit?"

"Dante."

"No, really." His mouth tightened as he glanced toward her. "He knows something has been crawling around inside your head, and somehow this is when he decides to disappear?"

"You don’t know why he left."

"I know."

The answer came quickly enough that Raven abandoned the argument she had already begun preparing.

Dante exhaled sharply and shook his head. "I know. I’m just..." He looked toward the sealed door before turning back to her. "Fuck."

Raven understood the feeling considerably better than she wanted to admit.

He paced once more before finally stopping in front of her, and this time there was no sarcasm left anywhere in his expression.

"Why didn’t you tell me?"

Raven’s shoulders tightened almost immediately.

There it was.

"I couldn’t."

"Couldn’t?"

"You know what a Dreamwalker is now."

"I have a considerably better idea than I did an hour ago."

"Then think about what that means."

Dante’s jaw shifted, but Raven continued before he could interrupt.

"He can get into people’s heads. Dreams, memories, thoughts. He can change what something feels like, make you question what actually happened and leave things behind that you might not even realize came from him."

That quieted him.

Raven folded her arms despite the heaviness dragging at them.

"So tell me exactly how I was supposed to decide who was safe to tell. Every person who knew became another person he might reach, another person whose memories or thoughts I could never be completely sure about."

Dante held her gaze. "That’s why you didn’t trust me?"

"I didn’t know who I could trust."

A low, dark chuckle left him.

Raven frowned. "What?"

"Do you even know how I found you tonight?"

Her expression shifted.

Dante watched her for a moment before answering his own question.

"Your wolf called mine."

Raven stared at him. "What?"

"You heard me."

"That doesn’t make any sense."

"Welcome to my fucking evening."

Raven pushed away from the wall slightly.

Dante stepped closer, although he stopped before he could crowd her. "I was nowhere near the infirmary when my wolf suddenly went insane."

Raven’s brows drew together.

"One second I was fine, and the next he was tearing at me so hard I could barely think past him. I didn’t know what was happening, only that it had something to do with you."

"How?"

"I don’t know! Dammit!"

The admission clearly irritated him.

"I just knew where I needed to go. By the time I properly understood I was moving, I was already running."

Raven said nothing.

Dante’s expression darkened as his gaze drifted away from her, caught on whatever he was remembering.

"When I reached the infirmary, you and Marchmont were both asleep, except there was nothing normal about it. You were shaking so badly the bed was moving."

Something uncomfortable twisted through Raven’s stomach.

"Both of you were burning up. Marchmont was worse, but you weren’t far behind her, and neither of you responded when I called."

Raven glanced away.

"You kept making these sounds."

Her attention returned to him.

Dante’s jaw tightened as though even describing it annoyed him. "Not screaming. Just like you were trying to scream and couldn’t."

Raven remembered exactly why and wished she did not.

"I didn’t know what the fuck to do," Dante continued. "I tried waking you, called your name, shook you, and nothing worked. My wolf kept pushing harder until it felt like he was going to tear straight through me if I didn’t do something."

Raven swallowed.

"So I grabbed your hand."

His gaze dropped briefly toward hers before lifting again.

"And the next thing I knew, I wasn’t in the infirmary anymore."

Raven slowly straightened.

"I was there."

The room remained quiet for several seconds before Dante stepped a little closer.

"Do you understand what that means?"

Raven did not answer.

Apparently, he did not need one.

"Your wolf called mine," Dante said, his voice quieter now. "When you couldn’t get yourself out, she reached for him."

Raven’s stomach tightened.

Dante held her gaze. "Whatever you think about me, whatever argument you want to make about this bond, your wolf knew exactly who she wanted."

Her defenses rose before she could stop them.

"That doesn’t mean I owe you every secret I have."

"No."

The answer came so easily that Raven blinked.

Dante nodded once. "You don’t."

Some of the argument she had already prepared died uselessly on her tongue.

"You can keep whatever secrets you want, Raven. I’m not asking you to hand me every ugly thing that ever happened to you just because my wolf has decided yours belongs with him."

Her brows lifted slightly.

"But this is different."

His attention settled fully on her again.

"This could have killed you."

Raven’s mouth closed.

"If your wolf hadn’t reached mine tonight, what then?"

She had no answer.

Dante’s voice lowered further. "You could’ve died in that room, and I wouldn’t even have known what happened."

Most of the anger had left his voice by then.

That somehow made the words worse.

Raven looked down as the memory returned too easily: her name slipping away from her piece by piece while she desperately tried to hold onto it.

She had been right to be careful.

She still believed that.

But after what had happened inside Isolde’s mind, defending every choice she had made no longer felt as simple as it had before.

Neither of them spoke for a while.

Dante did not ask for an apology or try to make her admit he was right. He simply moved away and stared toward the sealed door, leaving Raven alone with the uncomfortable knot sitting beneath her ribs.

Eventually, he spoke again.

"So the bastard knows what you are."

Raven frowned. "What?"

Dante looked back at her.

"He called you my little queen."

Raven went still.

The Dreamwalker’s final words returned immediately.

I have a surprise waiting for both you and your little queen.

She exhaled slowly.

Dante studied her face. "You don’t look surprised."

"I’m not."

His brows drew together.

"Not completely." Raven rubbed one hand against the side of her face. "I already suspected he knew more than he was supposed to. The way he talked to me before..." She shook her head. "He’s been too interested for too long."

Dante cursed softly.

"He called you a threat."

Raven looked at him.

"In there." His expression hardened again. "He wasn’t fucking around with you tonight. He was trying to kill you before you became whatever he thinks you’re becoming."

Raven had already understood that, but hearing Dante put it into words made the conclusion feel more solid.

"He knows enough," she said.

"Enough to be dangerous."

"He was already dangerous."

"That isn’t what I mean."

Raven knew.

Dante ran a hand through his hair before studying her again. "Can he get back into your head?"

"Not like before."

His eyes narrowed. "That isn’t an answer."

"My wolf can fight him now."

"That still isn’t—"

"We’ve forced him out twice."

Dante stopped.

Raven let her arms fall from where they had folded across her chest.

"Inside my own head, it’s different. She’s there properly. I can reach her and she can reach him."

"And tonight? What was the difference tonight?"

Raven’s gaze drifted toward the sealed door.

"Tonight wasn’t my head."

Dante followed her attention.

"Isolde’s."

Raven nodded. "My wolf was there, but farther away. I could still feel her, just not the same way, and the Dreamwalker realized it before I did."

The memory of his blurred face smiling when he understood how much weaker she was surfaced again.

Raven looked away.

"Isolde..."

Whatever she had intended to say disappeared before it could leave her mouth.

Dante’s expression changed as he watched her, and the next question he had been preparing seemed to vanish with it.

Raven stared toward the sealed door as though she could somehow see through the walls and back into the infirmary.

"She should have woken up."

"I know."

"But what if—"

"Raven."

She stopped.

Dante stepped closer. "You’re done for tonight."

Her eyes snapped toward him. "Excuse me?"

"You need to rest."

"Isolde is unconscious."

"I noticed."

"I’m not going to go sleep while—"

"While what?" Dante interrupted. "You stand outside the infirmary door until Marchmont wakes up out of irritation?"

Raven glared at him.

He did not look remotely intimidated.

"You can barely stand."

"Dante."

"And before you start arguing, staring through a closed door is not going to wake her."

Raven opened her mouth, only to realize she had nothing useful to say.

That irritated her considerably more.

Dante sighed as the last traces of heat around him finally began to settle.

"I’ll stay."

Raven frowned.

"I’ll deal with the Headmaster, make sure someone tells me the second anything changes and handle whatever disaster starts when House Marchmont learns their heir is unconscious inside Valerius."

"That isn’t exactly a small thing to handle."

"I’m aware."

Raven studied him.

Dante gave her a tired look. "Believe it or not, Prymonts are occasionally useful for more than setting things on fire."

Under any other circumstances Raven might have had several answers ready for that.

Tonight she could not find the energy.

Dante seemed to notice, and something in his expression softened.

"We are not finished talking about this."

Dante pointed toward the door. "Go."

Raven looked at him, then at the sealed room around them.

For once, the instinct to argue was not strong enough.

He was right, which she hated.

She also knew that if anything happened to Isolde, Dante would make sure she heard about it. More importantly, for perhaps the first time since the Dreamwalker had entered her life, someone else knew enough of the truth to recognize what was happening if everything went wrong again.

Raven exhaled slowly. "Fine."

Dante crossed to the door and placed two fingers against the glowing sigil. The red-gold lines brightened once before disappearing into the wood, and sound gradually returned around them: footsteps in the corridor, distant voices and the faint activity of the infirmary farther away.

He opened the door and Raven stepped toward it.

"Raven."

She stopped and looked back.

There was all seriousness in his expression now.

"Next time something like this happens, you don’t have to decide whether I deserve every secret you have."

Raven remained silent.

Dante held her gaze. "Just remember your wolf already made that choice."

Something beneath Raven’s ribs shifted, and she disliked how much she noticed it.

After a moment, Dante nodded toward the corridor. "Go rest. I’ll handle Marchmont and everything that comes with her for now."

Raven looked at him for another second before stepping outside.

She had barely made it several paces before the exhaustion returned properly, heavier now that nobody was demanding anything from her.

The Dreamwalker knew what she might be, her wolf had reached for Dante when she could no longer protect herself, and somehow the secret that had followed Raven through so many sleepless nights was no longer hers and Cassian’s alone.

That should have made her feel lighter.

Instead, another name surfaced as she slowed in the corridor.

Cassian.

Where are you?