Page 90 of Dark Embers

We’ll be back before sunset.Everything will be fine.

But I couldn’t quite shake the ominous feeling hanging over me like a cloak.

We piled into the train with the other students. The car was crowded, and I realized this was the busiest I’d ever seen it. The doors hissed closed, making the many conversations even louder.

The seats were all taken, so Tobias and I grabbed onto a pole while Ashlyn and Niko held onto another one.

I could feel Tobias behind me, his breath warming my hair. It was almost painful being this close to him, reminding me of our handful of intimate encounters. And with the claim he’d very publicly staked on me, his nearness was both enticing and repellent at the same time. He was even more like a magnet to me, flipping his polarity almost constantly, pulling me, and then pushing me away.

I looked over at the happy new couple, Niko with his arms draped around Ashlyn. They looked cozy and happy, wrapped up in their own private world. I was happy for Ashlyn, though I did feel a pang of jealousy.

Tobias and I just didn’t work as a couple. That much was perfectly obvious after our last date. I really resented him for not being as secure as Niko.

But even those thoughts weren’t quite enough to distract me from the clock I had ticking in my head.

I watched the water slide by as the car sped toward the secret platform.

The place they found Letti.

I shook my head, trying to dislodge the image filling it. Letti almost looked like she was just sleeping in the nurse’s office, moments ago, but that didn’t keep my mind from creating the blood and bruises I was sure Letti had sustained, as bad as she’d been beaten.

To distract myself, I began counting the hours it would take to do everything Niko was planning. It didn’t help that the extra time it took to get out of the Dome had pushed our plans back even further.

I couldn’t shake the feeling that going out was a bad idea, Mr. Summers’s admonition echoing in my head. But there was no sense getting worked up about monsters, when they only came out after dark.

And we’d be back well before dark.

Chapter 32

Shea

I sat on my bed, bouncing my knees that were pretzeled beneath me as I continued my staring contest with the grimoire. Damn thing was winning.

My thoughts were so heavily conflicted that indecision had me paralyzed, stuck to this fucking spot on my bed. It had been two days since I’d had my elicit encounters with both supernatural men in my life, and dammit if I hadn’t stopped obsessing about them ever since.

And beating myself up over each of them.

I had never expected Caesar, a powerful gryphon shifter and the director of the shifter academy, to be as drawn to me as I was to him—and even less did I ever imagine he might act on those feelings.

And Julian, hell. Of course, I was painfully attracted to him, he was a drop-dead gorgeous vampire. What human female wouldn’t drop her panties with one sultry look from him? I had known he wanted my blood, the same way he wanted any human’s blood. But what he did to me the other day went so far beyond bloodlust. That was actual lust. And I really struggled with how much I’d enjoyed both.

But most of all, I couldn’t get my head around the fact that I wanted both of them equally. What I felt for either of them was no mere crush like I’d experienced before. It was compelling,intoxicating, and had the tendency to lead me to making really poor decisions. I mean, I’d sucked off one of them in a pub bathroom and let the other onedrink my fucking blood!What the hell was I doing?

My rational mind urged me to run from both of them, to stop contact and never look back. But even without my stupid hormones getting in the way, there were too many reasons why I couldn’t end my involvement with either man.

I needed Caesar to get into the school, and I’d made a promise to Julian in exchange for the grimoire, which I in no way intended to ever relinquish.

And that led me to my current predicament. While studying the grimoire last night in an attempt to distract myself, I came across a healing spell that focused on the mind. That page had been blank before every other time I’d looked at it, but last night the spell revealed itself. Like the book knew I needed it.

Caesar had asked me to come to the school and heal the mermaid that had gotten attacked, and now the spell suddenly appeared? If that wasn’t a sign from the universe, I didn’t know what was. How could I not take Caesar’s offer? It would get me into the school and possibly get in the good graces of hateful shifters, and it would help protect Arya.

But…how could I face Caesar after what happened with Julian?

I mean, it wasn’t like Caesar and I were a thing. He’d ghosted me after our sexcapade only until he needed something from me. If that need hadn’t arisen, he might never have spoken to me again. Asshole.

Ugh, fuck it!

I angrily snatched my phone and found his name in the contacts, only hesitating for a second as I ground my teeth before pressing the call button. I held the phone to my ear, straightening my posture as if anyone could see, and waited for him to pick up.

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