Chapter 20 Caesar

"I can't believe Maggie is ghosting me. We had such a great time the other night."

Kai was slumped in the chair across the table from me in the teachers' lounge after classes, frowning down at his phone and lamenting the lack of activity on it. I imagined he was staring at this girl's picture on whatever dating app he found her through.

"You've got to stop dating non-shifters, man," I said. "Normal human girls aren't going to get you."

I did understand why he resorted to online dating. The only other kitsunes anywhere around were either our students or in the military, neither of which was a viable option. And the only non-kitsune under this dome that he'd ever had his eye on was obstinately uninterested in him.

It was too bad. Objectively, he was an attractive man with his oriental features being both rugged and pretty. Yet, despite his good looks, he lacked confidence, and it showed every time he tried to talk to a member of the opposite sex. The corny dad jokes and obsession with technology didn't help.

He looked up at me over the top of his phone. "How else am I supposed to meet anyone? I never leave this damned fish tank. And it's not like there's a dating app for shift—"

He broke off, his eyes widening with a look I knew all too well. The look that said he had a crazy idea.

"Holy shit, how did I not think of this before?" he exclaimed, tossing his phone onto the table. " I'm going to create a shifter dating app! Not only will that help me find love, but it'll connect lots of different shifters around the world and bring in a nice little profit, too. Hell, we might even find you a date." He reached across the table to whack the side of my arm with the back of his hand, winking.

My breath caught as my mind jumped to Shea. I had been trying to find the perfect window of opportunity to bring her up, but this definitely wasn't it. My proposal of bringing a witch into the fold was already going to be met with animosity, but top that off with the fact that I was also romantically entangled with said witch? That would just be suicide.

"Thanks," was all I could think to say in response.

Though Shea seemed to no longer care whether she got into the Dome or not, as her grandmother and aunt were finally teaching her magic, I still felt very strongly that she deserved a place here. She had healed Letti when even our harpies couldn't do it. And she had broken past our defenses to sneak in all those weeks ago. With the aid of her magic, we could do so many more things to protect and benefit this school. I just needed to get the other professors to see that, too.

I cleared my throat, getting Kai's attention back off his screen. "What do you think about witches?"

He arched a curious brow at me. "I hardly think dating a witch would be any better than dating a human."

I scoffed. "That's not what I meant." Although, come to think of it, it probably would. "I just meant, what do you think of them in general?"

He pursed his lips in a thoughtful frown. "I don't really have an opinion, as I've never actually met one. But I have entertained the thought, from time to time, that perhaps their magic could benefit my tech. I mean, I can do a lot of things with the right supplies and resources, but there's always a limit. And no matter how much I innovate and push that limit, it doesn't break; it just gets moved ahead so incredibly minutely. But if we had magic on our side, too, imagine the great things we could accomplish."

Excitement sizzled inside my gut as I heard him talk, watching his features grow more animated with his own excitement. He had such a wonderful, brilliant point!

"That's precisely what I've been thinking," I said, leaning onto the table. "I would like to propose a radical idea: what if we start a sort of exchange program? Bring in a few witches and see what we can accomplish. On a trial basis, of course."

Kai sat straighter and leaned against his chair, a wild look in his foxy eyes. "That's a brilliant idea!"

"What's a brilliant idea?" Celeste had entered the room and was walking over to the coffee pot to fill a fresh mug with the brown liquid that was likely lukewarm at best.

Kai's face immediately flushed, and if I weren't so keen on the topic of conversation, I would've had to stifle a chuckle at his consistent reaction to her presence.

"Oh–er–Caesar had a geat suggrestion—I mean, a great suggestion." The pink in Kai's cheeks turned even brighter, and it was just as hard to watch as it was to hear—poor bastard.

"Is that so?" she asked flatly, her back still to us as she took a sip of her mug—then grimaced at the stale taste and dumped the coffee into the sink.

She turned to face us and leaned her hips against the counter, looking only at me. "What's this great suggestion ?" she asked, smirking wryly as she clearly enunciated the two words Kai had botched.

Kai spat out a response before I could even open my mouth. "He thinks we should bring witches into the school."

She eyed me in that skeptical, stoic way of hers for a moment, then held up a finger and turned back to the coffee pot. Kai and I watched with curious confusion as she proceeded to pour a second mug. Once filled, she turned back around, took a sip, and then dramatically spit the liquid into a spray in the air between us.

"Are you insane?" she snapped as Kai and I tried to recover from the shock of her spit-take.

"Very funny," I deadpanned, folding my arms over my chest.

"You know what's not funny?" she asked, jutting a hip to one side. "Allying with those who wish to hurt us."

I balked at her sudden fierceness. "What witch has ever tried to hurt any of us?"

"That Le Fey witch broke into our top-secret facility just months ago. If she could get through our firewalls, imagine the havoc she could wreak. Their powers are unpredictable and undetectable. They can't be trusted. They're no better than vampires." Her eyes narrowed into slits, and I didn't understand the wounded shadow I glimpsed inside them.

"Wait, a witch broke in?" Kai asked, ears perked with intrigue. "When? How? Where?"

"It was early November," Celeste informed, her tone still biting. "She'd used some sort of spell to get past the scanner at the main entrance, then had the nerve to use a potion to change herself into a kitten, of all things. As if that would gain her admittance here." She scoffed and looked off to the side.

"How did she find the school? Should we be concerned?" Kai's rising anxiety was radiating a static charge through the air, making the hairs on my arms and neck stand on end.

"Calm down, Kai," I said, raising my hands in a soothing gesture. "Sh—the girl is not a threat. No need to sound any alarms. She was Arya's best friend from before the Dome, and she was with Arya the night I found her and brought her here. Under the drastic circumstance, there was no way of hiding what Arya and I were, and as soon as the witch found out about the school, she wanted to come."

Kai seemed to settle down, the current in the air subsiding. Celeste only seemed irritated by the mention of Shea.

I sighed, preparing myself for the confession I was about to make. "That witch has proved valuable in our cause. Do you remember when Letti Greeves was attacked, and the harpies couldn't wake her?"

Celeste's gaze slid to me as if in warning not to say what I was going to. But she needed to know.

"Well, I took a leap of faith and asked for Shea's help. I brought her into the school, and—look, she's the reason Letti is conscious and healthy today."

"You did what? " Celeste hissed, her emerald eyes full of venom as they glared at me.

"Hey, chillax," Kai said to her, choosing the absolute wrong moment to play it cool. "Caesar did what he thought was best, and it paid off. I, for one, think it was—"

"No!" she said, slamming a palm onto the table. "There will be no witches at this school. Not as long as I am funding it. This conversation is over."

Without another word, she spun on her stilettos and stormed out of the lounge, leaving a ringing silence in her wake.

Kai and I exchanged nervous glances.

"What the hell is her problem?" he grumbled, then flicked the side of his phone with his index finger. "Women. They're all fucking crazy."

I nodded quietly. I hadn't expected such a dramatic response from Celeste. I knew she could be elitist, like most mermaids were, but I also thought she had a level head on her shoulders. I had believed she would hear me out and at least be open to discussion. Instead, she just shut me down.

What was I going to do about Shea? I'd made her a promise, and I still had every intention to keep it. I just couldn't see how now.