Aiden glanced over at the wal , the one I badly wanted to touch. “Possibly.”
The idea of training with the knives made me want to do a happy dance, but it also reminded me of what the knives were used for. “Can I ask you a personal question?”
He only looked a bit weary. “Yes.”
“If… your parents had been turned, what would you have done?”
Aiden paused before he answered. “I would’ve hunted them down. Alex, they wouldn’t have wanted that kind of life, to lose al their morals and ideals—to kil . They wouldn’t have wanted that.”
I swal owed, my eyes stil trained on the wal . “But they…
were your parents.”
“They were my parents, but they wouldn’t have been once they’d turned.” Aiden stepped beside me, and I felt his eyes on me. “At some point we have to let go of the attachment.
If it’s not your… mother, it could be any other person you know or love. If that day comes, you’d have to face that they’re not the same person they used to be.”
I nodded absently. Aiden was technical y right, but in the end, his parents hadn’t been turned. They’d been kil ed, so he’d never real y faced something like this.
He steered me away from the wal at that point. “You’re stronger than you realize, Alex. Being a Sentinel is a way of life for you, not just a better option like it is for some of the others.”
Once again, his words brought a wealth of warmth. “How do you know I’m so strong? I could be rocking back and forth in my room for al you know.”
He gave me a weird look, but shook his head. “No.
You’re always… so alive, even when you’re going through something that would darken the souls of most.” He stopped there, becoming aware of what he’d said. The hol ows of his cheeks flushed. “Anyway, you’re incredibly determined—to the point of stubbornness. You wouldn’t stop until you succeeded. Alex, you know what’s right and what’s not. I’m not worried about you not being strong. I’m worried about you being too strong.”
My heart sort of swel ed. He… cared for me, and he’d hesitated before answering the question about his parents.
Somehow, it made me feel better about my own conflicted emotions, and he did bring up a valid point. No matter who I faced out there, if they were daimons, it was my duty to kil them. It was why I was training now. In a way, I was actual y training to kil her.
I took a deep breath. “You know… I hate when you’re right.”
He laughed as I made a face at him. “But you’ve been right when you don’t even realize it.”
“Huh?”
“When you said I didn’t know how to have fun—the day of the solstice? You were right. After my parents were kil ed, I had to grow up real fast. Leon says my personality got left behind somewhere.” He paused, chuckling softly. “I guess he was right, too.”
“How would Leon know? He’s like talking to a statue of Apol o. Anyway, you’re funny—when you want to be. And nice, and smart, real y smart. You have the best personality I’ve—”
“Okay.” Laughing, he held up his hands. “I get it, and I do have fun. Training you is fun and definitely not boring.”
I murmured something incoherent, because my chest, wel , it was doing that fluttery thing again. Practice was over, and even though I wanted to stay with him, there were no other reasons for me to hang out. I headed for the doors.
“Alex?”
My stomach tightened. “Yeah?”
He stood a few feet away. “I think it would be a good idea… if you don’t wear that to practice again.”
Oh. I’d forgotten what I was wearing. It was a pair of questionable shorts Caleb had picked up for me. I hadn’t even thought he’d noticed. Looking at Aiden now, I realized he had noticed. I fixed an overly inno-cent look on my face.
“Do you find these shorts distracting?”
Aiden gave me one of his rare smiles. Every cel in my body warmed. I even forgot about the terrible thing I was training for. His smile had that kind of impact.
“It’s not the shorts I find distracting.” He brushed past me, stopping at the door. “In our next practice I may let you train with the daggers if we have time.”
My distracting shorts and everything else were forgotten for the time being. “No way. You’re being serious?”
He tried to look serious, but his grin looked a bit mischievous. “I think it wouldn’t hurt, but only for a little bit. I think it wil help… you get a feel on how to handle them.”
I glanced back at the wal of weapons. I wasn’t even al owed to touch them, and now he was going to let me actual y practice with them. It was like graduating kindergarten. Hel , it was like Christmas Eve.
Without thinking, I closed the distance between us and hugged him. Aiden immediately stiffened, obviously caught off guard. It was just a simple hug, but the tension racked up several degrees. I suddenly wondered what it would feel like if I rested my head against his chest like I had when he’d come back from Lake Lure. Or if his arms came around me and he held me, but not out of comfort. Or if I kissed him again like I had that night… would he kiss me back?
“You’re far too pretty to be dressed like that.” His breath stirred my hair. “And you’re entirely too excited to be working with knives.”
I flushed, stepping back. What? Aiden thought I was pretty? It took me several moments to work past that. “I’m bloodthirsty. What can I say?”
Aiden’s eyes dropped, and I decided I needed to go to the store and find as many pairs of miniscule shorts as I could get my hands on.
CHAPTER 15
JUST BEFORE DAWN, THE FUNERAL FOR THOSE
murdered at Lake Lure began and… wel , it sucked in the way al funerals did. Fol owing ancient Greek tradition, the funeral consisted of three parts. Al of the bodies—the ones recovered—were laid out before the funeral began. I stayed in the back of the funeral home, refusing to go anywhere near the dead. I paid my respects from a healthy distance.
The three bodies of the Dikti family, Lea’s father and stepmother, and the Guards were wrapped in linen and draped in gold. From there, the funeral procession began, and it was long. The bodies were lifted onto pyres and carried through the main street. Al tourist activity had been cut off to Deity Island, and the streets were fil ed with pure-blood and half-blood mourners.
The students who remained at the Covenant stood out from the crowd. We were the ones dressed in black sundresses or party dresses. None of us real y had anything appropriate to wear to a funeral. I had on a black tube dress and flip flops. They were the best I had.
I stayed close to Caleb and Olivia, and I only caught a quick glimpse of Lea and Dawn at the cemetery. The sisters shared the same coppery red hair and impossibly thin bodies, and even with puffy eyes, Dawn was absolutely stunning.
Hematoi didn’t bury the dead. After burning the remains they erected massive marble effigy statues. The artist’s rendering of the one that would honor the Samos family depicted their images set on a pedestal carved with a Greek verse about immortality among the gods. The round pedestal already occupied the site.
The jewels and gold were removed from the bodies and placed on the pedestal. I real y wanted to leave at that point, but it would’ve been the height of disrespect. I turned away as they lit the pyres, but I stil heard the crackling as the fire ate away at their shrouded corpses. I shuddered, hating the finality of it, hating that these were quite possibly my mother’s victims.