Page 95 of Radiant Shadows

“I’m not the one hurting them,” I spat, hissing and wincing as the chains sliced my wrists further with my fidgeting.

“And yet, you refuse to embrace your destiny,” he said with a patronizing sigh. “If you’d done as you were told, that wouldn’t be necessary.”

“I can’t! I can’t be what you want me to be.” A sob choked my throat, but I swallowed it. I refused to cry in front ofhim. I refused to give him that kind of power over me.

“Now, if we can get on with this.” He stepped behind the woman sitting opposite me.

She bared her teeth to reveal two rows of perfect fangs, and I realized with a gasp that she was no ordinary woman—she was a vampire. She snarled and snapped at him, then cried out again in pain.

“As you can see, this vampire is restrained with copper-infused wire. Whenever she moves, she gets a dose of her own personal brand of poison. Much like you, though your wires have silver in them to keep yourursaunder control.”

I examined the metal confining my wrists, now understanding why they burned me so uniquely.

“What is it you expect me to do?” I ground out.

He waved his hands before him in a displaying gesture.“Use your siren voice to convince this creature to kill herself.”

My jaw dropped as I stared at him in horror. “Is this another one of your twisted simulations?”

General Dracul’s expression didn’t change, and he didn’t offer any answer.

“I—I won’t do it.”

Simulation or not, I wasn’t a killer. Destroying simulated vampires in self-defense was one thing, and I knew that if I were battling vampires in real life to protect my friends, I wouldn’t batan eye. But this… The vampire across from me was bound and rendered essentially harmless. She wasn’t endangering anyone. And he wasn’t just asking me to kill her; he was asking me to force her to kill herself.

“You can’t make me!”

His eyebrow twitched as he locked eyes with me. “Can’t I? You, Miss Walker, belong to the military. You will fulfill your destiny. The fate of all shifters depends on it.”

I glared at him.Fine. I’ll use my siren voice.

“You will release me from my bonds,” I sang, directing all my will and anger at the monstrous man before me.

His expression went blank, and victorious hope rang in my heart as he stepped toward me. He bent beside me, and I prepared myself to bolt as soon as my wrists were free.

“Nice try, Miss Walker,” he whispered in my ear, shattering every once of my building anticipation.

“What?” I gasped, turning my head to look at his face.

He was wearing the most wicked smile I’d ever seen, all the more so for its charm. “My men and I are equipped with earpieces capable of blocking your siren voice. You’re not getting out of this without doing as you’re told.”

I shook my head, not understanding how this could be. “B–but I’m the first siren in generations. How could you possibly—”

“Did you know that all the professors’ tablets have recording devices?” he cut me off. “We’ve been monitoring their activity as it relates to you. We have a handful of samples of your siren voice from Celeste’s account, and with that, my team of kitsunes was able to develop a prototype. Thank you for demonstrating how effective it actually is.”

No.

This man was truly diabolical. He really would stop at nothing to bend everyone to his will.

He put a hand on my shoulder, and my instinctual reproach only inflicted more pain from the silver binding my wrists. “We can do this all day. Days, in fact. How long do you think you can go without food or water?”

My eyes widened in horror at his threat, my knuckles wrapping around the edges of the armrests. “You can’t do that. Celeste wouldn’t allow you to starve a student. The other teachers—”

“The teachers of this school work for me now. And you are not merely a student but a soldier. As general of the shifter military, I can discipline a soldier however I see fit.”

Rage exploded in my chest like a box of lit firecrackers. But my ursa was nowhere to be found. My siren voice was useless. I had no weapons in my arsenal—nothing except my will.

I shrugged, turning my face to a mask of stone. “Fine. Good luck winning your war after I’ve died of starvation, though I’m guessing the dehydration will get me first.”

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