Chapter 23

Tobias

Though the Avian common room held the normal buzz of activity after a long holiday—mostly dreary faces and complaints about being back—there was a frantic, panicked energy in the halls of the Dome.

I walked slowly as students turned to each other in hushed whispers. A lot of girls were crying and hugging each other, pointedly ignoring my presence, which was unusual. Since Niko wouldn't be back for another hour due to a delayed flight, and Brett was still in his room, probably asleep, I couldn't ask either of them what the apparent mass hysteria was about.

Fortunately, Miss Tanis rounded the corner and was heading in my direction with her head down.

"Aida," I called, using her first name without thinking. I blamed my informality on the circumstances and my reason for speaking with her, and hoped that since she was a relative, she wouldn't mind.

But she didn't seem irked when her glistening eyes met mine. She'd been crying, too.

"What's going on?" I asked without pretense.

She swallowed hard and blinked a few times before adjusting her frames and tucking a piece of her short hair behind her ear. "You haven't heard?"

I shook my head.

"There was a vampire attack on a student."

My pulse beat to a desperate and frantic tune as she explained what she knew. A girl had been found on the secret subway platform leading into the Dome, almost completely drained of blood.

I barely registered the words because I had to know the answer to my next question. "Who?"

The brief pause before her answer felt like a hundred years. Was it a were? Another avian? Though I didn't think a dragon would allow a vampire to get the jump on them very easily, it wasn't completely unheard of. And Niko wasn't back yet.

Was it Arya? The very thought sent panic flooding through my body and overpowering all of my senses. I was imprinted to her. Surely, I'd have gotten some sense she was in danger. Right? Right?!

"It was one of the mers," Miss Tanis said, causing my heart to hammer against my chest. " Letti, I think is her name?"

"You think?" I didn't mean for it to come out as a snap, but it only took me the split second that Letti's face flashed in my head, and the hesitation in her voice, for me to fear that she said the wrong name. That maybe it wasn't Letti, but someone who looked like Letti.

She leveled her gaze on me with her head slightly tilted. Her emotions didn't show, but I suspected she was curious about my reaction.

"Was it Letti?" I asked, forcing my tone to steady. "Or…someone else?"

"It was Letti," Caesar confirmed, coming up behind me.

I closed my eyes momentarily to calm the rising flood of emotions in my chest .

"If you would please excuse us, Tobias," he said. "I must speak with Miss Tanis."

"Of course," I said and waved a quick goodbye before heading down to breakfast.

I spotted Cora and her entourage—minus Letti, obviously—coming from the nurse's station before I entered the dining hall. My first instinct was to ignore the group, but thinking about how I would feel if it were Niko or Brett who'd been attacked prompted me to set aside my antipathy and talk to her. Especially given mine and Cora's history.

"Cora," I said, pulling her from the group.

The other mers eyed me, silently asking if she wanted them to leave. She nodded, and they left the two of us alone.

"I heard about your friend," I said, awkwardly placing a hand on her shoulder, then quickly removing it. "What happened to her was atrocious."

She stared me in the eyes, in that penetrating way that showed her dominance, but then her expression softened, and she nodded.

"I wouldn't wish that on any shifter," I said. "No matter our differences." Even if you three did trap my mate in a simulation and leave her for dead.

"Thank you, Tobias," she said.

"How is she?"

"I think she'll live." By her tone, Cora didn't sound so sure.

"Did she say anything about the vamp that did it?" I asked.

She shook her head, uncharacteristically looking down at the ground. But then her head snapped up as a thought occurred to her, and she landed her gaze back on me. Her expression was masked with innocence, but I'd been acquainted with the manipulative mer long enough to know it was just that.

"She keeps saying her name over and over."

"Her name?" I knew who she meant by her, but I needed to hear it.

"Arya," she replied like the word tasted foul on her tongue

I narrowed my eyes in a curiosity I felt in my very bones. "Why is she saying Arya's name?"

Cora shrugged and resisted the smirk that threatened to emerge. "Who knows? Maybe it was Arya's fault?"

I wanted to call out her bullshit, but even though her motives weren't the most sincere, I could tell that it was the truth. Letti had been saying Arya's name. But why?

"Well, I'd better get back to my friends. Thanks for checking in." She gave me an appreciative nod and walked past me.

The dining hall had the same nervous buzz as students got their breakfast, but I didn't see many of them actually eating. I quickly grabbed something that resembled edible meat without really looking at it—my dragon craving the protein this morning—and headed toward my usual table.

I hadn't realized I'd been scanning the crowd as I walked until I spotted the familiar black hair pulled into a ponytail that showed off the blue streaks. Fortunately, Arya had her back turned to me and was speaking with her head lowered and tilted toward an almost identical tied up mess of orange hair.

I skidded past them without so much as a glance, willing Brett to actually hear his alarm and get down to breakfast, or for Niko's plane to have landed early.

I couldn't talk to her. I almost tripped when the image of Letti—sprawled on the cold concrete, face deathly pale and body nearly drained of blood—intruded my thoughts…and then her face morphed into Arya's.

Speaking with Cora was different because I didn't… It was just different. I briefly wondered if Arya knew Letti was saying her name, but I decided she could find out that information from someone else.

But like the glutton I was, I sat at an empty table, facing her and studiously avoided looking across the room at her face. I swore I felt her gaze fall on me more than once, but without my wingmen to verify, I couldn't be sure, and no way in hell was I going to look at her to confirm that.

I dug into my breakfast, eating quickly and barely tasting any of it with the plan to escape as soon as I finished. Guilt knotted in my stomach, making my food hard to pack in. I should've walked right over to Arya as soon as I spotted her. I should've made sure she was okay after hearing the horrific news, that she herself was safe.

But knowing how Arya lost her mom. And that this was an attack on another mer. Could—

"Didya hear?"

I nearly jumped from my chair, choking down the food in my mouth before it was thoroughly chewed.

" Damn it , Brett!" I cursed, grabbing a fistful of my own hair and yanking it, then ran my fingers through it before glaring at my obnoxious friend.

"Sorry, man," Brett said with a tiny shrug. "I guess we're all on edge." He sat down, the same mystery meat on his plate.

I calmed myself, but my appetite thoroughly abandoned me, and I pushed my plate away. "Yes, I heard."

"Why do you think it happened?" Brett asked with a mouthful. "Oh, and before you freak out on Niko the way you just freaked out on me, he's back. He's just dropping off his stuff and will be down in a sec."

I nodded. "Does he know?"

"He doesn't know details, but he knows something happened."

"Well, to answer your question," I said, "you probably know as much as I do."

Niko showed up in the cafeteria, but stopped at Arya and Ashlyn's table first before looking around the room and spotting us. My guilt intensified. Niko was clearly consoling them while I had ignored them. Ignored her .

We filled Niko in on the details of the incident when he joined us. They had heard the same story as I did, minus the part about what name Letti was saying. I kept that dark little fact to myself.

Niko ran his fingers over his head, indicating his nerves. "Tobias, do you think…?"

"Does he think what?" Brett urged.

"Do you think these vamps targeted her?"

"What would vamps want with a teenage mer?" Brett scoffed. He was trying to play up that he wasn't affected by the whole mess, but I knew better when he, too, pushed his plate away—half-eaten—and leaned back with his arms folded. "It must be a coincidence."

"Outside the secret platform?" I asked. "Doesn't seem likely."

"Does that mean they know the location of the Dome, then?" Brett asked.

Immediately my thoughts flashed to the invisible dragon in the sim room. Had the vampires found the school? Had they already infiltrated its walls, sneaking in forces to form an attack?

"I was actually wondering if they targeted her specifically," Niko said. "And yeah, they probably wouldn't target some random teenage mer. But if what Tobias told us is true..." He looked at me. "About that prophecy."

I put a finger to my lips and leaned into the table. "That's not common knowledge, and if my father found out I'd told you two morons, he'd ship me off tomorrow."

"But you said the prophecy is about Arya, not—"

"Actually, I'm not so sure the prophecy is about Arya," I blurted out.

I hadn't meant to say it aloud. When Niko and Brett stared at me with all but gaping mouths, I quickly amended. "I mean, that doesn't really matter. But what if those vamps attacked Letti because they were wrong about the prophecy, too, and because she looks like Arya?"

"Do you think they know about the prophecy?" Niko's eyebrows were pinched in concern. "The vampires?"

"I hate to say this, but maybe you need to call the General, Tobias," Brett suggested.

I nodded, rubbing my chin as I thought. I was never eager to speak to Arthur, but this was a grave matter that required his attention.

"I think you're right," I reluctantly agreed, then pushed out of my seat and left to contact my father.

* ? * ? *

"We are aware of the situation, Tobias," Arthur said when he picked up.

"So what are you doing about it?" I leaned against a bookcase in the human world history section of the library. Even if the entire school wasn't still freaking out in the dining hall, the chance of someone catching me here was very slim.

"We're looking into it, but it seems to be an isolated incident," he said. "A random act by one vampire."

"Random act? Arth—Father." I caught my almost-slip. "She was attacked outside the secret platform."

"Yes, and she must've been followed. To the vampire, it must have looked like she was entering somewhere the public didn't have ready access to—which is the truth—and followed her."

"Look," I said, running a hand through my hair once more. "I should've told you sooner, but I don't think Arya is the mermaid from the prophecy, but still, I think she's being targeted."

"What information did you acquire that led you to believe that?"

"The fact that this mer, the one that was attacked…" I paused. "She looks a lot like Arya and has been saying Arya's name over and over since it happened."

"No, what information did you acquire that led you to believe Arya is not the siren?" Arthur didn't sound mad at all, which surprised me at first, but then I remembered that my whole mission was to find out whether or not she was. There would never be any repercussions if the information I received proved that she wasn't.

"Well, for starters, she's not a very good mer. She's having a hard time shifting. And she can't even defend herself in a simulation."

"Well, if these vampires are targeting her, if they attacked a mer who looked like her, then they must have some information about her importance."

There was a pause as we both considered that. "Do you think they know about the prophecy?"

"It's unlikely," Arthur said. "But they certainly know something."

"So you'll investigate?"

"I already have some men on it."

"Good," I said, relief cooling my fire at last.

My father might be a hard man to like, but he was very adept at his job. If Arthur said he had some men on it, he most likely had more than some , and had hand-picked the best men and women he had available.

"But, Tobias?"

I groaned internally. I knew that tone. I braced myself for the lecture I was about to receive.

"You're not relieved of your mission," he said. "Even if you don't think this girl is the siren, we don't have concrete evidence yet."

I sighed. What would concrete evidence look like for someone not being something. Until we found the real siren, there was no solid way to prove that Arya wasn't it.

"Yes, sir," I said obediently

"Stay close to the girl."

"Yes, sir," I repeated before the line went dead.

I hadn't realized until that moment that the reason I hadn't updated my father on the Arya situation and my suspicions about her not being the siren from the prophecy had nothing to do with disappointing Arthur. As he'd just proved, Arthur didn't care either way. He just wanted the truth.

No, I hadn't told him because if my information was enough and Arthur had relieved me of my mission, I wouldn't have the permission or excuse, where Arthur was concerned, to keep seeing her. And until I could break this damned imprint, I needed to keep that door open.

Though I stupidly avoided her as much as possible, I could only go so long without being in her presence. If Arthur decided I was no longer needed at the school to investigate her, I had no doubts that he would make good on his threat and pull me out.

I didn't want my mission to come to an end, and against my better judgment, I prayed that she was the siren so it never would .