Page 17 of Cruel Destinies

But I knew I couldn’t share that secret with anyone. Arya would never be able to look at Caesar the same way, and she needed to see him as an authority figure she could trust—not one who was sleeping with her best friend.

There had been no news of Hadrian and his vampire army after the attack. I had seen Julian the day before. Was he involved with Hadrian? Had he been part of the attack?

I had messed around with both men two days in a row. What the hell was I doing?

“So now I’m staying in the avian prime—”

“Wait, what?” I said, my mind catching up to Arya’s current drama. I sprang from where I sat on my bed, not sure I could take more news sitting down.

Arya sighed. “I forgot I haven’t told you. The mer kicked me out of my room, so I bunked with Ashlyn. But now that I’m part harpy, they’re letting me stay in the avian wing permanently.”

“Oh.” I paced the room, then sunk back onto my bed.

I looked at the rose I’d revived where it sat on the nightstand. It was in front of the only window in the room, still in the plastic bag I’d brought it home in. Yeah, Gram hadn’t been too thrilled when she saw that. She gave me a bowl to set the bag in, but that’s as far as I’d gotten with the thing.

“Are you okay?” Arya asked.

I snorted. “I should be askingyouthat.” Shea let out a long breath, flopping onto my back. “I’m fine. I just hate that I haven’t been there for you. I should’ve been there to help you fight the vampires.”

Instead, I was fucking your school director while you were fighting for your life…

“You couldn’t have known,” Arya reassured me. “And it’s not your fault they’re not letting you into the school. But it was nice that Caesar let you stay with me the other night. Actually…”

I could practically hear the cogs turning in Arya’s brain over the phone, and my stomach twisted with dread for her churning suspicion.

“You showed up at the same time as Caesar,” Arya continued in a pensive tone. “Were you with him when Niko called him?”

I bit hard on my lip as I debated coming up with some lie. But I was already hiding so much from my best friend. I could share this one little thing with her, especially as my helping Caesar would eventually be common knowledge.

“So, the truth is, Caesar snuck me into the school,” I confessed. “He remembered I was a witch and wanted to see if magic could wake Letti since harpy healing wasn’t cutting it. That’s what we were doing when you guys were attacked.”And nothing else. Not a damn thing else…

“Omigod, seriously?” Arya gushed at such a high pitch that I had to pull the phone away from my ear for a second. “That’s—that’s—wow, and it worked! You’re the reason Letti woke up! Why didn’t you tell me before?”

Guilt settled like a lead weight in my belly. “Caesar needed us to keep it secret for now, until he can warm up the other teachers to trusting witches, or at least me.”

Definitely not keeping other secrets…

“Wait, so, is he hoping to get you into the school after all?” Arya asked, her voice high with excitement.

“That’s the goal.” I nodded even though she couldn’t see.

“Yay! That’s amazing, Shea!”

My phone vibrated against my ear, and when I pulled it away to look at the screen, I saw a message from Caesar hanging at the top.

“Are you free to talk?”

My core flared with giddy heat, and I pressed the phone back to my head.

“Hey, I gotta go, but let’s hang out soon.”

“Definitely,” Arya said, and I waited for her to be the one to hang up before I responded to Caesar.

“Sure. Call me.”

Only two heartbeats after I tapped the send button, my phone began ringing. My heart pounded against my ribcage, and I forced myself to wait three rings before answering.

One. Two. Three— “Hey, what’s up?”

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