Scalding hot water ran down my back. Only hours had passed since Mrs. Hunter told us that Alec would be returning. I’d hoped I would find peace here—that the demons that had plagued me for months would disappear. Here I was, though, with the people I’d missed most, only to find those demons come to life. Tori had been attacked because of me, and with her being in the transition, I couldn’t confirm what she knew. She’d gone into shock when she was bitten, and it was very likely she hadn’t been able to process what I was saying when I told them to send a message.

Stupid.

How could I have let my anger get the best of me? I could’ve taken them down without revealing anything, and yet I’d sent a message—that I wasn’t their prey, but their predator. My hands clenched.

I gasped.

Dropping the razor, I stared at the blood running through the water then examined the chunk in my ankle. It burned like a bitch for a moment, but the pain receded as my body healed. Not even thirty seconds later, the mark was gone. Vanished. That shouldn’t have been possible. Healing this quickly was beyond unheard of, even for my kind. The only time I’d ever seen anything close to this was last March, when my sister had fixed her broken arm with energy she’d stolen from April. This was…not good, but I couldn’t stop myself from testing it again.

I picked up the razor and bit my lip as I brought it down on my open palm. Pain shot through me, bringing me back to the warehouse. Memories flooded me as I collapsed to the floor. The razor broke apart, the pieces disintegrating into nothing, and a pounding shook the door, reverberating through the bathroom.

“Selena, open the door!”

I turned the shower off and wrung out my hair before wrapping myself in a towel. Opening the door, I stared at Lucas.

“What just happened?” His gaze roamed over me from head to toe, but my already healed palm gave nothing away.

“Nothing, I just—”

“What is that?” He was staring at the shower.

Scarlet droplets were splattered where the water hadn’t washed away the evidence. I sighed.

“Goddamnit, Selena. Have you learned nothing about lying to me?” He closed the already small distance between us. I stepped back, but he advanced.

“I know you cut your hand.” My back hit the glass door, and I had nowhere to go. He was everywhere.

“Get out of my fucking head.” I glared at him defiantly, but he only glared right back and made no move to leave.

“How are you already healed?” His gaze flicked to my palm.

I clenched my fist and debating decking him just to remind him who he was talking to. “Since when do you get to make demands?” I snapped, digging my nails into the palms of my hands.

He snatched up the hand I’d cut and ran his fingers over the unblemished skin. I wanted to scream at him for being so pigheaded and nosy. Instead, I pulled away, hoping he wouldn’t see them tremble. He was too close.

“Answer the question, Selena.”

My control was slipping, and I was going to cross a line. Damn my body. Damn this reaction. Damn it all. That wasn’t what I said, though, because that would’ve given him too much satisfaction. Instead, I said, “Get out. I’ll talk to you when I’m dressed.”

He cocked his head to the side, as if he’d only now realized how little I was wearing. He lunged forward, closer than before but still not touching.

He leaned close, his lips at my ear. His breath was warm, and a shiver ran through me. “Oh, believe me, I noticed,” he whispered.

My eyes narrowed. Phantom hands threw him out of the bathroom and slammed the door. I exhaled unsteadily, and cursed my body, which refused to listen to my mind. Friends. We were supposed to be friends. No more.

So why do I have this reaction everytime he’s near me?

I dressed slowly, taking the time to think of what I was going to say to him. My cotton shirt brushed my skin, almost painfully. Ever since the warehouse, it was like my body had awoken into a whole new level of chaos. Faster. Stronger. More volatile than ever, and without boxing to channel it for the summer. Fortunately, I wasn’t the only one who’d left that warehouse changed, and it was those changes that had brought me Blair. Three months ago, I wouldn’t have thought that possible. She’d been bedridden and damaged, rattled to the core by Elizabeth’s betrayal. She’d grown up, though, and become the ice that ran through her veins. And it had all begun on the plane ride back to Mariana.

“I want you to train me,” she said, taking the seat next to me before one of my sisters could get to it.

“You don’t know what you’re asking,” I said dismissively. While we might’ve been equals, I really didn’t believe she had it in her to survive me. Not then.

“Actually, I do,” she said icily. She turned and swept her hair from her face, showing me the white scars that covered her skin like snow. She raised her head defiantly, not backing down, even though I was the one who’d given them to her. My power had lashed out, throwing her through a window. She didn’t cower, though, when I reached out, running my fingertips across her cheek. She didn’t flinch.

“Why?” I had to know her reasons. She had to have reasons.

Her eyes darkened. “I will never be trapped again. I don’t just want to learn to fight. I need to kill. I won’t spend the rest of my life looking over my shoulder.” She enunciated her words clearly.

I looked into her eyes and didn’t see the girl I’d once thought was there. I saw an apprentice. A warrior. “If you train with me, that’s all you do. Your old life is over.” I was asking too much, more than anyone would give, but I had to know how far she was willing to go.

“My old life died when my sister traded her life for ours.”

I gave her the smallest of smiles. In that moment, my cousin had sold her soul to someone darker than the devil.

Me.

Not once in these last three months had she disappointed me. Blair was strong, as strong as I had been. Both our powers were maturing, though, and while her strength made her a champion among our kind, mine made me a god.

It wasn’t all it was cracked to be, though. I’d taken three doors off the hinges this summer by accident, and nearly caused an earthquake the one time Blair nearly beat me to a pulp. My sense of touch was heightened in all respects, and while clothing was mildly uncomfortable, getting pounded on by fists made of solid ice was nearly unbearable. I still hadn’t learned how not to feel so much, or become desensitized to everyday things—like clothes and temperature.

Masking my discomfort with ambivalence, I opened the door again. Crisp air brushed my flesh, and I spotted Lucas outside on Tori’s balcony. Taking a steadying breath, I walked around the bed and onto the porch. Dusk was setting, casting shadows across the mountains and forests in every direction.

“There’s only one way I figure it’s possible for your hand to have healed within seconds of cutting it.” His voice was low as he turned to me. His eyes were molten green, so vivid in contrast to the pink sunset. “You’re stronger than you’ve led everyone to believe. Killing the demons last spring was only the beginning.”

I could’ve lied if I’d wanted to, but there was no point because he already knew. He wasn’t guessing. “Yes.”

He nodded, taking it in stride. He walked toward me, but I went to the railing, closing the balcony door with a flick of my wrist.

“Who’s after you?”

I stilled. No one knew about that. No one was supposed to. Yet Lucas did. “What are you talking about?” I said, keeping my back to him. It was beginning to sound like my go-to line every time he caught me in a lie.

“I knew the second you arrived, Selena. Tori was waiting for you. I saw the entire thing through her eyes. You knew someone was after you, and you said nothing. You didn’t tell me, and I can only assume you’ve known since last spring.” He paused, and my heartbeat kicked up a notch as I neither confirmed or denied his suspicions. The silence must’ve been a confirmation of its own, though, when he followed up with, “The demons weren’t a coincidence, were they?”

“No, they weren’t.” I didn’t try to hide it. We weren’t around his parents, who’d only barely bought that lie, and Lucas knew me better than anyone.

“Why have you never said anything?”

I didn’t answer.

“Why didn’t you tell me, Selena?” he whispered in my ear. He ran his fingertips along the small of my back, grazing my sensitive skin.

I tensed. Screw him. He knew exactly what he was doing.

“No one can know. If people find out, they’re going to want to know why they’re after me, and I don’t have answers. If it were just my ability, this would’ve ended in the spring. Whoever’s hunting me would’ve gotten the hint. Which leads me to believe that there’s more going on then either of us know.” I turned, brushing against his chest.

If my lies wouldn’t keep him at bay, maybe the truth would. Maybe he would finally see that my life was too messed up to have room for him in it. Maybe he would let me go.

“No, I won’t, because even though you keep pushing me away, I love you.”

Or not.