“Oh.” I stopped there, unable to go any further. I turned away from Aiden, staring at our hands. Silence stretched out between us, and then he leaned over and wrapped his other arm around my shoulders. Every muscle in my body locked up. Even in a time like this, I could recognize the wrongness of this situation. Aiden shouldn’t be offering me any sort of comfort. He probably shouldn’t have even come to tel me. Halfs and pures didn’t comfort one another.
But with Aiden I never felt like a half-blood and I never thought of him as a pure-blood.
Aiden murmured something I couldn’t make out. It sounded like ancient Greek, the language of the gods. I don’t know why, but the sound of his voice ripped through the barriers I was trying and failing at stitching together. I sunk forward, resting my head against his shoulder. I squeezed my eyes against the harsh stinging. My breath came out in short, shaky gasps. I don’t know how long we stayed like that, his cheek against the top of my head, our fingers wrapped together.
“You show amazing strength,” he murmured, stirring the hair around my ear.
I forced my eyes open. “Oh… I’m just saving al of this up for years of therapy later.”
“You don’t give yourself enough credit. What you’ve had to face? You’re very strong.” He pul ed back, his hand brushing across my cheek so quickly I truly believed I’d imagined the touch. “Alex, I have to go check in with Marcus. He’s waiting for me.”
I nodded as he let go of my hand and stood. “Could…
could there be a chance she didn’t kil them?”
Aiden stopped by the door. “Alex, I don’t know. It would be highly unlikely.”
“Wil … you let me know if they do find either of the halfs alive?” I knew it was pointless.
He nodded. “Yes. Alex… if you need anything, let me know.” He pul ed the door closed with a click behind him.
Alone, I slid to the floor and pressed my head against my knees. There could be a chance Mom hadn’t kil ed anyone.
She could be with the other daimons because she didn’t know what else to do. Maybe she was confused. Maybe she was coming for me.
I shuddered, pressing further down. My heart hurt. It felt like it was shattering again—al over again. There was the smal est, tiniest chance she hadn’t kil ed anyone. Even I knew how stupid it was to real y hold onto that chance, but I did. Because what else did I have? Grandma Piperi’s words became clearer to me—not just what she’d said, but what she hadn’t.
For whatever reason, Mom had left the safety of the community to pul me away from the Covenant, setting al of this—this huge mess—into motion. During those three years, I’d never once cal ed out for help, never stopped the insanity of living unprotected among mortals.
The countless times I’d done nothing flashed before me.
In a way I was responsible for what’d happened to her.
Worse yet, if she’d kil ed those innocent people, I was responsible for their deaths, as wel .
My legs didn’t shake when I stood. Certainty fil ed my mind—maybe it’d been made up the night I heard what’d real y happened to her. There was a smal chance she hadn’t committed horrific crimes, but if… if the daimon who had been my mother had kil ed someone, then one way or another, I was going to kil her. She was my responsibility now—my problem.
CHAPTER 14
I PRETENDED NOTHING WAS WRONG THE NEXT
DAY IN practice. It worked wel until we took a break and Aiden asked how I was doing.
I kept my voice even. “I’m fine.”
Then I beat the crap out of the dummy.
Toward the end of practice, a surge of energy shimmied down my back right before Seth showed up. He stood by the door, watching quietly. I had the sinking suspicion he was there for me. Groaning, I took my time rol ing up the mats.
Aiden nodded in Seth’s direction. “Is everything okay?”
“Who knows?” I scowled.
Aiden straightened, coming to his ful height. “Has he been bothering you?”
A huge part of me wanted to say yes, but in reality, Seth hadn’t real y bothered me. And if he had, what could Aiden do about it? Aiden was a badass Sentinel warrior, but Seth was the Apol yon. Where Aiden control ed fire— pretty awesome—and he could fight, Seth control ed al four elements— pretty scary—and could wipe the floor with Aiden’s face.
Aiden stared at Seth in a way that said he had no problem confronting Seth on my behalf. As stupid as it seemed, I felt a smile tug my lips.
So wrong.
Forcing the smile off my face, I skirted around Aiden. “I’l see you later, okay?”
He nodded, eyes stil trained on Seth. Okay then.
Grabbing my bottle of water off the floor, I trudged across the floor. I nodded at Seth as I passed him, half-hoping he was there to partake in the epic stare down with Aiden and nothing else, but he turned and immediately fel in step with me.
Seth’s smile looked self-satisfied. “Your trainer does not like me.”
“He’s not my trainer. He’s a Sentinel.” I kept walking.
“And I doubt he’s even concerned with you.”
Seth chuckled. “Your trainer, who is also a Sentinel, barely spoke to me while we were in Lake Lure. And when he did, I would say it was quite coldly. It hurt my feelings.”
I doubted that. “He probably wasn’t up to making friends considering what was going on.”
“Considering your mother was a part of the attack party?”
He raised a casual eyebrow. “He seemed abnormal y affected when we reviewed the recordings and saw her.”
His words were a wel -placed smack in the face.
Stopping, I faced him. “Seth, what do you want?”
He tipped his head back. A dark cloud rol ed in overhead, casting a gray gloom over the quad. It was going to storm. “I wanted to see how you were doing. Is that so wrong?”
I thought about that. “Yes. You don’t know me. Why would you care?”
He looked down, meeting my eyes. “Okay. I don’t real y care. But you’re the reason I’m stuck in this hil bil y rathole, babysitting a self-righteous prick.”
My eyes widened. The lilt of his voice made those words sound classy. It was almost funny. “You know, I real y don’t care about that right now.” I stopped as several halfs passed us. They looked at us—looked at me. I did my best to ignore their stares.
“Of course you don’t. Your mother murdered a classmate’s family. My mind would be elsewhere, too.”
“Gods!” I gaped. “Real y, that was great.” I walked off ahead.
Seth fol owed. “That wasn’t… very nice of me. I’ve been told I’m painful y blunt. Perhaps I should work on that.”
“Yeah, perhaps you should go do it right now.” I tossed the words over my shoulder.
Undaunted, he caught up with me. “I asked Lucian, you know. I asked why I was here.”
I gritted my teeth and kept walking. The ominous looking clouds continued to rol in. The sky looked like it was going to split open any moment.
“Do you know how he responded? He asked what I thought about you.”
I was only half curious to hear his response.
“He was eager to hear what I had to say.” Lightning shot across the sky, striking off the coast. A fraction of a second later, thunder silenced the conversation. I picked up my pace as the girls’ dorm came into view. “Don’t you want to know?”
“No.”
Another flash of lightning lit the sky. This time it struck inland, somewhere beyond the marshes. It was close, too close. “You lie.”