Page 104 of Radiant Shadows

“What happened? Are you okay?” My whole focus was on her, concern twisting my guts anew.

“No,” she sobbed, laughing humorlessly. “I’m so not okay. Caesar’s been kicked out of the school for fuck knows what, and the general of the shifter military has taken it upon himself to be my personal slave driver because apparently I’m the answer to some prophecy bullshit. He made me… He made me…” She gave into heavier sobs.

Of course, I knew now about the prophecy, and it wouldn’t do either of us any good for me to ask about the details of it right now.

“He made you what?” I prompted softly, pressing the phone harder against my ear to make out her words through her crying.

“He made me use my powers to force a vampire to kill herself,” she confessed. “I didn’t want to do it, but he strapped me to achair and threatened to starve and force feed me until I did it. God, I don’t want to be this person. I don’t want to become a monster to fight monsters.”

I put my hand over my mouth as she continued to weep. That was inhumane. Horrible. Especially coercing a teenage girl to do that. When Caesar told me about the general, I never could’ve expected such cruelty.

“I’m so sorry, Arya. What can I do?”

She sniffled again and took a deep breath. “I don’t know. They’ve got me locked in my room like a prisoner. I don’t think you can help me. All I know is that, as soon as I have the chance, I’m going to escape this hellhole.”

I didn’t know what to say. First, Julian was being imprisoned by the vampires, and now my best friend was being imprisoned by the shifters. I had little idea how to rescue one of them, let alone both. At least Arya had her imprinted mate to protect her. Now that Tobias was free of his curse, I was sure he would do everything in his power to get Arya out of her nightmare.

“And that’s not even the worst part,” Arya added. “Tobias… I found out he’s been lying to me all along. He only got close to me because his dad, the general, told him to. Everything between us was all an act. When I confronted him about it, he told me that he’d imprinted on me. I didn’t believe him at first, thought it was just some ploy to save himself, but…I could feel that it was true. And…I think I made a big mistake, Shea.”

Shit. Shit, shit, shit!

How could this have happened? I only just reversed his curse yesterday. He and Arya were supposed to live happily ever after and all that shit. This wasn’t right.

“W–what did you do?” I asked nervously, afraid of what the answer might be.

“I broke our imprint,” she admitted on a sharp cry.

“You did what?” I gasped, my eyes widening painfully.

“I was just so angry, and I hated him so much for making me love him and imprinting on me after all the fucking lies!” she shouted defensively, bitterly. “So when he came to talk to me just now, to bare his soul or whatever, I used my siren voice to sever the imprint.”

“Omigod,” I breathed, pressing my hand to my chest as my heart threatened to crack inside it. “No, Arya, please tell me you didn’t. I know Tobias can be a pompous asshole, but he really does love you. It’s the only reason I helped him—”

I slapped my hand over my mouth, the silence that rang on the other line making me realize that I’d stopped myself too late.

“Helped him do what?” she asked, suspicion clear in her dark tone.

One more cat out of the bag. Might as well just rip the bandaid off, especially since this one I did for her best interests.

“Tobias came to me a few days ago and told me about the imprint and about this curse on his family that made it so no Dracul could ever find requited love. I wanted you to have a chance at happiness, so I agreed to break his curse with my magic. He came over yesterday after school, and with the help of my Gram and aunt, we did. Or at least, I thought we did.”

Another long silence.

“So, you knew about the imprint and this curse for days but decided not to tell me about it?” she finally asked, the accusation in her voice crisp and biting.

“I had to keep it quiet,” I defended. “He said he knew he was falling in love with you and that the curse would trigger any day. I was afraid if I told you, it would mess with the curse. I couldn’t risk it.”

“Hey, what’s going on?” Caesar asked, coming into the living room with a curious expression. He must have been alarmed by the pitch of my voice.

“I, er…” I stammered.

“Who is that?” Arya demanded. “Is that Caesar?”

Fuck.

I bit my lip. “Um, yeah. He came here last night after being thrown out of the school. My aunt is giving him a place to stay.”

“I don’t understand, why did he go to y—” She stopped abruptly, and I could almost hear the wheels turning in her mind on the other side. “He snuck you into the school to revive Letti, but that wasn’t all, was it? Omigod, he’s Professor Douche!”

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