Chapter 5
Raven
I stayed silent. Let the quiet stretch out until it became uncomfortable.
Tyler seemed to mistake my silence for submission because his shoulders relaxed and that smug smile crept back across his face.
He turned toward Mrs. Johnson with the kind of false humility that made my trigger finger itch. "Mrs. Johnson, I'm so sorry. This is my fault. My personal romantic situation caused you to be attacked. I take full responsibility."
Mrs. Johnson practically melted. "Oh, Tyler, that's very mature of you. Teenage girls can be so emotional at this age. I understand."
The classroom buzzed with whispers and barely suppressed giggles. Phones came out, angled to capture every moment of my supposed humiliation. I heard fragments of conversation drifting over—"Did you see her face when he walked in?" "God, she's so pathetic—"
"Unbelievable," I murmured to myself, still looking down at my desk.
Tyler turned back, clearly enjoying himself. "What was that? Still sitting there with your head down like a kicked puppy? What's wrong—trying to find words big enough for your apology? Or is your vocabulary limited to those pathetic love confessions?"
I raised my head slowly and smiled at him. Not the sweet, disarming smile I'd perfected over sixteen years of killing. Something else. Something that made Tyler's expression flicker with uncertainty.
I stood up and walked toward him with deliberate, measured steps. Tyler actually backed up. Once, then twice.
"Raven?" His voice cracked slightly. "What are you doing?"
I stopped right in front of him, close enough to smell the expensive cologne he'd probably doused himself in to mask nervous sweat. "You asked what I found unbelievable? I can't believe anyone would actually like you."
The room went dead silent.
"You're a clown, Tyler. No taste, no real talent, and definitely no looks worth mentioning. Just another mediocre boy who thinks a letterman jacket makes him special."
Someone gasped. Then the laughter started, scattered at first but quickly building into a wave. Tyler's face went from tan to bright red in about three seconds flat.
"You're insane!" His fist came up, already pulling back—
I moved faster than his brain could process. My leg swept low, catching both his knees at exactly the right angle. His legs buckled and he went down hard. Before he could even register what had happened, I had both his arms twisted behind his back in a perfect restraint hold.
The classroom erupted.
"WHAT THE FUCK!" someone screamed.
"Did you see that?!"
"Raven knows martial arts?!"
"That's Tyler Anderson! He's our best athlete!"
Tyler thrashed under my grip, his face pressed against the floor. "Let go! Let GO!"
I tightened my hold just enough to make him gasp. "You know what's really ugly, Tyler? It's not your face, though that's pretty rough too." The classroom exploded with laughter and shocked exclamations. "It's that you took a girl who genuinely liked you and humiliated her for entertainment. You're not just a clown. You're pathetic. Weak. A coward who gets off on making girls feel small because you know, deep down, you're nothing special."
"You psycho bitch!" Tyler's voice came out strangled with rage and pain. "I'll fucking kill you—"
"You'll what? Cry? You're already halfway there." I leaned closer, making sure everyone could hear me. "Every girl who dated you? They were faking it. Every single one. Because you're boring, Tyler. Forgettable. You're the human equivalent of white bread."
"RAVEN MARTINEZ!" Mrs. Johnson's shriek cut through the chaos. "Release him RIGHT NOW or I'm calling security! You're going to be expelled! Arrested!"
I hesitated. Sixteen years of assassin training screamed to de-escalate—preserve this new life's possibilities. But watching this arrogant bastard strut in here like royalty made my blood sing for vengeance.
Tyler had destroyed the original Raven, used her feelings as entertainment, turned her confession into the school's favorite joke. I might be an assassin, but I'd never been a coward. Never used dirty tricks. Never betrayed someone's trust. This piece of shit deserved everything coming to him and more.
My grip tightened.
"Wait!" A student's voice pierced through the noise. "What is THAT?"
Everyone turned toward the window. There, dangling from the window frame and caught on the latch, was the Satan's Heart. My necklace. The black pendant that had burned me unconscious on the plane. The artifact worth more than this entire school and everyone in it.
The wind picked up outside, rattling the window. The chain slipped another inch.
Fuck.
I released Tyler instantly. He collapsed face-first on the floor with a satisfying thud that I didn't even stay to appreciate. I was already running toward the window as the pendant slipped further.
"RAVEN!" Mrs. Johnson's voice hit a pitch that could shatter glass. "This is the FIFTH FLOOR! Don't you DARE—"
I was already climbing onto the windowsill. Behind me, voices overlapped in panic. "Raven, stop!" That was Leo. "You'll die!" "Holy shit, she's actually going to jump!" "Someone stop her!"
I ignored them all. My eyes locked on the pendant as it fell, tracking its trajectory with the precision of a hundred calculated sniper shots. Wind speed, angle, distance to impact point. I could see exactly where it would land.
I jumped.
The world tilted and air rushed past my ears. For one perfect second, I was flying again, just like leaving the plane. Then gravity reasserted itself and I hit the ground. My knees absorbed most of the impact as I rolled through it, muscle memory from ten thousand training exercises taking over. The shock still traveled up my legs though—this body wasn't used to this kind of punishment. Pain flared through my ankles and I grimaced.
"God," I muttered, standing up and brushing dirt off my clothes. "I really need to train this body. Can't even stick a five-story drop without feeling it."
The Satan's Heart lay three feet away, glinting in the sunlight like it had been waiting for me. I scooped it up and relief flooded through me as my fingers closed around the familiar metal. Still warm, still humming with that strange energy I didn't understand and probably never would. I slipped it over my neck and tucked it safely under my shirt where it belonged.
Now, where was I? Right. Leaving this disaster of a school and figuring out what the hell had happened to my life.
"RAVEN!"
The shout came from above. I looked up to see every single person from the classroom leaning out the window—Mrs. Johnson with her face pale as death, Leo with his mouth hanging open, the girl who'd been recording on her phone now pointing it straight at me, and even Tyler still clutching his arm with a face that mixed shock and pain in equal measure. They were all staring at me like I'd just sprouted wings and flown.
I stared back, genuinely confused about what had them so worked up.
"What?" I called up. "Never seen someone jump out a window before?"