Chapter 17

Tobias

Arya followed me to the Simulation Room, and I stopped at the computer panel on the wall outside the door.

"So… how does it work?" Arya asked. "How do you set different levels or whatever?"

I tapped the screen to wake it from sleeping, and the different options and settings appeared. "The simulation is a complex and intelligent program. Each one is designed specifically for each shifter, to push them to overcome whatever their greatest weakness is in battle."

"Greatest weakness?" She frowned. "But I thought Cora had set mine to a vampire sim."

I nodded, understanding her confusion. "The simulation you were stuck in was one of the practice ones. There's an extensive series of practice simulations against various types of enemies, but the levels you test in are general and adapt to the person testing. There's a sort of hierarchy of levels you need to pass that assists you in getting ready for the one you'll be tested on. Kind of like video games. Except each level starts the same, then adapts to whatever maneuvers you're favoring to force you to adapt."

"So you have to go through all of them?" she asked, her eyes widening.

"It's not required, but it is suggested," I said.

"Okay. Are you attempting to beat it today?"

"Caesar has to be present for an official testing, so, no. I'll show you one of the levels."

"Which one?"

"Intermediate Level Ten."

She nodded like she wasn't sure if that was impressive or not. "How does that compare to the one I was in?"

I bit my lip before answering, "Beginner Level One."

She nodded again, and I ended the conversation by getting her settled in the observation room, then left to face the white blankness of the Simulation Room.

Stripping out of everything but my smart shorts, I entered the room and closed the door. I braced myself for the imminent shift as the room disappeared, icy air chilling me as arctic cliffs revealed themselves around me.

As many times as I'd been in this room, it always felt as if I were being transported somewhere else in the world, not within the walls of the school's high-tech simulation chamber. Snow blanketed everything as far as the eye could see, and ice dripped down from the cliffs and rocks as I blew out a visible breath before bending my knees in a crouch. I closed my eyes to begin the shift.

I had the rare ability to explode-shift—transforming in the blink of an eye—but I drew it out instead.

Maybe it'll help her in her own shifting if I show her in slow motion.

I figured I had about thirty seconds before the first simulation enemy appeared. I started with my feet, shifting the skin to my go-to dark gray scales and claws, then willed the scales up my legs. They flipped outward before settling like the shuffling of cards. I took the longest to fling out my wingspan, pushing the air around me as they grew to their full length.

But when I heard the cry of the dragons in the distance—their high-pitched shrieks penetrating the air, vibrating the ice crystals until they sounded like glass wind chimes—I quickly rushed through the rest of my shift. I changed my dark hair into scales, then pushed out a long snout and grew out my tail.

I couldn't see Arya's reaction, so I could only imagine the awe on her face as I pumped my wings and took flight to meet the enemy dragons.

They were all slightly larger than me, and their bright red and green colors helped them stick out against the pale sky with ease. I'd learned early on that their agility was no match for my own. I weaved in and out of their formation, flying above and then below each of them to force their open-jawed flame-throwing onto each other.

Bank right. Fly up. Half turn.

A sim dragon screamed.

Hairpin turn. Veer left. Tuck wings in and plummet.

Emerald green flashed past me, plunging to the icy cliffs below.

I had the beginning memorized, it had taken me so long to beat it. Now I anticipated when the sim dragons went from predictable, robotic entities—like the zombie sims in Brett's games—to the more life-like and reasoning ones, when the computer began anticipating my moves. Normally, I could strike down at least a half dozen before the computer caught on.

In my peripheral, I caught another flash of green to my right—one I hadn't anticipated—and made my own calculations to bring it down. I bent into a nosedive but immediately switched directions again to come up from below the beast and trap its left leg in my powerful jaws.

Instead, I got a mouthful of tail. The tails were thinner so there wasn't as much to bite down on, but I was able to sink in with two teeth, causing the dragon to let out a screech. Then I proceeded to swing it around like a catapult, releasing it with precise force and trajectory.

The dragon hit the side of the cliff with a crunch, then plummeted unconscious—or dead—to the rocks below.

Instantly, I glimpsed another one in my peripheral to the left. I went up instead of down since the simulation would anticipate me using the same moves. I was about to clamp down on the bright red wingtip, but sharp teeth sank into my left foot, and I jerked away.

The bite only lasted an instant, but when I turned to pursue my attacker, I didn't see another dragon. All I saw was the icy air and wispy clouds above. Scanning left and right, up and down, all the remaining dragons were fleeing in all directions, already at least a hundred yards away.

Weird.

This was not how the level was supposed to be won. It was required that I incapacitate or kill all the sim dragons. They'd never given up before, so why now?

Planning to land and regroup, I headed toward the nearest peak when a searing pain shot through my right wing—right at the shoulder, and going straight back as if something was attempting to cut it off. I couldn't see the wound, but I was certain it was badly burned by dragon fire.

I let out a beastly dragon cry and blew out my own fiery breath into the air, but again, I couldn't see my enemy attacking.

When more teeth sunk into my left wing and twisted like it was trying to rip it off, I realized I was dealing with a sim dragon more like myself.

One that had the ability to become invisible.

I didn't have time to panic, but that's exactly what happened.

Who changed the code? Who put an invisible dragon inside the simulation? Who even knew such an ability existed?

I couldn't help but think that someone who had access to the Simulation Room knew about my secret. And they somehow knew I'd be running this exact level today.

If I'd been alone, my first instinct would have been to become invisible myself as a defense, then find another way to take this enemy down.

But Arya was watching.

If I did it, she'd know a secret only my family and Niko knew about. A secret that could be used against me if the information got into the wrong hands. And, though a big part of me trusted Arya, another, more reliable part of me didn't trust anyone. Especially a mer who just showed up and strangely didn't know she was a mer.

I flapped my free wing, trying to shake off the enemy who still had a firm grip on me as I deliberated on what I needed to do. I succeeded but was left feeling more exposed than I ever had.

If I forfeited the program now, it would kick me back to the previous level and undo so much of the training and hard work I'd done. I wasn't willing to make that sacrifice out of pride. But with everyone gone for the holiday, I couldn't afford the simulation doing any more damage. So, I did what I would've done if I didn't have an audience.

And went invisible.

The invisible dragon stayed close as we fought for what felt like hours. We tumbled through the icy air, back and forth, getting mouthfuls of scales—by sheer luck, at times. The dragon was determined to keep track of my position, to end me, but that also kept it within striking range.

I managed to bite down more than once, disembodied cries confirming the damage. At one point, when the sim dragon had the upper hand—and my leg in its jaws—we fell to one of the lower cliffs with a loud crash. The imprint of large wings and claws hitting the ice and snow, mixed with the splattered not invisible blood, which didn't look like enough to have come from my injuries, gave me added courage.

When the beast flew off, I went still and silent. I waited, listening for beating wings, watching for visible breath. My patience was rewarded several minutes later when I heard and felt it fly close enough for me to aim a blast of fire.

It was a lucky hit. And hot enough to scorch a jagged line of scales. The damage voided their invisibility, turning them into charred blackness that could easily be seen.

The final blow was simple from there. I waited until the blackened scales settled on a lower cliff, moving up and down as the injured dragon attempted to catch its breath. Then I silently soared, wings outstretched, and glided until I was close enough that the sim couldn't escape. I bit down on its neck hard enough to hear a loud snap.

I quickly pushed the limp body over the edge, then lay panting on the snow, rescinding my scales and form as I waited for the room to return to its normal, white walls.

I'd tired out more than I had in a long time, and I actually missed the cool kiss of the snow against my battered flesh as it left me, reforming into the hard floor of the room.

Who the fuck reprogrammed it?

As I caught my breath, panic began to fill me that someone had discovered the secret I'd held close for so long. And worse than that, now Arya knew I could change the color of my scales.

There was a click , followed by running footsteps, and Arya's hair spilled over her shoulders as she knelt down beside me, her shadow shielding me from the bright fluorescent lights overhead.

"Tobias? Are you okay?" she asked, her pitch heightened with concern as her small hands gently landed on my sweat-covered chest.

"Yep," I rasped, weakly raising my hand in a pathetic attempt at a casual wave. "Just need to rest a moment."

"You actually put yourself through this just for practice?" she asked, her voice going even higher. Was that anger I saw in her pinched brow? "You're covered in bite marks, and you're bleeding all over the floor."

I craned my neck to look down at my leg, which was indeed smearing blood over the white floor. Hopefully, Ms. Heather, the harpy teacher and lead healer, hadn't left yet, and I could get her to patch me up because I really didn't want to sport these wounds all weekend.

"Eh, I'll be fine," I said with a forced shrug that scraped my slashed shoulder against the floor, making me groan.

She rolled her eyes, gripping my hands to pull me up to sit. "Ugh, you're hopeless."

She had no idea how true her statement really was.

"Let me at least walk you to the infirmary," she insisted, tugging my arms again to help me stand.

When she scooped her arm under mine and around my back as we left the room, I refrained from arguing. The bite in my ankle hurt more than I wanted to admit, making me limp. And… having her so close, her skin making contact with mine, her hair right under my nose and filling my nostrils with her incredible scent… I was the heroin addict savoring his long-awaited fix.

"So, I'm a little confused about what I saw in there," she hedged as we made our way out onto the darkened lawn.

My jaw clenched, and I looked around under the Dome to make sure no figures were lurking close by.

"The dragon you were fighting at the end went invisible," she went on. "And then you did. Was that part of normal? I mean, was that part of the sim? Because it was really hard to follow what was actually happening."

My pulse began to drum in my ears.

Do I tell her the truth about my ability being rare and secret? Or bank on the fact that she's essentially ignorant about what's normal in the shifter world?

Before I had made a formal decision, the words tripped out of my mouth. "No, it's not normal. The ability to change the color of scales, especially to the point of camouflage, is incredibly rare. I've never seen the sim mirror that before."

I looked down at her, wondering what she was thinking in response to that. But she didn't react, didn't betray anything neither positive or negative. She just kept supporting me as we got closer to the main building.

"I'd appreciate it if you didn't tell anyone about that," I finally confessed.

She slowed then and looked up at me, an unreadable expression on her beautiful face.

"If anyone knew about it, they could use it against me," I clarified, shaking my head. "I really don't know how the simulation changed to copy me."

She frowned. "Didn't you say that it was programmed to adapt?"

"It is, but I've never gone invisible during a sim before," I said. "So I don't know how it could know that."

We walked in silence for a beat as I fretted again over how it could've been programmed to do that. Was someone at this school plotting against me?

"I won't tell anyone," she said softly. "Your secret is safe with me."

Hearing those words from her lips was like a balm over my heart. I didn't know why I had let myself confide in her, but knowing she would protect me this way made me feel something I couldn't quite name. Gratitude? Relief? Endearment?

Whatever the feeling, it was more dangerous than anything else that happened tonight. Because it only brought me closer to her, when all I wanted was to get further away.