Текст книги "Pure"

Автор книги: Jennifer L. Armentrout

сообщить о нарушении

Текущая страница: 23 (всего у книги 24 страниц)

And it was about to get worse. Aiden seriously waswalking toward her. Clenching my jaw until I was sure my teeth would crack, I slipped away from the group, passing Lucian and Marcus. When I made it behind Laadan, she lifted her gaze.

“She’s not for you,” she murmured over the rim of her glass. The slight, knowing smile of hers didn’t fade. I didn’t even want to know how she knew. “A penny wise, Seth…”

“And a pound shut-the-hell-up.”

Laadan arched a brow, but said nothing else, which was fine by me. Out of all the pures I knew, she freaked even me out. I moved past her toward Alex and briefly considered grabbing a napkin off the table to help with the drool, but I doubted she’d appreciate the offer.

Sighing, I slid up behind her, placing my hand on her shoulder. She didn’t even flinch, but I did. Zeus could be feeling her up right now and she wouldn’t even notice. But Aiden noticed. He did nothing to hide the flash of rage contorting his usually cool expression.

My lip curled up on one side.

Aiden looked like he was going to hit me, and I sort of hoped he did. I would love nothing more than shove my foot so far up his… but Alex—it wouldn’t end well for Alex.

Leaning into her, I inhaled the scent of peaches and something mysterious and uniquely hers. “People are starting to stare.”

And I knew she could care less, and that made me want to throttle her, but Aiden—as always—displayed some common sense. He stopped, grinding his teeth just as strongly as me.

I slid my hand down her arm, threading my fingers through hers, and then I said the most ironic thing of all. “You know he’s not for you.”

“I know,” she whispered, and her desperation and pain blew back at me so strongly I struggled not to drown in it as Aiden turned around. Part of me wanted him to come back to her, just to end what she was feeling.

A very small part that I knocked the crap out of.

“Do you want to dance?” I asked.

She tipped her chin back, her eyes a honey brown. “I don’t want to dance.”

My gaze dripped. “Do you want to stay here?”

“I don’t know.”

Ah, indecision—a man’s best friend. I smiled and as I spoke, my lips brushed her ear. “We don’t belong here, Alex. Not with them.”

Her eyes flickered away from mine and she sucked in her lower lip. She was confused, which usually brought out the less than tolerable side of Alex, but then her eyes came back to mine.

“Let’s go,” I coaxed.

Her fingers trembled as she placed her wine glass down, and we went even though I knew her head wasn’t with me. Her thoughts and her heart never were, always wrapped up in the wrong place.

Only for now, I reminded myself, only for now.

I led around the building, not really given her much of a choice but to follow. She shivered in the cool air and remained silent the entire time, which had to be a record for her. My free hand curled into a fist. Her distress ate away at me like acid, and she had no clue how much she fed through our connection.

“Let’s do something stupid,” I said.

She glanced at me. “You want to do something stupid right now?”

“Can you think of a better time to do something stupid?”

Her lips twitched. “Okay. I’m down with stupid.”

“Good.” Great. Yay. Yippee. I pulled her through the labyrinth, fighting the anger building in me.

“You want to train?”

Shaking my head, I picked up pace. “No. I don’t want to train.”

The double doors weren’t locked, and I grinned when I spotted the swimming pool. Both of us needed stupid right now.

“You want to go swimming?” she asked, sounding doubtful.

“Sure.”

“It’s like forty degrees outside.”

I pushed open the door, greeted with a nose full of chloride. “So? It’s not forty degrees in here, is it? More like sixty.”

Alex pulled away from me and went to the edge of the pool. Of course I watched her as I kicked off my shoes. She glanced at me, and I winked.

“You’re ridiculous,” she said.

“So are you.” I dropped my jacket on the cement, watching her, always watching her. It wasn’t so much me, but what was inside me—inside her. It was just the way it was, I supposed.

“We are a lot alike, Alex.”

She looked like she wanted to argue that, but she got that look on her face that said she was thinking real hard. Brows knitted, nose scrunched a little, and lips parted. Cute.

“Was it so obvious back there?” she asked.

It took me a moment to realize what she was getting at and then I strung as many four letter words together that I could. They were creative. “I don’t know what goes on in your head, Alex. I can’t read your thoughts. I just picked up on your emotions.”

She frowned. “Good to know.”

“I second that.” I started unbuttoning my shirt. “Anyway, I don’t even need to be able to sense your emotions to know. I don’t think you want to know what it looked like.”

“No. I do.”

Famous last words, but who was I to deny her? I signed. “You were staring at him like an ugly chick stares at the last cute guy at the bar when they make the last call.”

She let out a strangled laugh. “Oh. Wow. Thanks.”

Dammit. I raised my hands. “I told you.”

“Yeah. So I looked like an idiot to everyone?”

An idiot? I wish. “No, everyone saw a beautiful half-blood. That’s all anyone saw.”

I glanced away, knowing it was time to change the subject. “Can I tell you something?”

She turned back to t he pool. “Sure.”

I moved toward her, partly because I hadto and because I knew she hated it when I moved too fast. “I prefer you without gloves.”

“Oh.” She watched me warily.

I peeled off one glove, surprised that she was even letting me, and then the other, tossing them both away from the water. Give an inch, and I’ll take a mile. I slid my fingers around the tags on her arms before stepping back.

She lowered her lashes. “Better?”

“Much.” I folded my arms, eyeing her. Alex was always a great curiosity to me. She shouldn’t be, but she was. Perhaps that was what made her such a mystery to me. Even though I knew what she was feeling half the time, I never knew what she was going to do next.

“Can you get silk wet?” she asked.

Was she seriously going to jump in with that dress? I choked at the thought. “I’d say probably not.”

She removed her shoes. “That’s a shame.”

My eyes widened. “You really are going—”

Alex dove in, and I laughed as her shock rippled through me, joining with mine. I moved to the edge of the pool, grinning as she resurfaced. “So childish, Alex. You’ve ruined her dress.”

“I know. Bad me.”

“Very bad,” I murmured, watching her sink under the water again. She stayed under the water so long I began to wonder if she had a little bit of Poseidon in her.

A tremble coursed through the marks, and I moved away from the edge. Lifting my arms, I closed my eyes and stretched, trying to ease the tension building inside me, lessen the way the marks tingled and burned.

I pried one eye open, finding Alex floating, watching me. “Stop staring.”

“I’m not staring.”

I chuckled. “How’s the water?”

“Nice.”

The marks were still driving me crazy. Power was building in them, zinging across my skin. Dropping my arms, I took in a deep breath of air. “Do you remember the last thing I told you in training?”

She swam toward the edge. “You tell me a lot of stuff in training. Honestly, I don’t pay attention.”

Nice. I snorted. “You do wonders for my self-esteem.”

Alex pushed off the cement wall and floated on my back. The dress streamed out around her like she was some kind of water nymph. “I feel like a mermaid.”

I felt a lot of things. “Tomorrow, when they ask you about what happened in Gatlinburg, only answer their questions.”

She sighed. “I know. What do you guys think I’m going to say? That I love daimons?”

It wouldn’t surprise me. “Just don’t elaborate on anything. Answer yes or no, and that is it.”

“I’m not stupid, Seth.”

I arched a brow. Stupid? No. Reckless? Yes. “I didn’t say you were. I just know you tend… to talk a lot.”

“Oh. Like you’re one—”

I dove in, going right for her. I grabbed for dress, but she smacked my hand away. Resurfacing, I shook my head, sending water flying everywhere.

She splashed me. “You talk more than I do.”

Going to the side, I swung one arm over the edge and turned to her. Good gods, water did the girl good. “You look like a drowned monkey.”

“What? I do not.” She ran a hand over her hair and then her eyes. “Wait. Do I?”

I nodded, fighting the nearly all-consuming urge to throw myself at her. “Honestly, you look like a mess. This was a bad idea. What was I thinking?”

“Shut up. You don’t look so hot yourself.”

There was a spike of interest that wasn’t mine, betraying her words. I grinned, placing my hand over the water. “Watch this.”

She struggled with the edges of her dress. “Watch what?”

Using the water element, I let the water spin, then shot it up, directing the typhoon toward her. This started an all-out water war, and even though she knew she was no match, Alex didn’t give up. Not even when the play turned more physical, and I had her suspended in air above me, kicking and squealing like a little banshee. And for the first time, in a very long time, I was actually having…fun. Childish, stupid fun, but fun nonetheless.

In the back of my mind, I knew why I’d brought her here, but by the third time I’d tossed her a good twenty feet in the air, watching her come right back to me, I started to forget the whole reason as a new, better idea took hold.

She grinned down at me. “You’re still the best.”

Sighing, I lowered her back into the water. “Now you really do look like drowned monkey.”

“Thanks.” She started to swim away.

I let her get only so far before I circled an around her waist and flipped her back around. “Where do you think you’re going?” I wasn’t sure what I was doing. Yeah, I flirted with her and pushed the limits, but there was always this invisible line between us. It had a name—Aiden. But right now, that line had been drowned.

She placed her hands on my shoulders, and I gritted my teeth. “Don’t throw me again.”

“I’m not going to throw you.”

“Then I win the water war?”

“No,” I said, my gaze dropping down the curve of her neck. The tags were barely noticeable.

“Damn. Well, I guess you have to be better than me at something. Congratulations.”

“I’m always better than you. I’m—”

“Egotistical?” she cut in, her eyes gleaming in the dim light like whiskey. “Narcissistic?”

Tipping my chin down, I backed her up until she hit the edge of the pool. “I have some words for you, too. How about stubborn? Impudent?”

Her breath caught. “Was ‘impudent’ your word choice of the day?”

I put my finger on her lips. “Well, yes it is. I could even use it in a sentence if you like.”

“That won’t be necessary.” Her eyes narrowed.

Planting my hands on either side of her, I watched the water-soaked lashes lift, her eyes met mine, and it was like being sucker-punched in the gut. The rush of confusion, tinged red with attraction, burned at the back of my throat.

There was also a great deal of nervousness radiating from her, and for good reason. She swallowed. “I think… we should head back now. I’m cold and it’s getting late.”

I smiled. “No.”

“No?”

“I’m not done being stupid yet.” I leaned in, so close that the edges of my hair brushed her forehead. “Actually, there’s a lot of stupid left in me.” Because this really wasstupid.

Alex placed her hands on my chest, and a jolt of electricity shot through me. Uncertainty pinched her features, but she wasn’t pushing me away. I took that as a good sign. My hands found her waist without much thought, the material thin enough that I could feel her hot skin. “You know what?” I said. “There are a lot of stupid things to do, but I really want to do the stupidest thing possible.”

“What’s that?”

I inhaled her, breathed her in. “I want to kiss you.”

She stiffened. “That is crazy. I’m not Elena… or any other number of girls.”

“I know. Maybe that’s why I want to,” I admitted. Alex was different. None of the other girls had my skin prickling. It might not even be her, but what lay resting inside her. Either way, I knew it wanted this, because it was what lingered in me wanted.

Alex turned her head toward mine. Another really good sign. “You don’t want to kiss me.”

“But I do.” My lips brushed against her soft cheek.

Her hands slipped away and gripped the edge of the pool. “No, you don’t.”

I laughed, slipping my fingers up her spine, curving my hand around the base of her neck.

“Are you arguing with me over what I want?”

“You’re arguing with me.”

“You’re ridiculous.” I smiled for a moment before recognizing that my touch had come in contact with the bruise the Master had left behind. Anger rushed through me, heightening the tension. “It’s such an annoying quality, yet strangely endearing.”

“Well… you’re annoying, too.”

I laughed again, because she was funny. Always arguing, always denying what was right in front of her. “Why are we still talking?”

Resting her cheek against my shoulder, I felt her lashes flutter. “This is your one chance to talk without me telling you to shut up, because we aren’t doing... anything else.”

“Do you know how amusing I find you?” I shifted closer, running my hand over the curve of her hip, down her thigh. She went to stop me, not quick enough, and I knew Alex could be damn quick when she really wanted to. I hooked her leg around mine and bit back a groan.

“What are… you doing?” she whispered.

“Do you know why I think you’re so amusing?”

“Why?”

“Because I know how badly you want me to kiss you.” I cupped her chin, tipping her head back with my other hand.

“That’s not true.”

Such a little liar—her need beat at mine, blurring who each of us were. “You lie. Why? I have no idea.” I kissed her cheek and then her throat, her shoulder as my hand on her thigh slipped further down. She jerked, and I grinned. “I can feel what you’re feeling. And I know you want me to kiss you.”

Her little nails dug into my arm. “It’s not…”

“Not what?” I lifted my head, bringing my mouth so very close to hers.

“I…”

“Just let me kiss you.”

And I knew she wanted me to– neededme to. It roared through the bond, and I felt the marks bleed through my skin, churning as they slid over me. Alex was fighting it, because that’s what she did. And then there was the other issue, a sense of guilt I was picking up from her.

She opened her eyes. “Is this real?”

“Very real.” I brushed the soaked strands off her cheek, wondering if I was lying or not and if I should care if I was. “Angel, just let me kiss you.”

Her lips parted not even an inch from mine, and my stomach tightened. So close…and then I felt the guilt growing, becoming more powerful than the need. The marks stilled on my skin. She wasn’t thinking of me right now—son of a bitch. I dropped her, wincing when she smacked off the pool edge. “You’re thinking about Aiden.”

She bit her lip, but the truth was in her eyes. “Not in the way you think I am.”

Frustration whipped through me, and I knew I needed to leave before I did or said something I’d regret, but I pushed forward, getting right up in her face. “You know, I don’t know which is worse. That I was stupid enough to want to kiss you, or the fact that you’re still hung up on someone who doesn’t even want you.”

Her eyes gleamed. “Wow. That’s a little harsh.”

Total asshole move, but she needed to understand. “It’s the truth, Alex. Even if he did profess his undying love for you, you can’t have him.”

Alex spun away from me and hauled herself out of the pool. Water streamed off her dress, forming little puddles around her feet. “Just because I can’t be with him doesn’t change the way I feel.”

And that did it. Maybe I at one point would’ve left it alone, but not now. I was out of the water so fast she took an unsteady step back from me. “If you have this epic love for Aiden, why did you want to kiss me as badly as you did?”

Red stained her cheeks with fury, mixing with my own. “I didn’t kiss you, Seth! That should answer your question right there!”

“You wanted to. Trust me, I know you did.” I smiled. “You really wanted to.”

She stared at me a moment, then her hands balled into fists. “I don’t know what I want!

How do you know, Seth? How do you know it’s not the damn connection between us instead of something real?”

And that was the million daimon baby question. I didn’t know, not really, but there was more than just the connection. Like when Caleb was killed, part of the reason why I’d stayed with her was because of the sorrow that was eating away at her, but the other part was because I wantedto be there. So much so that I’d even blocked Aiden from seeing her.

Yes, there was the connection feeding us, but that was the way it was supposed to be, how both of us had been created. There wasn’t anything wrong with it. Denying it was unnatural. Explaining that to her wouldn’t get me anywhere, though. She didn’t understand. Not yet.

“You think it’s just the connection? Do you really think that’s all I feel for you?”

Her laugh was harsh. “You say it yourself all the time! Anytime you do something nice for me, you say it’s the connection forcing you to do so.”

“Did you ever consider that I was joking?”

“No! Why would I? You said the connection would grow stronger between us. That’s why you want to kiss me! It’s not real.”

Dammit, sometimes I literally wanted to choke her. “I know why I want to kiss you, Alex, and is has nothing to do with either of us being Apollyons. And apparently it has nothing to do with your common sense, either.”

Now she looked like she wanted to choke me. “Oh, shut up. I’m done talking—”

“I know exactly why.” I stalked forward, backing her up until she hit the cement wall behind me. “I can’t believe I’d even have to spell it out for you.”

Flattening her hands against the wall, she shivered. “You don’t have to.”

“You’re the most frustrating person I know.”

She rolled her eyes. “And that makes you want to kiss me? You’re twisted.”

“Do you feel the connection between us right now?” I asked.

Alex frowned. “Not really, but I don’t know what it feels—”

I don’t even know why I did this. Anger? Frustration? Need? Or maybe just to prove that she did want me even though she loved someone else, which in my mind, proved that love was probably one of the most fickle, stupid things the gods had ever created.

Grasping the sides of her face, I lowered my mouth to hers. She froze against me, but didn’t fight back as I deepened the kiss, rushing past the exquisite feel of the first time, delving head first into it. Gods, I could eat her up. She was right. It had a lot to do with connection between us fueling the desire, but I didn’t care. There was a lot to that, a purpose to all of this, not that I could remember or think about a damn thing other than how soft her lips were, how I’d bet my life ambrosia tasted like her.

And finally she moved. Wrapping her arms around my neck, she tangled her fingers in my hair, kissing me back like there was no tomorrow. I loved that—loved how when Alex finally decided to do something, she threw all of herself into it—right or wrong.

Coldness lingered at the back of my mind though. Knowledge. This was my chance, the only chance I knew I’d get.

I pulled back, catching her lower lip. The sound she made wasn’t even fair. “You can’t tell me you didn’t like that.” I kissed her again, unable to help myself after so long. “And don’t you dare tell me you didn’t kiss me.”

“I… don’t know what that was,” she said.

I chuckled, moving my mouth against hers. “You have a choice, Alex.”

Her eyes flew open then, and she watched the marks on my face almost obsessively. They hummed with approval. “What choice?”

I slid my hands to her waist, holding her still. “You can choose to continue wasting away for something you can never have…”

“Or?”

Huh, not an outright no. I smiled. “You can choose not to.”

“Seth, I—”

And here we go. “Look, I know you aren’t over him, but I do know you like me. I’m not suggesting anything. Not asking for stupid little labels or promises. No expectations.”

She drew in a shallow breath. “What are you suggesting?”

“You choose to see what happens.” I let go, stepped back and ran my hands through my hair, needing space. “Between us—you choose us.”

Alex wrapped her arms around waist, looking incredibly small. It was a risk, putting it out there like that, but it was far past the time that I did. Like staking my claim, I guessed.

I smiled faintly. “Think about it, at least.”

Then I left her, giving her a few moments to think, which in hindsight might not have been such a good idea. Alex had turned making wrong decisions into a hobby. My movements were jerky as I grabbed the discarded shirt and slipped it on over my shoulders. The material rasped against the now sensitive marks, but I was getting used to that sting.

“Seth?”

I turned halfway, finishing the last of the buttons. “Alex?”

A flush crept across her cheeks “I… I choose you—or whatever it is that you’re saying.”

She paused, her nose wrinkling. “I mean, I choose the whole seeing what—”

My mouth cut her words off, and I swept my arms around her, dropping the jacket over her chilled shoulders, and then I lifted her up against me. Fire swept through both of us, and she moved in my arms, deliciously so. The marks blasted against my skin, swirling to where her hands fisted my shirt, demanding to make contact with her, to brand her skin once again.

Then her hands slid under my shirt. Too fast.I jerked back, breathing heavy. I had her, but still, too fast. My lips spread in a smile that reached every part of me. “You’re not sleeping in that bed—in that terrible little room—tonight.”

* * *

Deity

The Third Covenant Novel by

Jennifer L. Armentrout

Coming in October 2012 from

Spencer Hill Press

CHAPTER 1

RED SILK CLUNG TO MY HIPS, TWISTING INTO A TIGHT BODICE that accentuated my curves. My hair was down, silky around my shoulders like the petals of an exotic flower. The lights in the ballroom caught each ripple in the fabric so that with every step, I looked like I was blooming from fire.

He stopped, lips parting as if the mere sight of me had rendered him incapable of doing anything else. A warm blush stole over my skin. This wouldn’t end well—not when we were surrounded by people and he was looking at me like that, but I couldn’t make myself leave. I belonged here, with him. That had been the right choice.

The choice I… hadn’t made.

Dancers slowed around me, their faces hidden behind dazzling bejeweled masks. The haunting melody the orchestra played slipped under my skin and sunk into my bones as the dancers parted.

Nothing separated us.

I tried to breathe, but he had stolen not just my heart, but the very air I needed.

He stood there, dressed in a black tux cut to fit the hard lines of his body. A lopsided smile, full of mischief and playfulness, curved his lips as he bowed at the waist, extending his arm toward me.

My legs felt weak as I took the first step. The twinkling lights from above lit the way to him, but I would’ve found him in the dark if necessary. The beat of his heart sounded just like mine.

His smile spread.

That was all the reinforcement I needed. I took off toward him, the dress streaming behind me in a river of crimson silk. He straightened, catching me by the waist as I looped my arms around his neck. I burrowed my face against his chest, soaking in the scent of ocean and burning leaves

Everyone was watching, but it didn’t matter. We were in our own world, where only what we wanted—what we’d desired for so long—mattered.

He chuckled deeply as he spun me around. My feet didn’t even touch the ballroom floor. “So reckless,” he murmured.

I smiled in response, knowing he secretly loved that part of me.

Placing me on my feet, he clasped my hand and placed the other on the small of my back. When he spoke again, his voice was a low, sultry whisper. “You look so beautiful, Alex.”

My heart swelled. “I love you, Aiden.”

He kissed the top of my head, and then we spun in dizzying circles. Couples slowly joined us, and I caught glimpses of wide smiles and strange eyes behind the masks—eyes completely white, no irises. Unease spread. Those eyes… I knew what they meant. We drifted toward a corner, where I heard soft cries coming from the darkness.

I looked over his shoulder, peering into the shadowy corners of the ballroom. “Aiden…?”

“Shh.” His hand slipping up my spine and cupped the nape of my neck. “Do you love me?”

Our eyes met and held. “Yes. Yes. I love you more than anything.”

Aiden’s smile faded. “Do you love me more than him?”

I stilled in his suddenly lax embrace. “More than who?”

“Him,” Aiden repeated. “Do you love me more than him?”

My gaze fell past him again, to the darkness. A man had his back to us. He was pressed against a woman, his lips on her throat.

“Do you love me more than him?”

“Who?” I tried to press closer, but he held me back. Uncertainty blossomed in my belly when I saw the disappointment in his silvery eyes. “Aiden, what’s wrong?”

“You don’t love me.” He dropped his hands, stepping back. “Not when you’re with him, when you chose him.”

The man twisted at the waist, facing us. Seth smiled, his gaze offering a world of dark promises. Promises that I’d agreed to, that I’d chosen.

“You don’t love me,” Aiden said again, fading into the shadows. “You can’t. You never could.”

I reached for him. “But—”

It was too late. The dancers converged, and I was lost in a sea of dresses and whispered words. I pushed at them, but I couldn’t break through, couldn’t find Aiden or Seth. Someone pushed me and I fell to my knees, the red silk ripping. I cried out for Aiden and then Seth, but neither heeded my pleas. I was lost, staring up at faces hidden behind masks, staring at strange eyes. I knew those eyes.

They were the eyes of the gods.

I jerked straight up in bed, a fine sheen of sweat covering my body as my heart continued to try to come out of my chest. Several moments passed before my eyes adjusted to the darkness and I recognized the bare walls of my dorm room.

“What the hell?” I ran the back of my hand over my damp and warm forehead. I squeezed my watery eyes shut.

“Hmm?” murmured a half-awake Seth.

I sneezed in response, once, and then twice.

“That’s hot.” He blindly reached for the box of tissues. “I can’t believe you’re still sick. Here.”

Sighing, I took the box of tissues from him and cradled them to my chest as I pulled a few free. “It’s your fault—achoo! It was your stupid idea to go swimming in—achoo!—forty-degree weather, jerk-face.”

“I’m not sick.”

I wiped my nose, waiting a few more seconds to make sure I was done sneezing my brains out, and then dropped the box on the floor. Colds sucked daimon butt. In my seventeen years of life, I’d never gotten a cold until now. I hadn’t even known I could get one. “Aren’t you just so damn special?”

“You know it,” was his muffled response.

Twisting at the waist, I glared at the back of Seth’s head. He almost looked normal with his face planted into a pillow—my pillow. Not like someone who’d become a God Killer in less than four months. To our world, Seth was sort of like any mythical creature: beautiful, and could be downright deadly. “I had a weird dream.”

Seth rolled onto his side. “Come on. Go back to sleep.”

Since we’d returned from the Catskills a week ago, he’d been up my butt like never before. It wasn’t like I didn’t understand why, with the whole furie business and me killing a pure. He was probably never going to let me out of his sight again. “You really need to start sleeping in your own bed.”

He turned his head slightly. A sleepy smile spread across his face. “I prefer your bed.”

“I prefer that we actually celebrate Christmas around here, and then I’d get some Christmas presents and get to sing Christmas songs, but I don’t get what I want.”

Seth tugged me down, his arm a heavy weight that pinned me on my back. “Alex, I always get what I want.”

A fine shiver coursed over my skin. “Seth?”

“Yeah?”

“You were in my dream.”

One amber-colored eye opened. “Please tell me we were naked.”

I rolled my eyes. “You’re such a perv.”

He sighed mournfully as he wiggled closer. “I’ll take that as a no.”

“You’d be correct.” Unable to fall back to sleep, I started chewing on my lip. So many worries surfaced at once, it made my brain spin. “Seth?”

“Mmm?”

I watched him snuggle further down into the pillow before I continued. There was something charming about Seth when he was like this, a vulnerability and boyishness missing when he was fully awake. “What happened when I was fighting the furies?”

His eyes opened into thin slits. This was a question I’d asked several times since we returned to North Carolina. The kind of strength and power I’d displayed as I faced the gods was something only Seth, as a full-blown Apollyon, could’ve accomplished.

As an un-Awakened half-blood? Yeah, not so much.

Seth’s mouth tightened. “Go back to sleep, Alex.”

Seth refused to answer. Again. Anger and frustration rushed to the surface. I flung his arm off me. “What aren’t you telling me?”

“You’re being paranoid.” His arm landed on my stomach again.

I tried wiggling out of his grasp, but his grip tightened. Grinding my teeth, I rolled onto my side and settled next to him. “I’m not being paranoid, you asshat. Something happened. I’ve told you that. Everything… everything looked amber. Like the color of your eyes.”

He blew out a long breath. “I’ve heard that people in high stress situations have increased strength and senses.”

“That wasn’t it.”

“And that people can hallucinate while under pressure.”

I swung my arm back, narrowly missing his head. “I didn’t hallucinate.”

“I don’t know what to tell you.” Seth lifted his arm and rolled onto his back. “Anyway, are you going to go back to class in the morning?”

Instantly, a new worry surfaced. Classes meant facing everyone—Olivia—without my best friend. Pressure built in my chest. I squeezed my eyes shut, but Caleb’s pale face appeared, eyes wide and unseeing, a Covenant dagger shoved deep in his chest. It seemed I could only remember what he’d really looked like in my dreams.

Seth sat up, and without even looking, I could feel his eyes boring holes in my back. “Alex…?”

I hated our super-special bond—absolutely loathed that whatever I was feeling fed into him. There was no such thing as privacy anymore. I sighed. “I’m fine.”