CHAPTER 9
“THE ORACLE HAS PASSED.” LUCIAN WHIRLED AROUND, addressing each of us. He looked ridiculous as the white robes twirled around his slender body. “Another has come into power.”
I had a headache.
Apparently, the oracle dying wasn’t a big deal. Grandma Piperi was ancient. I just happened to stumble upon her on her dying day or something—lucky me.
Woo.
Leon raised one massive arm and pinched the bridge of his nose. This impromptu gathering of the minds had not been going well. I’d come straight to Marcus after Grandma Piperi poofed, and from there, Marcus had called everyone to his office. Unfortunately, Lucian had brought a very contrary Seth. And worse yet, Aiden had already been in Marcus’s office for whatever reason.
Marcus took a deep breath. “Alex, what happened exactly?”
“I’ve already told you everything. I ran into her in the garden. She was talking one second and the next, she just sort of poofed—”
“She poofed?” Seth laughed. He lounged in the corner, arms folded across his chest, and that damn smile plastered across his face. “Seriously?”
“Yes, she poofed. Like she was there one second and the next she was a pile of dust.”
“We just don’t poof, Alex. That doesn’t happen.”
“Well, it did. She poked me in my chest with her bony fingers and said some crazy stuff. Then she poofed!”
Seth’s brows flew up and he laughed again. “What have you been doing today? Smoking something?”
Addressing Marcus, I threw up my hands. I had no idea why Seth was being such a jerk to me. He’d started in the moment he’d stepped into this room, and now I wanted to kill him. “Does he have to be here?”
“He is where I need him to be,” Lucian answered instead. “And I need him here.”
“Can he shut up, at least?” I missed the more charming version of Seth. This version sucked. “There’s no valuable need for him to comment on everything that comes out of my mouth!”
“I’m commenting on everything, because it sounds like you’ve smoked some crack,” Seth countered. “Where have you been all day?”
“Seth,” Aiden warned. It was the first he’d spoken since the meeting began. He had changed into his Sentinel garb, and I was having one hell of a time not looking at him. “Can you be quiet for five seconds?”
Seth’s yellow eyes snapped fire. “Does he have to be here? He’s just a Sentinel.”
“He was here before any of you were,” Marcus responded with a tight smile. “And Seth, please try to contain the comments.”
Seth slouched against the wall, raising his hands in surrender. “Sure. Sure. Go on, Alexandria. Tell us how she poofed again.”
“I’ve already explained it,” I said. “It’s pretty easy to understand. Even for you. Or did you wake up on the wrong side of stupid this morning?”
“Alex,” Aiden sighed. “Just talk to Marcus.”
I stiffened. “Sorry. If he says one more word to me, I’m going to take that dagger off that wall and shove it through his eye.”
Seth straightened, every cell in his body rising to the occasion. “Well, that’s brave for a little Apollyon in training. If you want to try it, I’m game.”
“Seth!” Marcus yelled, slamming his palms down on the table. Several ledgers and books shuddered.
My hold on my temper stretched to the breaking point. “You know what? I bet your mother wanted to drown you after you were born.”
“Alexandria!” Marcus started around the desk. “Would you two—”
“And there’s a reason why mothers turn daimon and try to kill their daughters.”
I shot across the room, aiming right for the dagger behind Marcus’s desk. Aiden cut me off. I considered barreling through him, but he looked like he would employ every measure possible to keep me from killing Seth.
“Don’t,” Aiden ordered in a low voice. “Just ignore him.”
“Don’t tell me what to do,” I seethed. “I want the dagger so I can cut him.”
“Cut me?” Seth laughed. “What are you—a street thug Apollyon about to shank me?”
Lucian sat down in one of the leather seats. “So much passion between you two,” he murmured. “Can be expected, I imagine. You two are one and the same. Let them go. We can continue this conversation without any more interruptions, entertaining as they are.”
I stopped. So did Seth. Actually, everyone in the room who didn’t appear to be on drugs stopped and stared at Lucian. “What?”
Smiling like he knew some huge secret, he flicked his wrist elegantly. “Let them go. Alexandria has already told us what has happened. The oracle has passed and another has come into power. Let them work through their lovers’ quarrel in private.”
Even Seth’s eyes widened at that. I had a more vocal response, one that caused Marcus to look like he wanted to shove me in a dark room and never let me out again.
“We have not yet determined what the oracle told Alexandria,” Leon interjected from the corner. I’d almost forgotten he was there.
“She’s already told us what she could. What was it, dear?” Lucian simpered in my direction. My hand itched to smack him upside his head. “She said that fate can be changed? Is that not great news? The oracle was referencing our two Apollyons.”
I scowled at him. “Why does everything in your head automatically go back to the Apollyon?”
Lucian waved his hand again. “Let them go.”
Aiden’s hard stare bounced between us. “I don’t think that’s a good idea at the moment. One of them may seriously injure the other.”
I wondered if he really thought that or if the idea of us “handling” our “lovers’ quarrel” in private bothered him.
Marcus sighed. “I think it is an excellent idea, as we aren’t getting anywhere with both of them in the roo—”
“I thought Lucian needed Seth here,” Aiden interrupted, eyes like chips of ice.
Something ridiculously stupid sprung alive in my chest. Aiden was jealous? “You know what?” I shot Aiden a defiant look. “Let’s go. Come on, Seth. Let’s go continue our lovers’ quarrel.”
Pushing off the wall, Seth arched a brow. “Yes, my love, that sounds absolutely fantastic. Don’t forget to grab a dagger so you can poke my eyeball out. Oh, that’s right.” He fixed a sympathetic look on his face. “Only a trained Sentinel can carry a dagger.”
I shot him a sneer, and then whirled around and stalked out of the room. My head pounded like crazy, and even though I’d agreed to leave, I didn’t want to continue talking with Seth. We actually made it to the first floor before all hell broke loose.
Seth grabbed my arm and dragged me into one of the empty offices, slamming the door shut behind him. “You little brat, what the hell have you been doing all day?”
I pulled my arm free and moved to the other side of the office. Seth stalked after me, and I thought of the lion from earlier. All he needed was a swishing tail. I laughed, not able to help it. The image of Seth with a tail was kind of funny.
Seth stopped short, scowling. “What’s so funny?”
I sobered up. “Jeez, nothing.”
“What have you been doing all day, Alex?”
“What have you been doing?” I sidestepped him, putting some space between us. “And why don’t you seem to care that the oracle died?”
“Alex, she was ancient. At least a couple of hundred years old. It was bound to happen. Lucian is right. Another has come into power and blah, blah.”
“She died right in front of me! It was a bit unsettling.”
Seth cocked his head to the side. “Do you want me to host a pity party for you? I’m sure I can wrangle up a few people who can help you commiserate.”
“Gods, would it kill you to be a tiny bit nice? Oh. Wait. It would. So excuse me, I have stuff I need to do.” I started for the door, but Seth caught my arm. His skin felt like fire. “Seth, come on. I have a freaking headache and—”
His eyes searched my face. “What have you been doing today?”
I started to get uncomfortable. “I’ve been training. What the hell else could I be doing?”
“Training?” Seth laughed harshly. “Where?”
“Here,” I said immediately.
Seth’s eyes narrowed. “You little liar, I checked the training room for you. You weren’t there.”
Oh, crap.
A smug smile inched across his face. “So I checked all the other training facilities, and the gym, and the beach, and finally your room. You weren’t in any of them.”
Oh, double crap.
“So don’t lie to me.” He backed me up until I hit the edge of the desk. “Your cheeks are blood red, your pulse has skyrocketed, and you’re a terrible liar.”
I clenched the edge of the desk. “I have no idea what you’re talking about.”
Seth bent down so we were eye level. “You don’t?”
“No.”
“I’m going to ask you one more time, Alex. What were you doing today?”
“Or what?” I demanded. “What are you going to do? And why do you even care?”
“Because the emotions you were feeling today were outrageous.”
“Gods, this day will never end,” I muttered. Throbbing temples aside, I was pretty sure I had enough aggression in me to take out Seth at this point. “Who cares?”
“I care because you were supposed to be training with Aiden today, and there is no reason you’d be feeling those kind…” Seth’s eyes widened. I swear, I’d never seen his pupils so dilated, and for someone who kept dragging me back to him, he sure let go of me awfully fast. “Oh. No, no, no.”
Apprehension blossomed, quickly turning my insides cold. “What?”
“You wouldn’t.” He ran his hand down the side of his face. “Wait. What am I saying? You would do something so incredibly stupid.”
I leaned against the desk. “Uh… gee, thanks.”
Seth shot forward, grasping my shoulders. I flinched, unable to suppress the natural response. “Please tell me I’m wrong. Tell me that you are not messing around with a godsdamned pure-blood. Damn it, Alex. Him? My gods, it explains so much.”
Anything and everything in my head sort of emptied out. My brain had this wonderful ability of doing so when I really needed to think fast.
He laughed harshly. “Now I know why he hates me, at least. Why he’s always on you. I just figured it was in the figurative sense and not literal. What the hell are you thinking? What is he thinking? You’re going to throw everything away! Your future—my future—and for what? To get more pure in you?”
Shrugging his hands off my shoulders for the umpteenth time, I snapped out of it. “You don’t have a clue what you’re talking about! I’m not messing around with Aiden.”
“Don’t you dare lie to me about something like this!” He shoved his finger in my face. I had the urge to break it. “You can’t do this, Alex. I will not allow this to continue.” Seth started for the door.
“No. No! Seth, stop! Please.” This time I grabbed him, pulling him back from the door. “Please listen to me. It’s not what you think!”
His eyes practically glowed he was so angry. “It’s not about what I think. It’s what I felt today!”
“Please. Just listen to me for a second.” My fingers dug into his arms. “You can’t say anything. They’ll—”
“I’m not going to say anything to the Council, you little idiot. They would send you into servitude in a heartbeat.” He pushed me off, swearing under his breath. “You know, I actually thought he might be different from the other pures, but he sure as hell doesn’t act any different. Screw a half; enslave a half. That’s what they say, Alex.”
“What are you doing? You can’t—”
“I’m going to have a little talk with Aiden.”
I flew in front of him, plastering myself to the door. “You are so not going to talk to him! You’re going to try to fight him.”
“Quite possibly. Now get out of my way.”
“No.”
“Get out of the way, Alex,” he snarled. Edges of the Apollyon marks started creasing his otherwise flawless skin.
“Okay,” I breathed, pressing against the door. “I’ll tell you the truth. All right—just please don’t do anything… stupid.”
“I don’t think you should be lecturing me on not doing anything stupid.”
I counted to ten. Now was not the time for me to lose my patience. “Nothing happened between Aiden and me. Okay? I do care about him, all right? I know it’s wrong.” I closed my eyes, wishing the words didn’t hurt as much as they did. “I know it’s stupid, but nothing is going on between us.”
“What I felt from you today wasn’t nothing, Alex. You’re still lying to me.”
“Okay. We kissed, but—stop!” I pushed Seth back as he tried to pry me away from the door. “Listen to me. We did kiss, but it’s nothing. It was stupid—a mistake. It’s nothing to get all bent out of shape over. Okay?”
He stared down at me, lips drawn tightly. Then he closed his eyes. Terse silence stretched out between us. “You… you love him, don’t you?”
I stared at him, my heart thumping loudly. “No. No, of course I don’t.”
Seth nodded, running a hand over his face again. “Alex… Alex, you’re insane.”
Obviously, he didn’t believe me. I needed to make Seth understand that nothing needed to be done about this. There was no way he could go after Aiden. Gods only knew what Seth would do, or what Aiden would do. I could see them now, brawling on the beach. One thing would lead to another, and the Council would find out. The pures would dope me up to suppress the Apollyon in me and I’d be scrubbing floors for the rest of my life. Aiden would never forgive himself. I couldn’t let that happen. And then there was the idiot standing in front of me. If Seth attacked a pure, that would be it. The Council would move against Seth, and even though I wanted to strangle him, I didn’t want… well, I didn’t want anything to happen to him.
Call it self-preservation.
“Nothing’s going on,” I said. “Just promise me you won’t do anything.”
Seth stared at me so long the silence that enveloped us started to get to me. Then the tattoo started to sink back into his skin and he looked surprisingly calm.
“You’re not going to do anything, right?”
“No.” Seth reached for me and pried my hand off the doorknob. “I’m not going to say anything.”
Relief, sweet and beautiful, flooded through me. I let out my breath. “Thank you.”
“You’re not going to ask why?”
“No.” I shook my head. “I’m not going to look a gifted horse in the mouth.”
“Do you even know what that means?”
“Not really,” I said, “but it sounds about right.”
Seth arched a brow, and then tugged me away from the door. “Come on, let’s go.”
I spared our joined hands a brief glance. “Where are we going?”
“We’re going to do some training, since you apparently didn’t do any of that today.”
“She poofed into nothing? Damn, that’s crazy.”
I stared at Caleb, wishing he would poof into nothing. “What is everyone’s big deal with the terminology? I swear to the gods, if one more person questions that, I’m going to lose it.”
“Poof,” Olivia whispered, grinning.
I shot her a death glare. “Ha. Funny.”
“Sorry.” She slid her arm around Caleb. Apparently, they’d made up at some point, again. That made me happy. I liked the way they looked at one another when they weren’t fighting. “I bet that was freaky, though.”
“Freaky doesn’t even begin to describe it.”
“She was old as dirt,” Caleb said, “but still. The old crone was kind of entertaining.”
“Entertaining” wasn’t a word I’d use to describe Grandma Piperi. I leaned back in the moon chair and let my eyes drift shut as Olivia and Caleb started talking about the party they’d snuck off to last night. I felt a spark of jealousy and bitterness. I hadn’t been invited. Maybe Caleb thought I had more pure than half in me, too. Blech.
I refocused my thoughts on Piperi. Even a few days later, I was still so wrapped up in the almost exposure of Aiden’s and my nonexistent relationship to give much thought to what she’d said before she’d died.
The conversation I’d had with her didn’t make much sense—no big surprise there. The only thing important I’d picked out was about the guy who wasn’t who he appeared, that he had everyone fooled. If only she hadn’t poofed into nothing a second later, maybe she would’ve said his name, which would’ve helped tremendously. I didn’t share this part of the conversation with anyone. It seemed that whoever it was wasn’t a friend of mine. Then again, I couldn’t be sure. After that thought, I must’ve drifted off to sleep, because I jerked upright at the sound of my name.
“Miss Andros.”
I peeled my eyes open and found Leon standing in the doorway to the rec room. “Yeah?”
“You’re not supposed to be in here.”
Odd. When had Leon been assigned to be my babysitter? I only saw him around campus when he had terrible and urgent news to deliver. “Come on,” I whined.
Caleb peered over the back of the couch. “She’s not bothering anyone.”
Leon didn’t even glance at Caleb. “Up.”
Caleb twisted toward me. “One of these days, you’ll be able to stay out and play. Then everything will be right in our world.”
Pulling myself out the chair, I rolled my eyes at Caleb. “Leon, can I have a playdate with my friends?” That got a giggle out of Olivia.
Leon’s expression remained bland. “Perhaps you’d be allowed to have playdates if you stayed out of trouble for a whole week.”
“I guess that’s a no.” Caleb grinned up at me. “So now you know what to do. Stay out of trouble for a whole week, Alex. A whole week.”
I smacked the back of Caleb’s head as I made my way past the couch. He swung out at me, but Olivia got in the way.
“Bye!” Olivia chirped, already snuggling down beside Caleb.
Giving them a little wave, I followed Leon out of the lounge. I felt a little uncomfortable walking beside him. The man was almost seven feet tall and looked like he belonged on the pro wrestling circuit. Not to mention, I didn’t know how much Leon knew. I remembered how unsurprised he’d looked when Marcus had mentioned me being the Apollyon.
I searched for something to say, but came up empty until my gaze fell on a statue of Apollo. “Hey, you kind of look like Apollo. Has anyone told you that? All you need is blond hair and raging hormones. Maybe he’s your great-great-great-great grandfather or something.”
Leon’s gaze flicked over the marble statue. “No. No one has ever said that.”
“Huh. Funny. ‘Cuz you do. I wonder if you have anything else in common with Apollo.”
“Like what?”
“You know. Didn’t Apollo have a thing for pretty boys?” I snorted. “Wait, didn’t Apollo have a thing for just about everything that walked? Until they got turned into trees or flowers, that is.”
“What?” Leon came to a complete standstill, gaping down at me. “There are some myths that are true, but most are exaggerated.”
I raised my brows quizzically. “Didn’t realize you were an Apollo fanboy. Sorry.”
“I am not a fanboy.”
“Okay. Never mind, then.”
“Do you know what I find interesting, Alexandria?” he asked after a few moments.
“No. Not really.” I shivered in the rapidly cooling air.
“How you happened across the oracle right before she died.”
I glanced around the nearly empty campus, spotting only Sentinels and Guards. I hadn’t realized it had gotten so late. “I have no clue. I guess I have that kind of luck.”
“Twice?”
I looked at him sharply. And there was another thing I hadn’t known he was aware of. “I guess so.”
Leon nodded, eyes scanning the pathway to the girls’ dorm. “Did you know the oracle only seeks out those she wants? That many, many pure-bloods go their entire lives without even seeing the oracle once?”
“No.” I wrapped my arms around myself, wondering where summer had gone. It was almost the end of October, but usually it didn’t get this chilly.
“Then she must have had something very important to tell you,” Leon said. “I’d assume something more than just being able to change history.”
My steps slowed as the oracle’s words rushed through me. He is not what he seems. He has them all fooled. He plays both sides. I glanced up at Leon, wary of where this conversation was going. There was nothing I knew about Leon except his wonderful ability to pop up when I didn’t want him around—and his fanboy love for Apollo. “That’s all she said.”
Leon stopped in front of the steps to the dorm, folding those massive arms over his chest. “Seems rather vague.”
“Piperi is—was—always vague. Nothing she ever said has made much sense to me.”
He cocked his head to the side and a small smile appeared on his face. I think that
was the first time I’d ever seen him smile. “That’s the thing about oracles. They do tell you the truth, you just have to really hear it.”
My brows inched up my forehead. “Well, I guess I didn’t hear it.”
Leon’s gaze fell on me, heavy and hard. “I’m sure in good time you will.” Then he twisted around and disappeared down the pathway.
I stood there a few more moments, staring after him. That had been the longest conversation I’d ever held with the guy and it ranked right up there with the conversations I’d held with the oracle. It made no sense.
It also filled me with a decent amount of unease. There was always something about Leon that didn’t seem right—a sort of otherworldly trait I couldn’t quite put my finger on. But could he be the mystery man the oracle had been talking about?
I shivered and headed up the stairs. I hoped not. There was no way any of us could take that massive hunk of flesh out in a battle.