Chapter 31

Usually, I felt refreshed after sparring in Defense. Pushing myself to my physical limits was my own personal therapy, a healthy way to vent the negative emotions that tended to build up over my father, Arya, and general life frustrations.

But today, I didn't feel better. Shortly after I left the gym and headed for my room to shower before dinner, this nagging angst began to nibble away at my guts. I had hoped that standing under scalding hot water would ease whatever it was, soothe the last of my nerves, but, if anything, the unease grew.

I got out of the shower and dried myself off, racking my brain for whatever issue might be bothering me. Of course, I was on edge about my father's deal, knowing that I wasn't much closer to "sealing the deal" with Arya. We had agreed to be friends and had been enjoying each other's company peacefully, but I could tell it was too soon to push for more than that.

Perhaps my father would be pleased that I had made progress at all. That Arya and I were friends and at least working toward being closer. If it wasn't, then the matter was beyond my control. I was doing the best I could to achieve this goal and still maintain the healthy balance between Arya and me that was necessary for both our emotional safety.

After considering it for a moment, I knew that wasn't it. The girlfriend issue was a dull constant that had been plaguing me since my meeting with Arthur, never waxing or waning, just there.

This current feeling, this urge, it was acute, and it was compelling me to do…fuck if I knew what.

I just knew I couldn't sit still. Though I was hungry, the idea of sitting in the cafeteria with my friends and wishing this agitation away made me feel like I was going to jump out of my skin, and not in a good way. Hell, not even shifting sounded appealing.

So I threw on a fresh change of clothes and left my room. I didn't really know where I was going, I was just moving on instinct. I skipped down the stairs, pushing past students like they were just obstacles in my path, and headed out the main doors onto the lawn.

My legs ached with the need to run, to move, so I broke into a jog. It wasn't my routine to jog around campus. On leg days, I either used the treadmills in the gym or went to a park in the city where I could feel the open breeze. And though it wasn't too late to head up top, my senses repelled the idea of leaving campus.

I needed to stay here. But why? What was this niggling, unrelenting affliction that made me feel like ripping my hair out strand by strand?

I rounded past the greenhouses, running the border of the glass dome, and my skin only sizzled more with this unknown urgency. Especially as I approached the gym. Maybe I needed the treadmill after all.

I slowed my pace as I came closer, the door of the building in sight, and the low tinkle of giggles and chatter carried to me in the stagnant air. My ears pricked, and I turned my head in that direction, like an animal responding to the slightest sound.

Cora, Letti, and Adina were walking past a tree, huddled together in a matter that seemed distinctly conspiratorial. I was so used to seeing the three in this way that I almost brushed it off, but my gut knew something was amiss before I did.

I stopped completely and watched them for a few seconds. And then I realized why this was odd.

Adina was supposed to have been "banished" by Cora. She'd been spending time with Arya, buddying up to her. And now she was walking with the mer girls like they were the sea witch trio again.

Where was Arya?

Before I knew what I was doing, I marched toward them with determined strides, my blood beginning to simmer with suspicion.

"What are you three up to?" I demanded, only faintly aware of the faint wisps of steam trailing from my lips as I spoke.

The trio cut off their furtive whispers and turned to me with catty expressions.

Cora put a hand on her hip and smirked at me in poorly feigned innocence. "My friends and I are just minding our own business, enjoying the last of the evening glow from above. Why do you assume we must be up to anything?"

I stepped closer, my scales bristling under my skin. "Because I know you, Cora, and the only thing you enjoy is making others miserable."

Anger and hurt sparked in her blue eyes, but she quickly recovered, her mocking smirk back in full effect. "You didn't seem too miserable when I had you calling out my name. I think you know first hand how much I enjoyed pleasing you."

Embarrassment and guilt tempered the rising heat of my blood, making me falter in my accusations.

"If anything, you're the one who gets a sick kick out of fucking people over, and not in the fun way," Cora sniped, her tone like poison. "If anything, I did Arya a favor, saving her from your vile temptation."

My core temperature shot off the charts at the mention of her name. "What did you do to Arya?" I growled, my dragon making my voice rattle dangerously.

Adina stepped forward, shrugging one shoulder lightly like we were discussing the school's dinner menu. "We're just teaching her a little lesson, that's all. We're helping her learn her place in our world."

My pulse kicked into a gallop, threatening to explode from my chest. I should have known Adina was up to no good when I saw her with Arya a few days ago. Hell, I did know, I just chose not to interfere, to respect Arya's choices.

Clearly, she had chosen wrong.

"Where is she?" I hissed, my mind racing with the thousand morbid possibilities of what they could have done to her.

"She's where she belongs," Letti remarked, folding her arms obstinately.

My lips twitched with the fury that raged inside me. I wanted to give in to the demands of my dragon, to release him and let him burn these evil bitches and stomp on their charred remains. It took every ounce of restraint I had to hold it at bay, to keep locked firmly inside my flesh.

"What did Arya ever do to you, to any of you?" I barked, struggling to maintain control. "She came here innocent and eager to learn, and you've shunned her at every possible opportunity. You're a disgrace to mer kind."

Apparently, I wasn't doing a very good job of reining my beast in because they were backing away from me, and the predator within was helpless not to close in on them.

"She's the disgrace," Cora countered, though her tone was shaky and quickly losing its venom. "She showed up here like a lost lamb and instantly got you and Kendall wrapped around her delicate fingers. She's an enchantress, she's wicked."

A laugh escaped me, but it was a dark, humorless sound. "That's what this is about? Jealousy?"

They flinched at the sharp sound of my voice.

"For your information, she wants nothing to do with me or Kendall," I said, the truth of it stinging a little. "All she wants is to learn about what she is and how she fits into our world, just like the rest of us."

"Well, she's about to find out exactly where she fits in," Cora muttered, inciting shallow, half-hearted snickers from the other two, and I snapped.

My fury and fear had full control of my body, and it used my hands to grab her by the shoulders and shove her up against the rough bark of the tree.

My throat rattled as I let out a slow breath.

"I'm going to give you one last chance," I said in a low voice that was more monster than man. "Where. Is. Arya?"

Cora's lithe body was trembling in my grasp, and the fear in her eyes as she looked up at me was piercing. And oh so satisfying.

She looked hastily back and forth to her friends standing on either side of us, and they both nodded insistently, pleadingly. Like they knew how close I was to ripping her apart if she didn't answer.

"Okay, okay, fine," she snapped, but her voice didn't have the bite her words intended. "She's in the Simulation Room, okay?"

My eyes widened, and I involuntarily slammed her back against the tree. "What?"

Cora cringed and shrieked in pain, making Letti and Adina whimper and quake beside us.

"W-we set it t-to the lowest vampire level," Cora went on, as if that fact would help her case.

I squeezed her shoulders painfully, my dragon oh so tempted to crush her frail bones. "You locked her in there with vampires? Her mother was killed by vampires, you heinous bitch."

Her lack of response and the downward cast of her gaze told me that she knew. She had set the sim to vampires intentionally, to hurt Arya in the worst way imaginable.

I bellowed a dragon's roar so loud that it shook the tree, loosing leaves to rain down around us. I threw her to the ground.

Her minions dropped to their knees to help her as she scampered away from me.

"It's just the lowest level," Cora said defensively. "She'll probably be fine."

I closed in on her until my shadow loomed over the trio in the fading blue glow.

"If any harm comes to her in that room, I will make you suffer ten times more," I promised in a low snarl.

She dared to smirk up at me, a twinkle of malice flashing through the fright in her eyes. "Well, then you'd better run. If you hurry, you might get to her before they do."

My heart leapt into my throat, the urgency that had been plaguing me for the last hour sprinting into overdrive. I whirled away from the mer bitches without a second thought, darting across the lawn to the gym door with every bit of speed my human form was capable of.

Arya had never been in a sim before. She wouldn't know that she could really get hurt or how to end the sim if she couldn't beat it, and she had little training to defend herself. Especially against vampires.

She was in great danger. And my only reason for being at that moment was to get to her before it was too late.