Chapter 148 The announcement

Chapter 148 The announcement
Chapter 148

DARIUS

I stayed in the water long after she walked away.

The cool current swirled around my legs, but I barely felt it. My mind was still stuck somewhere between the moment her lips crashed back into mine and the way she had ground herself against me without a single apology.

I pressed my fingers to my mouth without thinking.

“That happened.”

Atlas hummed low in my chest, deeply satisfied in a way that made the sound almost embarrassing. "We need more of that. We need to find ways to bring her closer and more moments like this one."

I almost laughed. "You say that like it is simple. Like she is not Ravenna."

A pause. Then Atlas, with all the patience of someone who had already decided the outcome, replied, "She kissed you back."

He was not wrong. She had kissed me back with everything she had, and that was the part I could not shake loose. I had half expected her to shove me under the water after I pressed my lips to hers. Instead, she had pulled me right back down and kissed me harder.

That meant something.

I did not want to read too much into it. I was not built for that kind of hoping. But standing there in the fountain, the memory of her hands trailing down my back still fresh on my skin, I could not pretend it meant nothing either.

“She still has feelings for you,” something quiet in me said. “She would not have done any of it otherwise.”

Atlas stirred again. "Stop thinking and start acting. She responds to you now."

"She is still Ravenna," I said aloud this time, just to remind myself as much as him. "One kiss does not change that. She will be difficult tomorrow as she was yesterday."

Atlas did not argue. He just settled back into silence.

The sound of movement behind me broke my thoughts. I turned.

Ravenna stood at the edge of the fountain, fully dressed now, her damp hair hanging loose around her shoulders. She crossed her arms and looked at me with an expression that said she had been waiting longer than she intended to.

"Are you going to stand there all night," she said flatly, "or are you coming out?"

I waded to the edge and pulled myself up, water streaming off me. She held out my shirt without looking at me, her gaze trained somewhere on the ground nearby.

I took it from her fingers.

"Thank you."

She gave a small shrug.

I pulled on my trousers, shook the water from my hair, and left the shirt hanging at my side. She glanced over just as I folded it over my arm, and her eyes moved briefly across my bare chest before she looked away.

"Are you seriously going to walk out like that?"

"Is there a problem with it?"

"I did not say there was a problem." Her voice was perfectly even. "Do whatever makes you happy."

I nodded slowly, a smile tugging at the corner of my mouth. "I will."

We set off in search of Sam and Dorian, the evening air cool and quiet around us. Neither of us spoke much. It was not an uncomfortable silence. It sat between us easily, the way silences only do when something has shifted and both people are still deciding what to do with it.

We found them coming around from the far side of the garden, Dorian saying something low that made Sam laugh. She dropped his hand the moment she spotted Ravenna and broke into a run.

Ravenna ran too.

They collided somewhere in the middle and held on tight, both of them laughing.

"Why is your hair wet?" Sam pulled back and stared at her. "Did something happen?"

"I was in a fountain." Ravenna said it so plainly that Sam blinked.

"You were in a fountain."

"Yes, swimming."

Sam's eyes slid to me with a look that asked several questions at once. I kept my expression completely neutral. She turned back to Ravenna, clearly deciding she would get the full story later.

"Dorian took me through this maze," she said, grabbing Ravenna's arm. "There were hedges taller than the building and these little stone benches tucked inside. It was mad, honestly."

I caught Dorian's eye and gestured that we needed to move. "Ladies, we should be heading back."

We stepped back through the gates into the tunnel and into the classroom.

Ravenna looked around and then turned with her hands on her hips. "We cannot go to our lounge now. Security is going to be tight by this time of the night. They will see us the second we step into that corridor."

She was right.

"Spend the night in our room," I said. "In the morning, we go back through the ceiling route before classes starte."

Sam and Ravenna drifted to the far corner of the room. They kept their voices low, but I caught every word clearly.

"I do not know if I trust this," Ravenna said.

"It is either this or we get caught and expelled," Sam replied. "Which would you prefer?"

A beat of quiet.

"Fine," Ravenna said. "Fine."

They came back, and Sam spoke for both of them. "We will stay."

I led them through the adjacent classroom, down through a trapdoor in the floor, into a tunnel that ran a short distance before opening through a door directly into our bathroom. When we stepped out into the room, Ravenna stopped and looked around slowly.

"You have had this the whole time."

Dorian dropped onto the sofa. "I know it sounds mad."

"It is mad."

"Darius knows about thirty of these tunnels," Dorian said, completely unbothered. "In and out of the school. There might be more."

Sam stared at me. "That feels genuinely illegal to know about."

"It is not a big deal," I said, moving toward the wardrobe. "I am nosy. It started as curiosity and turned into a habit. I mapped them over time."

She looked at me like she was reconsidering every interaction we had ever had.

Dorian announced he was cooking and pulled Sam toward the kitchen, leaving Ravenna standing in the middle of the room with her phone in hand and me standing at the edge of my bed.

She cleared her throat. "Can I sit on your bed?"

I looked at the sofa.

"Why not the sofa?"

"Because there are male clothes all over it, dummy."

I turned, confirmed this was entirely true, and turned back. "Fair enough."

She settled onto the edge of the bed and unlocked her phone. I sat near the headboard, arms resting on my knees.

"Did you enjoy tonight?" I asked.

"No."

I laughed under my breath. "No. Right. Which is why you kissed me like your life depended on it and grinded against me in the—"

Her head snapped up. "Do not." Her eyes were wide, voice sharp. "Do not ever say that in public. Do you understand me? Not once."

"We are not in public."

"I do not care. It does not leave this room."

"Say you enjoyed it and I will consider your terms."

She stared at me. “No.”

I stood up and headed towards the kitchen.

She rose too. "Alright, alright." She raised her hands slightly.

I stood waiting for her.  A long pause stretched between us.

"I liked it," she said finally, the words flat and quick. "There. Are you satisfied?"

"Say it like you mean it."

She exhaled hard through her nose. "I liked it, Darius." This time it was softer. Quieter. Almost honest.

Something warm moved through my chest. I did not let it show.

She turned back to her phone, and I started talking, something about the speech assignment we were given. But she was not listening. Her eyes were fixed on the screen, and then she smiled at something, and I felt a familiar irritation flicker up before I could stop it.

I reached over and took the phone from her hand.

"Eyes on me, honeydew."

She looked up, and a flush moved up her neck immediately. She blinked and straightened, pulling her legs beneath her with exaggerated dignity.

"I apologize for my rude behavior," she said, voice pitched low and saccharine. "Daddy."

And then after a while he added. “Do you want to spank my ass now like daddies do to their disobedient daughters?”

I looked at her and decided to play along. "Do you want to be spanked?"

She flipped me the middle finger. "Daddy my foot."

"Be romantic for once in your life, Ravenna."

"Give me my phone."

A notification lit the screen before I could hand it back. I glanced at it without meaning to, and then I stilled.

I'm not giving up on you.

I read it aloud slowly.

Then I looked at her. "Why do you still have his number? Why have you not blocked him?"

"Darius—"

"After everything he said to in that live video. You are still receiving his messages."

"I am not seeing him anymore." I shrugged.

"Block him." I held the phone out. "Right now."

She frowned, but she took it. Her fingers moved across the screen. When she turned it around to show me, Caleb's name was gone.

"Happy?"

"Yes, and for that I have a gift for you." I stood, crossed to my wardrobe, and came back with a large bar of her favorite chocolate still wrapped in its packaging. I held it out to her.

She snatched it from my hand.

"Nice doing business with you."

I was still smiling when the speaker mounted outside the door crackled to life.

“Attention all students. The Moon Ceremony has been reviewed and confirmed by the school directors and lords. The ceremony will proceed as scheduled, however, for the safety and security of all students, it will be held within the academy grounds. Attendance is mandatory for all students, werewolf and human alike. Failure to attend will result in immediate expulsion. Further details will follow."