Page 53 of Dark Embers

“Really?” I leaned closer. Arya had told me about what those bitches did to her, and while that whole thing was fucked up, I found the idea of the Simulation Room fascinating! “Tell me every detail. Did he get his ass handed to him?”

“No—well, actually, yeah,” she stammered with a furrowed brow. “He was fighting against a bunch of dragons in a snowy mountain area. It was kind of hard to understand what was happening while watching…”

She paused for a moment, a shadow coming over her eyes.

“Anyway, he beat the level, but he got pretty beat up in the process,” she went on. “I had to practically carry him to the infirmary.”

“You helped him?” Ashlyn inclined her head toward me while still eyeing Arya and stage-whispered, “She’s so going to fall back into his dick-sand.”

I nodded in agreement. “Totally.”

Arya cut us a warning glare and scoffed.

“Ah, speak of the devil,” Ashlyn hissed, patting Arya’s arm frantically as she looked pointedly behind me.

I turned in my seat to see the arrogant dragon shifter coming toward us. His expression was blank, but when his eyes flickered to me, a scowl settled on his brow.

I faced forward again, so not up for dealing with any prejudice bullshit today.

“What are youladiesup to?” he asked as he approached, stopping a foot from our table and giving me a judgmental side eye.

“Shopping,” Arya said, wearing a neutral mask. “I’m surprised to see you outside of the Dome.”

He shrugged, stuffing his hands in his pockets. “I don’t usually buy into the whole Black Friday thing, but I do need to get gifts for my mother and sister, so I figured I’d give it a try.”

The defensive posture Arya had adopted when she saw him was already waning, and I was tempted to rile her back up with an insult to the dragon asshole, but when I turned to him to do just that, something stopped me.

The way he looked at her… Hell, the way his aurafeltwhen he looked at her. It struck me. I couldn’t tell what it was, but it was potent.

“Do you have any suggestions of what they might like?” he asked Arya.

Her armor completely fell away, and her brows twitched upward in flattered surprise. “Oh, um…can’t go wrong with jewelry.”

“Dick-sand,” Ashlyn whispered to me, and I snorted in a very unladylike fashion.

Tobias glanced at us suspiciously before returning his hungry gaze onto his prey. “Alright. I’ll keep that in mind.”

His eyes slid to me again. “Aren’t you the witch who came to the party a few weeks ago?”

The way he said those words made the muscles of my shoulders and arms ripple with tension, and I crossed them over my chest and gave him a catty sneer.

“Yeah, what’s it to you?”

He scrutinized me for a moment longer, then turned back to Arya. “I’d be careful of who you trust. If you cross the wrong witch, you could end up with a wound you can’t recover from.”

And before any of us could say a word in retaliation—namely, me—he spun on his heel and strode down the sidewalk.

“What the hell does that even mean?” I yelled after him, but he didn’t so much as glance back in my direction as he disappeared into the throng of pedestrians.

Arya reached out to put her hand on my leg. “I’m sorry, Shea. I don’t understand why everyone hates witches so much.”

“I don’t,” Ashlyn commented. “I think Shea is badass.”

“Thank you!” I exclaimed, throwing my hands up. “Iambadass!”

“I really don’t understand why we don’t ally ourselves with your kind,” Ashlyn continued, plucking a sauce-dripping piece of chicken off her pizza. “We need more protection against”—she lowered her voice surreptitiously—“vampires.”

The word struck my heart like a cello chord, vibrating through me and thawing my anger.

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