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 all 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.

Solos let out a low whistle as he stared at the dust and the scorched soil below. “Remind me to never piss you off.”

I cracked a smile as I backed off, letting the buzz of akasha settle back down. Bending at the waist, I snatched up my water. Over the rim, I watched Olivia deliver a spin kick that knocked Lea back several feet.

Aiden clapped. “Perfect, Olivia.” And then to Lea, “You hesitated. If you hadn’t, you would’ve blocked that kick.”

Nodding, Lea stood up and dusted herself off. She quickly fell back into stance and went at it again.

A low, annoying ache blossomed in my temple, making my right eye all twitchy. I tossed the bottle back down and turned to Solos. Out of rocks to destroy, I was handed off to Marcus to work on elements.

Off a little from the main group, he raised his hands. A gust of wind picked up. Branches rattled, and fresh, tiny leaves swirled in the air as the wind barreled toward me.

I raised my hands, and unlike before I’d Awakened, I met the air element with my own. His sputtered out weakly under the force of mine. Amazing how the air element had been my greatest enemy before, but now was only a mild annoyance.

Deacon and Laadan even got involved in the later part of the day. Laadan worked with the air element and Deacon set about creating small fires and controlling them. I couldn’t picture those two fighting, but at this point, everyone had become a warrior.

Aiden watched his brother with narrowed eyes and a tight jaw, so tight I wondered if he had any molars left. Finally, he left the halfs and stalked over to where Deacon had several piles of twigs burning.

“What are you doing?” Aiden demanded.

Deacon looked up from under the mop of curls. “I’m becoming a fire bug.”

The humor was lost on Aiden. “I know what you’re thinking.”

“Ah, hell, well if that’s the case, then that’s embarrassing.”

Aiden’s back went rigid. “Unless you’re practicing starting campfires, you’re wasting your time.”

“But—”

“You don’t need to do this.” Aiden waved his hand over the piles of burning twigs and the flames fizzled out. “I don’t want you involved in any of this.”

Deacon drew himself up to his full height, which meant he only came to Aiden’s shoulders. “You can’t stop me, Aiden.”

Ah, wrong thing to say.

“You want to bet on that?” Aiden growled, his head dropping so that he was eye level with his brother.

Undaunted, Deacon held his ground but dropped his voice. “Do you expect me to sit back and play card games while everyone else is doing something important?”

“Yes, I do, actually.”

Deacon laughed humorlessly. “I can help.”

“You’re not trained.” His hands formed into fists at his sides. “And before you say it, you’re not everyone else.”

“I know I’m not trained, but I’m not freaking useless, Aiden. I can help.” They were in an epic staredown I hadn’t seen before, especially not from easy-going Deacon. “And asking me to sit back and watch everyone else—people that I care about, people like you—prepare to risk their lives while I do nothing isn’t fair.”

Aiden opened his mouth, but his brother rushed on. “I know your over-controlling behavior comes from a good place, bro, but you can’t protect me forever and you can’t continue babying me. It’s a waste of time, because even if you forbid me to get involved, it won’t matter. You can’t stop me.” Deacon took a deep breath. “I need to help, Aiden.”

Something in what Deacon said caused Aiden to string together an atrocity of f-bombs. My brows flew up. Aiden rarely cussed or lost his cool, but boy, he was a grenade whose pin had just been pulled.

He took a step back, placing his hands on his hips. I almost expected him to drag Deacon into the cabin and lock him in there, but instead, he jerked his head in a curt nod. “Okay. If this is what you… need, then okay.”

I was stunned into silence. So was Deacon. Without another word, Aiden returned to where the halfs waited.

Deacon’s eyes met mine and he shrugged.

Shocked that Aiden had given in—and somewhat pleased that he was seeing Deacon as something more than his little brother who partied too much—I followed Marcus over to the rest of the group.

We practiced at that for the rest of the day and even went as far as to use the air element against the rest of the halfs, forcing them to break my hold. I hated doing that, because I knew how helpless I’d felt when the air element used to pin me down, but air users were the most common, which meant over half of the daimons used air. It was one of the reasons so many halfs died in battle against them.

So we had to deal with it.

Fire and earth were rare among pures. Aiden and Deacon were the only two I knew who wielded fire, and I hadn’t met a pure who controlled earth, although I’d seen it used once, in the New York Covenant. The water element came in handy if the user was near water or in the rain. Some thought they had gotten the crappy element, but I knew it wasn’t true. They could pull water from pipes—from anything.

I was squared off against Lea. Not that long ago, I would’ve experienced a twisted sort of satisfaction at taking her down, but things… things were so different now.

We stared at each other for a few seconds, and then she nodded.

Slowly, reluctantly, I raised my hands and drew the air around me. A vicious stream of wind formed just behind my fingers, and then slid through them. Like with akasha, my aim wasn’t great, but it struck Lea below the chest, knocking her right on her back.

I moved forward, my arms shaking as I forced the element on her. It was hard to look at her, hard to not see myself struggling and thrashing on the ground, unable to gain footing.

Aiden crouched behind her, barking out orders in his own soft way, but the best she could do was draw her legs up and that was all.

Her body trembled as her lips pulled back in a snarl. She fought to just sit up, and I wanted her to, because from there, it was easier to break the hold, but the element pinned her shoulders down to the grass.

Wave after wave of air beat down on her, and she threw her head back and screamed as she raised one hand, her fingers clawing at the invisible enemy.

“Lea, come on. Use your core muscles,” Aiden said, lifting his lashes to pierce me with concrete eyes. “Push through it…”

I hated this, hated this so much. My entire body shook.

Another scream as she slammed her hands down into the short blades of grass. Her fingers dug in, tearing through dirt. Clumps came up as she pushed up into a sitting position. I started to smile, but Lea powered up quickly and rushed me.

She cut through the element, arms wrapping around my waist as she smashed into me. We went down, a tangle of arms and legs. The back of my head smacked off the ground. Starbursts exploded behind my eyelids. Air rushed from my lungs in a painful grasp.

The sound of applause was thundering, and I think Deacon yelled, “Girl fight!”

And then there was silence. No one moved. I like to think everyone was preparing for a massive Apollyon bitch-smack from my end.

“Damn,” I grunted, blinking several times. Through Lea’s coppery hair, the sky was a light color of blue.

Using her arms, Lea lifted up and grinned at me. “Let’s just call that a little bit of payback.” She rolled off and sprang to her feet, still grinning broadly. “Well, that was fun.”

I remained sprawled on the ground, the throbbing in my right temple now spreading to the back of my skull. Quite possible she’d knocked something loose—hopefully nothing important.

A strong, tan-colored hand appeared in my vision. “Up?”

Placing my hand in Aiden’s, I let him haul me to my feet and stood there while he brushed clumps of dirt off my aching shoulders. On second thought, my whole body ached. A small smile played over his full lips. Our eyes met, and while everyone milled around about us, in that moment, it was just him and me.

Aiden leaned over me, his breath warm against the curve of my neck. A fine shiver scuttled over my skin, and the ache in my right temple eased off. I inhaled deeply, surrounding myself in his masculine, earthy scent. Everyone around us disappeared.

“I know what you did,” he whispered.

I jerked back, eyes narrowing. Not the sweet nothings I’d been hoping he’d whisper. “What?”

Arching a brow, he then turned and swaggered off to join the congratulatory group forming around Lea. I popped my hands on my hips, shaking my head. There was no way he could know. No way at all.