Chapter 27 Arya

My Tuesday afternoon training with Ms. Heather had convinced me to tell Tobias about my…condition. She hadn't said anything on the matter, but my lackluster performance with light manipulation this evening was evidence to both of us how heavily this secret was weighing on me.

The past few days had been my most difficult yet. I couldn't remember a time in my life when my hormones were so off-balance, when my emotions were so erratic, or when every sensation, even the dullest ones, felt so intense. And I was tired of carrying this alone. I needed to just come out with it. Now.

The full moon was in a few days, and even through a mile of water, I could feel the prickle of an impending shift. The last thing I wanted was to lose control and turn in front of Tobias without warning.

I should have told him right away. The truth was, I was scared he wouldn't want me after he found out. Ursas weren't like the other weres. Hounds were cool to look at, and every mao I'd ever seen was just downright gorgeous. Ursas, though—they were terrifying!

I'd always wondered why they never let out their shifter in defense class or to show off like the other weres sometimes did. Hell, Jackson practically lived in his hound form. But then I saw one shift. I happened to look into the sim room when one of them was training yesterday, and I finally understood why.

Ursas in their shifter form were mammoth, grisly creatures that could scare the pants off a skilled poacher. There was nothing pretty about them. And when they got angry, there was no limit to the destruction they could cause. That ursa had taken down an entire forest of redwoods. Sure, it had been in a simulation, but it was no less remarkable—or devastating.

A little voice in the back of my head whispered that Tobias would be disgusted with me if he found out. But I had to trust that what we had was stronger than that. Despite his random flakiness, we shared something...real. I felt it every time we were apart, and I saw it in his eyes whenever we were together.

Now, I had to put it to the test.

At this time on a Tuesday evening, Tobias should be playing the game I got him in the avian common room. So that's where I headed, treading with purpose.

"Miss Walker, there you are," boomed a commanding voice from across the hall.

I knew that voice.

I stopped and turned to see Tobias's father marching toward me, an eerily satisfied smile on his face. As he came closer, I couldn't quite pinpoint what about the smug smirk made him look so deadly. Except for maybe the wicked glint in his amber eyes, as if he had just won a very bloody battle.

"Good evening, sir," I said, my tone flat with hesitation.

"You're just the person I wanted to see," he said as he stopped in front of me and clasped his hands.

"I–I am?" This can't be good.

"Yes." His smile widened as he put his arm around my shoulders in a gesture that assumed far too much familiarity. "I have taken the position as Director of the Dome, and as such, I will now be overseeing your training."

"Wha—You—I—" I stammered, shaking my head in confusion that quickly escalated to concern. "What about Caesar?

"Yes, poor Caesar. He's taking a personal leave of absence, and I've been chosen to take his place." His chest was so puffed with pride that it almost looked swollen.

Caesar's leaving? This didn't feel right. He would have mentioned something to me or at least made some school-wide announcement.

"Is everything okay? With Caesar, I mean."

"Everything is exactly the way it should be," General Dracul said with a nod. "Now, about your training. Caesar and Celeste have been handling you with kid gloves for far too long. They don't see the strong, independent woman I see when I look at you. They don't realize that you can handle so much more. Your skills have not been nurtured as they deserve. We're going to change that. I'll train you myself every single day from now on. Starting tonight."

"Tonight?" Every word that came out of his mouth filled me with anxiety. Caesar had said the general wanted to train me himself, and now, suddenly, Caesar was out of the picture, and General Dracul was the school director? Something smelled fishy, and it damn sure wasn't me.

"Will that be a problem?" The way he asked made it clear he didn't care if it was—that it would happen anyway.

I paused before shaking my head. "No, no problem. I just..."

I was pretty sure that Tobias hadn't yet told his father about the two of us being together. If he was going to be the director, he would find out very soon. Despite my better judgment to let Tobias be the one to tell him, I spit it out anyway, relinquishing control of my decisions to my inner ursa.

"I had plans to spend the evening with Tobias."

The general dropped his hand from my shoulder and raised a thick black brow at me. "Tobias? My Tobias?" The scrutiny in his eyes was heavy.

"Yeah, we're kind of dating," I said with a shrug.

He threw back his head with a hearty laugh that made me jump. "Oh, my dear girl, that's not possible."

"Excuse me, but why not?" I snapped.

The sting of insult festered inside my chest. What, I was good enough to be his weapon but not good enough to date his son? I knew my emotions were about to get the better of me again, but I was not about to take any discriminatory shit from this asshole. If he truly believed I was the siren of prophecy, then I was going to demand the respect that title deserved.

He put his hand on my shoulder again, and this time, I had to fight the temptation to release my talons and claw it off. "I know you think that Tobias was genuinely interested in you before, but that was only because he was following my orders."

My heart squeezed as if someone had just punched me hard in the chest, and all my righteous anger evaporated. "What?"

He gave me a pout of false sympathy. "You see, when you arrived at this school, rumor had it that you were the siren from Celeste's prophecy. Caesar and Celeste weren't making any progress, and I needed to know with absolute certainty. So I tasked Tobias with getting close to you to find out if you were indeed who they suspected."

My head was shaking as he spoke, my ears refusing to believe a single word that went through them.

That couldn't be true. Tobias couldn't have been using me like that. Not Tobias. And yet…

"When your siren abilities were discovered, I ordered Tobias to cut his ties with you," General Dracul continued in his well-practiced patronizing tone. "Surely you understand why. You're dangerous, my dear. Which is exactly why it's imperative that I help you learn to control your powers. All of them."

Every encounter Tobias and I ever had replayed in my mind. His initial disdain toward me, his repeated hot and cold behavior, the way he completely abandoned me when things got too heated on our first date. And the way he completely ignored me at the ball until his father wasn't around. It was all starting to make sense.

My blood boiled inside my veins, making steam build beneath my clothes. A growing hatred for the general teased my already-unhinging grasp on my emotions, and the truth of Tobias's betrayal threatened to let it loose completely.

"Perhaps Tobias wasn't clear when he ended things," the general suggested, as if discussing the weather. "He's never been very good at dealing with emotional situations. I'll have a talk with him about it."

"That won't be necessary," I ground out, my voice deep with the weight of my anger and hurt. "Message received."

"Excellent." The general clapped his hands. "I want you at the Defense Room at seven o'clock sharp. Be prepared to train late into the night."

He marched away with a spring in his step, and I was left to stand alone in the middle of the empty hall.

I clenched my fists so hard that my nails cut into my palms. Every muscle in my body was tense with rage, creating a constant state of oddly satisfying pain. All I could feel was the overwhelming need to break something. Everything. Smash it all into itty-bitty pieces.

That bastard never really liked me. He had only been following Daddy's orders. All those times he had brushed me off were his true colors bleeding through the mask of his princely duties. He really was the unfeeling robot I always teased him of being.

But then, why stay with me after his dad ordered him to stop? Was it just to keep enjoying the perks of my body? String me along for as long as he could until his new toy was taken away?

Every intimate moment we shared, every sweet memory we made, was now stained with deceit and heartache. It was all a fucking lie!

I hated him—more than I had ever hated anyone in my entire life.

My body was no longer my own as my feet stomped down the hall. My vision was fogged and tinted with red, and I existed only as the singular desire to vent the rage that consumed me. Suddenly, I found myself in front of the greenhouse— the greenhouse, the place where I had decided to let Tobias in.

Without a moment's hesitation, I clutched the handle of the door and pulled, wrenching it completely off its hinges. Frayed wires snapped and hissed in confusion as the connection that kept the doors locked outside of school hours severed.

I paid them no mind. Or rather, I had no mind with which to pay them. I took one look at the spot where I had sat on Tobias's lap, and everything went blank.

When next the fog cleared, I was standing in the wreckage of the once-vibrant vegetable and herb garden. Water spurted from broken irrigation lines. Shards of glass and smashed pottery littered the ground, covered in the green shreds of what used to be healthy plants. And mixed into the debris were frayed fragments of the black colored fabric that no longer covered my sweaty body.

Over the sound of my own snarling, I heard someone say my name behind me. I snapped my head in that direction.

Mr. Sharp stood in the vandalized doorway, Mr. Inari standing skittishly behind him.

At the startled looks in their wide eyes, my temper started to cool, my grizzled breath easing. Slowly, I realized what I'd done. I'd destroyed the greenhouse. And I was now naked in front of two male professors.

My panting quickly turned into whimpering hyperventilation as guilt crushed me and shame reddened every inch of my exposed skin. "Omigod, what did I do?"

"It's okay, Arya," Mr. Sharp soothed, stepping over the rubble as he pulled off his shirt and held it up to shield my torso from his own eyes. "These things happen during first shifts. Not usually to school property, but they do happen. Luckily, there was no one here. Let's get you to Ms. Heather."

I accepted his shirt with the greatest gratitude, hugging the item around myself. Thankfully, due to Mr. Sharp's rather massive size, it wrapped around me like a blanket, covering from my collarbone to the tops of my thighs.

"B–but w–what ab–bout all this?" I was trembling so violently I could barely speak. It was all I could do not to break down, I was so filled with self-loathing.

"Once you've calmed down, we can deal with cleaning up the mess," Mr. Sharp said, leading me out of what remained of the greenhouse. "Isn't that right, Kai?"

"Yes, of course." Mr. Inari said the words with a dazed look, staring at the destruction before him.

"Come, let's get you taken care of," Mr. Sharp urged.

I allowed his enormous hands to push me forward. I was feeling so much that I didn't really feel anything at all. It was all white noise at this point.

I had thrown a tantrum and destroyed one of the Dome's vital resources. Everyone at the school depended on those plants, and I'd ripped them to pieces. Over a boy.

Still, my hatred for Tobias lingered like rot in an orchard, tainting everything within. I had been so certain we were somehow cosmically linked. Fated. What a foolish fucking idiot I had been.

It was all a lie.

Tobias had manipulated me. Lied to me. Used me just as he had used other girls before me. He was just as horrible of a human being as his father. They may be dragons by birth, but they were snakes in practice.

Part of me wished he had been the receiver of my rage instead of the greenhouse. He deserved it.

I never wanted to see him again. And if he was as smart as he boasted, he would stay far, far away.