Page 49 of Dark Embers

“You actually put yourself through this just for practice?” she asked, her voice going even higher. Was that anger I saw in her pinched brow? “You’re covered in bite marks, and you’re bleeding all over the floor.”

I craned my neck to look down at my leg, which was indeed smearing blood over the white floor. Hopefully, Ms. Heather, the harpy teacher and lead healer, hadn’t left yet, and I could gether to patch me up because I really didn’t want to sport these wounds all weekend.

“Eh, I’ll be fine,” I said with a forced shrug that scraped my slashed shoulder against the floor, making me groan.

She rolled her eyes, gripping my hands to pull me up to sit. “Ugh, you’re hopeless.”

She had no idea how true her statement really was.

“Let me at least walk you to the infirmary,” she insisted, tugging my arms again to help me stand.

When she scooped her arm under mine and around my back as we left the room, I refrained from arguing. The bite in my ankle hurt more than I wanted to admit, making me limp. And… having her so close, her skin making contact with mine, her hair right under my nose and filling my nostrils with her incredible scent… I was the heroin addict savoring his long-awaited fix.

“So, I’m a little confused about what I saw in there,” she hedged as we made our way out onto the darkened lawn.

My jaw clenched, and I looked around under the Dome to make sure no figures were lurking close by.

“The dragon you were fighting at the end went invisible,” she went on. “And then you did. Was that part of normal? I mean, was that part of the sim? Because it was really hard to follow what was actually happening.”

My pulse began to drum in my ears.

Do I tell her the truth about my ability being rare and secret? Or bank on the fact that she’s essentially ignorant about what’s normal in the shifter world?

Before I had made a formal decision, the words tripped out of my mouth. “No, it’s not normal. The ability to change the color of scales, especially to the point of camouflage, is incredibly rare. I’ve never seen the sim mirror that before.”

I looked down at her, wondering what she was thinking in response to that. But she didn’t react, didn’t betray anything neither positive or negative. She just kept supporting me as we got closer to the main building.

“I’d appreciate it if you didn’t tell anyone about that,” I finally confessed.

She slowed then and looked up at me, an unreadable expression on her beautiful face.

“If anyone knew about it, they could use it against me,” I clarified, shaking my head. “I really don’t know how the simulation changed to copy me.”

She frowned. “Didn’t you say that it was programmed to adapt?”

“It is, but I’ve never gone invisible during a sim before,” I said. “So I don’t know how it could know that.”

We walked in silence for a beat as I fretted again over how it could’ve been programmed to do that. Was someone at this school plotting against me?

“I won’t tell anyone,” she said softly. “Your secret is safe with me.”

Hearing those words from her lips was like a balm over my heart. I didn’t know why I had let myself confide in her, but knowing she would protect me this way made me feel something I couldn’t quite name. Gratitude? Relief? Endearment?

Whatever the feeling, it was more dangerous than anything else that happened tonight. Because it only brought me closer to her, when all I wanted was to get further away.

Chapter 18

Arya

Thanksgiving Day was uneventful. Thankfully, Ms. Heather had still been in the infirmary last night and was able to tend to Tobias, and I suspected he’d be out of commission for the day.

It was better that way. Our interaction last night had triggered those damned feelings again, made me want to get drawn in by him again, and until he figured his shit out and made some huge romantic gesture, I wasn’t falling for it. Maybe not even then.

But Kendall wasn’t here either. Hell, the mer common room was like a ghost town. It was surreal to walk into the large space and not hear the chatter and barely concealed whispers. Not that I didn’t appreciate the lack of hostility for once, but the silence was equally isolating.

Though Shea had invited me again that morning to come to dinner at her house, I decided against it. Being in that neighborhood, so close to the house where my life fell apart and changed forever, was just too painful.

So I spent the day on the couch in front of the big screen TV in the empty mer common room, surrounded by every pillow I could find and a pint of ice cream pretty much glued to my lap. I watched all my and Mom’s favorite movies, pretending she was here with me for a lazy movie day and refusing to acknowledge her death in every way possible.

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