Chapter 119: New Creature - Callista's POV

I stood very still, watching him. The shift wasn’t loud or even really noticeable to anyone who didn’t know what to look for. The growl didn’t even demand attention. If it had been any other time, I would have thought he was simply annoyed.

“Riven,” I said, my hand tightening on his arm in hopes of bringing him back.

If I let it go on, then it would be too far.

He was staring at the window, his jaw locked and every muscle in his body had gone completely rigid beneath my fingers. His eyes were distant in a way that had nothing to do with his brother below.

"Riven, look at me."

His head turned slowly. When his eyes found mine, they weren’t the red-gold of his wolf and I knew we were in a world of trouble.

He blinked hard, and they cleared to red-gold. The growl stopped, leaving behind a silence that felt too fragile to breathe through.

“The demon felt him,” he said, his voice rough at the edges. “I don’t know if I can control him like this.”

My chest tightened. "Maybe we should go—”

"It wants out." He turned back to the window, pressing his fist flat against the glass this time instead of his palm. "It recognizes what's happening to Raze and it wants—" He stopped. Exhaled through his nose, slow and deliberate. "It wants to answer him and be free. Going back to the classroom won’t stop it and it’ll put everyone in danger.”

I stared at the side of his face and understood immediately what that meant and how much it cost him to say it.

The demon inside Riven wasn't dormant. It had never been dormant. It had been waiting, and whatever had pushed through Raze and sent him crashing through the perimeter had just knocked on a door that Riven had spent years learning to keep shut.

Below us, Raze moved again, cutting toward the far end of the east grounds where the treeline began. Two more security wolves were closing in from the left, and I could already see from the way they were angling that they were going to drive him toward the fence rather than away from it.

"They're going to force him into the annex or the gates," I said sharply. "Riven, if he hits that at full speed while the demon is driving him—"

“He’ll tear through the gates and whatever wards are around the school,” he finished. “But if they do capture him, then our secret is out.”

"Then we're going now.”

He didn't argue this time and started moving.

The east stairwell was empty, which meant we made it to the ground level without having to talk our way past anyone. The door at the bottom opened to a narrow service corridor that ran along the back of the annex, and the moment we pushed through the exterior door at its end, the cold air hit us and the sounds from the east grounds rushed in all at once.

There was shouting and radios going off everywhere.

I scanned the grounds quickly. The two security wolves who had been driving Raze toward the fence had stopped moving, both of them standing very still with their hands raised in a posture that meant they had realized, too late, that aggression was the wrong approach.

Raze was thirty feet from the fence. He had gone still, his head clasped in his hands as an inhuman growl filled the air. He was losing the battle with the demon and I knew it instantly.

“Riven,” I said, my voice low.

“He has to escape or we’ll be exposed.”

I felt my wolf surge forward and held her back.

Riven walked past me without breaking stride, and I stayed a half step behind his shoulder, because that was where I was most useful and we both knew it.

We were spotted within seconds.

“Get back,” one of the security said.

Riven shook his head. “You need me,” he growled, his voice so low and menacing that I almost didn’t recognize it.

"Raze,” I whispered.

He jerked his head up, noticing me beside Riven, and then glanced at security. I thought maybe he would calm down, though it would be hard to explain why someone who looked like Riven was here at the academy. But that hope was extinguished quickly.

The demon wearing his face recognized Riven, and it smiled.

My wolf snarled so hard I had to physically press my hand against my sternum to keep her back.

"Don't," Riven said quietly, and I wasn't sure if he was talking to me or to the thing looking at him through his brother's eyes. Maybe both.

Raze glanced at the guards again, then he took off, blurring as he had before.

I breathed out a sigh of relief. It wasn’t good that he was on the loose, but at least he was away from the guards and away from the fence.

"After him," one of the security wolves barked into his radio. "He's heading toward the treeline again."

“No,” Riven said sharply, stepping in front of the man before he could move. “You’ll make it worse. Whatever that…person is, needs to go. Too many students are in danger.”

The man stared at him. "I have orders—"

"And I'm overriding them." Riven's voice dropped to something that left no room for argument. "All of you stand down and give this new creature space. The Alpha King will deal with it.”

A tense moment passed. The security guard looked at his partner, then back at Riven, and something in what he saw there made the argument die before it reached his mouth. He slowly lifted his radio to his mouth.

"Hold positions," he said into it. "Stand by."

Riven turned back toward the treeline, his jaw tight, watching the darkness between the trees where Raze had disappeared. The grounds had gone quiet except for the wind.

"He'll tire," I said softly, coming to stand beside him. "And when he does, you need to be the first thing he sees."

Riven nodded once, his eyes never leaving the treeline.

“Then we need to leave,” he whispered. “Now.”