“Is this what you wanted?” he asked, ever so casual y.
It happened. Being so close to him this time, I could see where the markings came from. The thick veins in his hand were the first to darken, branching out before spreading up his arm. Mesmerized, I watched the inky tats cover every piece of exposed skin. Before my eyes, they shifted away from his veins, swirling around his skin. Breaking off into different designs as he—we—continued to hold hands.
“What do they mean?” I looked up. His eyes were closed.
“The markings?”
“They are… the marks of the Apol yon.” He answered slowly, as if he were having trouble forming words and sentences. “They are runes and spel s… meant to offer protection… or in our case, alert each other to our presence… or something. They mean other stuff, too.”
“Oh.” The runes glided down his skin, toward the tips of his fingers. Cal me crazy, but I was confident that those markings were reacting to where our skin touched, and for a split second, I real y believed those glyphs would jump his skin and spread across my flesh.
“Wil … I look like this one day?”
“Hmm?”
I pul ed my gaze from our hands and looked up. Seth’s eyes were stil closed, his expression relaxed. Actual y, it was more than that. He looked… content. Pleased. I’d never seen him so calm. “Is this one of the benefits?” I meant it as a joke, but the realization smacked me upside the head before he could respond. It was because he was close to me. Something as simple as that did affect him . I affected him that way.
I recal ed what he’d said after my run-in with Kain. “I real y do have al the power in this.”
His eyes opened and they shone like two giant, tawny jewels. “What?”
My fingers tightened around his, and his lips parted, al owing a sharp sigh to leak out. Then, slowly, careful y, I loosened my hold on his fingers. Interesting. “Nothing.”
“I never should have told you the truth about that.” His voice held a certain rough edge to it. “You do, at least for now.”
I ignored the last part and pul ed my hand free before the marks could touch my skin. We didn’t say anything for a couple of minutes. I leaned back against the pil ows and Seth closed his eyes once more. During that stretch of silence, I watched the steady rise and fal of his chest. He almost looked like he was sleeping. Relaxed as he was, the beauty of his face didn’t look so cold or methodical.
This time, I was the first to break the silence.
“So… what are you doing?”
“Now?” He sounded sleepy. “I’m making up plans. Things I’m going to show you—in training, of course.”
My brows rose. “I don’t see how there is anything you can show me that Aiden can’t.”
Seth laughed then, and when he spoke, his voice was smug and knowing. “Oh, Alex, I have a lot to show you.
Things that Aiden wil never be able to teach you.”
Staring down at him, I admitted to myself that there was a teeny tiny part of me that actual y looked forward to whatever it was that he planned on showing me. I felt confident that it would be entertaining if not fruitful.
We real y didn’t talk after that, and al too soon, the excitement of everything faded, leaving me exhausted. My eyelids started to get too heavy to keep open, and I wanted nothing more than to kick Seth over, so I could lie down. As it was, he took up quite a bit of s.p.a.ce sprawled across the middle of my bed.
Not al that surprising, Seth opened his eyes then and looked at me. When he gave a little half smile and pushed himself to his feet, I wondered if he’d sensed he was about to get a roundhouse kick in his side.
There went the element of surprise.
“You leaving?” I asked, because real y, I had no idea what else to say.
Seth didn’t answer. He lifted his arms above his head and stretched, showing off a row of taut muscles as the black shirt rode up his stomach. The image of a cat flashed before me. That was how he moved, feline and predatory. It was a subtle grace neither human nor half.
“Do you know what your name means? Your real name—
Alexandria?”
I shook my head.
He smiled slowly. “It means ‘Defender of Man’ in Greek.”
“Oh. That sounds cool. What does your name—?”
Suddenly, he bent at the waist and swooped in. He was so d.a.m.n fast I didn’t even have a chance to jerk back, which by the way, is total y a natural reaction when the Apol yon comes at someone that quickly.
He brushed his lips over my forehead, lingering only long enough I could be positive he’d placed a gentle kiss against my skin before straightening.
“Good night, Alexandria, Defender of Man.”
Stunned, I mumbled something along the lines of goodbye, but he was gone before I could ful y get the words out. I reached up and brushed my fingers over the spot his lips had touched. His gesture was weird, unexpected, wrong, and… sweet.
I eased down and stretched out my legs. Staring up at the ceiling, I wondered what the next couple of months held in store for me. For the most part, I came up empty.
Everything had changed—I had changed, but the one thing I could be sure about was between Aiden and Seth, I’d be learning lots of things.
***
The fol owing afternoon, I remembered the card from Lucian I’d dropped on the table. I slipped my finger under the crease and tore it open. I slid the money out, and for the first time, I actual y read the note.
It wasn’t bad or too fake, but stil , nothing stirred in my chest as I stared down at his elegant handwriting. No matter how much money he sent me or how many letters he personal y wrote, he couldn’t buy my love or erase the suspicion surrounding him like a thick cloud.
But his money was going to buy me some pretty sweet shoes soon.
With that thought in mind, I showered and found something to wear that covered the worst of the tags.
Keeping my hair down helped with the neck situation, but it didn’t cover al the splotches.
To my surprise, the Guards didn’t stop me when I crossed the bridge to the main island, but as I prowled the main street, I had a feeling of being watched. A quick glance over my shoulder confirmed my suspicions. One of the Guards had broken away from his partner on the bridge and kept a discreet distance behind me. Perhaps Lucian or Marcus worried I’d make another run for it… or do something else incredibly irresponsible.
I tossed the Guard a saucy grin before darting into one of the boardwalk’s tourist shops owned by the pures but run by mortals. The one I dove into featured an a.s.sortment of homemade candles, mosaic tiles made out of crushed shel s, and sea salt baths. Smiling to myself, I sensed I’d be spending some of Lucian’s money here.
Excited by al the girl stuff I planned on indulging in, I considered the simple pleasures of life often overlooked when preparing to kil daimons. Bubble baths were usual y a low priority. I grabbed a few white votive candles in little pinewood spirit boats and a handful of big, chunky ones—
the kind that smel ed like they’d overdosed in a Bath and Body Works sweatshop.
At the checkout counter, I ignored the way the obviously mortal clerk kept staring at my neck. Pures used compulsions on the mortals who lived near the Covenant, convincing them that al the weird things they saw were actual y normal. This chick looked like she could use another dose.
“Is that al ?” She stuttered over the last word, forcing her gaze away from my scars.
I shifted uncomfortably. Was this going to be how people acted until the d.a.m.n tags faded? My eyes dropped from her to a set of ocean- themed stationery next to the register.
“Can I add that?”
The girl nodded, sending highlighted hair across her face. Unable to look at me directly, she rang me up pretty quick.
Once outside the store, I sat on one of the white benches lining the street and scribbled a couple of lines. After sealing the envelope, I headed across the street and cut between a bookstore and a novelty shop.
I didn’t need to look behind to know the Guard stil trailed me. Ten minutes later, I climbed the wide steps to Lucian’s beach house and slid the note through the crack under his door.
There was a good chance he wouldn’t even get it, but at least I’d attempted to thank him. I’d feel less guilty about spending my mini-fortune on my back-to-school wardrobe.
After al , I couldn’t wear dress greens and workout clothes al year long.
I rushed off his porch just in case he was actual y home and caught me there. With my bag of smel y goodness, I started back to the Covenant-control ed island.
“Miss Andros?”
Letting out a huge sigh, I turned and faced the Guard turned stalker. He stood by his partner now, a bland look on his face. “Yeah?”
“The next time you wish to leave the Covenant, please gain permission.”
I rol ed my eyes, but nodded. I’d come ful circle since I’d returned to the Covenant. I stil needed a babysitter.
Back on the campus, I made one more stop before I met up with Caleb: the courtyard. Hibiscuses had been Mom’s favorite flower, and I found several in bloom. I liked to think they smel ed like the tropics but I could never real y catch any scent from them. Mom had just liked how beautiful they were. I s.n.a.t.c.hed about a half of dozen and left the garden.
As I neared the girls’ dorm, I spotted Lea sitting on the front porch with a few other half girls. She looked a lot better than the last time I’d seen her.
She tipped her chin when I pa.s.sed her, using one über-tanned hand to flick her gloriously shiny hair over her shoulder. Silence stretched between us, and then she opened her mouth.
“Don’t you look lovelier than normal?” She pushed away from the thick columns and bit her plump lower lip. “Wel …
at least the tags draw the attention away from your face.
Guess that’s a good thing, huh?”
I didn’t know rather to laugh or punch her in the face.
Either way, as ridiculous as it sounded, it felt good to see Lea back to her b.i.t.c.hy self.
“What?” She narrowed her eyes in chal enge. “You have nothing to say?”
I thought it over. “I’m sorry… you’re so tan I thought you were a leather chair.”
She smirked as she strutted by me. “Whatever. Freak.”
Normal y those words would have started a never-ending battle of insults, but this time, I let it slide. I had better things to do. Inside my room, I separated the candles and the little boats used to guide spirits into the afterlife. The meaning was total y symbolic, but since I didn’t have a body or a gravesite, it was the best I could come up with.
I took my time getting ready. I wanted to look nice—wel , as nice as I could look with half my body covered in tags.
When I felt satisfied my hair didn’t look like a frizz bal and the dress I’d worn to the earlier funerals wasn’t covered in lint, I picked up a light cardigan. Slipping it over my arms, I gathered up my stuff and headed off to meet up with Caleb.
He was already down by the water, near the edge of the marshlands and where the staff cottages sat. It was the best, most private place to do such a thing, and I felt glad for that. Seeing Caleb in his nice clothes felt like a punch to my chest.