Page 78 of Radiant Shadows

“Stay the fuck away from me, or you’ll end up in worse shape than that goddamn greenhouse,” she warned, pointing a threatening finger at me.

I blanched at her, both at her declaration and her strange comment about the greenhouse. She needed to know this one last thing.

“I can’t do that,” I said thickly. “I’ve imprinted on you. I know you must feel it, too. If I don’t stay close to you…”

The words died on my tongue. I couldn’t finish the sentence. It seemed like another manipulation, even if it was devastatingly true.

“Oh, that is rich!” she shouted. “Now your story is that you imprinted on me? You just don’t fucking give up, do you? Well, you know what? I actually hope it’s true. Because I can’t thinkof a more perfect revenge than for you to actually die from my rejection.”

Then she turned on a heel and stomped away.

I couldn’t go after her. The pure hatred and anger in her last statement stole every ounce of will and hope from me.

She really did hate me. It wasn’t just disinterest like what my father felt for my mother. She wanted me to die.

As she disappeared into the main building, I slid my back against the wall behind me until I slumped onto the ground.

Then, for the first time since I was a child, before my father had beaten the act out of me, I buried my face in my hands and cried.

Chapter 29

Tobias

I disappeared to the one place I’d been avoiding since the invisible dragon incident.

The sim room.

I would’ve preferred flying in the real world, specifically deep in the Alps, where I could disappear for hours—or days—but it was past sunset, and I couldn’t summon the energy or motivation to sneak out. An unusual commotion was happening around the school, and I suspected my father had something to do with it since several of his military minions were milling around.

But whatever it was didn’t concern me. Nothing concerned me anymore. I just wanted to be left alone.

Two of the corporals were guarding the sim room, but they merely nodded when I walked in. If someone was banned from the room, it wasn’t me.

I tapped the command on the pad, then entered the room and stripped down to nothing. I didn’t give two fucks who saw me naked. Nothing mattered anymore.

I shifted into my dragon as the room began to darken. Some small, broken part of me had hoped that the pain would lessen in my dragon form, that the replacement of scales over skin would strengthen my beaten and shattered heart. But no. There would never be reprieve from this agony. And it would only get worse.

I flew through the blackness, my powerful wings pushing against invisible air when the scene should have had none. Alarge orange-and-yellow swirling planet lay before me, but I positioned it behind me. It was beautiful and didn’t match my mood, so I didn’t even allow it to make an appearance in my peripheral vision. The only illumination came from the tiny lights of faraway stars—mere pinpricks—not enough to really pierce the abyss around me.

My scales were also black—the perfect camouflage, though I needed none in the darkness.

Space wasn’t somewhere even a dragon could go, and this simulation was most likely one of the masterpieces Mr. Inari created for entertainment purposes only, which meant I didn’t have to expect any form of enemies to appear.

It was one of the many reasons I chose this one.

So I groaned when I felt the presence of another creature to my right. Maybe some modifications had been added?

Relying on my extensive training and muscle memory, I pretended I didn’t notice the intruder and waited until the being was closer. Then, I veered right and extended my talons to immediately grip the simulated enemy.

I blew a breath of fire to shed light on my attacker and strategize the quickest way to dispatch whatever it was. I nearly lost my grip at the familiarity of the deep red scales on a dragon that looked a lot like Niko.

“Hey!” ItwasNiko.

I released my grip and dropped into the abyss until I hit the sim room floor, then scrambled to end the program and shifted back.

Niko dropped seconds after I did and returned to human form as the scene melted back to reveal the stark white walls.

“Don’t sneak up on me like that!” I barked, stalking toward my friend, who still flipped red scales into skin.

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