Chapter 28

Tobias

"Man, poor Arya." Niko stared down at his controller where he'd set it on the coffee table when Arya had started talking.

"I know," Brett agreed. "That Cora's a real bitch."

I didn't chime into their conversation. I was too deep in my own thoughts on that very issue.

I should have put Cora in her place after the sim room prank. Apparently, the warning I'd given her and her little friends hadn't been enough to get them to back off. But Arya had demanded I stand down, insisting she could handle them herself.

I should have known better. I'd been such a damned idiot about everything to do with that girl. It was time to start doing right by her. And it was time to show everyone at this school that she was not to be messed with unless they wanted to incite my wrath.

"On the bright side, I can't believe you finally shot your shot with Ashlyn." Brett gave Niko's arm a playful back-handed slap. "I always knew you liked her."

I flicked my gaze up to them, trying to pay attention to what they were saying.

"Yeah, actually, I was wondering if either of you would want to double with us on Thursday?" Niko asked. "With all that new curfew stuff, her dad won't let us go out alone, and I really don't want him as our chaperone."

Brett grimaced. "Ooo, sorry, bro. Not only do I not have a date, but I have detention with Miss Tanis all week—long story."

"Tobias?" Niko asked, looking at me.

"Huh?" I asked, mentally silencing my thoughts so I could give him my full attention.

"Would you mind double dating with me and Ashlyn on Thursday?" he asked again.

I scrunched my forehead, momentarily at a loss. "Um…"

"I know things are weird with you and Arya right now, so you could ask someone el—"

"Actually!" I scooted suddenly to the edge of my seat, seized by an idea. "Okay, I'll go with you Thursday night, but I need a favor from you first."

He narrowed his eyes on me. "What kind of favor?"

"I need help fixing Arya's exile," I confessed. "But it's going to be tricky."

"Oh, juicy! Count me in, too!" Brett interjected.

Niko chuckled. "Well, I guess deal, then. What did you have in mind?"

I opened my mouth to respond, but a knock on the common room door made me pause. Who the hell would be knocking? Any avian shifter would just come in.

One of the harpy students opened the door, and I was surprised to see Mrs. Sharp standing outside. She looked over the student's shoulder, her eyes sparking when they landed on me.

"Tobias, may I speak with you?" she called.

Spurred with fresh hope in my secret quest, I shot off the couch. "I'll fill you guys in later," I said to my friends before joining Mrs. Sharp in the hallway and closing the door behind us to keep our conversation private.

"What is it?" I asked, my pulse pounding with excitement.

Conflict pinched her brows together as she paused in deliberation, spiking my curious anticipation. "I debated for some time over telling you this, but I think it's something you need to hear. I…" she lowered her voice to a whisper. "I found someone who was successful in breaking an imprint."

Adrenaline flooded through me, and it was all I could do not to jump for joy. "Who is it? How can I find them?"

She began wringing her hands in front of her. "Actually, I asked him to come here and share his story with you. He's waiting in my classroom for you."

My eyes widened, my chest nearly bursting with determination. I strode past her, eager beyond measure to meet this mysterious person and get the answers I so desperately needed. But Mrs. Sharp caught my upper arm in her firm grip, making me pause and look back at her.

"Just…be careful," she pleaded. "And take the lesson he has to share to heart. Okay?"

I nodded, gently pulling my arm from her grasp. "Thank you, Mrs. Sharp."

I sped across campus, my heart beating like a war drum as hope fueled my long strides. This was possible. Someone had done it. And if they could, then surely I could too. I was finally going to discover how to save Arya and me from this damnation the fates had destined for us.

I entered the building and practically ran to Mrs. Sharp's classroom, forcing myself to slow down before stepping into the room. The man leaning against the front of her desk with his arms folded was large and muscular, the hagrid lines of his aged face making him look even more intimidating, especially when he lifted his gray gaze from the floor to look at me.

"You must be the foolish dragon with the death wish," he said, his voice rough and gravelly.

I swallowed. Death wish?

I extended my hand as I approached him, exuding the authority of my lineage to match his hostile energy. "My name is Tobias Dracul. I'm grateful that you have come here today to speak with me."

The man eyed my offered hand, ultimately letting it hang there until I withdrew it.

"Why don't you just sit down, boy?" he suggested gruffly.

My hackles rose at the dismissive tone he used. No one talked to me like that. Didn't he know who I was? But I really needed to hear what he had to say, so I swallowed my pride and sat at the closest desk to where he stood.

While I had unfortunately inherited my father's temper, my mother had taught me to be polite and diplomatic, to always respect my elders, and from the looks of it, this guy had been through some shit.

"Why do you want to break your imprint?" he asked.

I stiffened at the question, debating how to best answer. I could lie, but this man had come all this way to share something integral with me, so the best I could do was be as honest with him as I could in return.

"It's complicated. There's a darkness on my family line, and the girl I've imprinted on doesn't deserve to be dragged into it."

He pursed his lips and nodded, seeming to accept my response. "Very well. My name is Shepherd Gray, and I should warn you that what you seek comes at great cost."

His eyes bore into me, attempting to drive his warning deep into my soul.

"I understand," I said. "How did you do it?"

He sighed heavily, looking away. "I discovered it by accident. My wife died three years ago. I'm sure you know enough about the imprint bond to know that when your bonded mate dies, your own death is inevitable. It's a long, slow, unbearable process, and I couldn't stand it."

I scooted closer and braced my elbows on the desk as I leaned forward, barely perched on the edge of my seat.

"I loved my Annabelle more truly than anyone could ever know," he continued, his reddened eyes misting over. "The cancer took her so swiftly, we didn't have time to find a harpy to heal her. When she died, I wanted to go with her. I had nothing left to live for. She was my sole reason for being on this earth. Protecting her was my only purpose, and I'd failed.

"I knew death was coming for me, and I was determined to skip the torture of a slow death and join her in the afterlife. So, one night, I slit my wrists on our bed and waited for death to take me."

Shock and despair stabbed through me. I could imagine the pain he must have felt. Being away from Arya physically hurt and drove me insane with the desperate need to see her. If she died and I knew I would never see her again…I could only imagine the deep and utter anguish I would feel. I never wanted to know what that was like.

"So, what happened?" I asked after a long silence. Clearly, he hadn't died. He was standing right in front of me.

"My sister had come to check on me," he replied, still looking off into the distance. "She managed to get to a harpy healer right away, and they resuscitated me. My heart had stopped for three minutes. I was legally dead. And when they got my heart beating again, I woke to find the bond severed."

He looked up at me then, rage and heartache simmering in his tear-filled eyes.

I shook my head, not understanding the look he was giving me.

"Don't you understand, boy?" he insisted angrily. "The only way to break the bond is to die."

His words struck my heart like a car slamming into a wall at high speed. I had no words. My mind was numb with a cacophony of whirling thoughts and emotions that I struggled to put order to.

"I wish I had died," Shepherd said. "Living without the bond is worse than death."

I swallowed, dragging a question out of the melee in my head. "How so?"

He narrowed his eyes at me like I was the perpetrator of his miserable existence. "I can't taste. I can't smell. I can't feel anything but anger and sorrow. And worst of all, I can no longer see color. The world around me is nothing but hues of gray, white, and black."

He crossed the short distance and plopped his hands down on the desk, leaning over me. "Do you know what it is to be a mao that can't see color? That bond was a vital part of my soul, and without it, I can't experience joy. And if you succeed in your endeavor, neither will you."

He shoved away from the desk and stepped back, letting his warning sink in. "I don't know what this darkness is on your family, but I can assure you that nothing is worse than living as I do."

Silence fell over us like a thick curtain, and I knew there was nothing else for either of us to say. His story had me shaken in so many ways, and I didn't know what to do with this dark and weighted knowledge. So I did the only thing I could do.

I rose. "Thank you very much for telling me this. I can see that you're in great pain, and I wish there was something I could do."

"There's nothing anyone can do," he ground out, glaring at the floor again. "Just don't make the same mistake I did."

I stilled. "What was your mistake?"

He looked up at me under his heavy brow. "I should have shot myself in the head instead."

* ? * ? *

"You know this could get you suspended," Brett whispered as we snuck into Caesar's classroom that afternoon.

It was strange to see this part of the school so empty during the day, and even though Caesar himself had canceled classes for the day, I was relieved to find him absent from his classroom. That man practically lived in here.

"Caesar won't suspend Tobias," Niko scoffed, scanning up and down the hall before silently closing the door behind us. "Not the great Prince Dracul ."

"Will you both shut up?" I hissed.

Though he was right, and I pretty much knew I was untouchable, I still didn't want to get caught in the act. Nor did I want to drag down Niko and Brett with me. While I was immune from retribution, they were not.

I crept behind Brett to the desk as Niko stood guard by the door.

"You know, just because I asked you to double date with me didn't mean you had to make some great romantic gesture to get Arya to go with you," Niko teased regardless of my warning; apparently, finally coming clean about his feelings for Ashlyn made him mirthful. "You could have asked a different girl."

In lieu of a response, I pursed my lips and gave him a stern look to shut the hell up.

That hadn't been the reason I had brought us here. I honestly didn't know with whom I'd fulfill my part of the bargain. I hoped that this act would pave the way for sincere friendship between Arya and me, and going out on another date, even one meant as a group… It was just way too soon for that.

We needed to be friends because I physically needed to be around her. But I'd also admitted to myself that I wanted to be her friend because I liked her. And seeing as I clearly couldn't be intimate with her without losing control and freaking out and messing everything up, friends-without-benefits would have to be good enough.

And at least for the time being, attempting a fake suicide was absolutely not an option.

"Found it!" Brett said, pulling the tablet out and swiping the screen to wake it. He then began his attempt to hack in.

I still doubted he could actually do it. Brett didn't exactly come across as the computer nerd type, even if he did spend most of his life with his face glued to a screen. And I had no idea what kind of security Caesar might have on his tablet.

If the lack of locks on his classroom door was any indication, though, we might not have much to worry about.

"How's it looking?" I asked Brett, considering what else we would try if this attempt failed.

"Hold on," Brett said, making me shake my head because that was not an acceptable answer.

"Wait!" Niko hissed, making a breath catch in my lungs and Brett freeze with his finger hovering above the screen as we both turned to look at him.

Niko pressed his ear against the door frame, then his eyes widened. "Someone's coming. Quick, hide!"

Wasting no time, he sprinted on tiptoes to the first row of theater-style seats and knelt behind it.

Before I could react, Brett quickly ducked under the desk, hogging all the space for himself and leaving me out in the open.

I had seconds to think as I heard the footsteps growing louder in the hallway beyond the door. Doing the only thing I could come up with, I burst into my dragon form and willed my scales to camouflage, turning fully invisible only seconds before the door opened.

A happily whistling Mr. Inari strolled in, heading for Caesar's desk. I held my breath, not daring to so much as blink as he reached the polished wooden structure. I watched Brett slink backward to crawl behind the desk, skirting just out of Mr. Inari's view as he began digging through the drawers.

Within minutes, he found whatever it was he was looking for, taking a stack of papers from a drawer and mercifully leaving the room. None of us let out a breath until his footsteps disappeared down the hall.

"Holy shit, that was close," Brett gasped, pulling himself up against the back of the desk.

I shifted back, the shreds of my ruined shirt falling off my shoulders.

"That's a nifty trick," Brett commented, giving me a suspicious side-eye.

"You saw nothing," I hissed in warning.

He put up his hands in disarmed and silent promise, then turned his attention back to the tablet.

"Hurry up," I urged, coming around behind him.

"In!" Brett whisper-shouted suddenly. "Okay, are you ready, Tobias?"

"How'd you do it?" I asked, my brows jumping into my hairline.

"Katya Sayuri," he replied as if that answered my question.

"The kitsune?" Niko asked as he emerged from his hiding place, sounding as confused as I felt.

"Yep," Brett brushed his fingers on his shirt in a cocky gesture. "She has a crush on me."

I rolled my eyes. "Let's get this over with."

Brett tapped several times on the tablet, then pointed at the button on the screen for me to push.

I cleared my throat, then tapped the button with my finger.

"Good afternoon, shifters!" I announced in an authoritative voice that I hardly recognized, channeling my inner dragon. "This is Tobias Dracul, and I have a very important announcement."

I glanced at Brett, who tapped his watchless wrist, indicating that I needed to speak quickly because the time was ticking. From the corner of my eye, I noticed Niko move closer to the door to stand watch once more.

"The incident with Letti was unfortunate, and we are all upset that any student had to go through something so horrible. But…" I paused for effect. "It has come to my attention that Arya Walker has been accused of involvement and, therefore, become the target of harassment and ostracism. Arya has nothing to do with what happened.

"So I'm going to make something perfectly clear. Arya is now under my protection. Anyone who so much as looks at her with hostility will answer to me. She will be allowed to return to her room and be treated with the respect she deserves." I leaned closer to the camera and narrowed my eyes. "I'm sure Celeste will make sure of that."

I leaned back again and flashed my best princely smile. "Thank you for your time."

I clicked the button to shut the transmission off, feeling very proud of my performance.

"Ha!" Brett barked a laugh, staring at his phone.

Niko and I looked at him expectantly.

"It's Katya," he said. "She just texted and said we could've done all that from our own devices. We didn't need to break into Caesar's office."

Burning irritation flashed through me, and I narrowed my eyes at my idiot friend. "Brett, you'd better start running because I am going to kill you. "