CHAPTER 12

A few hours later, I stood in the warded-up clearing by the cabin, covered in mud and chilled to the bone. All around me, the sounds of grunts and hard falls echoed through the otherwise silent forest.

I glanced down at my dirty hands and sighed. I was filthy. Maybe I’d get a repeat of that shower later. My gaze found Aiden’s lithe form. He was fighting Luke. In other words, he was repeatedly kicking Luke’s ass.

I doubted a shower repeat was on the menu.

A sharp pang of dissatisfaction formed in the back of my throat. I’d really thought that, since I was supposed to be training, I’d end up with Aiden and it would be like old times with a lot more touchy-feely stuff going on. Boy, was I wrong.

Solos exhaled loudly. “How long are you going to stare at your hands? I’m not getting any younger over here.”

But oh no, the moment we stepped outside, Aiden had paired up with Luke and Olivia, Lea with Marcus. Deacon and Laadan were inside, supposedly making dinner.

Now I was in full internal whine mode.

I moved forward, wincing as my cold jeans chafed my skin. “I don’t think this is the kind of training Apollo had in mind.”

Solos tucked a loose strand of hair back behind his ear. “When’s the last time you trained?”

I honestly couldn’t remember. “I was fighting, like, two days ago.”

“One day in the span of many means nothing.” Broken branches crunched under his booted feet. “Our muscles need to be used daily.”

I caught the tail end of Luke ending up on his butt. “I think they could use your help more. I could be working on using akasha right now. Seth has years of practical experience on me.”

“And you will work with that, but not right now.” Solos was nowhere near as patient as some of my previous trainers had been. He ranked up there with Romvi.

Eyes narrowing, I raised my hand. “I could just use the air element and knock—”

“Alex,” Aiden snapped, stopping Luke’s vicious kick with one hand. He gently pushed him back as thundercloud eyes sharpened on me. “I also doubt Apollo meant for your mouth to be the only thing getting a workout.”

So many inappropriate comments rose to the tip of my tongue and danced around, but I snapped my jaw shut and glared at him.

“He’s trying to help you.” Aiden swiped up a titanium dagger from where it was implanted deep in the ground. “The least you could do is go along with this without torturing those who are helping you.”

Embarrassed and angry, I was two seconds from raining my wrath down on Aiden when I stopped. Aiden was right. I was being whiny and bitchy and flat-out annoying.

Our eyes met, and there wasn’t much heat behind his words, but he was frustrated with me and I hated that, because I was being a brat. I wasn’t sure what was wrong with me. Ever since Laadan and I had spoken, my mood had plummeted. Lack of sleep, maybe?

The sting of Aiden’s admonishment forced me back to Solos, who, by the way, had mud splattered on him like gore at a gruesome crime scene. No one in this world could get me to do what I was supposed to be doing as quickly as Aiden.

Part of me hated that. The other part respected and thanked him for it.

Cheeks burning, I dropped into stance. Solos launched at me. We went at it, blow for blow. He dipped. I spun. More times than not, he ended up sprawled on the ground, kicking up dirt and loose grass on me. My muscles were a little out-of-use, but I was fast—faster than I ever remembered being. When I’d been fighting Aiden the other day, I hadn’t been aware of what I was really doing, not the mechanics of it. But now? Whoa, I felt like Superwoman.

Solos picked himself off the ground, exhaling out his nose. We moved on to disarming one another, which usually had been a weak area for me.

I darted under Solos’ outstretched arm, caught both of his elbows and pulled back, running my hands down to his wrists as I planted a foot in his back. He released the blades and I caught them.

Waving them in his face, I grinned. “I kind of rock at this.”

He turned, brows furrowed. “I don’t even know what that move was.”

I flipped the dagger in my right hand. “It’s called being awesome and it worked.”

“There’s a difference between skill and speed.” He snatched the dagger out of my other hand. “You won’t always have speed.”

“But I have the elements,” I reminded him.

“That you do.” He gave a lopsided grin that didn’t stretch his scar. He was handsome when he smiled like that. Hell, he was handsome even with the scar—kind of like a pirate. “But correct me if I’m wrong—doesn’t using the elements tire you out?”

“That’s what I hear.” Olivia dropped down on a tree stump and stretched out her long legs slowly. “Well, I heard Seth say that once.”

With only one dagger left in hand, I pointed it at Solos. “Using the elements can tire us out, but not as much as akasha. That’s why he doesn’t use it all the time. Zaps him—us, I guess.”

Aiden threaded his fingers and stretched, bowing his back. My gaze followed the movement quite obsessively. Everything he did looked fluid and graceful. “That’s why it’s important not to rely solely on those abilities.”

As long as I’d known Aiden, I could count on one hand how many times he’d used the fire element. Each pure had an affinity to a certain element, while the Apollyon could wield control over all of them. Aiden liked to fight hand-to-hand.

Or titanium-to-titanium.

Lea was leaning against a large oak, her hair a mess as Marcus retrieved the fallen blades they’d been practicing with. My uncle handled them expertly. Sometimes I forgot that he had trained as a Sentinel, once upon a time.

Our little recess was over, and under the cloudy April skies we continued until the sun began its descent in the west. Only then did we shuffle back into the cabin, and I guessed practicing akasha was on the schedule for tomorrow. The smell of roasted meat teased my taste buds. I was so hungry I could eat a daimon, but a shower came first.

And as I’d expected earlier, I was all by my lonesome in that endeavor.

All of us sat at the kitchen table and dug in. Someone thanked Laadan for the meal and Deacon about had a coronary.

“Who tenderized the meat? Who marinated and watched it dutifully?” His blond brows lowered as he held his fork like Luke held a dagger. “That would be me”

Laadan nodded. “I peeled potatoes. That was about it.”

“I didn’t know you could cook,” I said, surprised.

Freshly showered, Aiden dropped into the seat beside his brother. His dark hair was damp and swept back, revealing his broad cheekbones. He clapped his brother on the shoulder. “Deacon is one hell of a cook.”

“Hmm.” Olivia grinned as she chased a scalloped potato across her plate. “Learn something new every day, right?”

Not even trying to hide his proud smile, Deacon glanced at Luke. “I’m full of surprises.”

I arched a brow, but shoved a piece of succulent meat into my mouth rather than saying anything. For a little while, sitting at that table with everyone, things were, well, they were nice and warm.

Aiden remained mostly quiet while everyone traded stories, cracking a grin every once in awhile, but still slightly apart from the boisterous group. More than once, our gazes met. Something churned in his gray eyes. I could easily see the sharp slice of sorrow mixing with regret before he looked away.

After dinner, bellies full, the group split into different sections of the house. Lea disappeared with one of the books Laadan had brought with her. Olivia and the boys set up in the living room with a deck of cards. Solos and Marcus went out to check the perimeter with Aiden. It was getting late, and I was trying to stay up for when they came back, but eventually I said goodnight to the group and dragged myself upstairs.

I stopped in front of Aiden’s bedroom, suddenly unsure of where I was supposed to be sleeping. There was another bedroom adjoining the bathroom, which was supposed to be mine, but I couldn’t recall ever sleeping in there. Was I supposed to be in that room? And if I made myself at home in Aiden’s, was I overstepping something?

Shifting my weight wearily, I chewed on my bottom lip. Gods, this shouldn’t be this complicated. Come on, Alex, you’re being stupid. And I did feel stupid.

Heading to my room, I discovered I was severely lacking in the nightclothes department. Going back through the bathroom, I found a few of Aiden’s longer shirts folded separately from the rest of his clothing, as if they’d been purposefully left aside.

I changed into one of the thin cotton shirts that reached my thighs, and there was no way I wanted to go back to the cool, untouched room that was supposed to be mine. Slipping under the covers, I snuggled down, inhaling the earthy scent that blanketed the bed.

It didn’t take long to drift off to sleep. Probably only minutes, and I was floating in a comforting haze, but something made me open my eyes. And when I did, I was staring right into a pair of amber-colored ones.