Chapter 29 Tobias

I disappeared to the one place I'd been avoiding since the invisible dragon incident.

The sim room.

I would've preferred flying in the real world, specifically deep in the Alps, where I could disappear for hours—or days—but it was past sunset, and I couldn't summon the energy or motivation to sneak out. An unusual commotion was happening around the school, and I suspected my father had something to do with it since several of his military minions were milling around.

But whatever it was didn't concern me. Nothing concerned me anymore. I just wanted to be left alone.

Two of the corporals were guarding the sim room, but they merely nodded when I walked in. If someone was banned from the room, it wasn't me.

I tapped the command on the pad, then entered the room and stripped down to nothing. I didn't give two fucks who saw me naked. Nothing mattered anymore.

I shifted into my dragon as the room began to darken. Some small, broken part of me had hoped that the pain would lessen in my dragon form, that the replacement of scales over skin would strengthen my beaten and shattered heart. But no. There would never be reprieve from this agony. And it would only get worse.

I flew through the blackness, my powerful wings pushing against invisible air when the scene should have had none. A large orange-and-yellow swirling planet lay before me, but I positioned it behind me. It was beautiful and didn't match my mood, so I didn't even allow it to make an appearance in my peripheral vision. The only illumination came from the tiny lights of faraway stars—mere pinpricks—not enough to really pierce the abyss around me.

My scales were also black—the perfect camouflage, though I needed none in the darkness.

Space wasn't somewhere even a dragon could go, and this simulation was most likely one of the masterpieces Mr. Inari created for entertainment purposes only, which meant I didn't have to expect any form of enemies to appear.

It was one of the many reasons I chose this one.

So I groaned when I felt the presence of another creature to my right. Maybe some modifications had been added?

Relying on my extensive training and muscle memory, I pretended I didn't notice the intruder and waited until the being was closer. Then, I veered right and extended my talons to immediately grip the simulated enemy.

I blew a breath of fire to shed light on my attacker and strategize the quickest way to dispatch whatever it was. I nearly lost my grip at the familiarity of the deep red scales on a dragon that looked a lot like Niko.

"Hey!" It was Niko.

I released my grip and dropped into the abyss until I hit the sim room floor, then scrambled to end the program and shifted back.

Niko dropped seconds after I did and returned to human form as the scene melted back to reveal the stark white walls.

"Don't sneak up on me like that!" I barked, stalking toward my friend, who still flipped red scales into skin.

"I thought you knew I was here," Niko said with a smirk.

"How could I know?" I shouted.

Niko kept his tone cool despite my misplaced fury. "Because you nodded when I asked if I could join you? Remember?"

I ran a hand through my hair, gripping it tightly and scrunching my eyes closed. I didn't remember, but I also didn't exactly remember starting the simulation. I'd flipped a switch to auto-Tobias-mode the instant I walked into the Defense Room.

But now that I thought about it, I vaguely remembered Niko's tense smile when I'd entered. Niko was stressed about something, and I probably figured he could use a flight, too.

"I guess?" I muttered. "I don't know."

I walked to retrieve my clothes from the corner, which were in a pile next to Niko's, and pulled them back on.

"Everything alright?" Niko asked, then pulled a gray sweatshirt over his head.

I stepped back into my jeans. "Arya hates me."

He frowned. "How did that happen? I thought things were going great between you two."

I sighed and explained without looking up at him. "Apparently, Arthur told her about assigning me to befriend her. She thinks everything between us was a lie."

He was quiet for a moment, the only sounds in the room those of our rustling clothes as we finished getting dressed.

"Is that why she destroyed the greenhouse?" Niko asked solemnly.

I felt my eyes—and the crack in my heart—widen. "That was her?" That explained her weird comment about it. But how did she manage it? Did she really hate me that much? "How?"

"Apparently, she's also an ursa." Niko shrugged like it wasn't huge news to find out that the siren/mermaid/harpy was also a werebear. "It was her first shift, from what I've been told."

"Huh." I didn't have any other words, let alone thoughts, about it. In the past, I would have been fascinated to hear of such a shifter. I would've asked a thousand questions and done a ton of research on the subject.

But this was Arya . She'd long ago gone from a shifter who made me curious to a woman who made me crazy and protective and clearly willing to break a curse I vowed never to trigger.

Apparently, she hated me so much that she would destroy school property because it reminded her of me. That was the first place we bonded after our attack, the last place we'd been before she decided to sleep with me.

"And not to add more to your plate," Niko added. "But your father has taken over the school."

I whipped my head toward Niko, who shrugged. "What about Caesar?"

"He's being removed," Niko said awkwardly, as if that was the most delicate way he had of saying what we both knew to be a hostile takeover.

"On what grounds?" I asked. I knew my dad could be especially persuasive, but there was no way the other professors would side against Caesar.

"There's been evidence against him that he was working with a vampire," Niko replied.

I slumped against the wall and slid to the floor, a maniacal laugh bubbling up out of my throat. My shoulders racked, and my ribs clenched with the insane sound that shook out of me, and I gave into it even as humorless tears trickled from my eyes.

I felt the graze of Niko's body as he sat beside me. "Are you okay, man?"

"No," I barked a laugh, slapping my knee. "Nothing is okay. I'm the son of a fucking psycho!"

Laughter peeled out my tight throat, sounding like a hoarse shriek.

"He's managed to frame the only person who actually gives a damn about any of us, he's taken over the school so that he can control the only woman I've ever cared about, and he's ensured that I triggered our curse so that I can once again be his obedient soldier!"

My voice was so high-pitched, even I couldn't understand the words I was saying.

"Curse?" Niko asked. "What curse?"

I bit down on my lips to try to stifle the laughter, taking deep breaths through my nose to regain control of my lungs. When the fit had finally subsided, I wiped at my watery eyes with the backs of my hands.

"There's a curse on my family," I explained flippantly because I no longer cared about guarding the secret. Fuck Claudette Dracul. Fuck the witches who cast it. And, above all, fuck my father. "Any Dracul who falls in love with an outsider, and vice versa, is doomed to have that love forever unrequited. My asshole sperm donor made sure I was no exception."

"Wait," Niko said. "Does that mean you're in love with Arya?"

"That's your question after all that?" I asked, feeling the laughter begin to shake my ribcage once more.

"But you imprinted on her. Dude, if you can't be with her, you'll—"

"Die? Yep!" I gave in to the laughter once more. "Why do you think I fought it so hard? I tried several times to sever my imprint, none of which worked. I even went so far as to ask Arya's witch friend to help me break the curse. I was just there a few hours ago, and she performed a countercurse, but apparently it didn't work. So I'm totally fucked! Isn't that funny?"

"No, man." Niko shook his head, sorrow and sympathy scrunching his features. "That's just about the worst thing I've ever heard."

"I know!" I squealed. I was really losing it, but what did it matter? What did I really have left to lose, aside from myself?

Niko fisted the front of my shirt and pulled me toward him. "You can't just let it end like this, Tobias. You may have given up, but I'm not just going to sit back and watch my best friend waste away from an unfulfilled imprint."

"Oh, yeah? And what are you going to do about it?" I countered through giggles. "You haven't even fixed your own fucked up love life. How are you going to fix mine?"

He glared at me, then nodded. "You know what, you're right. But I'm not fucking around anymore."

He rose to his feet with purpose.

"I'm going to win Ashlyn back, and then I'm going to help you clean up this mess you're in."

He strode out of the room, and I called back after him, "Good luck!"

I really did hope he succeeded. If my complete and utter failure was what it took to encourage him to fight for his love, then at least it wasn't a total loss. But regardless of the outcome, nothing would change for me. The curse couldn't be broken, and the imprint couldn't be severed. I was a lost cause. End of story.

I continued to sit there, staring at the opposite wall as the increasing pain in my soul silenced the laughter. I didn't know how much time had passed, and I also didn't care. I didn't have anywhere to be. The only place I wanted to be, that my body urged me to seek, was the one place I couldn't go.

The tap of a polished shoe against the side of my sneaker roused me from my stupor, but I wasn't going to give him the benefit of my attention.

"My soldiers said you were having some kind of mental breakdown," Arthur said. "Surely, you're not so broken up over a silly girl."

I breathed a laugh through my nose. "You have no idea what you've done."

He strolled into the room, his shoes clacking against the smooth floor. "I warned you not to be a fool. Love is not meant for us, Tobias. I thought you knew better. I only hope that I chased her away before she got her claws into your heart."

I dragged my eyes up his body to lock eyes with him. And I smiled wickedly. "I imprinted on her."

He held my gaze for a long moment, his smug expression slowly sliding away as realization sank in. He shook his head. "No."

"Yep," I said, lazily folding my arms over my chest. "And maybe it's true that your intentions were to save me from the curse. More likely, you already knew I was falling for her and wanted to ensure I didn't escape the same fate as you and everyone else in our fucked up family. Whatever the reason, by pulling your little strings with Arya, you've just ensured the slow, inevitable death of your only son."

His breathing began to speed up as the wrinkles in his forehead deepened. "No. No, that can't be."

I shrugged as I stumbled to my feet. If Arthur was going to insist on being here, then I was going anywhere else. "Who knows, maybe Mom will give you another one. But I wouldn't count on it."

I pushed past him and strode out of the room. I didn't know where I was going. But it gave me more pleasure than I thought I'd ever feel again to know that I was leaving him with the consequences of his selfish choices, even if one of them was my destruction.