Page 67 of Dark Embers

“We’re almost to your classroom, Caesar,” Celeste said, glancing over her shoulder. “We should go there before we start talking.”

I didn’t see anybody—teacher or student—nearby but didn’t argue. I turned back around and continued through the arcinghallway, passing classroom after classroom until I reached my door.

I smashed a finger against my watch and the door slowly swung open. With long strides, I entered and headed straight for my desk.

I wasn’t prepared to spill all my thoughts, particularly about Julian. Nobody else knew that I’d been dealing with a vampire, even one who’d been helping the shifters for the past seven years. But Julian had been involved with the destruction of The Island, and Kai and I had fought him in a convenience store just as the school had been attacked.

Tapping my tablet, I locked us inside the classroom.

“I’m not going to draw out what needs to be said,” I prefaced, giving Kai and Celeste a hard look. “Hadrian knows about Arya, and he’s hunting for her. He knows she’s the stray mermaid from the prophecy.”

Celeste narrowed her emerald eyes and crossed her arms. “That’s impossible. How could Hadrian even know about the prophecy?”

Biting my lip, I shook my head. “I don’t know. But Letti has been saying nothing but Arya’s name since she got here.”

Kai looked at Celeste, obviously wanting to say something but not feeling comfortable enough to go through with it.

“You’re allowing your thoughts to spiral out of control, Caesar,” she said with a motherly tone. “Letti has been tutoring Arya this past week. She could be rattling off Arya’s name for no reason at all.”

My pride caused her words to ruffle my feathers. “Do you honestly believe that? It’s too coincidental. The vampires arelooking for Arya.” I glanced at my kitsune friend. “Kai, you understand that, right?”

Kai bobbed his head back and forth. “Well, it’s a possibility I don’t think we should toss right out the window. But on the other hand, you do have a way of…” He paused, spinning his hands around each other in front of him, then opened them up. “…blowing things out of proportion when you’re emotionally invested.”

I blinked. I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. “You think I’m overreacting?”

“Until we can get more information from Letti, we can’t assume the vampires know anything about Arya,” Celeste said, sidestepping my question. “But if we find out otherwise, we’ll have to take precautions.”

Running a hand through my hair, I said, “You want to pretend like none of this happened? The vampires attacked a student right at our front door!”

Celeste’s lower jaw shifted to the side, then straightened out. “I think you need to tell the school that an unfortunate vampire attack occurred with one of our students off-campus and that the Dome is the safest place for our students to stay. We should also ask for more military eyes to be on the lookout.”

“That’s a good starting point,” Kai agreed.

“Please remember, Caesar,” Celeste cautioned, “that while Letti’s attack was horrific, shifters out in the world deal with these kinds of attacks daily.”

That was a reality I couldn’t dispute, and the truth of it helped pull me away from my reeling thoughts. I rubbed my eyes, thenpinched the bridge of my nose. I wasn’t physically tired, but this whole situation had been so draining.

“Let’s set up a live announcement,” I decided. “As part of all this, I believe a cancellation of today’s classes is in order. Heaven knows how much learning would actually happen if we tried to hold them. Kai, can we broadcast from my tablet?”

The kitsune whipped out his phone from his pocket and punched in a few commands, letting his thumb hang in the air. “Just say when, boss, and your beautiful face and charming voice will flood every screen and speaker in the Dome like the President of the United States playing on his PA system.”

“That wasn’t funny,” Celeste said.

Kai wagged a finger. “You say that now, but wait until Caesar starts talking. I have a module enabled in the software that will turn his glorious speech into a rickety-rockin’ rap.”

“You do?” I asked.

Kai flashed a smile. “I can…”

There was a moment of silence, then Celeste laughed. “I’m not going to lie. That would be brilliant, Kai.”

The kitsune bowed low. “I live for the laughs, my dear. Life’s too vanilla, otherwise.”

I groaned. Removing the embedded tablet from my desk, I held it up level with my face. “Normal settings. None of this flippity-floppin’ crap.”

Kai’s smile broadened. “That wasalmosta joke, Caesar! Good job!”

“Kai,” I warned dangerously behind clenched teeth.

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