Chapter 120: Who Do You Think? - Riven's POV

The treeline swallowed us whole. I never told Callista to stay behind or get back to class. I already knew better than to waste my breath on that, and truthfully, the part of me that wasn’t actively trying to keep my own demon from answering my brother’s was grateful she was there.

The bond between us was the only thing I had to cling onto. It was steady and warm against the demon’s coldness.

The woods behind the east grounds were older than the academy and the fence they built. The trees had been standing long enough that the roots had grown together underground into something that felt…magical. And not in a good way. It was creepy and made my hair stand on end.

Light came through the thick canopy in pieces, cutting the shadows into strips. The sounds of the academy soon faded within thirty feet and we kept pushing on through the brush until there was nothing but quiet.

Ahead of us, something moved.

I stopped and held my arm out to stop Callista beside me.

Raze was probably twenty feet ahead of us, crouched at the base of a wide oak with both hands pressed flat against the bark. His shoulders were heaving as he caught his breath. From this distance, I could see the tremor running up his back.

I knew that tremor all too well, because I had felt it in my own body more times than I could count.

"Raze," I said, keeping my voice low.

He flinched, his hands pressing harder against the bark.

"It's me." I took one step forward, then another. "You know my voice. Hold on to that. Remember? We are all each other has.”

A sound came from him that wasn’t quite words, but it wasn’t quite a growl either. His human side was fighting to cling to his humanity, while the other half was angrier that I was even here and fighting.

I felt my demon respond in my own chest, pulling and tugging, wanting to be free. I pressed him down hard and kept walking toward Raze.

"Don't," Callista said quietly behind me. “He could bolt again.”

“I know,” I whispered. “But his demon calls to mine. Like calls to like.”

I stopped five feet from Raze and crouched down to his level, because standing over someone losing control of their own body was the fastest way to make it worse.

"Raze." I kept my voice even as I spoke, trying to reach through to him. "Look at me."

Slowly, painfully, his head turned. His eyes were pitch black. There was only a small, thin red-gold ring in the middle that meant his wolf was fighting. But it was shrinking as the seconds ticked by. Whatever had triggered the demon to make him this far gone hadn’t let up and was just getting worse.

The demon looked at me through what was left of my brother's face and smiled for the second time today.

"You followed," he said, in that layered voice that made my jaw tighten. "Good."

"I'm not here for you," I said firmly. "I'm here for him. Now let my brother go.”

"He's not available," he said pleasantly. "He's been unavailable for some time now. You simply weren't aware. I only let him have control for the last year to appease your demon.”

Something cold moved through me. "What does that mean?"

Raze’s head tilted just as that red-gold ring disappeared. “It means that I obeyed yours. He wanted me to give him a little longer and I did, but I no longer want to obey. The master is calling.”

Behind me I felt Callista go very still.

“Who?” I asked, my voice cracking. “What do you mean your master is calling?”

“Who do you think summoned us?” One brow arched. “We have an origin, so who do you think put us in the Alpha King’s line?”

The question hung in the air between us. I stared at my brother’s face, once again trying to figure out what summoned the demons.

“Who would? I know in the beginning the demon was summoned, but that was then. Why do you keep coming back?”

The demon grinned. “Because we’ve been asked to return.”

“By who? Who would ask you to come back?” I pressed.

He laughed as his smile widened.

"Tell me who," I said, and my voice came out lower than I intended. The demon in my own chest was pressing hard against whatever kept it contained, responding to the proximity of Raze's demon the way iron filings responded to a magnet.

Raze’s smile turned wicked. "You already know. You just haven't said it out loud yet."

"Don't do that," I said, shaking my head. "Don't give me riddles. Tell me a name."

"Names have power," he said simply. "You know this. Saying it aloud in a place like this—" his eyes moved upward to the old canopy, the roots beneath us, and the magic that had made my skin prickle since we entered. "It would be an invitation and you're not ready for that yet."

"Then what do you want?" Callista asked from behind my shoulder. "You came here for a reason. You drove Raze through the academy’s perimeter, through a school full of wolves, and into these woods specifically. That wasn't for the fun of it.”

The demon's gaze moved to her, and something in it shifted.

"The seer," he said.

"Answer the question," she said.

The pause was long enough I almost spoke again. Then he said, “We came because he told us to, because you both were needed at the same place and the same time. He wants you to know he did it, but he won’t say until you are firmly under his wing, where you never want to leave.”

“And who would that be?”

His jaw ticked as he looked up at Callista, then looked down at me. “Who wants you to rule?”

“Ronan? You’re telling me that the Alpha King summoned you and my demon?” I asked, my voice hesitant. “That’s impossible. He wouldn’t do—”

“How would you know?”

I froze. “Because I’ve been around him enough to know.”

“But have you really?”