Aiden reached with both hands, placing them on either side of my face. There was a faint tremble in his powerful arms. Neither of us spoke for a long second. My heart raced in a different kind of pounding. “What happened?” he asked finally.
“Hermes—freaking Hermes,” I said. “I really don’t understand how he did it, but he followed the connection between Seth and me and pulled me into Seth’s subconscious, or some kind of junk like that.”
I was sure Aiden was quiet because he was so angry he couldn’t form words.
Taking a deep breath, I wrapped my hands around his wrists and told him everything. With each word, Aiden’s fury increased until it became a tangible thing in the room, thick like smoke.
I ended up lowering his hands, keeping mine wrapped around his. “It was real… but not real. I don’t know if he’ll be able to do it again, or if Hermes will help him again. Or if there was something I was doing or not doing that made it easier.”
“You got a headache before it happened?” When I nodded, his eyes turned as cool as steel. “When you were on the Elixir, do you remember getting headaches?”
I shook my head.
He let out a low curse. “You would get a headache when the Elixir was starting to wear off. You would also start to hear Seth’s voice. It was him trying to connect with you. I think the same kind of thing is happening here with Hermes.”
“Crap,” I said, stunned. Then I thought of the nightmare. Moving faster than Aiden could track, I stood and backed away. “I had a nightmare a few nights ago.”
He rose fluidly. “I remember.”
“I dreamt that Seth was in the room, but maybe it wasn’t a nightmare. Maybe it was him testing out our freaking long-distance calling feature with Hermes?” I cursed, fighting the urge to pick up and throw something. “Well, the good thing is he couldn’t get anything through the bond. He can’t pick at my thoughts or take control.”
“There’s nothing good about this,” Aiden all but growled.
“Well, I was trying to be Positive Polly.”
His hands clenched at his sides. “You could hit him, so that means he can hit back, Alex. Yeah, he may not find out where you are, but that is a huge violation.”
I nodded numbly. Aiden was right. There was no telling if Seth could do it again.
“And there’s nothing I can do if he does this again. I swear to the gods…” Spinning quickly, Aiden picked up a small figurine and threw it across the room. It shattered off the wall, an explosion of plaster and glass.
The door to the room swung open and Solos peeked in, brows raised. “Is—”
“Leave us!” Aiden ordered sharply, then he took a shuddering breath. “Alex is fine. We’re both fine.”
Solos looked like he was about to disagree, but he took another look at Aiden and decided against it. He shut the door.
I slid Aiden a look. “Did that make you feel better?”
“No,” he shot back, taking a deep breath as he gestured at the dent in the wall. “I wish that was Seth’s head.”
Seeing Aiden lose his control was something I always found nothing short of awe-inducing, mainly because he never lost control, but sometimes I forgot that he was far from perfect or saintly. He had a temper—nothing as crazy as Seth’s or mine, but fire hummed in his blood.
I crossed my arms, suddenly feeling chilled. “But there has to be a reason why he was only able to do this now. And—and—he heard you calling my name.” Hope sparked inside me. “His hold on me wasn’t that strong.”
“I bet he was thrilled about that.”
Recalling the way Seth had appeared when he heard Aiden’s voice, I was sure he’d been damn near murderous. “There has to be something, Aiden. We just need to figure it out.”
Aiden cut me a dark look as he stalked across the room, stopping before the window.
I bit my lip. “We will. We always do.”
He said nothing, his back unnaturally stiff. “Are you sure you’re fine?”
“Yes,” I said, exasperated. “Can you stop asking me that? I’m fine. I’m okay. Tonight was a small setback, but—”
“I know.” He looked over his shoulder, his voice measurably lower and even. “I know, Alex. I’m sorry.”
“You don’t have anything to apologize for.”
He let out a short laugh. “I have a lot to apologize for, Alex.”
I stared at him. This was about something more than what had just happened with Seth. Yeah, he was ticked off, mostly for my benefit and I appreciated that, but this was more. I thought of the weird gap between us in the last few days.
Irritation pricked my skin. “What is your deal?”
“I have no idea what you’re talking about.”
“You don’t?” I stalked up to him and reached up to place my hand on his face. He flinched away, and I felt that in the pang in my chest. “That! That’s what I’m talking about.”
He scowled.
Like with any other situation in my life, when I was annoyed or frightened by one thing, I pretty much turned all that energy on something else. “You’ve been acting weird for days and practically hiding from me.”
“I haven’t been hiding from you, Alex.” A muscle worked in his jaw as he stared out the window. “Do you really think this is the time to be talking about this?”
I took a deep breath and felt my famous temper rise to the occasion. “Is there a better time?”
“Maybe when you haven’t just been sucked into gods-know-where by Seth and we’re not planning on going out there and coming face-to-face with gods-know-what.” He glanced over his shoulder, eyes a cool gray. “Maybe then.”
Oh, I was two seconds from jumping on his back and strangling him from behind… with love, of course.
“Do you think we’re going to get a better time to talk about this? That sometime in the near future everything is just going to pause for us to have a heart-to-heart?” Aiden had turned back to the window, but I didn’t need to see his face to know he wasn’t a happy camper. “Okay. I don’t get this. You were fine when we came back. We—”
“We shouldn’t have done that.”
Pain sliced into my chest like he’d socked me. At once, I felt the marks respond, bleeding across my skin.
Aiden’s head tipped down and he cursed. “I didn’t mean it like that. That night—it was the best night of my life. I don’t regret it, but I should’ve waited until you’d had time to come to grips with everything. I lost… I lost control.”
I stepped forward. “I like when you lose control.”
He shook his head mutely.
“I was okay, Aiden. I wasn’t damaged. I’m not damaged now. So why are you hiding from me?”
“I’m not hiding from you.”
“Bull! You avoid spending any time alone with me, except at night.”
Aiden faced me, thrusting his fingers through his hair. “At night, when I’m sleeping, is the only time I don’t think about it—what I did. You… don’t understand. What I did to you—putting you on the Elixir? I don’t deserve anything else.”
“You—”
“I didn’t have to, Alex. It was weak of me. I didn’t trust that eventually you’d break the bond. And seeing what it did to you? I can’t forgive myself for that.”
My mouth dropped open. “You can’t blame yourself for that! You did what was right.”
Anger flashed in his eyes. “It wasn’t right.”
“Aiden—”
“The Elixir was one of your greatest fears, Alex! And I did that to you!”
Surprised, I took a step back. Rarely did Aiden ever raise his voice, but I knew his anger and frustration weren’t directed at me. It was his own guilt—guilt he shouldn’t be carrying around with him.
“How…” He came forward, lowering his voice as his eyes locked with mine. “How is what I did any different than what Seth did to you—is still doing to you?”