Page 74 of Radiant Shadows

“Is everything okay? With Caesar, I mean.”

“Everything is exactly the way it should be,” General Dracul said with a nod. “Now, about your training. Caesar and Celeste have been handling you with kid gloves for far too long. They don’t see the strong, independent woman I see when I look at you. They don’t realize that you can handle so much more. Your skills have not been nurtured as they deserve. We’re going to change that. I’ll train you myself every single day from now on. Starting tonight.”

“Tonight?” Every word that came out of his mouth filled me with anxiety. Caesar had said the general wanted to train me himself, and now, suddenly, Caesar was out of the picture, and General Dracul was the school director? Something smelled fishy, and it damn sure wasn’t me.

“Will that be a problem?” The way he asked made it clear he didn’t care if it was—that it would happen anyway.

I paused before shaking my head. “No, no problem. I just...”

I was pretty sure that Tobias hadn’t yet told his father about the two of us being together. If he was going to be the director, he would find out very soon. Despite my better judgment to letTobias be the one to tell him, I spit it out anyway, relinquishing control of my decisions to my inner ursa.

“I had plans to spend the evening with Tobias.”

The general dropped his hand from my shoulder and raised a thick black brow at me. “Tobias?MyTobias?” The scrutiny in his eyes was heavy.

“Yeah, we’re kind of dating,” I said with a shrug.

He threw back his head with a hearty laugh that made me jump. “Oh, my dear girl, that’s not possible.”

“Excuse me, but why not?” I snapped.

The sting of insult festered inside my chest. What, I was good enough to be his weapon but not good enough to date his son? I knew my emotions were about to get the better of me again, but I was not about to take any discriminatory shit from this asshole. If he truly believed I was the siren of prophecy, then I was going to demand the respect that title deserved.

He put his hand on my shoulder again, and this time, I had to fight the temptation to release my talons and claw it off. “I know you think that Tobias was genuinely interested in you before, but that was only because he was following my orders.”

My heart squeezed as if someone had just punched me hard in the chest, and all my righteous anger evaporated. “What?”

He gave me a pout of false sympathy. “You see, when you arrived at this school, rumor had it that you were the siren from Celeste’s prophecy. Caesar and Celeste weren’t making any progress, and I needed to know with absolute certainty. So I tasked Tobias with getting close to you to find out if you were indeed who they suspected.”

My head was shaking as he spoke, my ears refusing to believe a single word that went through them.

That couldn’t be true. Tobias couldn’t have been using me like that. Not Tobias. And yet…

“When your siren abilities were discovered, I ordered Tobias to cut his ties with you,” General Dracul continued in his well-practiced patronizing tone. “Surely you understand why. You’re dangerous, my dear. Which is exactly why it’s imperative that I help you learn to control your powers. All of them.”

Every encounter Tobias and I ever had replayed in my mind. His initial disdain toward me, his repeated hot and cold behavior, the way he completely abandoned me when things got too heated on our first date. And the way he completely ignored me at the ball until his father wasn’t around. It was all starting to make sense.

My blood boiled inside my veins, making steam build beneath my clothes. A growing hatred for the general teased my already-unhinging grasp on my emotions, and the truth of Tobias’s betrayal threatened to let it loose completely.

“Perhaps Tobias wasn’t clear when he ended things,” the general suggested, as if discussing the weather. “He’s never been very good at dealing with emotional situations. I’ll have a talk with him about it.”

“That won’t be necessary,” I ground out, my voice deep with the weight of my anger and hurt. “Message received.”

“Excellent.” The general clapped his hands. “I want you at the Defense Room at seven o’clock sharp. Be prepared to train late into the night.”

He marched away with a spring in his step, and I was left to stand alone in the middle of the empty hall.

I clenched my fists so hard that my nails cut into my palms. Every muscle in my body was tense with rage, creating aconstant state of oddly satisfying pain. All I could feel was the overwhelming need to break something. Everything. Smash it all into itty-bitty pieces.

That bastard never really liked me. He had only been followingDaddy’sorders. All those times he had brushed me off were his true colors bleeding through the mask of his princely duties. He really was the unfeeling robot I always teased him of being.

But then, why stay with me after his dad ordered him to stop? Was it just to keep enjoying the perks of my body? String me along for as long as he could until his new toy was taken away?

Every intimate moment we shared, every sweet memory we made, was now stained with deceit and heartache. It was all a fucking lie!

I hated him—more than I had ever hated anyone in my entire life.

My body was no longer my own as my feet stomped down the hall. My vision was fogged and tinted with red, and I existed only as the singular desire to vent the rage that consumed me. Suddenly, I found myself in front of the greenhouse—thegreenhouse, the place where I had decided to let Tobias in.

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