Page 65 of Dark Embers

“What information did you acquire that led you to believe that?”

“The fact that this mer, the one that was attacked…” I paused. “She looks a lot like Arya and has been saying Arya’s name over and over since it happened.”

“No, what information did you acquire that led you to believe Arya isnotthe siren?” Arthur didn’t sound mad at all, which surprised me at first, but then I remembered that my whole mission was to find out whether or not she was. There would never be any repercussions if the information I received proved that she wasn’t.

“Well, for starters, she’s not a very good mer. She’s having a hard time shifting. And she can’t even defend herself in a simulation.”

“Well, if these vampires are targeting her, if they attacked a mer who looked like her, then they must have some information about her importance.”

There was a pause as we both considered that. “Do you thinktheyknow about the prophecy?”

“It’s unlikely,” Arthur said. “But they certainly know something.”

“So you’ll investigate?”

“I already have some men on it.”

“Good,” I said, relief cooling my fire at last.

My father might be a hard man to like, but he was very adept at his job. If Arthur said he had some men on it, he most likely had more thansome, and had hand-picked the best men and women he had available.

“But, Tobias?”

I groaned internally. I knew that tone. I braced myself for the lecture I was about to receive.

“You're not relieved of your mission,” he said. “Even if you don’t think this girl is the siren, we don’t have concrete evidence yet.”

I sighed. What would concrete evidence look like for someonenotbeing something. Until we found the real siren, there was no solid way to prove that Arya wasn’t it.

“Yes, sir,” I said obediently

“Stay close to the girl.”

“Yes, sir,” I repeated before the line went dead.

I hadn’t realized until that moment that the reason I hadn’t updated my father on the Arya situation and my suspicions about hernotbeing the siren from the prophecy had nothing to do with disappointing Arthur. As he’d just proved, Arthur didn’t care either way. He just wanted the truth.

No, I hadn’t told him because if my information was enough and Arthurhadrelieved me of my mission, I wouldn’t have the permission or excuse, where Arthur was concerned, to keep seeing her. And until I could break this damned imprint, I needed to keep that door open.

Though I stupidly avoided her as much as possible, I could only go so long without being in her presence. If Arthur decided I was no longer needed at the school to investigate her, I had no doubts that he would make good on his threat and pull me out.

I didn’twantmy mission to come to an end, and against my better judgment, I prayed that she was the siren so it never would.

Chapter 24

Caesar

“What’s the prognosis?” I asked Maya Heather as I paced the length of her office.

Letti Haze was lying on a small bed just off the floor. The mermaid’s eyes were closed, but her body fidgeted sporadically.

“I can heal her wounds, sir,” Maya said as she pushed her silver-framed glasses higher up on the bridge of her nose. The large lenses magnified her blue eyes, and her frizzy blond hair curled about independently, going every which-way. “But her mind? It will take time for her to overcome the trauma she’s been through.”

The healer’s words triggered my own traumatic memories involving the vampire attacks I’d suffered through. They flashed through my thoughts like a strobe light, and I closed my eyes as I was hit by a wave of nausea.

I saw the deformed body of my naga friend, Jade, as Kai and I had found her, her tail removed. I saw the old school director, Zabrina Slegr, bones and body broken, a vampire standing over her. I saw my mother and father, their gryphon forms ruined and stripped of their wings.

“Arya…”

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