Page 8 of Deadly Alliances

Taking advantage of my momentary pause, a translucent grayish-pink tentacle wrapped around my ankle, dragging me back to the sea. The color, thickness, andsliminessof it made mewant to vomit.

But this time, I was prepared. Seconds before I and the tentacle submerged and rendered my fire useless, I tucked my chin to my chest and breathed white-hot flames down my chest and abdomen. The fire didn’t hurt me, but it charred the slippery flesh gripping my leg instantly. The appendage let go and curled in on itself, making a sickly sizzle when it sunk into the waves.

Of course, it had plenty of limbs to replace that one. Two uninjured tentacles shot out to grip me again, but I twisted and managed to clamp both between my powerful jaws first, piercing them in several places for a sure hold. They wrapped themselves around my snout in defense, but I’d counted on that. I pumped my wings, taking to the air with a massive splash.

Higher and higher I flew, carting the giantsquid—technically an octopus, butsquidsomehow felt more derogatory, more fitting an enemy—along with me as it twisted, attempting to wrap itself more firmly around me. The creature was three times my size. I struggled with the weight, but my grip held firm. Still, I found myself again falling closer and closer to the depths with each beat of my wings.

Digging deep, my patience won out, and I managed to reach a height that would ensure instant death when I finally released the kraken. The dark red stain that bloomed against the deep blue below and the sinking of the motionless monster was proof.

I’d barely had a moment’s breath—feeling near weightless with the kraken’s weight gone—before something appeared in the distance.

My next attacker.

I groaned. I thought dispatching akrakenwould be the last of the tests. I’d beaten a horde of vampires, a dozen hunters,several enemy nagas and a gryphon who looked a lot like Caesar. There had even been a raven-haired mermaid who very nearly managed to manipulate my blood.Certainly, I was done by now?

I’d studied the videos, but the tests were never the same, so they didn’t help. Even if a student failed a hundred times, the program would give them a new test each attempt. It was all about skill and strength, nothing about algorithms or patterns in the system. And in all the videos, not a single student had been required to do as much as I had already done in order to pass.

And yet another threat raced toward me.

Instead of racing at it, like I had the others, I hovered in the air and took advantage of my momentary reprieve. Catching my breath and watching the blue dot grow closer, I noticed it flew like a dragon, but I was surprised it wasn’t another invisible one.

Surely aninvisibledragon would be the ultimate test. But I’d already beaten one—while Arya watched. Perhaps that had been enough?

As the dragon grew closer, the shade of royal blue seemed very familiar. My large dragon heart skittered as it neared.

“Char?” I asked when I knew without a doubt it could be no one else.No, it’s just a simulation.She’s not really here.

“Hi, Tobias,” she said, almost shyly. “Miss me?” she asked, then attacked.

Throwing myself into autopilot, I barreled and rolled through the air, snapping at claws and wings without once sinking into flesh. She did the same, clipping the tip of my tail once and slashing at my already injured wing.

But it felt different.Shefelt different. Like she was really here and not a part of the sim.

I hadn’t seen Charlotte Stern—blonde hair, brown eyes,royal blue scales—since she tested out last year and left the Dome to enlist. We’d known each other almost our entire lives, and yet I hadn’t thought about her much after she left. Only when Arthur passed along that greeting from her on Christmas day. Before Arya, I had grown so used to actively rejecting thoughts of any female, even though I viewed Char more as a sister than a romantic option.

My parents would have rejoiced if Char and I had become something more. So would hers. When I was ten and she eleven, our parents had unofficially arranged for us to bemarriedwhen we grew up. With the curse, any attachment was bound to be one-sided eventually, and her parents knew that. Arranged marriages were how the Dracul’s survived.

I rammed into her. The force knocked us both from the sky, and we plummeted several feet below the surface of the water, sending millions of tiny bubbles racing to the surface. We both immediately recovered and were back in the air within a handful of seconds.

“You’ve improved, Tobias,” she said, a little breathless.

She’s just part of the sim,I reminded myself as I used her momentary pause to swipe at the scales along her side, leaving deep red slashes. Neither of us bothered to use fire, since it was pointless, but it also meant we had to be touching to injure the other. Sim-Char took advantage of my proximity and bit down on my shoulder.

I cried out, but she held firm, gripping me with all four claws, keeping me close before releasing her jaw.

“Let’s move this to dry ground, shall we?”

Just a sim. She’s just part of the sim.

Maybe the test was finally reaching the end.

“Alright,” I said, using the hind leg that was free to grip her calf.

Sim-Char released all but one of her claws, keeping a firm, painful hold on my hip, and we flew in an awkward, limping fashion back to the beach.

A thick forest of palm trees and ferns carpeted the tiny island, leaving only a small stretch of white sand around its borders. Just enough room for two or three rows of beach-goers if the island wasn’t deserted.

Or fictional.

---