Текст книги "Pure"

Автор книги: Jennifer L. Armentrout

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Текущая страница: 22 (всего у книги 24 страниц)

“Well, you smell like… like…”

Seth waited, brows raised.

My eyes widened. Over his shoulder, I saw at least five more daimon pures coming down the hallway. “Daimons.”

“I smell like a daimon?” He looked let down.

“No, you idiot, there’re more daimons coming.”

Seth glanced over his shoulder. “Oh. Well, damn. They must’ve broken through the entrances.”

“That’s not good.”

Another cracking sound shattered through the hall, different from the breaking glass. It reminded me of an artist chipping away at marble. Seth and I turned at the same time, but I don’t know who noticed it first. Both of us took a step back.

A network of fractures split the white marble encasing the furies. Chunks of stone broke off, dropping to the floor. Pink, luminous flesh appeared through the larger gaps in the marble. A fine current of electricity shot through my body.

“Oh, my gods,” I whispered.

Seth’s arm shot out, slamming his dagger into the chest of a daimon pure without even taking his eyes off the crumbling statues. “Indeed.”

A soft, tinkling laugh overcame the sounds of battle, halting every-one and everything in the hall. Transfixed, I watched the rest of the marble slip away like a snake shedding its skin. And there they were, the three of them hovering above the makeshift battlefield. And oh, my gods, they were savagely beautiful.

The gods had unleashed the furies.

Their diaphanous white gowns stood in sharp contrast to the surrounding blood and gore. Pale, blonde, and perfect, the three cast their all-white eyes toward the carnage before them. They moved through the still air on pale, transparent wings, delicate-looking and soundless. The furies were lesser goddesses, but their presence took over the hall.

I’d never seen a god before, let alone three of them, but they appeared the way I’d imagined them: compelling, and beautiful. Frightening. I even took a step toward them, barely realizing that Seth had done so, too. Neither of us could help it. They were gods—freaking gods appearing before us. None of the other halfs or pures moved, seeming too stunned to do much of anything.

Around the room, the daimons backed off from their opponents, all their attention fixed on the furies as they sniffed the air. Some started to whine, others growled. It was the aether flowing through the gods, I realized. If Seth and I were steak, then the furies had to be the most succulent cuts of filet mignon.

One of the daimons, a half-blood, let out a low howl and charged forward.

The furie in the middle lowered to the floor, sinking her bare feet into blood and glass. Thick blonde curls floated around her head as her noiseless wings fluttered around her. A pearly glow radiated from her skin as she tipped her head to the side and smiled. The daimon lunged at her, but she simply raised one hand and froze it mid-attack.

Her smile was innocent, child-like, and yet held a barbed edge to it that was cruel. She reached back with her other arm and slammed her hand clean through the daimon’s chest. She shot straight up in the air, bringing the frantic daimon with her. Floating above us, she ripped the daimon in two.

I gasped. “Holy…”

“Shit,” Seth finished.

In an instant the furies shifted, shedding their beautiful bodies. Their skin and wings turned gray and milky, their hair darkening and thinning into stringy black ropes that snapped at the air around them. Snakes, not ropes, I realized. Their hair was freaking snakes!

The middle one screamed, bringing several pures to their knees. I backed up, knocking into Seth. He wrapped an arm around my waist, hauling me against him. One of the furies swooped, snatching up a daimon and launching it through the air. Another arced down, grabbed a Sentinel with her clawed feet, and sliced him apart as he screamed. The third landed near a crop of daimons, one strand of her snake hair zipping out and right through the eye of a Guard as she eviscerated a daimon pure.

It didn’t matter who stood in their paths—the furies were destroying everyone.

I caught sight of Leon ducking under a gray wing and pulling Aiden out of reach of one of the furies. An expression of awe and horror marked Aiden’s features as he swung a blade into a nearby daimon that wasn’t even paying attention to him.

A furie swept the ceiling, her all-white eyes glowing much like Seth’s did when he was pissed. A second later, the furie swung toward us, shrieking shrilly. It stared straight at us, arms extended and claws sharpened into fine points.

Seth grabbed my free hand. “Come on!”

I let him pull me back. “But what about Aiden and Leon?”

“They don’t have a furie gunning for their asses. Now, come on!”

We rushed toward the reception hall. The Guards still held their ground at the doors, protecting the pures. Looking back, my heart dropped; the furie was coming after us.

“Seth!”

“I know, Alex, I—” Seth stopped as we rounded the corner.

I slapped into his back. Peering over his shoulder, horror twisted my insides. The hall was choked with daimons. Half-blood servants littered the floor, necks broken or ripped open. As medicated as they were, they’d been utterly defenseless against the daimons. Guards struggled with the flood, trying to hold them back.

The furie screamed, dipping down. Seth spun around, knocking me to the floor and throwing his body over mine. By the grace of gods, I didn’t accidentally stab him with the sickle. My heart thundered and fear stuck to my skin as the furie’s wings stirred the air around us. Seth tensed as the furie swooped again, but sensing a god chock full of aether in their presence, the daimons swarmed the furie.

Jumping to his feet, Seth pulled me up and we started back down the hall. We rushed past rooms full of carnage and disaster. In the midst of the chaos, I saw Brown Eyes fighting back daimons along with the younger half he’d spoken with in the dining room this morning. He moved as gracefully as any Sentinel, taking down a daimon with a titanium candelabrum.

Seth and I reached the ballroom just as a sudden burst of panicked and terrified screams whirled the Guards around. As they yanked the door open a stampede of pure-bloods trampled the Guards, pushing and clawing to get away. Then the herd of frightened pures descended on us, tearing my hand from Seth’s. The wave of red and white robes slammed into me from all sides. Trying to stay upright, I screamed, “Seth!”

Bodies rocked into me from every direction, and I was knocked to the floor by one of the Ministers. Sharp pain exploded in my head. I tried getting up, but the hysterical crowd kept pushing me down. Dropping the blade, I curled into a ball and protected my head. Feet were everywhere, stamping down on me, kicking into me. This was how I was going to die—not in battle, not from the plot of some Council member hell-bent on destroying me, but trampled to death by a bunch of pure-bloods. Of all the ways to die.

I was so going to haunt every last one of them.

My side throbbed, and I was pretty sure I had a broken rib. In the mad rush, daimons were running and killing right beside the pures, and I had no idea where those damn furies were. I squeezed my eyes shut, whimpering as each sandal-covered foot dug into me. Seconds after I didn’t think I could take anymore, the crowd thinned enough for me to lower my hands and grab the blade.

Shaken and bruised, I climbed to my feet. Pures cluttered the hall, smelling of smoke, sweat, and fear. I didn’t see Seth anywhere. Stumbling toward the ballroom, I went against the tide of pures. Marcus had been in that room, along with Laadan and Lucian.

Inside the once-grand ballroom, I staggered through the destruction, scanning the bodies littering the floor. Marcus and I didn’t get along for longer than five seconds, but he was the only person left in this world who shared the same blood as me. I didn’t want to see his body among the ones on the floor. I didn’t know what I’d do. I just didn’t.

Several side doors of the reception hall had been busted in, and some daimons stalked the remaining pures like prey. I watched one pounce on a pure—a coppery-headed one, super tan and beautiful.

Dawn Samos.

It sank its teeth into her arm. Screaming, she tried to wretch her arm away, but the daimon had her in a death grip. She was lucky, though. He could’ve gone for her throat. A small voice in the back of my head whispered, let her go; she likes Aiden.

But that was all kinds of wrong—super messed-up.

Pulling on my remaining strength, I ignored the aches and rushed toward them. The only easy daimon to kill was a daimon tagging some hapless fool. Didn’t I know? My eyes met Dawn’s amethyst ones as I plunged the sharp edge of the blade into the daimon’s back. He exploded into blue dust all over her pretty white robes.

Dawn scuttled back, face sharp with pain and terror. Dismissing her, I faced the carnage. The daimons, both half and pure, were giving in to all the aether, feeding on the fallen. I started toward them, but a raw shriek stopped my heart.

I turned around.

The three furies hovered in front of the door, their snake hair nipping at the space around them. An unfortunate Guard stood between me and the furies, but not for long. The ugliest of them, her gown stained with blood, snapped his neck with a twist of her wrist.

Rage and fear swept through me, dulling the ache deep in my bones. Coiling, responsive power expanded in my stomach and spread through my limbs. A jolt of energy shot through my palm, lighting my hand on fire. It traveled up my arm, and then it twisted down to my core where it licked at a muscle never used. Maybe it was akasha, maybe it was something far stranger—far deadlier—because everything shone like a tawny jewel, as if someone had dipped a paintbrush in amber and spread it over the room.

Stepping forward, my fingers spasmed over the center of the sickle blade. One of the furies laughed. The other two tittered and brushed past the really ugly one. Behind me, I could hear the Guards fighting the daimons, but I focused on the furies.

The two glanced at one another and licked their lips. One of them spoke, “Pretty little Apollyon, siphoning off the First, are you? Or is he throwing his power to you? He better be careful doing that.”

“It won’t be enough,” the other said. “You can’t kill us.”

“I can try.” I clenched the blade.

The furie laughed. “Try and die.”

Then they flew toward me. I wheeled around and raced toward the wall. Launching myself up, I kicked off the wall and flipped over the two furies, bringing the blade down in a wide, arcing sweep.

I landed in a crouch behind them, arms widespread. The two furies staggered backward, their bodies falling forward without their heads. Blue fire shot from their necks, swamping and consuming their bodies.

The ugly furie cackled, and I whirled around, facing her. She drifted several feet off the floor, her hair wriggling. “You didn’t kill my sisters, but Thanatos will not be pleased upon their return.”

“Sorry to hear that.”

She smiled, slipping back into the form that was so beautiful it almost hurt to look at her. “You’re a threat, and we must deal with the threat. It’s nothing personal.”

“I didn’t threaten anyone. I’m not the problem.”

“Not yet, but you will. We know what you will do.” She reached for the blade, striking unbelievably fast.

I lashed out, kicking her arm back. “What will I do?”

“Why fight me? You kill me and I will come back.” She jumped out fast, catching the front of my shirt. I narrowly escaped her claws. “That is what we do. We will keep coming back, hunting you till the threat is eradicated.”

“Great. You’re like herpes. The gift that just keeps on giving.”

She blinked. “What?”

I spun into a scissor kick, ignoring the sharp spike of pain as her claws caught my arm and pulled me forward. Using the momentum, I crashed into her. The furie was under me for a second, snarling as I gained the upper hand. I shoved my knee into her, delighting in the flicker of surprise.

She stared up at me, a picture of beauty and innocence. “What a path, what a path the Powers have chosen. You will be their tool. That is why you’re a threat.”

I stilled. “The oracle said that—”

The furie shifted again, her hair snapping at me. Coming up, I lopped the sickle across her neck and rolled off. Seconds later she went up in blue flames, but her laugh still lingered. For a moment I lay on my back, staring up at the ceiling. Did taking down each furie count triple? Surely they were enough that I blown Aiden and Leon out of the water.

Rolling to my feet, I ran the sleeve of my sweater over my cheek. I turned around, seeing so many blue piles of dust and dead halfs that had been turned. Only one Guard remained in the reception hall—the pure-blooded one. Of all the people to survive, it had to be him. I should feel terrible about that thought, but I didn’t.

Sighing, I slowly approached the Council Guard. He had a fresh bruise blooming across his jaw, but was otherwise unscathed. “That was insane.”

He flipped the dagger in his hand and turned toward the two remaining pures. Dawn huddled behind a statue of Themis, her arm cradled to her chest. Blood dripped onto her white robes. A male pure several decades older than her had his arm around her, whispering something to her. The chick looked freaked out. I couldn’t blame her. She’d been thisclose to meeting her end.

I wiped my hand under my nose, not surprised to see my blood smeared across my skin.

“Is she okay?” the Guard asked.

The male lifted his head. A deep, angry-looking tag bled from where his shoulder and neck met. “Yeah, I think so. We need to get her checked out.” He looked at me. “You were amazing. I’ve never seen anything like that.”

“I was, wasn’t I?” I murmured, wanting to feel great about winning the fight, but the furie’s words left a jolting echo in my mind. She had given me an additional part of the puzzle, finishing what the oracle had said. But it still made little sense. Who were “the Powers” and how would I become a tool?

The pure had turned back to Dawn. “It’s over,” he soothed her, “all over now.”

It was, but I was still unwilling to put the sickle down—just in case. I kept having visions of horror movie monsters jumping out at me. I moved to the broken doors and peered out. Nothing moved, which I believed to be a good sign. But when would the furies be back? Five seconds from now? A day, a week, or a month?

“Alexandria.”

I wheeled around. “What?”

The Guard pressed his lips into a smile. “You did do really well. I saw you. You may be the first person in history to face down a furie and live. And you took out three of them? That… that was amazing.”

Reluctant warmth cascaded through me. That meant something coming from a pure-blood Council Guard, even if he’d been ordered to kill Hector. A smile spread across my face. “Thanks.”

He put his hand on my shoulder and squeezed. “I’m really sorry for this.”

My smile started to fade. “For what?”

“The furies were right. There can’t be two of you. You are a risk.”

A shiver of warning went up my spine. I stepped back, but the Guard’s grip tightened on my shoulder, holding me in place. I looked up with wide eyes and met his. Only one word came out. “Please.”

There wasn’t an ounce of regret or doubt in the Guard’s eyes. “We must protect the future of our race.”

Then he swung his blade at my chest.

CHAPTER 27

HE’S GOING TO KILL ME.

The words flashed through my mind, and I reacted out of instinct. In the back of my mind, I recognized the act of shoving the sickle into his chest was far different than shoving one into a daimon’s or even a furie’s. The blade felt heavier in my hand, the sucking noise the skin made when pierced by the sharpest metal seemed louder.

And the thing that was the most different? Pure-blood Guards didn’t collapse into themselves and fade to nothing but a fine shimmer of blue dust. The Guard kept standing, a horrified look on his face. I think he’d actually believed he could outmaneuver me, that there wasn’t a blade stuck deep into his chest.

I screamed, yanking the sharp end of the sickle out. Then he fell. First to his knees, then face first onto the marble floor. I lifted my head, the bloodied sickle clenched in my shaking hand. I didn’t even know the Guard’s name… and I’d killed him.

The male pure must have risen to his feet at some point. He stared back at me, equally horrified. He opened his mouth, but nothing came out.

“I had to do it,” I pleaded. “He was going to kill me. I had to do it.”

Dawn whimpered from behind the figure of Themis. The statue had been damaged during the battle. The scales had tipped—no longer equal.

So many rules governed the half-bloods. I really couldn’t keep them all straight. But there were two I always remembered: never get involved with a pure-blood, and never kill a pure-blood. Self-defense didn’t matter. A pure’s life was and always would be valued higher than mine. Being an Apollyon didn’t make me above that law. Breaking one rule had seemed bad enough, but both of them?

Well, I was so screwed.

Footsteps thundered into the reception hall, the only sound that seemed greater than the pounding of my heart. Innately, I recognized the two. How had they known where I was? Of course, Seth would know—always know—where I was.

Aiden was the first through the door. Both he and Seth halted a few feet away. I could only imagine what they saw—piles and piles of blue dust, the bodies, the broken doors, and two pures cowering under the statue.

Then they saw me, standing with a bloodied sickle in-hand and a dead Council Guard lying at my feet.

“Alex, are you okay?” Aiden crossed the room. “Alex?”

He stepped around the fallen Guard and stood in front of me. A bruise shadowed under his right eye, and a scratch slashed across his left cheek. His shirt was torn, but the blade hooked to his pants didn’t have blood on it.

“Alex, what happened?” He sounded desperate as his eyes searched mine.

I blinked, but I kept seeing the look on the Guard’s face.

Seth surveyed the mess with a cold, almost feral look to him. “Alex. Tell us what happened.”

It all came out in a nervous rush. “I was fighting the furies and he told me I did a good job, Aiden. Then he apologized. I had to do it. He said there couldn’t be two of us and that he had to protect his race. He was going to kill me. I—I had to do it. I don’t even know his name and I killed him.”

Pain and panic flared in Aiden’s eyes, and then they took on a hard, steely edge. Resolve burned from them while a red-hot fury built behind him. Seth dipped down and rolled the Guard over.

“Okay.” Aiden reached out to pry my fingers from the dagger. “Let me have the blade, Alex.”

“No.” I shook my head. “It has my prints on it. It’s mine.”

“You have to let me have it, Alex.”

I shook my head, holding the sickle tighter. “I had to do it.”

Aiden gently pried the blade loose. “I know, Alex. I know.” He glanced over his shoulder before turning back to me. “Do not speak a word of this to anyone. Do you understand?”

“But—”

“Alex.” His voice rose sharply. “Do not speak about this to anyone. Ever.Do you understand me?”

“Yes.” My breath was coming out in sharp, little gasps.

He spun toward Seth. “Get her out of here. Take Lucian’s jet to North Carolina. Use compulsion if you have to to get them to leave without him; I don’t care. If anyone stops you or asks why you’re leaving now, tell them the daimons had plans to take the second Apollyon. That the risk was too great for her to remain here.”

Seth nodded, his eyes glowing. “What about them?”

Aiden glanced back at the pures. “I’ll deal with them.” His voice was low. “What happened in here will never leave this room. You can trust that.”

“Are you sure?” Seth frowned. “If you change your mind, it’s all over for Alex. We could just take care—”

“We will notkill them,” Aiden hissed. “I know what I’m doing!”

Seth’s eyes widened. “You’re insane—as insane as Alex. If anyone finds out what you’re about to do, you’re—”

“I know. Go—go now. Before anyone else comes. I’ll take care of this.”

Would Aiden use compulsion on another pure? That alone was another forbidden act, another rule to be broken. How else would he get them to keep this secret? Especially Dawn? She was a Council member, obligated to report what’d really happened.

Aiden would compel the pures. Everything else would fall into place. The halfs who’d been turned had all used daggers. People would find the Guard and believe a daimon half had ended his life.

But if anyone ever found out the truth, Aiden would be deemed a traitor.

He would be killed for it.

I shot forward. “No. You can’t do this. I won’t allow it. You won’t die—”

Aiden spun around and grasped my shoulders. “I will do this and you will allow this. Please, for once, don’t fight with me. Just do as I say.” His eyes met mine and when he spoke again, he did so barely above a whisper. “Please.”

I closed my eyes against the sudden rush of tears. “Don’t do this.”

“I have to. I told you before I’d never let anything happen to you. I meant it.” Aiden turned toward Seth. “Leave now.”

Seth took my hand in a firm grip. There was so much I wanted to say to Aiden, but there wasn’t time, not with Seth dragging me past the bodies and the shell-shocked pures. I did get one last glance, though.

Aiden was already setting his plan into motion. He crouched in front of Dawn, speaking low and quick—the same way he’d spoken to me that night in the warehouse.

A compulsion—he was really using a compulsion on another pure.

Seth pulled my hand. “We have to hurry.”

The two of us raced through the hallways, avoiding the more heavily populated areas. We passed rooms where soft cries filled the space between our footfalls, corridors where bodies of half-bloods covered the floor. As Seth swiped a set of keys from a dead Guard, I looked into a dark chamber. Half-blood servants littered the floor, all of them dead or dying, and no one seemed to even care. No one tended to them. There were only moans and pleas for mercy. Pleas for help—help that would never come. I started toward them.

“We don’t have time. I’m sorry, Angel. We just don’t have time. We have to go.” Seth wrenched me away from the room.

Numb—I was numb inside. So numb that I really didn’t feel the bruises the hits had left behind, the ache that each step jarred out of me. Finding a Hummer wasn’t hard, but ignoring the sounds of fighting all around us was difficult. Instinct demanded that I throw myself back into the fray, but I doubted Seth would appreciate that.

I scanned the dark grounds, relieved to see that Guards still held a line around the school. The daimons hadn’t broken through. At least the students were safe.

But what about the servants?

On the way to the airport, Seth carried out Aiden’s plan. After several unsuccessful tries, he was able to reach Marcus. I stared out the window, still numb with shock.

Seth said exactly what Aiden had instructed, telling Marcus that the daimons had tried to take me. “—and get her out of here in Lucian’s plane tonight.”

It sounded as though Marcus agreed with the idea of getting me out of New York. “Lucian is among the survivors. I’ll pass on the information.”

Some of the tension in my body eased off knowing that Lucian and Marcus were alive, but there were still many more whose fates were unknown at this point. There’d been so many bodies, so many daimons. What about Laadan?

Seth and I didn’t talk until we’d boarded Lucian’s jet. I took a seat beside a window while Seth encouragedthe pilot and the servants to take off without Lucian.

I rested my head against the cool pane, squeezing my eyes shut. My stomach felt hollow. At some point after the plane took off, I stopped thinking. I just sat there, existing in a world where I might not even have a future. So many things could go wrong at this point. What if the compulsion failed to work? If so, Guards would be waiting for us the moment the plane landed. And even if Aiden was successful, compulsions weren’t guaranteed to be permanent. They could wear off after time.

Then what? Both Aiden and I would lose everything.

Seth dropped into the seat beside me. I lifted my head and glanced at him. He held two glasses in his hands, filled with something that looked a lot like liquor. “What is it?”

“It’s not the brew.” His joke fell flat, but I smiled weakly and took it. “It’s just scotch. It should help.”

I downed the glass and handed it back. “Thank you.”

“You really stopped the furies?”

Nodding, I handed the glass back to him. “Cut their heads off. They said they’d be back, though.”

“Only a god can truly kill another god.” He paused. “Or a god killer, but if you cut off their heads I can imagine that would put them out of commission for a while.”

“Seth, they said… they said I was the threat.” I bit my lip, shuddering. “Oh, gods, I killed a pure.”

“Shh. Don’t ever say that again. You know how much Aiden is risking. Don’t let it all go to waste.” Seth leaned over, draping his arm around my shoulders. After a few seconds, he spoke. “He really… isn’t like the other pures, Alex.”

“I know,” I whispered. Aiden wasn’t like anyone I knew, and there was no way I could accept that his actions tonight were a sense of duty on steroids.

But there was nothing I could do about that right now.

I looked out the tiny window, out into the dark night. Below, diamond-shaped lights grew smaller and smaller, becoming insignificant and vanishing as we moved into ominous clouds. I drew in a deep breath, but it got stuck in my throat. I’d killed a pure-blood and the man I loved was down there, covering it up, risking everything for me.

What had I done?

Thinking back on those seconds when I’d seen the pure raise the dagger, I knew there’d been time to avoid the deadly plunge of the blade. I was fast. I could’ve moved out of the way. I could’ve run. I hadn’t needed to killhim.

Seth’s arm around my shoulder’s tightened as if he could read my mind. “You were defending yourself, Alex.”

“Was I?”

“Yes. They declared war on us. You had no other choice.”

“There are always choices.” I pulled my gaze from the window and looked at Seth. There are always choices. I just had this terrible habit of making the wrong ones and now I had to deal with it. So did Aiden. So did Seth.

Seth reached out slowly, as if he was afraid to startle me. His caught my chin with the tips of his fingers. He didn’t say anything. Not that he needed to—the connection between us was there, sparking alive.

I neededit right now– neededSeth.

Closing my eyes, I let him guide my head to his shoulder. And after I could take the first deep breath of air without choking on it—after I’d made my choice—I finally let the connection in completely. Seth’s presence– his warmthsurrounded me. Waves of comfort washed over me, easing the knots in my stomach. Not filling in all the cracks, not replacing ones that lingered back in the Catskills, but filling enough that I felt a little better, a little saner.

This e-book contains a bonus scene from Seth's Point-of-View

I watched Dawn place her hand on Aiden’s arm and once again felt a wealth of gratitude that Alex had decided not to attend this ball. If she werehere watching this, she might've ripped out every strand of the pure-blood’s coppery hair.

Images of Alex going all girl-fight filled my head, and I snickered.

Aiden raised his brows at me. “Doing okay over there?”

I rolled my eyes, not even bothering to answer. Just because I was standing next to him—only because he was the least undesirable option at the moment—didn’t mean I was going to be chatty with him. On a good day, the animosity levels between us were usually at CODE RED. Bad days they were at CODE I’M GOING TO KILL YOU.

We had more bad days than good days.

The pure’s gray eyes narrowed before he turned back to the one of the Councilman’s sons, who was currently describing how thrilling yachting on the open sea was. Boredom was going to kill me. My gaze slid over to where Lucian stood, surrounding by the Ministers. Even he was looking like he’d be a more stimulating company.

Aiden sighed under his breath, loud enough that I could hear him, and I almost laughed out loud. Apparently he and I shared more than one thing in common: our current boredom and one—

A shiver of awareness rolled over my skin, and I could feel the marks tingling, responding to the presence of her. Alex.

I turned slowly, zeroing in on where she was. Now what in the Hades was she doing down… my brain pretty much emptied of all rational thought.

Alex stood just inside the entrance of the ballroom, looking as frightened as a wood nymph having earned Apollo’s favor. Her anxiety hummed around her, but I wasn’t feeling it. Well, I was feeling something.

There always was this certain beauty to her—one that was rough at the edges, making her unique to those around her. But tonight, dressed in a red gown that should’ve been illegal on her body? I’d seen Alex in workout clothes, in those little distracting pajama bottoms, and in regular clothes, but damn. That wild tangle of hair was twisted up… and those eyes…

Tonight she was the most beautiful thing I’d ever seen.

I watched her move away from Laadan and Lucian, retreating to the side. She didn’t belong there. Hades, she didn’t belong here.

Finally, after what seemed like forever, her eyes met mine. She lifted her glass, silently saluting me. Every muscle in my body locked up, and then I realized I was staring at her like an imbecile.

“Holy crap,” I murmured.

I felt Aiden stiffen beside me, and I wondered if he somehow knew that she was here, if there was some kind of bond that coursed between those two that was far more powerful than what Alex and I shared. Impossible… but I wondered.

Then he looked over his shoulder, and dear gods, I never seen a man more surprised by a girl in a dress than Aiden. Okay. Lie. I had been just as surprised, and if he was thinking half of what I was thinking, I sort of wanted to hit him more than I usually did.

The look on both of their faces actually did make me want to hit—no, zap something. Right here, out in the open, they were doing the eye-screw thing.