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“I hope so,” he said, giving me a strange look, as if he expected me to explode at any minute. It was a look of anticipation.

Feeling uncomfortable under his intense gaze, I turned to look out the window again. As I did, the darkness outside suddenly broke and gave way to a beautiful blue. The lights within the train slowly dimmed, allowing the blue around us to brighten and cast an almost magical glow on the benches and walls.

“Whoa,” I gasped, turning my whole body around to take a better look. The train was now passing through a glass tunnel that was completely underwater. Fish of all sizes and colors swam beyond the glass. Where were we?

“You haven’t seen anything yet,” Caesar said with a smile in his voice. “Look out the other side.”

I turned around to do as he suggested, and I couldn’t believe what I saw.

In the distance a few miles away, an enormous glass dome winked at me through the surprisingly clear water. I couldn’t tell just how big it was from here, but it looked as though it spanned at least a mile. Magnificent metallic buildings filled its womb, twinkling like a modern city of Atlantis. I’d never seen anything so wondrous in my whole sheltered life.

“Arya Walker, welcome to The Dome,” Caesar said.

“This is incredible!” I gushed. “Where are we?”

“At the bottom of Lake Michigan,” he answered. “It’s our greatest and most important secret.”

“How long has this place been here?” I asked, unable to take my eyes off the glass structure.

“Seven years. After our previous school was destroyed, we needed a new location that the vampires would never find. So far, our plan has worked.”

I had no more words. I was mesmerized by the sight beyond the windows. It made me forget, for a precious moment, the tragedy of this night. I stared at it until it passed out of view as the train curved away, my anticipation building to see what the inside looked like.

Finally, the train came to a stop, and I rushed out the doors with a newfound eagerness. Landing on the platform, I went to the glass that framed this tunnel, placing a tentative hand on it as if I could reach right through it to the dense water on the other side.

I looked up directly above us, amazed by the fact that I couldn’t see the surface. I knew we had to be deep under the lake, but seeing all the water on top of me was no less miraculous.

Having never been anywhere near open water before, I realized I should feel at least a little claustrophobic from being stuck under so much of it. After all, I didn’t know how to swim. If the glass broke, I’d most certainly drown. And yet, I felt absolutely no fear, only extreme wonder and a sense of…comfort.

Caesar came onto the platform and stood beside me. “Are you ready to see the inside?”

All I could do was nod like a shaken bobblehead.

He led me to a large vault-style metal door at the end of the tunnel. He opened a little metal box that was roughly head-level, leaned close so that his face was within inches, and pressed a button. A tiny green laser flashed and moved overhis right eye. Then large bolts clanked loudly within the door, and it opened.

“Retina scan,” Caesar informed. “Shifters have unique retina structures. That way, even if a vampire did make it to this point, they wouldn’t be able to get inside.”

Caesar pulled the door open the rest of the way and invited me to follow him through. We came into a large entrance hall whose floors, walls, and ceiling were made entirely out of some dark matte metal.

Directly in front of us was an archway framed by metal columns around which long Japanese-style dragons coiled, shining like silver on the lackluster metal. At the zenith of the arch, the same crest from the business card perched proudly, welcoming me.

A large desk sat to their right, behind which was a large man with a fiery orange beard, his hair buzzed nearly bald. He smiled and nodded at us as we passed.

Through the archway, I could see only a fraction of a long and massive corridor, like something found only in palaces of old. Breathless, I emerged from the entrance hall, staring with wide eyes at the towering grand hall in which I now stood.

The ceiling was at least three stories tall, and shining metallic creatures of ancient lore crawled and slithered up and down the unpolished gray walls.

Dragons snaked up the vaulted ceiling, meeting to hiss at each other at the upper-most point. Mermaids stood in the doorframes of every adjoining corridor as if holding them up. Wolves howled here and there at an unseen moon, and magnificent gryphons stood like gargoyles on the ledges of each story that overlooked this grand hall.

I could never have imagined architecture like this in my wildest dreams. It was all crafted and molded out of metal,either polished to a glorious shine or left flat and unrefined. There wasn’t a single brick, wooden beam, or even a dab of plaster in the entire place, and yet the darkness of it was nothing short of beautiful.

I reached out to touch one of the wolves that seemed frozen in his climb up the wall, amazed at how meticulously each spike of ruffled fur was molded to look lifelike.

“Is this whole place made out of metal?” I asked, staring straight up.

“Yes. It’s a silver-steel alloy. The student population is mostly made up of weres, who are vulnerable to silver. This helps them better control their shifting ability and be less governed by the phases of the moon.”

“Weres?” I asked, lowering my head to give him a quizzical look.