“Okay. I’m ready to move onto something else, like practicing with knives or defense against the dark arts.
Cool things.”
“Did you just quote Harry Potter? ”
I grinned. “Maybe I did.”
He shook his head. “We’ve been practicing kicks and jabs, Alex. And your blocking stil needs work. How many of my kicks have you been able to block today?”
“Wel … ” I grimaced. He already knew the answer. I’d only managed to block a handful. “A couple, but you’re fast.”
“And daimons are faster than I am.”
“I don’t know about that.” Nothing was as fast as Aiden.
Half the time he moved like a blur. But I stepped into position and waited.
Aiden walked me through the maneuvers once more, and I could’ve sworn he slowed down his kicks just a bit, because I blocked more than I ever had before. We separated, about to start another round of kicks when a whistle sounded from the hal way. The culprit—bronze-haired Luke—stood at the door to the training room. I grinned and waved.
“You’re not paying attention,” Aiden snapped.
My grin slipped from my face as Luke and a couple of other halfs disappeared from view. “Sorry.”
He exhaled slowly and motioned me forward. I complied without argument. “Is he another boy of yours? You’re always with that other one.”
My hands dropped to my sides. “What?”
Aiden brought his leg around fast. I barely had time to block it. “Is he another guy of yours?”
I didn’t know if I should laugh, be pissed off, or be ecstatic that he’d noticed I was always with the other boy.
Flipping my ponytail over my shoulder, I caught his forearm before it connected with my stomach. “Not that it’s any of your business, but he wasn’t whistling at me.”
He jerked his hand back, frowning. “What’s that supposed to mean?”
I raised my brows at him and waited for him to get it. The moment he did, his eyes widened and his mouth formed a perfect circle. Instead of fal ing on my ass laughing like I wanted to, I struck out with a vicious kick. Aiming for the vulnerable spot under his ribcage, I almost squealed at how perfect my kick was going to be.
I never made contact.
In one nifty swipe of his arm, he knocked me to the mat.
Standing above me, he actual y smiled. “Nice try.”
I propped myself onto my elbows, scowling. “How come you smile when you knock me down?”
He offered his hand. “It’s the little things that make me happy.”
I accepted, and he hauled me to my feet. “Good to know.”
Shrugging, I brushed past him and grabbed my bottle of water. “So… um, are you going to the celebrations tonight?”
The Solstice was a big deal for the pures. It kicked off more than a month of social events leading up the Council session in August. Tonight would be the biggest celebration, and if the gods were going to bless them with their presence, tonight would be the night. I doubted any would, but the pures got al dressed in their colorful sheaths just in case.
There would also be a ton of parties held on the main island—none of which us halfs were invited to—and I mean none. And since al the pures’ parents would be home, there would be no festivities at Zarak’s house. However, rumor had it there would be a beach party hosted by the one and only Jackson. I wasn’t sure if I was going to make an appearance or not.
“Probably.” Aiden stretched, flashing a strip of taut skin along the band of his pants. “I’m not real y big on that stuff, but I need to show up at some of them.”
I made myself focus on his face, which was harder than I realized. “Why do you need to?”
He flashed a grin. “It’s what we adults have to do, Alex.”
I rol ed my eyes and took a drink. “You can go and hang out with your friends. It wil be fun.”
Aiden looked at me strangely.
I lowered the bottle of water. “You do know how to have fun, right?”
“Of course.”
Out of nowhere it kind of hit me. I don’t think Aiden could have fun. Just like I couldn’t bear to real y, real y think about what’d happened to Mom. Survivor’s guilt—or at least that’s what I thought they cal ed it.
Aiden reached over, tapping my arm. “What are you thinking?”
I glanced up, finding his steady gaze on me. “I was just…
thinking.”
He backed off, slouched against the wal , and eyed me curiously. “Thinking about what?”
“It’s hard for you to… have fun, isn’t it? I mean, I never real y see you doing anything. I’ve only ever seen you with Kain or Leon and never a girl. I did see you once in jeans…
” I trailed off, flushing. What did seeing him in pants have to do with anything? But that had been an amazing sight.
“Anyway, I guess it’s hard after what happened to your parents.”
Aiden pushed off the wal , eyes suddenly a steely gray. “I have friends, Alex, and I know how to have fun.”
My cheeks grew even hotter. Obviously, I’d hit a sore spot. Whoops. Feeling very lame, I finished up training and hurried back to my dorm. Sometimes I wondered what I was thinking when I opened my mouth.
Disgusted, I took a quick shower and changed into a pair of shorts. Soon afterwards, I headed back to the hub of the campus to meet up with Caleb in the cafeteria, determined to forget my awkwardness.
Caleb was already there, in deep conversation with another half about who’d gotten better scores in their field exercises at the end of last semester. Since I had yet to take part in any field exercise, I was pretty much left out of the conversation. I felt like a loser.
“You going to the party tonight?” Caleb asked.
I glanced up. “I guess so. Not like I have anything better to do.”
“Just don’t have a repeat of last time.”
I shot him an evil look. “Don’t leave me hanging while you run off to Myrtle, you douche.”
Caleb chuckled. “You should’ve come. Lea was bitching up until the moment she saw Jackson without you. She practical y ruined everyone’s night. Wel , Cody actual y ruined everyone’s night.”
I pul ed my legs up and leaned back in my seat. This was the first I had heard of that. “What happened?”
He made a face. “Someone brought up the Breed Order crap again, and Cody was real y out of it. He started talking smack about it. He was saying stuff about us halfs not belonging on the Council.”
“I’m sure that went over wel .”
He smirked. “Yeah, then he said something about how the two breeds shouldn’t mix and al the crap about the purity of their blood.” He paused, eyeing someone behind me with great interest.
I twisted around, but I only caught a glimpse of caramel-colored skin and long, curly hair. I turned back to him with a raised brow. “So, what happened?”
“Um… a couple of the halfs got pissed. The next thing we know, Cody and Jackson were brawling. Man, they were going at it.”
My eyes widened. “What? Did Cody report him?”
“No,” said Caleb, grinning. “Zarak talked Cody out of it, but he beat Cody down. It was pretty awesome. Of course, the two idiots made up afterward. They’re fine now.”
Relieved, I settled back in my seat. Striking a pure—even in self-defense—was a fast way to get kicked out the Covenant. Kil ing a pure in any situation would get you executed, even if he was trying to cut your head off. As unfair as it was, we had to be careful navigating the politics of the pure-blood world. We could knock the crap out of one another, but when it came to the pures, they were untouchable in more ways than one. And if we happened to break one of the rules… wel , we were only one step away from a lifetime of servitude—or death.