Chapter 39

Arya

I sat next to Tobias's bed in the hospital wing, holding his warm yet unresponsive hand in mine.

The harpies had gotten all the lead pellets out of his body, and in their place were square-inch gauze bandages over the slowly healing skin. His chest, which was bare and uncovered by the not-long-enough linen sheet, was scattered with them.

Ms. Heather said he was going to be alright. The lead in his system would make for slow healing, as lead was the one substance that weakened dragons most, but once it worked its way out, he would be okay.

I hated seeing him like this. Tobias had always been an image of strength to me, seeming almost untouchable—on a number of levels. Now he was vulnerable, in pain. And it was all my fault.

Like a glutton, I replayed our kiss again and again. I could almost still feel the heat of his lips on mine. It figured that he would only finally open up to me when he was on death's door.

"You had better be alright, Tobias," I whispered. "You can't just kiss me like that and then abandon me." Although, that would be a very Tobias thing to do.

"Arya?" Letti's voice sounded from the next bed. But it wasn't the feverish call of the last few days. It was a question. Was Letti awake?

I turned in the mermaid's direction, and she was looking at me through heavy eyelids—actually looking at me!

The only way to describe the feeling that exploded in my chest was like a sudden eruption of fireworks made of relief, surprise, and joy. I never thought I'd be so happy to see my schoolyard rival looking at me again, even if her eyes were darkened and bloodshot.

In my excitement, I rushed to Letti's side, wiping away fresh happy tears. "I'm here."

Letti struggled to sit up, then grabbed my hand. "You have to listen to me. Don't go outside. Don't leave the Dome."

"It's okay, Letti," I said in a soothing tone. "I already know the vampires are after me. They tried to grab me last night, but we got away."

A series of emotions played through her eyes as they darted back and forth, then they came back up to me. "We?"

I gestured to Tobias in the bed across the room.

"Omigod, what happened?" Letti gasped.

"We were out after sunset and the vampires cornered us. We only got away because Ashlyn transformed and pretty much set them all on fire."

Letti considered that for a moment, then pursed her lips in a decidedly catty expression. "Oh, so the fire-jinx is good for something."

I frowned. Only Letti could still be nasty after waking up from a trauma-induced coma. "Never mind that. What happened to you?"

She cast her eyes down, and they were distant, unseeing. "My flight back from Thanksgiving break got delayed, so it was late at night by the time I was getting to the subway entrance. A group of guys came up to me, and one of them said, ‘Hello, Arya.' I didn't understand. Why did they think I was you? I'm so much hotter."

I couldn't not roll my eyes at that statement, and I never thought I'd be so happy to make that gesture again.

"But as they came closer, that same guy said, ‘Wait, you're not Arya. Is this some kind of trick?' I told him I didn't know what he was talking about. He got angry, and the three guys he'd brought with him attacked me. I didn't realize they were vampires until they were biting me, and by then it was too late to try to escape."

She stopped talking, and her face puckered up in remembered pain. A tear plopped as it landed on the sheet over her lap.

"It was a nightmare, Arya," she continued in a small voice. "They didn't just drink from me, they… they…"

My eyes flitted to the bite scar on her neck. And when she raised her hand to tuck her hair behind her ear, I saw another on her inner arm. Horror struck me as I realized she must have more all over her body that were covered by the sheet, and I winced.

"It's okay, you don't have to talk about it," I said, laying a comforting hand on her shoulder. "It's over now. You're safe."

Letti's face flicked in my direction. "But you're not. They weren't looking for me, they were looking for you. If that's what they did to me, I can't even imagine what they would do to you if they got you. And you can't even use your mermaid abilities to defend to yourself."

The comment hadn't been meant to offend—surprisingly—but the confirmation of just how useless I was hurt.

"They left me for dead on the outer platform. But I knew I had to get back here, to warn you somehow. I crawled to open the secret door and dragged myself into the secret platform. And that's all I remember."

I was lost for words, my brows twitching in uncertainty. I was truly touched by how much my supposed nemesis cared about me, after basically trying to kill me only two weeks ago. And I was relieved that Letti didn't hate me for being the cause of her near-death experience. Even I would've held a grudge if I'd been beaten in the name of someone else.

"Why don't you get some rest?" I said, patting Letti's hand. "I'll have the harpies bring you some food."

I made to stand up, but she grabbed my wrist.

"Wait," she said. "Please be careful. Don't let them get you."

My heart panged with a strange emotion I didn't yet understand, but I forced a smile. "Everything is going to be fine. I promise."

Letti slowly released me, and I left the room to find Ms. Heather, to let them know Letti had woken.

But as I walked away, I worried I'd made a promise I couldn't keep.

* ? * ? *

I was so nervous about my imminent sparring session in Defense class on Monday that my whole body seemed to buzz with electricity as I stepped onto the mat inside the gymnasium. The nervous energy both amped me up and made me fear I would shatter like a mirror at the slightest touch.

After the run-in with the vampires, I was even more determined to learn how to handle myself in a fight, and not just for my own safety. Poor, wonderful Tobias was laid up in the hospital wing at that very moment because of my uselessness. He almost died trying to protect me. In fact, we all might've died if it hadn't been for Ashlyn's explosive fire scaring the vampires away.

I would never allow a friend to suffer because of me again. Hadrian would keep coming for me. I had to make sure I was ready.

After visiting Tobias and Letti in the hospital wing Friday afternoon, I'd spent the rest of my weekend training with Caesar morning and night. We had run more drills over and over again in the last three days than I could recall. It had been the longest, most intense physical exercise of my life. My limbs were practically jelly at this point.

Now I had to spar with someone in front of the whole class. My heart was fluttering like a coked-out hummingbird in my chest. Every crevice I had was sweating like a swamp, stealing the moisture from my mouth and leaving it a barren wasteland. And my nerves were sizzling so frantically, I could hardly remember anything Caesar had taught me. It was all just one big exhausted blur in my head.

There wasn't a snowball's chance in Hell that I was ready, but I had no choice but to be strong, and to try my best. For Tobias. For Niko and Ashlyn.

For everyone.

Every pair of eyes was on me, and I could tell that half of them were confused as to why such a fresh student had been called up to spar, and the other half—mer, mostly—were hoping to watch me get my ass kicked. I scanned over all their faces, wondering who Caesar was going to pair me with.

"Cora," Caesar called loudly. "Would you please join Arya on the mat and demonstrate your skills to the class?"

My eyes begrudgingly closed without my permission. Why did it have to be her?!

Cora's perfect blonde hair rose up from the sea of heads, and she emerged onto the mat.

"Gladly." Her eyes practically glowed as they locked and narrowed on me with spiteful glee.

I flashed stunned, insulted eyes at Caesar. How could he pair me off with the one person who hated me most? And for my first real fight? What the hell was he thinking?

All he did in response was give me a single, almost imperceptible nod.

I exhaled my frustration and apprehension and adopted a defensive stance as Cora came close.

"I'm going to destroy you, little muckmaid," Cora hissed.

Then she spun around and kicked my legs out from under me. Fresh anger flooded me as my back slammed onto the mat. I was mostly angry at myself for letting Cora get the jump on me like that, and I vowed that it wouldn't happen a second time.

Getting to my knees, I dove at Cora, barreling into her abdomen and knocking her over like a cut-down tree. Once I had her on the mat, I climbed on top of her, trying to get the upper hand.

Cora was just as swift on the ground as she was standing up, and she rolled so that she was on top. I tried to slip out, but Cora had me trapped under her impressively heavy legs. Cora inched up to sit on my chest, then threw a punch right into my face.

The impact stupefied me for an earth-rocking instant. I had never been punched in the face before, and the pain to both my face and my pride was hard to ignore. When the second punch landed, all I could think to do was turtle up behind my shielding arms.

In all the sparring sessions I'd watched in class, the fighters never went this hard at each other. I didn't know why I didn't expect Cora to fight as cut-throat as possible.

Why did Caesar set this up? Didn't he know Cora would mutilate me? Shouldn't he be stopping this?

The punches kept coming, harder and faster. My forearms were screaming with pain as I hugged my own head. I struggled to focus, my mind rewinding over everything I'd learned, trying to remember anything I could use to get out of this. I couldn't do anything with my hands. If I moved my arms, Cora would have full access to my face, and I was too afraid of the pain to risk it.

But my legs were completely free.

Using Cora's weight on my chest as leverage, I swung my legs upward with all my strength and wrapped them around Cora's neck, then I pulled them down as hard as I could, slamming Cora backward into the mat.

Once Cora was on her back, I wasted no time in shoving her legs off me and getting to my feet.

Cora didn't stay down for long, and was standing up almost as soon as I was.

"Nice move," Cora taunted. "But I don't need to even touch you to beat you." She pulled a vial out of her back pocket and opened it.

Before I could guess what the fuck Cora was doing, water shot out of the vial and pelted my chest like a bullet.

"Ow! What the—?"

I looked down at the spot on my chest that stung sharply. My shirt was dry, but I knew I had seen water come out of that vial. Where had the water gone?

Something flashed in the corner of my eye, and as I brought my head up to look, something cold and sharp struck my cheek with a surprising amount of force. My cheek felt wet after, and when I wiped my finger across it, the liquid was red. Whatever hit me had cut me.

"I always make sure to have some saltwater handy," Cora said, holding up the empty vial before letting it drop to the floor. "Never know when you might need it. This is how a real mermaid fights."

The little water bullet zoomed around me, striking me in different places again and again, stinging more and more each time it landed. The water was too small an amount to do any real damage, but it was still enough to piss me off. Cora was just toying with me.

Enough of this shit!

I lunged at Cora again, but Cora dodged me this time, and when I stumbled to the floor, the little water bullet splashed onto my face, getting into my eyes. I wiped my eyes, but the water would not wipe away. Every time I pushed at it, it pooled over my eyelids again, blinding me. The strife was making my eyes tear up, which only gave Cora more ammunition.

Cora laughed darkly and came closer. I was sure that she was going to mount me and finish me off. I was so fucking done with this. In that moment, I hated Cora more than anything. I just wanted to hurt her.

I opened my eyes to try to see through the water. There was a long fluorescent light directly above us, darkening as Cora's head cast a shadow over me. Something clicked inside me as I looked at the blurred light, consumed with the need to hurt Cora, to stop her from inflicting any more damage.

In my rage, I could almost feel the glass tube break, and suddenly a burst of bright light slammed into Cora and sent her flying. The water spilled freely down my face just as the shattered glass of the light bulb above rained down on me. One stray shard nicked my arm, but otherwise I was unharmed by the falling light.

I stood up, ready to rip Cora apart with my bare hands if I needed to. But when I saw Cora on the floor, staring up at me with true terror in her eyes, I stopped.

The silence of the room was suddenly very loud. I looked around, realizing that Cora's horrified expression was mirrored on the face of every other spectator.

I saw the glass shards at my feet, then looked up at the broken light on the ceiling. Did I do that?

I glanced at Caesar for some answer as to what just happened, but his eyes held only questions as they stared back at me.

"What… What are you?" Cora said, breathless.

The accusation struck me. It wasn't that a shifter had used light manipulation in a spar—I'd seen that one other time, when an older harpy boy had been called on to spar.

No, it was the fact that a harpy power had been used by a mermaid .

Caesar cleared his throat, but his voice still came out dry and deep when he answered.

"She's a chimera. "