Without a second thought, without a clean plan, he acted. He scooped up a heavy, jagged rock from the forest floor. He drew his arm back and hurled it with all his might, not at the alpha, but into the thick brush twenty feet off its flank.
The rock crashed through the undergrowth with a loud, startling crack. He immediately followed it up with a shout—a loud, deliberately obnoxious, attention-grabbing yell that had nothing to do with heroism and everything to do with pure, unadulterated disruption.
It worked. The alpha’s head snapped toward the new noise, its ears swivelling. That one second of distraction was all Vincent needed. He lunged forward, his blade a silver arc in the dappled light, burying it deep in the beast’s exposed side. The alpha howled, a sound of rage and pain, and collapsed. The moment dissolved into the messy business of a dead animal and two people catching their breath, instead of falling into each other’s arms. ’
Before he left, he made sure to make a small moment of eye contact with Aria Vale, just so at least she knew what she did, if not Vinny, and then he walked away.
By the time the dust had settled, Raven was standing beside him, silent as a shadow. She was watching him, not the scene below.
"That wasn’t an accident." It wasn’t a question. "You aimed at the underbrush on purpose."
He tossed another pebble in his hand, affecting an air of complete nonchalance. "And why would I do that? I just missed, it’s simple. Good thing it worked though, eh?"
She didn’t push it. But she didn’t look away first, either. He found himself privately noting that being watched this closely by her was starting to feel less like danger and more like something else entirely. He decided not to examine that thought too closely right now.
Back at the academy gates, the setting sun cast long shadows across the courtyard. They were exhausted, filthy, and surrounded by the relieved chatter of other returning students. After filing their report, the crowd began to thin out. Cane stood alone near the main fountain, pulling up the faint blue flicker he’d been ignoring since the treeline.
Quest Update.
Steal Aria Vale’s First Kiss.
Wildwood Trial Romance Flag: Disrupted. Not Neutralized. Quest will continue.
It was vague and unhelpful, a systemic shrug that told him he had bought himself time, not a victory. He dismissed the window with a mental swipe just as footsteps approached. It was Raven.
"You knew things twice out in those woods that you shouldn’t have known," she said, her voice low and even. She stopped a few feet from him, her arms crossed. "I still don’t know what to do with that."
He turned to face her, stuffing his hands in his pockets. "You don’t need to do anything with it yet. You’ll know when it matters."
I must seem so mysterious right now. Yeah, this is great.
He let a slow, provocative grin spread across his face.
"For the record, I’m available for a follow-up interrogation any time you like. Preferably somewhere with fewer knives involved." Apparently, there was no situation left in which he wouldn’t say something wildly inappropriate.
Raven’s expression didn’t change by a single muscle. No smile, no scowl. But she held his gaze a solid beat longer than necessary before she turned and walked away without answering. That silent, unreadable appraisal unsettled him far more than another blade at his throat would have.
It was like she was trying to understand why he was acting like this. She’ll find herself disappointed. I’m just a horny bastard.
The forest canopy thinned, and the narrow game trails of the Wildwood began to merge into wider, more travelled paths. Other pairs of students, mud-spattered and weary, became visible through the trees. The solitary tension of the last two days bled away, replaced by the familiar, relieved chatter of a group nearing home. Vincent was already holding court.
He walked with a knot of other students who had fallen in beside him, his voice carrying over the rustle of their weary footsteps. He retold the fight with the alpha duskfang, his hands gesturing, his tone full of breathless excitement. The beast grew larger with each new listener, its claws longer, its eyes more malevolent. The moment he drove his blade into its side became a perfect, heroic lunge, a calculated strike born of pure courage. Aria walked near him, her head tilted as if listening, but her attention had snagged on a single, sharp detail that Vincent’s grand narrative kept skipping over.
The alpha had been bearing down on her. A wall of black fur and teeth, its momentum unstoppable. Then it wasn’t. Its head had snapped to the side, its lunge broken for a single, crucial second. Something had made it turn.
She waited for a gap in the crowd, a moment when the admiring questions died down. She touched his arm, pulling him aside from the others.
"Vinny."
He stopped, his face flushed with the pride of his own story. "What is it?"
"Back there, with the duskfang." She kept her voice low. "What made it turn away? Right before you struck."
He stopped walking. His brow furrowed, and he actually had to think about it. The heroic certainty vanished from his face, replaced by a flicker of genuine confusion.
"I don’t know. I just assumed another animal spooked nearby. I wasn’t looking, Aria. I was only watching you."
His answer was earnest, his eyes clear. But it wasn’t the answer she expected.
"You didn’t see anything at all? Or hear anything? A noise, a shout?"
He shook his head, a slow, honest motion. "No. Honestly, I have no idea. I’m just glad it happened when it did."
He wasn’t lying. She could see it in the simple truth of his expression, in the way he met her gaze without a hint of evasion. That was the part that truly unsettled her. An honest man didn’t dodge credit for something he actually did. And Vincent, for all his faults, never shied away from claiming a victory.