Chapter 121: Blood Ran Cold - Riven's POV

My jaw tightened until I felt it in my molars.

Callista’s hand found the back of my jacket. Just that single point of contact between her fingers and the fabric made the bond pulse once. It felt steadier, though the demon still whirled in my mind.

I exhaled through my nose.

"Can Raze hear me right now?" I asked. “There’s something I need to say.”

His head tilted to the side as he considered it. “Some of it he is aware of. At least, the part of him that wants to hear it.”

“Then hear this and make sure he does,” I said sternly, aiming it at the part of my brother that was still there listening. “I know now. I know it’s not just the curse and I know someone has been pulling at you from the outside. It makes sense how you were supposedly out of control, then not. It wasn’t just my demon giving directions, was it?”

The demon stared at me then, but I couldn’t be certain if Raze heard me or not. Not with how the demon was looking at me. His expression was too calm.

“Hold on a little longer, because I’m going to end this. That’s all I need from you. Hold on for me and we’ll be free.”

There was silence, then somewhere behind the demon’s calm expression, something moved. The black in Raze’s eyes cracked as the red-gold began to come back. It wasn’t much, but it was enough for me to know that he was fighting.

The demon's composure broke for the first time. "Stop—"

"Raze," I said sharply.

"I hear you." His voice came through mangled and overlapping, two voices fighting over the same mouth, but underneath the demon's layered tone was my brother. He was exhausted, furious, and entirely himself. "I hear you, Riven."

"Good," I murmured. "Hold that."

"It's—" He sucked in a sharp breath, the tremor returning to his shoulders with force. "It's strong tonight. Stronger than it's ever been. Something changed."

"When?" Callista asked, and I heard her step closer.

"Three days ago," Raze gritted out. "I woke up, and it was just different. Like a switch. Like something had been adjusted." His hands dug into the bark so hard I heard it splinter. "I think someone visited the mansion or our father…someone did something and it’s only going to get worse.”

My blood ran cold.

"Who visited?” I asked.

"I didn't see them. I only heard someone in our father’s study, but I couldn’t make it out and—” He broke off, the demon surging against the surface again as his red-gold eyes flickered violently.

"That's enough," the demon said, his voice losing pleasantness entirely. What was underneath was older, colder, and very done with this conversation. "He's said enough."

"Not even close," I said.

Slowly, my brother was vanishing. I watched it happen and couldn’t stop it. The red-gold in his eyes thinned again as the black rushed in from the edges.

The demon looked at me from the other side of whatever had just happened and said nothing for a long moment. Then, quietly, it said something I hadn't expected.

“You should find the record of the first summoning. It exists somewhere in the mansion. He kept it because he is arrogant enough to believe no one will ever know or find it,” he said, then paused. “We are not truly your enemy, Riven Blackwood. We are your curse. There is a difference.”

Before I could respond and ask why they would help us after being so distant, Raze's legs gave out.

I caught him, going down with him into the roots and the cold ground. His eyes were closed and his breathing was shallow. The demon had retreated entirely. It wasn’t fighting back.

Callista was beside me in an instant. Her hand went to his wrist, checking for a pulse.

"He's stable," she said. "But we can't keep him here."

"I know." I looked down at my brother's face, slack with exhaustion. The anger that had been sitting in my chest since this morning shifted into something I didn’t have a name for.

"Callista," I said, shaking my head. “Every time I think we know what we’re doing, something else comes up. Now they claim Ronan summoned them and that is why we’re cursed.”

“I know,” she said quietly. “But your demon spoke in riddles and went back and forth so much. I don’t understand. Why didn’t he tell you sooner?”

I looked at her. She was still crouched beside us, but her eyes were on me, and in them was the same thing I felt moving through the bond.

"Ronan let someone in," I said quietly.

"Yes."

"And either he knew what they did, or he didn't." I held her gaze. "Either answer is a problem."

"Yes," she said again. "The record of the summoning is our only hope. Maybe that will give us some answers so that we can finally get you free of the curse or the demon, whatever this is.”

"He was arrogant enough to believe no one would look," I said slowly. “But where would he keep it?”

We looked at each other in the broken light of the old trees, with my unconscious brother between us and the academy's distant alarm still pulsing faintly through the air.

"Ronan's study," she said.

"Ronan's study," I agreed. “It has to be. If it’s not there, then we’ll just have to figure out another spot.”

Somewhere above us in the canopy, something moved. I assumed it was the wind and the trees doing what they always did. But when I glanced up, I felt an eerie presence as if someone was watching us. I looked and looked, trying to spot whatever it was. Yet there was nothing, only the branches swaying back and forth.

“Are you okay?” Callista asked.

“Yes, I’m fine. We need to get him back to the mansion. No one needs to see him like this.”

I got my brother to his feet, and we moved.