Half-Blood (Covenant 1)

After spending the rest of the evening thinking about what’d happened in Lake Lure, I had trouble sleeping and woke up way too early, fil ed with an itchy agitation.

By lunch, I’d found out Seth had also taken the four-hour drive with Aiden. More information drifted back to the Covenant as the day progressed. Olivia had been correct.

Al the pures who’d been in Lake Lure had been massacred. So had the half-blood servants. They’d searched the lake and the grounds, but only four of the Security team had been found. They’d been drained of al their aether. The other two, including Kain, had not been discovered.

Olivia, who’d become our main source of information, fil ed us in with what she knew. “Some of the dead suffered multiple tags. But the half-bloods they found… they were covered in daimon tags.”

I read the same, sickening question in the pale faces around the table: Why? By birth, half-bloods had less aether in them. Why would daimons repeatedly drain a half when they had pures who were ful of aether?

I swal owed hard. “Do you know how they got past the Guards?”

She shook her head. “Not yet, but there were security cameras around the cabins, so they’re hoping the video footage wil reveal something.”

Some of the halfs tried for some sort of normalcy as the day wore on, and none of us wanted to be alone. But the activity at the pool tables lacked the normal laughs and the game systems sat untouched in front of the televisions.

The sul en atmosphere started to get to me. I retreated to my dorm room after dinner. A few hours later, there was a soft knock on my door. I got up, expecting Caleb or Olivia.

Aiden stood there, and my heart did a weird flip I was beginning to hate.

I asked the stupidest question. “Are you okay?” Of course he wasn’t. I mental y kicked myself as he stepped inside and closed the door.

“You’ve heard?”

No point in lying. “Yeah, I heard last night.” I sat down on the edge of the couch.

“I just got back. News travels fast.” I’d never seen him so exhausted or grave. His hair looked as if he’d run his hands through it many times, and now it went every which direction. The need to comfort him nearly overpowered me, but there was nothing I could do. He gestured at the couch.

“May I?”

I nodded. “It was… real y bad, wasn’t it?”

He sat down, resting his hands on his knees. “It was pretty bad.”

“How did they get to them?”

Aiden glanced up. “They caught one of the pures outside.

Once the daimons got in—the attack surprised the Guards.

There were three daimons… and the Sentinels—they fought hard.”

I swal owed. Three daimons. The night in Georgia, I’d been surprised by how many were together. Aiden was thinking along the same lines. “The daimons are real y starting to work in groups. They’re showing a level of restraint in their attacks, an organization they never had before. Two of the half-bloods are missing.”

“What do you think it means?”

He shook his head. “We’re not sure, but we’l find out.”

I had no doubt he would. “I’m… sorry you have to deal with this.”

A hardness settled across him. He didn’t move. “Alex…

there’s something I need to tel you.”

“Okay.” I wanted to believe the seriousness in his voice was due to al the heavy stuff he had been dealing with al day.

“There were surveil ance cameras. They let us get a pretty good idea of what happened outside the house, but not inside.” He took a deep breath and lifted his head. Our eyes met. “I came here first.”

My chest tightened. “This… this is gonna be bad, isn’t it?”

Aiden didn’t mince words. “Yes.”

The air caught in my lungs. “What… is it?”

He twisted his long body toward me. “I wanted to make sure you knew before… anyone else did. We can’t stop people from finding out. There were a lot of people there.”

“Okay?”

“Alex, there’s no easy way to say this. We saw your mother on the surveil ance cameras. She was one of the daimons who attacked them.”

I stood, and then I sat right back down. My brain refused to process this. I shook my head as my thoughts went on repeat. No. No. No. Not her—anyone but her.

“Alex?”

It felt like I couldn’t catch my breath. This was worse than seeing dul ness in her eyes as she’d lain on the floor, worse than hearing she’d been turned. This… this was worse.

“Alex, I’m so sorry.”

I swal owed hard. “Did… did she kil any of them?”

“There’s no way to know unless we find either of the halfs alive, but I’d assume so. It’s what a daimon does.”

I blinked back hot tears. Do not cry. Don’t do it. “Have…

you seen Lea? Is she okay?”

Astonishment flickered across Aiden’s face.

The laugh that came out of me was shaky and broken sounding. “Lea and I aren’t friends, but I wouldn’t… ”

“You wouldn’t want her to go through this. I know.” He reached over and took my hand in his. His fingers felt remarkably warm, strong and grounding. “Alex, there’s more to this.”

I almost laughed again. “How could there be more?”

His hand tightened around mine. “It can’t be a coincidence she is this close to the Covenant. It leaves no doubt she remembers you.”

“Oh.” I stopped there, unable to go any further. I turned away from Aiden, staring at our hands. Silence stretched out between us, and then he leaned over and wrapped his other arm around my shoulders. Every muscle in my body locked up. Even in a time like this, I could recognize the wrongness of this situation. Aiden shouldn’t be offering me any sort of comfort. He probably shouldn’t have even come to tel me. Halfs and pures didn’t comfort one another.

But with Aiden I never felt like a half-blood and I never thought of him as a pure-blood.

Aiden murmured something I couldn’t make out. It sounded like ancient Greek, the language of the gods. I don’t know why, but the sound of his voice ripped through the barriers I was trying and failing at stitching together. I sunk forward, resting my head against his shoulder. I squeezed my eyes against the harsh stinging. My breath came out in short, shaky gasps. I don’t know how long we stayed like that, his cheek against the top of my head, our fingers wrapped together.

“You show amazing strength,” he murmured, stirring the hair around my ear.

I forced my eyes open. “Oh… I’m just saving al of this up for years of therapy later.”

“You don’t give yourself enough credit. What you’ve had to face? You’re very strong.” He pul ed back, his hand brushing across my cheek so quickly I truly believed I’d imagined the touch. “Alex, I have to go check in with Marcus. He’s waiting for me.”

I nodded as he let go of my hand and stood. “Could…

could there be a chance she didn’t kil them?”

Aiden stopped by the door. “Alex, I don’t know. It would be highly unlikely.”

“Wil … you let me know if they do find either of the halfs alive?” I knew it was pointless.

He nodded. “Yes. Alex… if you need anything, let me know.” He pul ed the door closed with a click behind him.

Alone, I slid to the floor and pressed my head against my knees. There could be a chance Mom hadn’t kil ed anyone.

She could be with the other daimons because she didn’t know what else to do. Maybe she was confused. Maybe she was coming for me.

I shuddered, pressing further down. My heart hurt. It felt like it was shattering again—al over again. There was the smal est, tiniest chance she hadn’t kil ed anyone. Even I knew how stupid it was to real y hold onto that chance, but I did. Because what else did I have? Grandma Piperi’s words became clearer to me—not just what she’d said, but what she hadn’t.

For whatever reason, Mom had left the safety of the community to pul me away from the Covenant, setting al of this—this huge mess—into motion. During those three years, I’d never once cal ed out for help, never stopped the insanity of living unprotected among mortals.

The countless times I’d done nothing flashed before me.

In a way I was responsible for what’d happened to her.

Worse yet, if she’d kil ed those innocent people, I was responsible for their deaths, as wel .

My legs didn’t shake when I stood. Certainty fil ed my mind—maybe it’d been made up the night I heard what’d real y happened to her. There was a smal chance she hadn’t committed horrific crimes, but if… if the daimon who had been my mother had kil ed someone, then one way or another, I was going to kil her. She was my responsibility now—my problem.

CHAPTER 14

I PRETENDED NOTHING WAS WRONG THE NEXT

DAY IN practice. It worked wel until we took a break and Aiden asked how I was doing.

I kept my voice even. “I’m fine.”

Then I beat the crap out of the dummy.

Toward the end of practice, a surge of energy shimmied down my back right before Seth showed up. He stood by the door, watching quietly. I had the sinking suspicion he was there for me. Groaning, I took my time rol ing up the mats.

Aiden nodded in Seth’s direction. “Is everything okay?”

“Who knows?” I scowled.

Aiden straightened, coming to his ful height. “Has he been bothering you?”

A huge part of me wanted to say yes, but in reality, Seth hadn’t real y bothered me. And if he had, what could Aiden do about it? Aiden was a badass Sentinel warrior, but Seth was the Apol yon. Where Aiden control ed fire— pretty awesome—and he could fight, Seth control ed al four elements— pretty scary—and could wipe the floor with Aiden’s face.

Aiden stared at Seth in a way that said he had no problem confronting Seth on my behalf. As stupid as it seemed, I felt a smile tug my lips.

So wrong.

Forcing the smile off my face, I skirted around Aiden. “I’l see you later, okay?”

He nodded, eyes stil trained on Seth. Okay then.

Grabbing my bottle of water off the floor, I trudged across the floor. I nodded at Seth as I passed him, half-hoping he was there to partake in the epic stare down with Aiden and nothing else, but he turned and immediately fel in step with me.

Seth’s smile looked self-satisfied. “Your trainer does not like me.”

“He’s not my trainer. He’s a Sentinel.” I kept walking.

“And I doubt he’s even concerned with you.”

Seth chuckled. “Your trainer, who is also a Sentinel, barely spoke to me while we were in Lake Lure. And when he did, I would say it was quite coldly. It hurt my feelings.”

I doubted that. “He probably wasn’t up to making friends considering what was going on.”

“Considering your mother was a part of the attack party?”

He raised a casual eyebrow. “He seemed abnormal y affected when we reviewed the recordings and saw her.”