Page 109 of Cruel Destinies

This Christmas, it was decidedlyovercrowded.

With the recent vampire activity, parents had either insisted on their children staying in the safety of school while they remained at home, or they’d covertly entered and intruded on the dorms themselves. Very few students were actually permitted to leave.

I hated it.

The avian common room was currently packed with Leya’s loud family of harpies. They were a strange bunch, since harpies were normally more...peaceful, living up to their angelic nature. This group whooped and hollered with each present they opened like a bunch of hounds. Why they didn’t confine themselves to Leya’s dorm like the other families was beyond me.

The noise—coupled with the fact that I was avoiding certain dragon and phoenix families who kept pestering me about how they could either get in orbackin the good graces of myfather—forced me to escape from the avian wing altogether. So I’d snuck into the gardens for a moment of peace after downing a stack of pancakes and a handful of brown sugar bacon at breakfast.

Since the Dome had a controlled climate completely separate from the bitter chill of Chicago, I was perfectly comfortable lounging in the faux snow in a t-shirt and shorts—I don’t know whose bright idea that was, but I didn’t envy the person who had to clean all this crap up.

I was smart enough to grab my tablet before leaving my room, so I played the ancient Atari classic,Asteroids, to pass the time while I waited for Arya. I’d texted her an hour ago to meet me. I wanted to give her the gift that was neatly wrapped and stashed in the bag at my feet.

The fake snow muffled any footsteps, and the fountain I leaned against burbled a tranquil tune, but I could sense her approach seconds before a pair of boots came to stand in front of me.

A small smile tugged at my lips. I didn’t look up right away, savoring the blossoming feeling in my chest. It was beginning to amaze me rather than annoy me that I didn’t even need to look at her for the ache inside me to be satisfied. Well, one of them anyway.

Arya gently tapped the side of my sneaker with her boot.

I looked up, expecting to meet those blue eyes I so often found myself drowning in. Instead, she stared at the roof of the Dome. I stood and circled my arm around her waist, but she didn’t tear her eyes away.

“It’s so...magical,” she said, finally draping her arms around my neck. She lowered her head to meet my eyes.

“Mr. Inari,” I said as if it were explanation enough.

Her eyebrows pinched together. “Kai?”

The professor preferred students to refer to him formally, unlike Caesar, but maybe not Arya? She seemed to be the exception on many thingsshifter,so I wasn’t entirely sure.

But she still looked confused and returned her gaze to the sky. I followed suit and watched the ribbons of green and blue dance across the star-filled, black-blue projection.

“It’s beautiful,” she sighed.

It was. Seeing it through Arya’s eyes really opened my own to the beauty in a way I doubted I could ever see alone. After all, I’d been sitting underneath this majesty for more than an hour, and only now looked up.

“Northern lights?” she asked, those piercing blue eyes meeting mine again.

I nodded and pointed upward. “It’s a real-time projection of the sky at the North Pole. Mr. Inari rigged it up like that because so many are stuck here for Christmas.”

“You think he did itjustfor Christmas?”

“Well...the tech was always there. Mostly, it’s used to make the Dome disappear if anyone above gets too close or if word gets out that someone is looking.”

“Like camouflage?”

“Exactly.” I ducked my head to place a brief kiss on her irresistible lips. “Besides that, it’s only used on the first and last days of the school year.”

She still smiled in surprise from the kiss. “And what’s projected on those days?”

I wanted to kiss her again and make the smile wider, but I also liked having conversations with her—something I’d never cared for with other girls.

“Stick around long enough, and you’ll find out,” I teased.

I lowered my head to indulge my craving to taste her lips once more, but she returned her gaze to the sky, making my lips graze the tip of her chin. I couldn’t help but feel a little jealous that the sky was getting so much of her attention.

“You said real-time, but it’s dark?”

I nodded once. “The North Pole won’t see the sun again until March. So, real-time.”

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