“You do not need to apologize, my daughter.”
I choked. “You’re not my father.”
“Alexandria!” Marcus warned.
“What?” I looked at my uncle. “He’s not.”
“It is al right, Marcus,” Lucian’s voice fil ed with velvet-covered steel. “When Alexandria was younger, I wasn’t much of anything to her. I let my own bitterness rule everything. But now, it al seems so very shal ow.” He turned to gaze at me. “If I had been a better father figure then maybe you would have cal ed for help when your mother took you away.”
I ran a hand over the side of my face, feeling like I’d stepped into a different world—a world where Lucian wasn’t a giant douche, and where I stil had someone who was technical y family and actual y cared for me.
“But that is in the past, my dear. I’ve come to take you back home.” Lucian gave me a thin-lipped smile. “I’ve already spoken with Marcus, and we agree that—
considering the circumstances—it would be for the best.”
I snapped out of my haze of dumbness. “Wait. I’m catching up, aren’t I?” I whirled around in my seat. “Aiden, I’m catching up, right? I’l be ready in the fal .”
“Yes.” He looked past me at Marcus. “Quicker than I would’ve thought possible, to be honest.”
Thril ed that he hadn’t thrown me under the bus, I turned back to my uncle. “I can do this. I have to be a Sentinel. I don’t want anything else.” My voice rasped with desperation. “I can’t do anything else.”
For the first time since I’d met Marcus, he actual y looked pained, like he was about to say something he didn’t want to. “Alexandria, it’s not about the training. I’m aware of your progress.”
“Then what is it?” I didn’t care that I had witnesses to my panic. The wal s were closing in, and I didn’t even understand why.
“You wil be taken care of,” Lucian tried to look reassuring. “Alexandria, you can no longer be a Sentinel.
Not with such a horrific conflict of interests.”
“What?” I looked back and forth between my uncle and stepfather. “There’s no conflict of interests. More than anyone, I have a reason to be a Sentinel!”
Lucian frowned. “More than anyone, you have a reason not to be a Sentinel.”
“Minister—” Aiden stepped forward, his eyes narrowing on Lucian.
“I know you’ve worked hard with her and I appreciate that, St. Delphi. But I cannot al ow this.” Lucian held up a hand.
“What do you think wil happen once she graduates? Once she leaves the island?”
“Uh, I’l hunt and kil daimons?”
Lucian turned to me. “Hunt and kil daimons?” His face turned paler than normal—which was saying something—
as he turned to Marcus. “She doesn’t know, does she?”
Marcus eyes closed briefly. “No. We thought… it would be for the best.”
Unease slid down my back. “Know what?”
“Irresponsible,” hissed Lucian. He lowered his head, pinching the bridge of his nose.
I shot to my feet. “Know what?”
Marcus looked up, his face drawn and colorless. “There’s no easy way to say this. Your mother is not dead.”
CHAPTER 11
NOTHING EXISTED BUT THOSE WORDS.
Marcus stood and edged around his desk. He stopped in front of me. The pained look had returned, but this time it was also mixed with sympathy.
The clicking of the wal clock and the gentle hum of the aquarium motors fil ed the room. No one spoke; no one pul ed their eyes from me. I had no idea how long I stood there staring at him while I tried to piece together what he’d said. Nothing made sense to me at first. Hope and disbelief crashed together, then a horrifying realization as I understood the sympathetic look that had crossed his face.
She was stil alive, but…
“No… ” I pushed away from the chair, trying to put distance between his words and me. “You’re lying. I saw her. The daimon drained her, and I touched her. She was so… so cold.”
“Alexandria, I’m sorry but—”
“No! It’s impossible. She was dead!”
Aiden was at my side, placing a hand on my back. “Alex
—”
I twisted out his grasp. His voice— Oh, gods—his voice said it al . And when I looked at him, saw the sorrow etched across his striking face, I knew.
“Alex, there was another daimon. You know that.”
Marcus’ voice carried over the sound of rushing blood that fil ed my ears.
“Yes, but… ” I remembered how freaked out I’d been.
Sobbing and hysterical, I’d shaken her and begged her to wake up, but she hadn’t moved.
And then I’d heard someone else outside.
Panicked, I’d barricaded myself into the room and grabbed the money. Things had been blurry then. I’d needed to run. It was what Mom had prepared me to do if something like that ever happened.
My heart stuttered and missed a beat. “She… she was stil alive? Oh—Oh, my gods. I left her.” I wanted to puke al over Marcus’s polished shoes. “I left her! I could’ve helped her! I could’ve done something!”
“No.” Aiden reached for me, but I backed away. “There was nothing you could do.”
“The other daimon did it?” I glared at Marcus, demanding an answer.
He nodded. “We assume so.”
I started to tremble. “No. Mom wouldn’t become… it’s impossible. You—you’re al wrong.”
“Alexandria, you know how it could have been done.”
Marcus was right. The energy the daimon passed on was tainted. She would’ve been addicted from the first moment on. It was a cruel way to turn a pure-blood, robbing them of al free wil .
I wanted to scream and cry, but I told myself I could handle this. The burning in my eyes told me I was a liar. I turned back to Marcus. “She’s… a daimon?”
Something akin to pain flickered across his otherwise stoic face. “Yes.”
I felt trapped in this room with virtual strangers. My eyes skittered across their faces. Lucian seemed bored with this, surprising considering his earlier outpouring of affection and support. Aiden looked like he was having a hard time keeping his expression blank. And Seth… wel , he was watching me expectedly. Waiting for me to break down into hysterics, I assumed.
He might get that. I was one step away from a ful -blown freak out.
Swal owing against the thick lump in my throat, I tried to slow the wild beating in my chest. “How do you know this?”
“She’s my sister. I would know if she were dead.”
“You could be wrong.” My whisper held a tiny shard of hope. Dead was better than the alternative. There was no coming back once a pure turned into a daimon. No amount of power or begging—not even the gods could fix it.
Marcus shook his head. “She was spotted in Georgia.
Right before we found you.”
I could tel this hurt him—possibly as much as it hurt me.
She’d been his sister after al . Marcus wasn’t as emotionless as he made himself out to be.
Then the Apol yon spoke. “You said her mother was seen in Georgia. Was not Alexandria in Georgia when you found her?” His voice was oddly accented, almost musical in quality.
I slowly turned to him.
“Yes.” Aiden’s dark brows furrowed.
Seth appeared to consider that. “Does it not strike anyone as odd? Could it be her mother remembered her?
Was actual y fol owing her?”
A strange look crossed Marcus’s face. “We’re aware of the possibility.”
It didn’t make sense. When pures were turned, they didn’t care about things from their previous lives. Or, at least, that was what we believed. Then again, it wasn’t like anyone took the time to question a daimon. They were kil ed on sight. No questions asked.