Chapter 41 Dimitri
dimitri
. . .
Quarter two felt like some kind of fever dream. New schedule, same study habits as a squad in our common area.
He smiled down at her as she said something.
Rune’s stride didn’t break. She slid to a stop next to them, gaze flicking from Tobias’s smiling face to the hand the siren had glued to his sleeve. “Cora,” she said pleasantly, stepping in just close enough to make the other girl retreat half a step on instinct.
I snorted. Of course Rune would make a siren step back out of respect and fear.
Rune smiled wider and leaned in as if to kiss her cheek. Instead, she whispered in her ear. “If you and your sisters play at Tibby’s expense, I will do much worse than make you shit yourselves in public.”
Cora’s lips parted in shock. “Oh, you have us completely wrong,” she explained quickly. “We mean no harm. We actually are very…attracted to Tobias. We intend to pursue him for keeps.”
“Fantastic. Just know that I’m watching you.” Rune smiled sweetly, but it didn’t reach her eyes.
It was clear she suspected her.
Tobias tugged Rune aside the moment Cora mumbled her goodbye and slipped inside the academy. “Everyone on campus is getting sick,” he muttered, worry tight in his tone. “Be careful.”
“Bet,” Rune said, like she wasn’t worried in the slightest. Though, if this illness really was a side effect from poison, it made sense that she wouldn’t be.
We barely had three steps forward before her shitty ex and his idiot friend I’d never met before shouldered past, eyes slowly raking over Rune.
Rage funneled through my chest just from the looks on their faces.
“Nice fit, sweetheart.” His friend whistled. “Since you and Darian are over, do you want—”
“We’re not over—” Darian snarled.
“Oh, you’re over.” Zuko hooked Rune by the waist and dragged her into a passionate kiss, flipping the pair of them off over her shoulder. Then, because he was a basilisk and territorial, he broke their kiss and grazed her neck with his fangs, letting his venom seep into her.
She fisted her hands in his hair and let out a heavy breath. “Zuko, my brother is here.”
“So?” Zuko winked at Tobias. “He’s my future brother-by-mating.”
Tobias looked utterly appalled. “Zuko—”
“Mate?” Darian growled, aggression flashing in his eyes.
“Not your fucking business.” Tobias’s body flickered with flames.
Rune rocked on her heels as Zuko slowly untangled from her. She stumbled back into Koa, who steadied her easily with his hands on her shoulders.
“Got you,” he whispered.
“Thanks.” She straightened.
“Try it again.” Slater had a hand extended toward that friend, and Snakey manifested with his fangs out, inches from the guy’s neck. “Just kidding, there won’t be another try.” Snakey struck, biting the guy before hissing at Darian. “And Rune’s our girlfriend now. Not yours.”
“Field Ops,” I announced as jealousy overtook Darian’s face because someone had to move us forward, and I was usually the one to do so.
Tobias told Rune bye while glaring at Zuko and giving Slater a thumbs up.
Slater practically glowed from Tobias’s praise.
By the time we made it to the simulator, Hunting stood at the doorway. “Congratulations, squad one. I now trust you just enough to drop you into unstable magical terrain and hope you don’t embarrass yourselves.”
We stood with our hands behind our backs as we listened to her.
“This is a wild terrain simulation. You will be exposed to unstable magic zones, meaning that ambient magic will warp the environment.” She gestured for us to follow her into the simulator.
We did, and the door shut behind us as she found the control panel.
“Objective is simple. Stay alive for twenty-four hours, avoid detection, gather simple supplies, and maintain full stealth. No outside contact. No magic flares. No screaming.” She narrowed her eyes at Hawk, who had screamed and given our position away during our last mission.
“Co-captains will be Rune and Dimitri. Keep your squad functional, focused, and alive. Lose someone, and you both answer for it.”
Rune and I shared a passing look.
“Simulation begins immediately,” she explained. “I will not be observing the entire mission from the simulator as usual. I will watch the feed from my room. Resources are scattered. Threats are around. And yes, the terrain itself might try to kill you if you are too loud.”
The simulator hummed before a dark, twisted forest formed around us. Vines that breathed slithered against our calves. Cold fog misted about, smelling like blood.
“Holy Fates,” Hawk whispered.
Sound bounced back wrong. The echoes were shorter than his words.
The sky wore a dark red stain as the last light bled magenta through the dappled light from the trees.
Rune and I had come in with a compass each. It spun, stalled, vibrated, and then pointed northwest…sort of.
“We should camp high,” she said softly, wincing at the echoes that came back from her speaking. “Get to a clearing.”
I turned in the direction the compass pointed. “Steep elevation might mean less magic distortion. Not to mention whatever creatures are around.”
“True. Let’s not draw attention to ourselves,” she said.
I raised my hand toward the incline to the northwest. “Koa, take Slater and Zuko. Sweep the ridge line west before meeting us back at the top of that mountain. Dry nuts, clean water, anything edible.”
“Sure,” Koa said with a carefree smile.
Slater threw an arm around his shoulders. “Brother-mate bonding time!”
“If only Rune were with us.” Zuko frowned.
“I’ll be at camp when you get back.” Rune winked at them before she pivoted to Eleanor. “With you two being shifters, it’ll be easy for you to set up perimeter wards once we get to camp with Lorian. So long as the magic forest doesn’t know the difference between shifter and animal.”
“Hawk,” I said as we all began walking, “set up a trap around the perimeter wards. Raze, too.”
Raze gave a groan as Hawk nodded.
“Aura,” Rune added, “keep track of any abnormalities.”
“Easy enough,” she mumbled, staring around at the forest that held trees and vines that breathed and moved.
“You’re not going to say thank you?” she asked, striding up next to me as we hiked up the mountain as quietly as we could manage.
“For what?” I asked. “Agreeing with you about the safest place to stay tonight and not die?”
She grinned. “For coming up with it at least.”
“If you hadn’t, I would’ve.” I dodged a sentient vine with vampire strength.
She rolled her eyes.
By the time we found a semi-lifeless clearing from the mountain’s shifting breath, the last light had bled away.
Camp came together in fragments—wards flickering like nervous heartbeats thanks to Lorian and Eleanor, traps swallowed by the soil on the outer part of those thanks to Raze and Hawk, firelight trembled against bark that exhaled smoke of its own thanks to Aura, Rune, and myself.
Zuko, Slater, and Koa stumbled in right after us with supplies.
Rune took first watch while everyone else surrendered to sleep as if the mountain itself had lulled them. Perhaps it did.
I couldn’t sleep, though.
My eyes popped open as a cracked leather scent tickled my nose.
Why was Hawk awake?
I got up and headed toward the fire.
Hawk had drifted too close to Rune, that hopeful energy bleeding off him like a scent.
My steps slowed, and my fangs ached, not with hunger but with restraint.
I wanted to tear Hawk’s throat out for being around Rune this late at night, assignment be damned.
“...thinking I should stay on your watch,” he was saying, not being subtle at all, “keep you company.”
How had Slater and Zuko not woken up yet? They were sprawled around the campfire next to her, snoring.
“I’m good,” Rune said without looking up.
He didn’t stop, though. No. He scooted closer to her on the log. “It’s cold. It might help to—”
“She said she’s good.” My voice was low and cold behind them.
Rune didn’t flinch, almost as if she expected me.
Hawk did flinch, though, and it made contentment swell through me.
“Dimitri,” Rune warned. “You didn’t have to wake up yet.”
“You’re endangering the ward,” I told Hawk, kicking his thigh once.
He moved away from her. “Ward? What do you mean?”
“You think you’re charming, but you’re leaning over an active perimeter and distracting a co-captain who’s doing what you clearly don’t know how to do.”
“I wasn’t—”
“You were. And if this weren’t a simulation, you’d be the reason we die in our sleep.”
Rune stood, magic humming off her skin. “I can handle Hawk.”
“I know,” I said. My jaw hurt from clenching it. “But I’m not letting him handle you.”
Hawk frowned, pure idiotic confusion blooming over his expression. “So you get to talk to her and I don’t?”
“Yeah,” I answered as if he were stupid, which he was. “Because I respect her boundaries. That’s the difference.”
“I wasn’t overstepping her boundaries,” he protested.
“You were.” Rune’s eyes held mine; I didn’t look away. “Go rest, Hawk.”
Wind moved through the clearing, and the ward pulsed once.
“We’ve got an hour before your shift,” she told me, touching my arm softly. “Get some sleep.”
Her scent lingered as she pulled back.
“I can’t sleep. You rest,” I murmured.
“You heard the vampire.” Slater’s hand wrapped around her wrist before tugging her down and wrapping his arms around her. “Sleep.”
“Were you not just listening to Hawk hit on your girlfriend?” I hissed at him, irritation flooding me.
“Sort of.” He yawned, snuggling Rune as her eyes fluttered shut. “But Rune would kill him if he even tried to touch her.”
That was true.
Rune and Slater dozed off quickly, and the minutes ticked by.
The fire burned low, its glow shrinking to a pulse in the dark as I tossed another log in. It screamed out as the fire ate at it. The wards hummed faintly, but I knew it was only a fragile net against the mountain’s magic. Hunting had told us the terrain itself would attack, and that unnerved me.