When I’d been connected to Seth after I’d Awakened, I could hear his thoughts as clear as my own.
I rocked back a little, squeezing my legs until my arms ached.
Seth had really seemed like he’d been here tonight, leaning over me and whispering his warning. Even my nightmares from what had happened in Gatlinburg hadn’t been that real, and they’d been pretty damn visual.
Footsteps neared the sunroom and my head snapped up. “Marcus.”
He was still dressed like he’d been at dinner, jeans and a tailored flannel shirt—a sure sign he hadn’t gone to bed yet. “Up a little late?” he asked, leaning against the doorframe.
I gave a lopsided shrug and kept my arms locked around my knees. “I’m not sleepy.”
“You were dragging all evening. I figured you’d sleep another day away.”
It wasn’t like I could tell him the truth, so I said nothing.
Marcus hesitated in the doorway and then strode forward, sure and strong. I watched him wearily as he sat beside me, taking the same spot Laadan had when we’d spoken. Several tense, uncomfortable minutes passed, and although Marcus and I had come a long way, we still had mountains to climb before things weren’t so epically awkward between us.
He placed his hands in his lap and sighed. “Are you feeling well, Alexandria?”
So formal… “Yeah, like I said, just not sleepy. How about you?”
“Was out patrolling and just switched out with Solos.” He cast me a quick sidelong glance. “I’m not sleepy, either.”
I turned back to the window. “Do you guys think it’s necessary to patrol?”
“Some of it may just be out of habit, especially for Aiden and Solos, but stranger things have been known to happen.”
Surprised that he answered honestly, I faced him. With my Apollyon sight, I could make out the lines of his face in the shadows. Another shocker came when I found his expression was open. “And even though the gods might not be gunning for us this very second, that could always change,” he said. “So we watch… and we wait.”
I didn’t say anything for a long moment. “I hate that.”
“What?” Curiosity marked his tone.
My hands curled into themselves, balling next to my thighs. “That people would so willingly give their lives away to protect me. I hate that.”
Marcus twisted toward me and then leaned his head back against the window. “Don’t take this the wrong way, but it’s not just you that we’re protecting, Alexandria. There’s Lea and Deacon, Olivia and Luke. Three of them are trained to a certain extent, but not against gods or a horde of daimons. Even though a daimon attack out here seems unlikely…”
Stranger things had happened. I nodded.
His vibrant eyes slid close. “It’s not always about you.”
My mouth worked on a refusal. I didn’t think it was always about me, but wait… I kind of sort of did by assuming that everyone was throwing themselves in front of a bus for me. My cheeks burned.
“I didn’t… I didn’t mean it like that.” I took a breath. “Well, I kind of did, but I know you guys are protecting them, too. And that’s… that’s a good thing.”
His shoulders relaxed. “And I didn’t mean how that came out.”
I laughed and the sound surprised me. It wasn’t forced or snarky, just amused. “Yeah, you did, and I get it. I’ve been riding the Alex-Is-Important train for quite some time.”
One eyebrow arched.
The urge to laugh came again, but I stopped it and placed my cheek on my knees. “I’ve been… uh, I’ve been a handful. I know that. Most of the time it was on purpose.”
“I know,” was all he said.
“You did?”
Marcus nodded. “You’re like any child—”
“I’m not a child.”
His lips curved up at the corners. “You were like any child who was seeking for a place to fit in. It’s especially hard with you half-bloods. Many of you come from unhappy homes, or no homes at all. The environment you’re raised in is violent and aggressive. I’ve seen so many…” He shook his head slightly. “Anyway, you were different, though.”
I glanced toward the empty question. “Why?”
“For starters, you’re my niece.”
“Wow.” I blinked, loosening my grip on my legs. “I’m surprised that the first thing wasn’t that you knew I was the Apollyon.”
Marcus’ eyes opened and met mine. “That was never first, second, or third. You are my niece. You are my sister’s daughter. And you are so much like her…” He exhaled through the nose, his jaw locking. “You were so much like her that when you came back to the Covenant… and even now, I have a hard time looking at you without seeing my sister.”
Something… something came unhinged in my chest. Never had Marcus been this open with me. And it’d seemed more likely for me to waltz around the living room with a daimon before Marcus would talk to me about my mother, but here he was.
Holy daimon butt, we were climbing that mountain.
The breath I inhaled was a bit raspy. “You loved my mom a lot.”
“Rachelle was my little sister and I… I loved her dearly.” His eyes closed again. “Rachelle was full of life—vibrant. We were opposites. She drew people to her in droves, and I pretty much repelled them.”
My lips quirked at the corners.
“She was probably the only person who could get me to relax.” He sat up suddenly, dropping his hands on his knees. “When you were really little, she used to bring you over to my home, and if you behaved, which wasn’t always likely, she’d take you for ice cream afterward.” A pensive smile formed. “You were such a tiny thing then, but my gods, I knew immediately you would look just like her. Everything except the eyes…”
Searching my memories, I found I could recall nothing of him from when I’d been a little girl, only the few visits when I was older, and they had been cold and impersonal. Marcus had been like every other pure.
“She always claimed that your father was a mortal, but that one Sentinel was always with her, always following her… and you.”
“What?” My head snapped up.
Marcus focused on something I couldn’t see. “You were too young, Alexandria, to remember your father.”
Hearing Marcus mention my father stopped the world.
“You were just a baby. Your mother couldn’t so much as walk outside without Alexander not too far behind her, especially if she had you with her. Looking back, it seemed obvious, but Sentinels and Guards were always around. And they’d attended the Covenant together, two years behind me. I just thought they were friends. But I think I always knew, deep down, and I couldn’t see past that. Every time I looked at you, I saw my sister’s downfall.”
My eyes widened. “Ouch.”
“Yeah,” he sighed. “Sounds terrible, but you of all people know what happens to halfs and pures that mix. I was so angry with my sister for putting herself into that position and for bringing a child into it.” Marcus paused, pensive. “I took it out on you. It was wrong.”
Pigs had just officially sprouted wings and were flying alongside airplanes. Instead of jumping around and pointing out what he just admitted and acting like a general douche about it, I focused on something else. Sometimes I amazed myself with my own maturity.
“Did… did you know my father personally?”
His lips thinned. “I trained with your father before I decided to go a more political route. He was a damn good Sentinel. Like you.”
I stared. Once upon a time, hearing something like that would’ve have filled me with pleasure, but now it wasn’t the compliment that had drawn me in; it was hearing that my father had been a damn good Sentinel that did.
“I think your mother hoped she wouldn’t be paired. I wasn’t. Neither was Laadan. But when your mother was paired with Lucian, Alexander… you just knew, if you knew the man behind the uniform.”
Again, I had no idea what to say.
“The
re was nothing he could do but stand back and let the woman he loved marry someone else. And he had to live with that someone else raising his child.” Marcus cleared his throat. “And I’m sure Alexander knew that Lucian wasn’t kind to you, but there was nothing he could do. Coming forward would have put both your mother and you in danger. He was helpless.”
My muscles were tensing and relaxing at the same time. “What happened? How did he end up a servant?”
Marcus faced me. “When you were three years old, Alexander disappeared. It wasn’t uncommon. We were told he’d been killed by a daimon.”
I shook my head, brows furrowing. “How did you not know where he was? He was in the Catskills, under Telly’s thumb.”
“I didn’t see him there until about a year prior to your return.” The sincerity in his words rocked me. “I’d believed that he was dead, and I didn’t know that a male half and a female pure made an Apollyon. Even when Rachelle came to me before she took you away, I didn’t suspect what that truly meant. Not until I saw Alexander in the Catskills, and then what could I do?”
“You could’ve helped him!”
“How? How was I to do that? What do you think would’ve happened if everyone realized that your father was a half-blood? Halfs and pures have mixed before and have been caught. Those children were not allowed to live.”
Sickened, I swallowed. “That’s so wrong.”
“I don’t disagree.” He reached over, running his fingers over a nearby leafy plant. “Your father didn’t seem to recognize me. Only recently did I learn from Laadan, that that must’ve been an act.”
Then it hit me—smacked me right upside my ever-loving head. The conversation that I’d overheard between him and Telly resurfaced. Marcus had been furious with Telly. “Telly wanted you to hand me over, didn’t he? He even offered you a seat on the Council.”
He looked at me sharply.
I grinned. “I overheard you guys.”
Staring at me a moment, he shook his head. “He did.”
“And you refused.”
“Yes.” His look said how could I do anything else?
Wow. Things kind of made sense now, after all this time. I reminded him of Mom and he missed her, which probably made him uncomfortable around me. And Marcus wasn’t really a people person, anyway. He hadn’t known about my father until it was too late. I believed that. And he hadn’t handed me over to Telly. I remembered how he’d picked me up and carried me after Seth had attacked the Council and I’d been sick.
How, like Aiden, he hadn’t given up on me.
Marcus… he cared about me. And that meant a lot. Beside my father, who was out of reach to me, Marcus was the last of my family—my blood.
“Thank you,” I said. And then, impulsively, even though he wasn’t a hugging man, I sprang forward before he knew what was coming and hugged him. It was quick, though—I didn’t want to freak the man out.
I settled back in my spot as he stared at me, eyes wide. Guess I had freaked him out.
“Why are you thanking me?” he asked slowly.
I shrugged.
“You are a strange girl.”
Laughing, I leaned back against the cushions on the window seat. “I bet Mom was a strange girl.”
“That she was.”
“Will you tell me what you know about my dad? I mean, if you’re not tired or anything?”
“There’re some stories I could tell you.” He mirrored my position. “And I’m not tired. Not at all.” His smile was tentative, but real, and I couldn’t think of any other time that he had smiled like that.
My lips responded in kind. “That would be really nice.”
It wasn’t until dawn came and the sun rose, chasing away the murky shadows, that I thought about how happy my mom would be, knowing that Marcus and I had sort of patched things up.
And I couldn’t help but believe that she did. And maybe she was smiling upon us now. Just like the sun filtering through the windows, warming our backs.
CHAPTER 14
Over the next three days, our little band fell into a rhythm of sorts. Things had settled down in the world. There’d been no more natural disasters, and Mount St. Helens seemed to have quieted. Apollo was still a no-show and the cabin out in the middle of nowhere had become a god-free zone. A good thing, but I figured one would just pop in, most likely in Deacon’s bed or something, where we’d least expect them. But even though there’d been no godly interference, it was like watching the countdown clock on a time bomb. We all were just waiting.
Each day had been filled with training, training, and more training. Parts were worse than any days at the Covenant, because everyone stopped and watched when it came time for me to break out the akasha.
Marcus and Solos had lined up several large rocks they’d found scattered about, and my job was to make itty, bitty pebbles out of them. And that worked—up close. Say, like a few feet away. But the further away I got, the worse my aim became.
Sweating under Aiden’s loose thermal, I grunted as I pulled from where akasha rested just below my ribcage. The power of the gods mark tingled as the fifth element crackled across my knuckles.
Under the canopy of trees, Aiden and Olivia stopped their sparring to watch.
Focusing on the element, I felt my senses sharpen. Using akasha was like being connected directly with the Earth—like run-and-hug-a-tree connected. I could feel the vibrations of the grass and soil under my feet, as well as the dozens of scents carried on the low moan of the wind, and I could feel the air gliding over my skin with ghostly fingers.
Akasha crackled over my right arm as I threw my hand out. A bolt of lightning erupted from my palm, shooting across the ten feet and smacking into the right edge of the boulder. With a loud crack, the thing splintered.
Luke darted out of the way, but he was still pelted with rubble. He doubled over, about to kiss the ground.
“Whoops.” I winced. “Sorry?”
Rubbing his back, he waved it off and limped toward where Deacon was trying to hide his laughter. “Shut up,” he grumbled.
“You should’ve known better than to be that close,” Deacon replied.
I sighed and turned to Solos. “I have terrible aim.”
Solos nodded. “It’s slightly off.”
“Slightly?” My brows lifted.
“You’re hitting the target, and I suppose that’s all that matters.”
Peeking at Aiden, I found that his attention was now on the sparring Lea and Olivia. The two girls were marvelous fighters and equally matched, and Aiden was in full Instructor mode, calling out commands in his deep, oddly musical voice. I found myself missing that one-on-one attention.
Heck, I was missing a lot of attention.
One thing had been certain over the last three days—something was definitely up with Aiden. It wasn’t that he avoided me. Every night he joined me in bed, pulled me close, and held me. Nothing progressed further than that, even though I could sense he wanted more. He just didn’t make a move, and I had no idea why. I was pretty sure the way I ended up curling all around him was evidence I was down for some happy times.
I bit my lip as I turned to the last boulder, shaking out my shoulders. There hadn’t been another nightmare of Seth, thank the gods. Part of me suspected it had something to do with the fact that I didn’t go to sleep until after Aiden did. Maybe just knowing that he was there helped, but he didn’t go to sleep until late, which usually meant it took another couple of hours for me to drift off, and when he awoke at the crack of freaking dawn, so did I. Since I was tapping into akasha daily, I was drained like a daimon victim.
But I pushed away the fatigue. Like Marcus had once said, I was a lot of things, but not stupid. I knew why Apollo wanted me working with akasha. He was preparing me to fight Seth. And I would need everything in my arsenal to avoid the power transfer that would end everything.
There was an inherent problem with training for a faceoff with Seth. How was I supposed to fight him when a
ll it would take from him was a touch and a few whispered words in Greek?
Yeah, we were doomed to failure.
Panic hammered me in the chest as my gaze drifted over those around me. If anything went wrong, which it most likely would, all of them were at risk. Lea could end up like her sister, Olivia like Caleb, Luke and Solos like every Sentinel that had been slaughtered by Lucian and his army. Marcus could end up like my mom.
My eyes settled on Aiden.
Deacon had gotten up and was standing next to his older brother. Under the sunlight, his blond curls were a pale platinum. The brothers shared the same striking eye color, but that was all. They were like yin and yang, night and day, standing side by side.
Deacon’s hands were cupped around something, and as he lifted his head, a genuine smile spread across his lips and those gray eyes glittered. Aiden laughed at whatever Deacon had said.
They could end up like their parents.
Fear made my skin tight as it replaced the panic. I rubbed at my temple, forcing my breath to saw in and out evenly. No one was going to die. There would be no more deaths. There couldn’t be. Everyone had suffered enough already.
But there was Fate. There was no such thing as paying dues when it came to Fate. It simply did not care, or recognize past experience.
Knowing that made me want to plop down in the cold, damp grass and cry like an angry, fat baby.
“Alex?” Solos’ soft voice drew me out of my troublesome thoughts.
I nodded and focused on the last rock. What I didn’t like about using akasha was the fact that the buzzing in my head was always the strongest then, like tapping into the most powerful element somehow affected the bond. None of the Apollyons had ever thought or discussed that in the past, so I had no idea if that was true.
Calling upon akasha, I let it go. The bolt of blue lightning was incredibly intense, shattering in its power. Silence and then another loud crack followed. This time it hit the rock in the middle and the thing didn’t explode, but was reduced to a pile of dust.
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