Page 86 of Deadly Alliances

I leaned forward, gathering my courage. “Well, why not stand up to him? Maybe suggest he go a little easier on everyone?”

He shook his head. “He’s my superior. He would merely brush off any such suggestions. And standing up to him? That would be suicide.”

“You don’t think...?” I bit my lip, reconsidering finishing the thought.

“Think what, Ashlyn? Spit it out,” he urged.

I looked down at my hands. “You don’t think General Dracul is using his abilities, you know, toinfluenceyour decisions, do you?”

Ignaeus studied me for a moment, his eyebrows drawn, and then realization lightened his face. “You mean those dragon hormones? No, I don’t think so. I’m too bullheaded for that, really. But I signed up for all this a long time ago. I’m contractually obligated to follow him, nothing more. Why do you ask?”

I couldn’t decide if that response made things better or worse. “Well, okay, if not you, do you think other teachers might be under his influence? Look at the way Celeste did a complete one-eighty on Caesar. They’d been loyal friends for years, and just when the general comes along, she up and turns her back on him? Seems super suss to me.”

He considered that for a moment, rubbing his chin between his index finger and thumb. “I suppose it’s possible. I did think her shift in loyalty was a bit strange. Though I wouldn’t say she seems any happier about the changes at this school than any other teacher.”

I didn’t have any classes with Celeste, especially now that music class had been canceled, so hearing that she wasn’t quite on board with Dracul’s regime gave me the tiniest bit of hope.

“Well, what are we going to do about that?” I asked.

He looked up at me through thick, furrowed brows. “What do you mean?”

“It sounds like none of the faculty likes what’s going on here. Surely, if you all took a stand against Dracul’s leadership, he’d have to change things.”

He shook his head, rubbing his forehead. “No. He’d justfire everyone and replace them with people he could easily manipulate, and those people wouldn’t care about the well-being of the students.”

I frowned, my gut churning at whether or not to mention the topic I’d come here for. This had already gone better than I’d hoped, and hearing that his obedience to Dracul was just about him doing the job renewed my faith in him. But…I still didn’t know if I could fully trust him. I didn’t know if even voicing the idea would put the final nail in the Dome’s coffin.

“Let’s just eat,” he suggested, picking up his fork. “We wouldn’t want the food to get cold.”

I frowned down at my plate as he began eating. The steak looked perfectly juicy, and the steam from the mashed potatoes smothered in gravy smelled delicious, but none of it did anything to spur my appetite. How could I eat when the world was going to shit around me? When my friends were being pushed to their breaking points?

Before I knew it, the words just lurched out of my mouth. “What if there was a power above the military?”

He looked at me curiously as he chewed his bite of steak. “What do you mean?”

“I don’t know,” I said, pushing my food around with the tip of my fork. “Like a council. Made up of representatives from each shifter species—representatives that had no military interest.”

Ignaeus swallowed and sucked at his front teeth as he considered, seeming intrigued. “It’s certainly an interesting idea. If there were something like that, Dracul would’ve never been able to seize control of the school the way he did.”

“Exactly,” I said with a burst of excitement. “The military shouldn’t be the highest point of power in the shifter world. Weneed an actual governing body.”

“I agree.” He picked his front teeth with his fingernail when sucking didn’t do the job. “But unfortunately, nothing like that exists.”

I hesitated a moment before voicing my next words. “What if it could?”

He considered it some more, clearly not realizing yet that I wasn’t speaking hypothetically. “I think it would be much needed.”

“So, you would support such an endeavor?” I hedged.

“Absolutely.” He finally dug the offended fibers from between his teeth and wiped his fingers on his napkin.

It was now or never. I had to be brave and just bite the bullet.

I folded my arms over the top of his desk and leaned forward, lowering my voice even though I didn’t think we were being overheard. “What if I told you such a council was already in formation?”

He paused right in the middle of cutting off a new bite of sirloin. When his gaze flashed to me, it was chilled with caution. “Ashlyn?”

My cheeks heated, my courage dying in my throat.

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