Aiden laughed in disbelief. “Not that you need to know, but I was in the process of fol owing a group of idiots to Myrtle Beach.”
My jaw dropped. “You were fol owing them?”
“Yes, a handful of us Sentinels were.” Aiden’s lips curved in an uneven grin. “What? You look surprised. Do you real y think we’d let a bunch of teenagers off this island without protection? They may not realize we’re always trailing them, but no one gets out of here without us knowing.”
“Wel … that’s just fantastic.” I stored that little piece of knowledge away. “Why are you stil here then?”
He didn’t immediately answer the question, since he was busy shuffling me back toward the bridge. “I saw you didn’t go with them.”
I stumbled. “What… exactly did you see?”
He glanced down at me, quirking an eyebrow. “Enough.”
Flushing to the roots of my hair, I groaned.
Aiden chuckled low and under his breath, but I heard him.
“Why didn’t you go with them?”
I debated on pointing out he already knew why, but decided I was already in enough trouble. “I… figured I’d engaged in enough stupidity for the evening.”
He actual y laughed louder then. It was deep and rich.
Nice. I glanced up quickly, hoping to see his dimples. No such luck. “It’s good to hear you say that.”
My shoulders slumped. “So how much trouble am I in?”
Aiden seemed to consider that for a few moments. “I’m not going to tel Marcus, if that’s what you’re hinting at.”
Surprised, I grinned up at him. “Thanks.”
He looked away, shaking his head. “Don’t thank me yet.”
I remembered the first time he’d said that to me. I wondered when I was supposed to thank him.
“But I don’t want to catch you with a drink in your hand again.”
I rol ed my eyes. “Jeez, there you go, sounding like a dad again. You need to start sounding like you’re twenty.”
He ignored that, nodding at the Guards we passed on the opposite end of the bridge. “It’s bad enough I have to chase down my brother. Please don’t add to my troubles.”
I dared a peek at him. He stared straight ahead, a muscle feathering along his jaw. “Yeah… he seems like a handful.”
“And then some.”
I remembered what Deacon said about Aiden making sure I behaved now. “I’m… sorry. I don’t want you to feel like… you have to babysit me.”
Aiden gave me a sharp look. “Wel … thank you.”
I twisted my fingers together, feeling tongue-tied for some reason. “It must’ve been hard having to raise him, practical y alone.”
He snorted. “You have no idea.”
I real y didn’t. Aiden had been just a kid himself when their parents had been kil ed. What if I’d had a little brother or sister and I were responsible for them? There was no way. I couldn’t even put myself in that situation.
A few moments passed before I asked, “How… did you do it?”
“Do what, Alex?”
We passed the bridge and the Covenant loomed ahead of us. I slowed my steps. “How did you take care of Deacon after… something so terrible happening?”
A stiff smile formed on his lips. “I had no other choice. I refused to al ow Deacon to be handed over to another family. I think… my parents would’ve wanted me to be the one to raise him.”
“But that’s a lot of responsibility. How did you do it while going to school? Hel , while training?”
Graduating the Covenant didn’t mean training ended for a Sentinel. The first year on the job was notoriously fierce.
Time was split between shadowing trained Sentinels cal ed Guides and stil training in high impact martial art classes and stress tests.
He shoved his hands into the deep pockets of his black, Covenant-issued uniform. “There were times when I considered doing what my family would’ve wanted for me.
Going to col ege and coming back, engaging in the politics of our world. I know my parents would’ve wanted me to take care of Deacon, but the last thing they would’ve ever chosen was for me to become a Sentinel. They never understood… this kind of life.”
Most pures didn’t, and I didn’t ful y understand it until I’d seen my mother attacked. Not until then did I ful y grasp the need for Sentinels. Pushing the troubling thought away, I tried to think of what I remembered about his parents.
They’d been young-looking, like most pures were, and from what I knew, they’d been powerful. “They were on the Council, right?”
He nodded. “But after their death, being a Sentinel was what I wanted.”
“Something you needed,” I corrected softly.
His step slowed and he looked surprised. “You’re right.
Becoming a Sentinel was something I needed—I stil do.”
He paused, looking away. “You would know. It’s what you need.”
“Yeah.”
“How did you survive?” He turned the question on me.
Growing uncomfortable, I focused on the stil water of the ocean. At night, under the light of the moon, it looked as dark and thick as oil. “I don’t know.”
“You had no other choice, Alex.”
I shrugged. “I guess so.”
“You don’t like talking about it, do you?”
“Is it obvious?”
We stopped where the pathway split between the dorms.
“You don’t think it’s a good idea for you to talk about it?” His voice held a serious tone that made him sound much older.
“You’ve barely had any time to deal with what happened to your mother… what you witnessed and had to do.”
I felt something tighten in my jaw. “What I had to do is what al Sentinels have to do. I’m training to kil daimons.
And I can’t talk to anyone. If Marcus even suspected I had problems dealing with it, he’d hand-deliver me to Lucian.”
Aiden stopped and when he looked at me, there was an infinite amount of patience on his face. Once again, I was struck by what Deacon had said. “You’re only seventeen.
Most Sentinels don’t make their first kil until a year or so after graduation.”
I sighed; now was a good time to change the subject.
“You know what you said about your parents not wanting you to have this kind of life?”
Aiden nodded, a curious look on his face. He probably wondered where the hel I was going with this.
“I think—no, I know they would be proud of you, anyways.”
He raised one eyebrow. “Do you think that because I offered to train you?”
“No. I think that because I remember you.”
My words seemed to catch him off guard. “How? We didn’t share any classes or schedules.”
“I saw you around a few times. I always knew when you were around,” I blurted out.
Aiden’s lips tipped at the corners as he stared down at me. “What?”
I took a step back, flushing. “I mean, you had this reputation for being so kickass. Even though you were stil in school, everyone knew you were going to be an awesome Sentinel.”
“Oh.” He laughed again, relaxing a little bit. “I suppose I should be flattered.”
I nodded vigorously. “You should be. The halfs look up to you. Wel , the ones who want to be Sentinels. Just the other day, they were tel ing me about how many kil s you’ve made. It’s legendary. Especial y for a pure—I’m sorry. I don’t mean kil ing a lot of daimons is necessarily a good thing or something to be proud of, but… I need to shut up now.”
“No. I understand what you’re saying. Kil ing is a necessity of our world. Each one takes its tol , because the daimon used to be a good person. Someone you may have known. It’s never easy to take someone’s life, but to stare down at someone you once considered a friend is… much harder.”