Chapter 194 — Common Knowledge

Chapter 194: Chapter 194 — Common Knowledge

~ Raven ~

Raven opened the door and stepped into the corridor with the others behind her.

For once, getting ready had actually been worth the trouble.

Tessa looked elegant in the effortless way Raven had begun to associate with her, every part of her appearance neat without seeming overly arranged, while Brielle had somehow managed to make formal clothes look almost severe.

She carried herself with the same sharp confidence she brought into training, as though somebody had simply taken Brielle Vance and dressed the threat more expensively.

Then there was Thalia.

Raven glanced at her again.

She looked suspiciously good for someone who had spent the afternoon insisting she was attending alone.

Whatever she had done with her hair suited her far too well, and the dress she had chosen made Raven wonder whether rejecting five invitations had simply been another part of some plan nobody had bothered explaining to her.

Thalia caught the second look and raised an eyebrow.

Raven faced forward before she could comment. There were already enough questions waiting for tonight.

Still, as the four of them left Hale together, something unexpectedly warm settled beneath Raven’s ribs. She had spent years watching women leave for evenings like this while she remained behind carrying trays, helping somebody else prepare or cleaning whatever was left once the guests went home.

Tonight she was walking beside three women she actually wanted beside her, and, irritatingly enough, Raven felt proud of that.

The feeling lasted until they reached the first crowded corridor.

A conversation near the stairs faltered as they approached. One student looked directly at Raven, glanced away and then looked back with considerably less subtlety, while two girls farther ahead slowed enough that their interest became obvious.

More heads turned as the four of them moved deeper through Valerius.

Raven was used to attention by now but something about tonight felt different.

Nobody looked frightened or seemed to be waiting for Raven to break something, start another scandal or suddenly reveal another impossible ability.

They were simply looking at her.

The anonymous gown fit too well for Raven to pretend she did not understand why. Against her silver-white hair, everything about it seemed even more deliberate than it had inside Hale, and for perhaps the first time she understood why Thalia had spent half the morning acting as though Raven had personally discovered dresses.

Whoever had sent the damned thing had known exactly what they were doing.

She was still thinking about that when Brielle slowed beside her.

Raven followed her gaze and found a man waiting near the entrance ahead.

He looked only a few years older than them and carried himself with the kind of easy confidence Raven had spent years watching powerful families teach their sons.

Nothing about his formal clothes demanded attention, yet somehow that only made them look more expensive, and he seemed completely at home among the gathering nobles and academy representatives.

His attention settled on Brielle, and something in his expression softened.

So this was Lucien Marchmont.

Brielle’s posture changed almost imperceptibly as he approached. Raven might have missed it if she had not spent enough time around her to know how rarely Brielle relaxed around anyone.

Lucien stopped in front of her and said something too quiet for Raven to hear.

Whatever Brielle answered should probably have sounded irritated.

Instead, she smiled.

Raven nearly stopped walking.

No.

Absolutely not.

It was not the sharp little curve Brielle wore whenever she had successfully insulted somebody, nor the smug expression that appeared after she won an argument.

It was simply a smile.

Soft, real and completely wrong on Brielle Vance.

Raven stared for one second too long before Lucien’s gaze shifted past Brielle and caught her watching. Amusement touched his face immediately.

Right.

Raven looked away and moved several steps farther with Thalia and Tessa, giving the two of them enough space that she could no longer hear what they were saying even if she wanted to.

Not that she wanted to.

Obviously.

Brielle caught up shortly afterward, and Raven kept her attention very firmly on the entrance ahead.

For several seconds neither of them spoke, which Raven thought was going remarkably well until Brielle’s eyes narrowed beside her.

"What’s your problem?"

Raven’s mouth twitched despite herself. "I didn’t say anything."

Brielle lifted her chin and kept on walking.

Raven pressed her lips together and continued walking while Brielle gave her one final warning look before deciding silence was the safest option.

Tessa’s date appeared before Raven could lose that battle.

Julian Prymont approached from among the arriving students, and unlike Lucien, there was little ceremony to the meeting. Raven recognized him vaguely from Prymont Wing, although she doubted they had ever exchanged more than a passing glance.

Tessa seemed equally uninterested in making the entire thing an event. She greeted him, Julian offered his arm, and within moments they were heading toward the main guest entrance together.

Raven watched them go before turning toward the one person still beside her.

Thalia was not looking back.

Her attention had drifted across the crowd again.

Raven followed the direction of her gaze but found too many students moving through the entrance to tell what had caught her interest. A moment later Thalia looked somewhere else, then somewhere else again.

Raven’s suspicion returned.

For somebody who supposedly had no date, she was spending an impressive amount of time searching for one.

"You’re looking for someone."

Thalia turned a little too quickly. "I’m not."

Raven raised an eyebrow.

Thalia held her gaze for perhaps half a second before nodding toward the opposite entrance, where members of the Luna Court were already gathering.

"Aren’t you supposed to be over there?"

That was not an answer.

Unfortunately, it was a very effective distraction.

Raven glanced toward the entrance and found Brielle already waiting several steps ahead. When she looked back, Thalia had returned her attention to the crowd.

Interesting.

Raven filed that away for later before joining Brielle, and the two of them left Thalia with the ordinary guests as they headed toward the Luna Court staging area.

The moment Raven crossed inside, Adelaide Fenn looked up.

And just like that, the night became even better.

Adelaide looked beautiful. Raven could admit that without difficulty. Her gown was immaculate, her hair arranged perfectly and every part of her appearance polished enough to remind anyone watching that Adelaide had been raised for evenings exactly like this.

Something underneath it was wrong.

She was too pale, and the skin beneath her eyes looked faintly tired despite whatever effort had been made to hide it. Even the way she held herself seemed too controlled, her shoulders carrying a stiffness Raven had not seen yesterday until everything started falling apart.

Adelaide’s eyes found Raven.

Her expression became ugly.

Raven nearly smiled.

Yesterday Adelaide had stood in front of the entire Court and reminded Raven that she was Second Seat while Raven remained Fourth.

Tonight Adelaide stood behind her.

That was enough.

Several women gathered near Adelaide looked Raven over with much the same expression, and one whispered something to another when Raven paused to check the markings across the staging floor.

Raven caught the glance but said nothing.

Apparently standing ahead of them did not make all the invisible rules of their world any less invisible.

She let them look.

An attendant directed Raven into the representative position, and within minutes the actual work began.

Thankfully, most of it made sense.

The Court formed according to Standing while the first academy and House representatives arrived. Raven occupied the place normally belonging to Isolde and received them in the order she had reviewed the previous evening, shifting the line forward whenever the attendants signalled that the next group was ready.

That part was easier than she expected.

Raven knew this world, just not from here.

She knew it from the edges.

She knew how nobles approached one another, which greetings were supposed to last and which existed purely because tradition demanded them. She knew when attendants needed room to pass, when a group had stood in one place long enough to disrupt everything behind it and when somebody important expected to be acknowledged without having to ask.

She had spent years watching balls happen.

She had simply never been the woman everyone was waiting on.

Once the first reception line shifted, Raven gave the required cue and the Court moved with her. Nobody collided, nobody shouted and, most importantly, nobody attempted murder.

So far, excellent.

Then Raven looked toward the ceremonial floor.

The Cardinals were already positioned.

Rowan Ashbourne stood at the Earth station, composed as ever while speaking briefly with one of the arriving representatives, while Nikolai occupied Hale’s position across from him and looked considerably more comfortable with all of this than Raven felt.

Dante stood farther down.

Raven’s gaze stopped.

He was speaking with someone beside the Prymont station when he noticed her, and his eyes widened for one unmistakable beat.

Only slightly.

But Raven saw it.

Something annoyingly pleased shifted inside her.

Then Dante recovered and continued the conversation.

Raven waited.

He did not approach.

Her satisfaction disappeared almost immediately.

What the hell?

She had spent days refusing to give him an answer, and Raven knew that perfectly well, yet some irrational part of her had apparently expected Dante Prymont to see her tonight and immediately walk over.

Instead, the bastard looked at her once and returned to whatever conversation had been important enough to keep him there.

Raven gritted her teeth and forced her attention toward the final station.

Blade.

Empty.

Her irritation vanished.

Nobody had replaced him.

The station remained prepared for a Cardinal who simply was not there, and Raven found herself staring at it longer than she meant to.

Cassian still had not returned.

Something uneasy tightened beneath her ribs, but movement nearby pulled her back before the thought could settle properly.

The opening partnerships were beginning to finalize.

Rowan approached one of the Top Ten women Raven recognized from yesterday’s rehearsal but had never spoken to properly. She was not one of the women who constantly gathered around Adelaide, and when Rowan offered the opening position, she accepted.

Nikolai followed not long afterward, choosing another woman from the Top Ten instead of anyone from Adelaide’s circle.

His gaze found Raven once across the floor.

A small nod was enough.

One dance later.

Right.

Adelaide remained where she was.

So did Rosalind.

The women around them had spent most of the rehearsal behaving as though the Cardinals naturally belonged somewhere close to their orbit.

Apparently the Cardinals disagreed.

Neither Rowan nor Nikolai looked their way again, Cassian was absent and Dante still had no partner at all.

The tightening around Adelaide’s mouth became harder to hide.

Raven noticed.

She enjoyed that too.

Unfortunately, the satisfaction barely had time to settle before an attendant appeared beside her.

"Second Seat, are you prepared for the representative address?"

Raven turned toward her. "The what?"

The attendant paused.

Behind Raven, somebody made a quiet sound, and when she glanced back she found Adelaide watching her along with several women beside her. The contempt appearing across their faces was immediate enough that Raven already knew she was about to dislike whatever came next.

"The opening address," the attendant explained. "The Court representative welcomes the academy before the ceremonial formation."

Raven stared at her. "You mean a speech."

"Yes."

Nobody had said anything about a fucking speech.

Judging by the expressions behind her, every woman raised in noble society apparently thought the information too obvious to require saying aloud.

One of Adelaide’s companions finally murmured, "It’s common knowledge."

Raven slowly turned toward her.

"Common knowledge doesn’t help me if nobody puts it on the bloody slate."

The woman looked away.

Good.

When Raven faced forward again, the attendant was already offering her a small amplification sigil.

"You may begin when you’re ready."

Raven took it.

She was not ready.

Not remotely.

Unfortunately, the ceremonial floor had already begun clearing and students were turning toward her as the noise throughout the hall gradually faded.

Raven stepped forward because it seemed the incoming humiliation had not yet reached its daily limit.

She stopped where the attendant had indicated and looked out across Valerius.

Students filled the hall between Wing colours and noble representatives, the Luna Court waited behind her and the Cardinals stood around the ceremonial floor.

There were far too many people.

Worse, absolutely nothing inside Raven’s head resembled a speech.

She looked down at the amplification sigil in her hand.

"Fuck."

Her own voice rolled loudly across the entire ballroom.

Raven froze.