Deity

Seth smiled. “I’m not the fool here, pure-blood. She doesn’t belong to you.”

“She belongs to no one,” Aiden growled as his hands flexed by his hips, where his daggers normally hung.

“Debatable,” Seth said, so low I wasn’t even sure I’d heard him correctly.

I shoved between the two idiots before one of them did some damage. “You don’t own me, Seth.”

Seth finally looked at me, his eyes a cool amber. “We need to talk.”

That we did. I glanced at the furious pure-blood beside me. This wasn’t going to be pretty.

“In private,” Seth added.

“What can you possibly need to say that you can’t say in front of me?” Aiden asked.

“Aiden,” I groaned. “You promised, remember?” I didn’t need to say any more. Aiden knew. “I do need to talk to him.”

“Nothing will happen to her. Not when she’s with me.”

I spun around. “Just let me get my hoodie. Try not to kill each other.”

“No promises,” Seth smirked.

Grabbing my hoodie off the back of the couch, I quickly hauled it on and hoofed it back to the hallway. Gods knew a second of those two together was a second too long. I passed Aiden a meaningful look as I followed Seth to the front door. He looked severely unhappy, but nodded.

Brutal temperatures sucked away my breath as I stepped outside. I was unable to remember the last time it’d been this cold in North Carolina. Seth wore just a black thermal and cargos. Nothing else. I wondered If I got built-in weather padding once I Awakened.

The Guards immediately stepped aside, revealing the strong winter sun glaring off the still waters. At first I was surprised, but then I remembered whose Guards they were—Lucian’s.

Aiden moved uneasily. His hands opened and closed at his sides.

Seth feigned a look of sympathy. “Don’t look too happy about this, Aiden.”

I kicked Seth in the shin.

“Ouch,” he hissed, blasting me with a look. “Kicking is not nice.”

“Antagonizing people isn’t nice,” I shot back.

Aiden sighed. “You have twenty minutes. Then we’ll come looking for you.”

Backing down the steps, Seth bowed at Aiden and then pivoted around. Wind caught and tossed his hair around. Sometimes I forgot how… beautiful Seth was. He could give Apollo a run for his money. Both of them had this type of cold beauty that didn’t seem real, because it was flawless both far away and up close.

I fell into step beside him, shoving my hands into the center pocket of my hoodie. “I wasn’t expecting you back so soon.”

Seth arched a golden eyebrow. “Really? I’m not surprised by that.”

My cheeks flushed. There was no way he could’ve known what had happened between Aiden and me. The bond didn’t work over that many miles. Taking a deep breath, I womaned up. “Seth, I have to—”

“I already know, Alex.”

“What?” I stopped, pushing my hair out of my face. “You know what?”

He faced me and leaned in, bringing his face mere inches from mine. The cord went crazy inside me, but it was manageable… as long as he didn’t touch me. Oh gods, this wasn’t going to be easy. “I know everything.”

“Everything” could mean a lot of things. I hunched my shoulders, squinting against the harsh glare. “What exactly do you know?”

His lips tipped into a small smile. “Well, let’s see. I know about that,” he gestured to the St. Delphi house, “back there. I knew that was going to happen.”

I went hot and cold all at once. “Seth, I’m really sorry. I don’t want to hurt you.”

He stared at me a moment, then laughed. “Hurt me? Alex, I’ve always known how you’ve felt about him.”

Okay. I must’ve been on crack when I thought I’d seen vulnerability in Seth before. Silly me, he was the boy with no feelings or something. But even for the cocky, a

“Am I supposed to be upset? Is that what you want?” He tipped his head to the side, brows slanted. “Do you want me to be jealous? Is that what it takes?”

“No!” I felt my face flush again. “I just didn’t expect you to be so… okay with it.”

“Well, I wouldn’t say I’m okay with it. It is what it is.”

I stared at him and then a thought struck me. “You’re not going to turn him in, are you?”

Seth slowly shook his head. “How would that benefit me? You’d be in servitude and on the elixir.”

And I wouldn’t Awaken, which it always seemed to come down to, and I was big enough person to admit that stung. I wondered what bothered Seth more—my life being virtually over or my Awakening not happening. I looked away, biting my lip. “Seth, I found some stuff out while you were gone.”

“So did I,” he responded evenly.

That was cryptic. “You had to know about the Order and how an Apollyon is made.”

His expression didn’t change. “Why is that?”

Frustration flared. “You once said that when you Awakened, you knew everything from the previous Apollyons. One of them would’ve known about the Order, and about how they were born. Why didn’t you tell me?”

Seth sighed. “Alex, I didn’t tell you because I didn’t see a point.”

“How could you not see a point after everything that happened to me in New York? If you’d told me about the Order, I could’ve been better prepared.”

He looked away, lips pursing.

“And I asked you while we were there if you knew what that symbol meant,” I said. Anger and so much disappointment swamped me. I didn’t even try to shield my emotions from him. “You said you didn’t know. When I asked if you knew about a half and a pure mixing, you said you guessed your father had to be a half. You knew the truth. What I don’t get is why you didn’t tell me.”

“I was told not to.”

“What?” Seth started walking, and I hurried to catch up with him. “Who told you not to tell me?”

He stared up the beach. “Does it matter?”

“Yes!” I practically shrieked. “It does matter. How can we have anything If I don’t trust you?”

His brows shot up. “What dowe have exactly, Alex? I do remember telling you that you had a choice. I didn’t ask for labels or expectations.”

I remembered that, too. The night in the pool seemed forever ago. Part of me missed that playful Seth.

“And you made your choice,” Seth continued softly. “You made your choice even when you said you chose me.”

I also remembered that fleeting, satisfied look when I had said that I’d chosen him. Shaking my head, I searched for something to say. “Seth, I—”

“I don’t want to talk about this.” He stopped where the sand faded into pavement, reached down and brushed his knuckles across my cheek. I jerked back, startled by the contact and the electric shock that followed. Seth lowered his hand, staring at the backs of the small shops lining the main road. “Anything else you want to talk about?”

He hadn’t answered a damn question, but I did have one more. “Did you see my father, Seth?”

“No.” He met my eyes.

“Did you even look for him?”

“Yes. Alex, I couldn’t find him. That doesn’t mean he wasn’t there.” He pushed back the shorter strands that had been blown free. “Anyway, I brought you back a gift.”

I wasn’t sure I’d heard him right, but then he repeated it, and my heart sank. “Seth, you shouldn’t have brought me anything.”

“You’ll change your mind once you see it.” A wicked grin pulled at his lips. “Trust me, this is a once-in-a-lifetime type of gift.”

Great. This was making me feel better. If he handed me the Hope Diamond, I was going to throw up. He and I had never been in a relationship, but guilt still twisted at my insides. When I looked at him, I saw Aiden. And when Seth touched me, I felt Aiden. The worst thing of it all was that Seth knew.

“Alex, just come on.”

“Okay.” I drew in a deep breath and then pressed my lips together. The wind that kicked up from the ocean was shockingly cold, and I huddled down in my hoodie. “Why in the world is it so cold? It never used to be this cold here.”