Page 22 of Deadly Alliances

He shook his head. “I don’t know about confiding in Celeste.”

“Why not? She might be perfect,” I argued.

He took a breath. “I’m afraid the general is using his dragon abilities to...influenceCeleste.”

I turned in the beanbag, giving him an uncertain frown. “What do you mean?”

“Some dragons, the really powerful ones, have the ability to exert their charisma onto other people,” he explained. “Dracul is the most powerful dragon alive, and it would explain how he’s managed to amass so much authority. Think about how easy it was for him to boot Caesar out.”

I looked down at the dusty carpet as I processed that. Celeste had been acting strangely ever since the general took over, and so had my dad. I wanted to have faith that my dad really was the man I’d started to believe he was, but the idea that the general could influence people to side with him was scarier than anything else. Celeste had been one of Caesar’s closest friends, and if the Dracul really had been able to trump that, we were in even more trouble than I previously thought.

“I think our best bet is to avoid the faculty completely,” Niko reasoned. “Until we have reason to believe otherwise, none of them can be trusted. We’ll stick to students for the time being.”

“Okay,” I agreed with a nod.

Niko glanced down at his watch, then sighed heavily. “Dammit, I need to get back.” He stood, pulling me out of the beanbagto stand with him. “Let’s both work on getting some names.Carefully. Then we’ll all convene and see what we can come up with.”

“Wait, where should we tell everyone to meet?”

He chewed on his lip for a moment. “I have a place in mind. I’ll have to check it out before knowing for sure. I’ll let you know. But for right now, I really do have to go.” He planted a hasty kiss on my forehead before darting out of our private corner.

I waited for a few minutes before returning to the main part of the library, not wanting anyone to spot us leaving together, for both our sakes. I was eager to get started. I had a few ideas of students to approach, students I knew remained loyal to Caesar and hated Dracul.

But I had to be tactful about this. Though it was thrilling to be the one who started a revolution, it was also fraught with peril. I had no idea what sort of punishment the general would exact for forming a rebellion, and I really didn’t want to find out.

Chapter 10

Arya

The night air outside my small window was still and crisp, but it brought me peace despite the cold. It was the only glimpse of the outside world I’d been afforded here, as going beyond the main doors was strictly prohibited by my guards under Hadrian’s orders.

I missed outside. At least at the Dome, there was a lawn and trees and a garden. Here, this window was all I had, and it comforted me to sit in front of it and look out at the star-speckled night sky, at the pine trees that sometimes swayed in the breeze. If only it was wide enough for me to squeeze through. I could go harpy and fly away.

Despite the denial of access to the outdoors, I was surprised to find that I didn’t completely hate it here. With my ever-present and apparently mute guards, I had full access to the citadel and its amenities. The vampires I came into contact with never dared speak to me, but they didn’t look at me like they did the other humans, or even as I’d expect them to look at a shifter. The look in their eyes was one of reverence, like I was some sort of princess.

When Alex wasn’t studying with his tutors, I spent my time playing with him and trying to indulge the child in him. I was fairly certain he’d never played with any kids his age, and it was a wonder he was so socially functional, if just a bit too formal for an eight-year-old.

But Alex spent at least half the day with his tutors, so when sharing his company wasn’t an option, I roamed the citadel,feigning idle curiosity when in fact I was carefully committing every inch of the building to memory so I could formulate an escape plan.

There were no windows in the halls or communal rooms, and those in the bedchambers of the elite were sealed with metal shutters. All the vents were built into the ceilings, no coverings to pull off. There were only two doors I’d found that led outside—one in the Great Hall on the ground floor, and the one on the roof I’d come in that first night. I couldn’t trace my steps back to find the rooftop door, and a pair of guards always flanked the front door.

Escaping would not be easy.

In my wanderings, there were some places my guards wouldn’t allow me to go, especially anywhere below the ground floor. That’s where the humans lived, and I guessed that would be where I’d find a way out. My only hope was to find some way to ditch them so I could explore unhindered.

Then again, why bother escaping? I had nowhere to go. If I went back to the Dome, Hadrian would just send his army to fetch me again, and I didn’t think he’d spare the students a second time. I had no other family outside these walls, and there was Shea and Caesar, but chances were if I went anywhere, Hadrian would still destroy the Dome for good measure.

Maybe things really were better off for everyone if I stayed put. After all, the prophecy did say the siren would kill Hadrian. What if I was meant to do that under his own roof?

I remembered how Celeste had ruptured that vampire’s heart in the sim. I was nowhere near that level of skill. I could try to drown him with water manipulation, but drowning didn’t permanently kill vampires. I could shift into a harpy and fling my weaponized feathers at him, but he was far faster than me,and I’d never land a blow. There were my new ursa powers, but I didn’t know much about them at all, except that whenever I got mad, I pretty much turned into the Hulk.

If I was meant to kill Hadrian with any of those powers, though, the prophecy would’ve been about a mer, harpy or ursa. But it specifically said a siren. I was meant to use my siren voice. I’d forced that poor vampire girl to kill herself under General Dracul’s orders. Could the same thing work on Hadrian? And the question remained: was I capable of killing him? I’d only killed that vampire girl because I believed—hoped—it was part of a sim, and I was devastated when I realized it wasn’t.

I’d only heard of Hadrian’s cruelty, but I hadn’t witnessed it for myself, aside from the fear emanating from his followers. Though maybe that was just respect?

Every night, he’d come to Alex’s room to join us for dinner. He didn’t eat, of course, but he sat at the table and engaged us in conversation. For all the millions of ways in which I was sure he was a horrible person, he seemed a pretty good dad to Alex, asking him about his day and actually listening to what Alex said. I could swear I saw love in Hadrian’s dark blue eyes whenever they were on his son. If someone was capable of love, did they deserve to die? Did anyone really deserve it?

Knock, knock, knock.

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