Raven’s POV
Cassian was scared.He wouldn’t admit it out loud but I saw it in the way his fingers trembled when he entered the room with my mum. For a moment, it felt like he wasn’t the predator and I wasn’t the pre, he looked like a brother about to lose everything.And I hated how that made my heart twist.The car ride was silent that even the trees blurred past like they were trying to outrun what we were heading toward. The road twisted and narrowed as we drove deeper into the forest—until sunlight couldn’t reach us, and the trees grew so tall and close they formed a ceiling above.When we finally stopped, I stepped out slowly, the crunch of leaves beneath my boots echoed too loud in the stillness. The air was thick with something old and angry until I saw them and forgot how to breath.Three of them- Dante, Elias, and Caius were shackled to the ground by thick iron chains, etched with ancient runes that glowed faintly like embers. They looked lesDante’s POVHer friend was right.We’d spent the last week walking on eggshells around Raven, hoping our regret would undo the past, praying our careful kindness would somehow erase what we’d done. But none of it mattered, not the new room, the gifts, the hovering concern because Raven didn’t want our guiltShe didn’t even want our apologies. She wanted space and we were the last people qualified to give it to her.Yet here I was, standing at her door, still trying.“What now?” she asked, arms folded over her oversized hoodie, her bare legs peeking from beneath.“Get your phone,” I said.Her brow arched. “Why?”“We’re going shopping.” I told her and folded my arms.“For what?”“The Blood Moon Ball and other events to take place.”She scoffed, rolling her eyes so hard I thought they’d stay there. “Right, and I’m supposed to show up wrapped in lace and sparkles like some ornament for t
Raven’s POVI was… okay those few days at school at home, it wasn't my thing yet, not perfect and healed but just okay.The past few days had brought a weird sense of peace I didn’t expect—an eerie calm after a storm that nearly swallowed me whole but without Freisaa being here? That made everything feel less suffocating. She was more than a best friend. She was a lifeline wrapped in sarcasm, warmth, and chaotic energy that never failed to tug a smile out of me, even when I didn’t want to.We sat cross-legged on the floor of my room, a slice of velvet sun escaping in through the tall, arched windows. My room has strangely become a comfort. The lavender-toned walls, the silk bed sheets, the dim purple glow from the chandelier overhead—it all felt like a version of me I didn’t know existed, but I was starting to like it here.“Purple’s your thing, huh?” Freisaa asked, eyes wide as she spun around slowly, taking it all in.I nodde
Raven's Pov.Despite my legs barely working, I left the bathroom and slipped into class late, head down, hoping no one would notice. But the moment I looked up….. someone was on my seat making me freeze.“Friessa?” I gasped.She was sitting at my desk like she never left. My heart stuttered. For a second, I thought I was hallucinating.But she turned—smiled—and it was really her.“God, you’re here,” I breathed, rushing to her like the air had just returned to my lungs. “You’re really back?”She stood, and we collided in a hug so tight I could feel her heartbeat hammering against mine.She pulled back, brushing my tears away with a laugh. “Long story. But let’s just say I couldn’t stay away once I heard my new one day best friend was a damn goddess now.”I rolled my eyes through the tears. “I’m not—”“You are,” she insisted, hugging me again. “And I’m so proud of you, Rave.”For the first time in days, I let myself smile. A real one in days since I arrived here.Because with Friessa ba
Raven’s POVThe lecture echoed in the background with the lecturer saying some mindless drone about ancient vampire treaties, but my mind was anywhere but here. I sat stiffly in my seat at the Academy, pen loosely clutched in my hand, pretending to take notes. In reality, I was replaying every damn word that woman—our “aunt”—had said last night.Jerome?Take the credit for curing the brothers?What a sick joke.She wanted to erase me from the story like I didn’t matter like I was just some tool that happened to spill her blood at the right time. The worst part wasn’t even the audacity—it was that the rest of the council didn't flinch.I swallowed hard, my chest tight as the tutor’s voice warped into a blur. Around me, the students whispered not loudly, but I heard it. Even though they won't say it to my face, they feared me now, they respected me too?Bullshit.They were just following orders from my so called Repented Stepbrothers.When the bell finally rang, I darted out before a
Dante’s POVJerome?She must be fucking kidding.I almost laughed. Almost.Instead, I slammed both palms on the dinner table, hard enough to rattle the cutlery and send a wine goblet flying. It shattered against the marble floor, the crimson liquid pooling like blood. Fitting.Aunt Kira didn’t flinch. She stared at me with that same smug, tight-lipped expression that made my skin crawl.“You want us to lie,” I said through clenched teeth, voice low, razor sharp. “You want us to pretend Jerome healed us? You want us to erase her—” I pointed directly at Raven without looking away from Kira “—because her blood doesn’t come from your twisted, inbred bloodline?”Cassian was already half out of his chair, his hand twitching with the urge to throw something—at Kira, at the wall, at the entire fucking room. Elias’s eyes glowed silver, flickering beneath his lashes. Caius had gone completely still, which for him was dangerous. We all knew what came after the stil
Cassian’s POVFive days later, we were back in school but nothing about it felt normal.The halls, the stares, the suffocating silence that wrapped itself around the air like a noose was not normal anymore. Raven still wouldn’t speak to us, she wouldn't spare a word, a glare or even a scoff and I would’ve taken a thousand of her insults over the fucking emptiness she left behind instead.She healed us with her blood and pain. She gave us the one thing we’d been craving our whole cursed existence—relief. Freedom..and what did we give her in return?We tried to make up for it—God, we fucking tried. We changed her accessories to enchanted and flashy favourite colours, gave her the best meals straight from the royal kitchen, put up a silent but deadly warning to anyone who so much as looked at her the wrong way.But none of it mattered because she wanted space.She wanted to be alone.And the worst part of it ? She did