Chapter 56 — Under Formal Submission

Chapter 56: Chapter 56 — Under Formal Submission

~ Raven ~

"Interference with an active Redress," the prefect said from the doorway, without raising her voice either, "is recorded against the interfering student and their Wing."

Brielle stopped.

Raven watched her sit back down and she watched what it cost. Brielle’s jaw set, her eyes went to the floor, and her hands closed on nothing in her lap.

Raven looked at the three of them and it was worse than being alone.

They wanted to help.

All three of them were right there, close enough that Raven could have reached out and touched them, and none of them could do a damn thing.

That was the worst part.

Rowan had walked into her first lesson knowing exactly how this would look.

The pressure eased.

He didn’t even seem to notice.

"The petition also requests a neutral Cardinal witness," Berry said. "You’ll want to explain that one, Heir Rowan, because I’d like to hear you say it out loud."

"The outcome attaches to an existing disciplinary matter. A Cardinal must witness the terms and the result."

"An existing disciplinary matter." Berry’s voice had gone very level. "The one concerning Heir Prymont’s conduct in the main hall."

"Naturally."

Raven’s head came up.

"I can’t stand as witness," Rowan went on. "I filed. Heir Prymont can’t — his conduct is implicated. Heir Nikolai can’t; the student belongs to his Wing."

A pause. "Rowan House has requested Heir Blade."

"Cassian Blade," Berry repeated.

"Yes."

Somewhere behind Raven, a girl said "Blade?" and got shushed.

Raven sat very still and tried to make the pieces fit.

She kept coming back to one thing: Dante had been the one who did the actual damage. Dante had put both twins on the cafeteria floor in front of four hundred people. Nobody had filed anything against Dante.

They’d filed against her.

Because when this was over, there would be a record.

Raven Rivers. At fault.

Points deducted.

A formal apology to Kieran and Alaric Blackthorn — the same two men Dante had left bleeding on the cafeteria floor for putting their hands on her.

Rowan didn’t need to stand there and call Dante reckless.

He only needed this to end the right way.

And apparently, he wanted another Cardinal here to see it happen.

Raven stared at the side of his face.

She wasn’t even the real target.

She was just the one he could reach.

That came dangerously close to breaking something in her.

Not the points. Not even the apology.

Dante had been the one who put Rowan’s Vanguards on the floor.

And Rowan had looked at the whole mess, decided which person was easiest to punish—

and chosen her.

He still hadn’t looked at her once.

Raven drew a slow breath through her nose.

Held it.

Let it out.

"Final condition," Berry said.

Then she stopped.

She looked at the document. She turned it slightly, as if the angle were the problem, and read whatever was written there a second time.

Beside Rowan, Celeste’s expression changed.

It was nothing. A softening at the corner of the mouth, gone almost before it arrived — but Raven caught it, and her stomach went cold.

"This has been added," Berry said.

"Rowan House accepts the terms proposed by its representative," Rowan said.

"That isn’t what I asked you."

"It’s my answer."

Berry looked at him for a moment longer than was comfortable for anybody in the room.

Then she read it out.

"The apologies are to be delivered under formal submission."

Raven waited for the rest of the sentence.

It didn’t come. Berry set the document down on the desk with more care than she’d handled anything all morning, and the room had gone quiet in a way it hadn’t been even when Rowan walked in.

Submission.

Raven turned the word over in her head and found nothing useful there. Submission of what? A statement? A form? Some ridiculous academy ceremony everyone else had learned as children and nobody had bothered to—

Celeste was looking at her.

Not at her face.

Her gaze had dropped past Raven’s hands, past the edge of the desk.

To her knees.

Raven went cold.

Then the heat came so fast her fingers curled against her palms.

Kneel.

Kieran’s voice in the cafeteria.

The weight of his aura bearing down on her shoulders. Her knee dipping while half the academy watched. Dante crossing the floor and tearing that pressure off her.

And now Celeste had found another way.

No aura this time. No command she could refuse.

A sealed petition. An academy rule. Witnesses.

They were going to make her kneel and call it Redress.

Celeste spoke for the first time since she’d entered with a smirk.

"An apology should look like one."

Her voice was perfectly pleasant.

The paw print glowed steadily in the middle of her forehead the entire time she said it.

Raven’s eyes started to burn.

She sat with her hands pressed flat on the desk and her jaw locked and she did not move, because the instant she opened her mouth, every single thing she said would be entered into a record designed by people who had been playing this game since they could walk.

Not here. Not for them.

Somebody in the room whispered something. Somebody else answered it.

Thalia was staring at the desk in front of her and looked like she might be sick. Tessa hadn’t let go of her wrist. Brielle sat rigid and furious and useless, three feet away.

Rowan gathered his document and squared the edges.

He still had not looked at Raven once.

Raven sat very still.

She could feel herself getting close to that point again — the same place she’d reached on the platform before dawn, when fear and consequence stopped meaning anything and all that remained was the need to do something, anything, and deal with the price afterward.

Her pulse beat hard against her throat.

One more word.

One more look from Celeste.

One more—

The classroom door opened.

Every head turned.

Cassian Blade walked in.