Chapter 113: The Second Son - Callista's POV

Kalley was still talking by the time we reached the class. I knew she was because her mouth was moving and sound was coming out, but I just couldn’t find the patience to actually listen to her. Every few seconds she would pause, as if expecting a response from me.

I tried to give her one, normally something neutral like a nod or a soft murmur, which seemed to satisfy her enough.

I couldn’t tell you a single thing she said, even after we were seated.

My eyes kept drifting to the door.

"Callista."

"Hm?"

“Oh, fates. You’re doing it again,” Kalley said, not unkindly. She banged her hands on top of the desk, then grabbed her book that had slid off. “He’ll come. You know he will.”

“I know,” I said, pulling my gaze back to the front of the room where Professor Daine was preparing to teach. He was organizing his notes on his desk. “I’m not worried about it.”

“Then why are you stressed out?”

I opened my mouth and closed it again.

Everything was stressing me out. The demon, Ronan, and the dream where it said he was summoned. I wondered what it meant and what was being hidden.

"Nothing," I said.

Kalley gave me a pointed look she reserved for times when she knew I was lying, but was deciding to not press it with me. I was grateful that she knew when to be silent. Sometimes I needed it.

The classroom finally filled in as students filtered in. Some were holding cups of coffee. One girl near the window looked like she was ready to fall asleep at any moment when she sat down.

And the rest, well, I just watched them absentmindedly, memorizing their faces and looking for anything that felt wrong.

Nothing did, which should have been reassuring, but it didn’t.

Professor Daine called the class to order with a sharp double-tap on his desk, and I forced myself to sit straighter, opening my notebook. Around me, everyone else settled and did the same as they turned the page, clicked their pens, and looked up.

I wrote the date at the top of the page, then sat there, staring at it.

Summoned. The demon's voice had been so certain when it said it. It wasn’t taunting me or even performing. The demon had been so sure about itself and what it was saying, as if it wanted me to truly believe those words.

Did you really think it was tied to his family line?

My pen pressed harder against the paper than I intended. I smoothed it out and tried to focus on what Daine was saying, catching something about the migratory patterns of pack territories in the northern regions, which was relevant to exactly nothing going on in my life right now.

I wrote it down anyway. Kalley nudged me under the desk. I glanced at her sideways. She tilted her head almost imperceptibly toward the door.

My eyes moved there on instinct and found nothing. Just the door, still closed, the small rectangular window in it showing an empty corridor beyond.

I looked back at my notebook, my mind plagued with thoughts about the Alpha King.

If what the demon told me was true, then Ronan had lied.  That thought sat in my chest like a stone. A bloodline curse he inherited was one thing, but a thing that someone placed inside and summoned was a completely different thing. Someone had intent and decided that Riven and his brother would be the vessel.

My jaw tightened just as the door opened.

I didn’t look up immediately. It was probably a late student. But then I felt the atmosphere shift. I kept my eyes on the page for one more second, then looked up.

Riven stood in the doorway with a late slip in one hand and books in the other. Professor Daine looked up, one brow arched.

Riven's eyes found mine before he had taken three steps. Something in my chest loosened slightly at that.

There were only a handful of open seats, and one was right beside me. He handed the late slip to the professor, then walked straight to the seat, plopping down with a thud.

Kalley made a small sound on my other side that I chose to ignore. She had been my friend through all of it, so she wasn’t exactly friendly toward Riven.

Professor Daine glanced at him, then down at the slip. “No one told me you’d be in my class, Mr. Nightshade.”

“It’s actually Blackwood,” Riven said softly, then grabbed his notebook.

I glanced at him. Rumors had run rampant around the school since we split, especially with him training under the Alpha King, but this part had never come out.

“Blackwood?” Professor Daine murmured, his gaze finding Riven’s. “I don’t understand.”

“I am the second son of the Alpha King, Ronan Blackwood,” he replied confidently.

The room went entirely still. It wasn’t a dramatic kind of silence or even the kind that came with a fight. This was a quiet before the storm or possibly something worse.

All eyes were on Riven and he stared back with a solemn expression. He dropped his gaze and wrote down the date on the top of the notebook, getting ready for class.

Professor Daine blinked once, then again. “The Alpha King’s son, but I heard he only had one and he passed.”

“He had a second one and feared I’d face the same fate, so he hid me with my adoptive parents, the Nightshades.”

A ripple moved through the room at that. I caught it from the corner of my eye. Heads turned, people leaned toward each other, whispering and Daine was just standing there looking like he wanted to disappear into the floor.

I kept my expression neutral and looked back at my notebook.

"Well," Daine said finally, clearing his throat. "Welcome to Advanced Pack Studies, Mr. Blackwood."

Something almost imperceptible shifted at the corner of Riven's mouth. "Thank you, Professor."

Daine turned back to his notes, visibly choosing to move on, which I respected him for. Around us, the whispering started in earnest, low and urgent, threading through the rows like something lit on fire.

Kalley leaned close to my ear. "Did you know?"

"Yes," I murmured.

She pulled back and stared at the side of my face. I could feel it. "For how long?"

"Kalley."

"Right," she said softly. "Later. You’re going to tell me everything later.”

Riven glanced at me sideways at that without turning his eyes. Only his eyes moved. I caught it too. He had heard every word of that exchange and found it entertaining by the smirk tugging at the corner of his lips. I gave him nothing in return and looked up at the front of the classroom.

Professor Daine tapped his desk again, pulling the room back into reluctant order. "As I was saying," he said, with the particular firmness of someone who had decided the interruption was over. "The northern pack migrations in the third age shifted significantly following the treaty of—"

I wrote it down.

Riven's arm settled on the desk beside mine, close enough that I could feel the warmth of it without either of us moving. His handwriting, I noticed for the first time, was surprisingly neat and controlled.

A folded piece of paper appeared at the edge of my notebook.

I glanced at it, then at Riven, who was looking at the board with complete innocence. I unfolded it under the desk.

Carson tried to block the office and said to expect challenges from the other heirs. I’ve done what needed to be done.

I read it twice. Then I picked up my pen and wrote beneath it.

How many?

I slid it back and watched him read it without changing his expression. He wrote something and pushed it back.

Enough. Don't worry about it. Once the news spreads about who I am, they won’t be as likely to do it. Their fathers won’t want to go up against the Alpha King.

I looked at him directly this time, and he met my gaze. Now I understood why he openly announced it. He used the name for clout and to deter everyone from challenging.

It was to…protect me and our bond.

The bond hummed quietly between us with a gentle nudge from him, as if he was trying to reassure me without words.

I held his gaze for one second longer than necessary, then looked back at the board and wrote something else down.

We will talk at lunch.

I didn't pass it back. I just left it there between us on the desk, visible to him if he chose to look.

He did. I heard the small exhale through his nose that meant something had amused him despite himself, and then he picked up his pen and added a single word beneath mine.

Obviously.

I pressed my lips together before anything could show on my face and turned the page. Around us, the class carried on. Outside the window, the rest of Silver Moon Academy moved through its morning as if nothing had changed.

But something had.