Chapter 22

I gripped the paper bag tightly in my right hand as I ducked inside the cafeteria. The fries were surely getting cold. I'd hoped to sneak back upstairs without being seen, but had narrowly missed being caught by two faculty members the moment I arrived back at The Dome and panicked.

My height was definitely an obstacle when it came to stealth missions. Being six-foot tall didn't allow me many places to hide, and my large, muscular frame may have been helpful in a fight but left little grace for sneaking past anyone.

Though my dragon scales had the rare ability to camouflage, my un-shifted skin didn't have the same skill, and I couldn't exactly shift right now as it would be a waste of perfectly good clothing.

So, my only option was to slip into the cafeteria and wait like a coward.

It was almost seven o'clock, and I wasn't supposed to be outside my dorm, let alone outside the school grounds. All the other students could come and go as they pleased, but the General had forbidden me to leave without permission, and getting caught sneaking out for junk food would result in what I was sure would be a clever and twisted punishment.

I shouldn't have gone out at all, but after the fiasco of the party last night, I desperately needed to get out. Not to mention, I owed Niko and Brett. We'd missed our chance to go get chili cheese fries, and they'd been pestering me about it all day.

The fries were getting cold, but a few harmless flames would fix that if I could just get back to the common room without being seen. I just had to wait for the staff members to leave the Grand Hall and go back to their lodgings.

After a few minutes that seemed to last forever, the voices stopped, and the sound of their footsteps faded into silence. Several minutes passed with no sign of anyone, so I rounded the cafeteria entrance, ready to bolt upstairs, but the front doors opened, and I ducked back against the threshold. There were two other students walking in from the lawn.

What were they doing out so late?

Wait.

Blinking several times, I told myself that the thick dark hair of the girl belonged to one of Cora's minions, Letti, because I recognized the wave of sandy brown hair on the Mattel dolls she was walking with.

Ken-Doll.

But after the party, and after the incident with fish boy, I knew Kendall was no longer dating Letti because he was interested in—

Arya laughed at something Kendall said, and my blood boiled. After what we shared last night, the heated moment we stole at the party, she was with him? So, we were just going to act like it never happened. That we hadn't been clutching each other for dear life, that we hadn't only stopped before fucking each other senseless because we were interrupted.

I felt my scales lift from my skin slightly, and I struggled to regain control of my breathing. Shutting my eyes tightly, I pushed my inner dragon back down. I'd never struggled like this before. A shifter who couldn't control his shift was weak. But then, I'd never been so vexed by anyone or anything like this before, either.

No longer caring about getting caught by teachers, I rose to my full height and waltzed right up to them.

Kendall flinched at my approach, and it was good to know that the fish feared me. Arya narrowed her eyes, a coy smirk hiding in them as if she could see right through me. And her hair was dripping.

"What are you doing out so late, and wet for that matter?" I asked, my voice sounding like a bark as I failed to keep my tone casual.

Arya merely arched a brow.

Kendall scowled, clearly having recovered from his initial reaction to me. "Why don't you mind your own business, and we'll do the same. Unless you want your father to find out that you snuck out?"

He gripped Arya's elbow to lead her away.

I side-stepped to block their path, seeing only red. What was I doing? Why couldn't I just let this go? Why did I care what she was doing or who she was doing it with?

"If you must know, Kendall took me out for a swim," Arya said flatly, locking me with her intense blue gaze.

"The pool is closed on weekends," I said, baiting her.

Her eyes drifted up toward the ceiling, dodging my insinuation, and it hit me that she said, "out."

"Mers gotta swim," Kendall said, shrugging his shoulders. "You're not the only one who gets special privileges."

Panic flashed through my smoldering chest. Kendall somehow took her out of The Dome and into the lake. He knew of an exit that I didn't. And if vampires had somehow followed them…

He was going to do worse than get Arya into trouble. He was going to get her killed.

"What the hell were you thinking, letting him take you out of The Dome at sunset?" I snapped at her.

Her cheeks flooded with color at the accusation, but her scowl deepened. "Why do you care? What does it matter if we went for a harmless swim?"

I imagined a vampire slitting her throat at the bottom of the lake, her blood coloring the water around her, and true fear gripped me.

"It matters that you snuck out of The Dome, however you managed it," I seethed. "It matters that you did it as the sun was setting. Vampires have been looking for our school for years, and you could've led them right to it, right to you. Or do you want to end up just like your mother?"

Her eyes widened, nostrils flaring, and her mouth formed a perfect O of outrage.

Before I knew what was happening, her hand slapped me across the cheek hard enough to turn my head.

Shit. Why the hell did I say that?

I suddenly wished I had never approached them, never left the sanctity of my room at all today.

I looked back at her, feeling small and fragile under the hatred I found in her eyes.

"Fuck you!" she spat behind gritted teeth, then pulled her arm out of Kendall's grip and stomped up the stairs without so much as a look back.

Kendall's dark chuckle reached me through the ringing in my ears.

"Nice going. Looks like I'm going to win our bet. She tastes like candy, by the way." He put his index finger to his lips and sucked it into his mouth, then flashed me a wicked grin when he popped it out.

I was too stunned by my own idiocy to feel anger at his implication.

"Ta ta, Tobias," Kendall said with a wave of his sucked fingers before he chased after Arya up the stairs.

What the hell was wrong with me? How had I let this situation get so out of control? I was supposed to be getting close to Arya, becoming her friend, and yet all I seemed to be accomplishing was making her hate my scaly, charred guts.

And pushing her right into fish boy's arms, apparently. It was clear that the two had been doing more than just swimming out there, and the more I thought about it, the more the poisonous jealousy saturated me.

I gripped the bag of fries in my hand, the paper crinkling in my clenched fist, and jogged up the stairs to my own dorm, trying like hell to pretend this night never happened and eager to drown my wounded pride in chili cheese.