Deity (Covenant #3)(45)

“He had questions about what happened at the Council.” My voice was unnaturally thick. “That’s all.”

“Alex?” Aiden said, and my heart dropped all the way to my toes. Of course, he was here. “What happened?”

Facing them, I used my hair to shield my stinging cheek from them and kept my gaze plastered to the carpet. “Apparently, I have a bad attitude. We had to work through that.”

Aiden was suddenly in front of me, tipping my chin back. My hair slid off my cheek. Rage blasted off him, swallowing up the air like a black hole of fury.

“He did this?” His voice was so low I barely heard him.

Unable to answer, I looked away.

“This is unacceptable.” Aiden whirled on Marcus. “He cannot do this. She’s a girl.”

Sometimes Aiden forgot that I was also a half-blood, which pretty much zeroed out the whole “not hitting girls” thing. Like with Jackson. Like with most pure-bloods. Our society—our rules and how we were treated—it sucked. There were no words for it.

And at once, a thousand questions rose up, but one stood out. How could I continue to be a part of this world? Being a Sentinel, in a way, was supporting the social structure, basically saying that I was okay with this, and I wasn’t. I hated it.

Shaking my head, I pushed those thoughts out of my head for now. “He’s the Head Dick. He can do whatever he wants, right?”

Marcus looked thunderstruck as he continued to stare at me. Was he really that surprised by Telly’s violence? If that was the case, he’d just lost some intelligence points. He turned to Leon. “She was supposed to go nowhere by herself. Why was Telly able to reach her?”

“She was in class,” Leon responded. “Linard was waiting for her to leave. And no one expected Telly to be here. Not with everything that is happening in New York.”

Marcus cut a dangerous look at Linard. “If you have to sit in class with her, then do it.”

“It’s not his fault,” I said. “No one can watch me every second of the day.”

Aiden cursed. “Is that all you’ll do? She is your niece, Marcus. He hit your niece and that’s your answer?”

Marcus’ eyes deepened to a bright green. “I am well aware of the fact that she is my niece, Aiden. And do not think for one second that I found any of this,” he threw his hand toward me, “acceptable. I will contact the Council immediately. I do not care that she is a half-blood. Telly has no right.”

I shifted my weight. “The Council is going to care? Seriously? You guys beat the crap out of servants all the time. Why would I be any different?”

“You are not a servant,” Marcus said, storming to his desk.

“Does that make it okay?” I shouted, my hands curling into fists. “It’s okay to beat servants because of their blood? And it’s not okay because I have half—” I cut myself off before I revealed too much. All eyes were on me.

Behind his desk, Marcus took a deep breath and briefly closed his eyes. “Are you okay, Alexandria?”

“I’m just peachy.”

Aiden took my arm. “I’m taking her to the clinic.”

I pulled my arm free. “I’ll be fine.”

“He hit you,” Aiden seethed, eyes flashing.

“And it will just bruise, okay? That’s not the problem.” I needed to be out of this room, away from all of them. I needed to think. “I just want to go back to my room.”

Marcus froze with the phone halfway to his ear. “Aiden, make sure she makes it back to her room. And I want her to stay there until we find out what Telly is up to or until he leaves. I will contact Lucian and the rest of the Council,” Marcus said, and his gaze found Aiden’s again. “I mean it. She is not to leave the room.”

I was too busy going over everything that had happened to care about Marcus sentencing me to my dorm. And if Lucian found out about what’d happened, then that meant Seth would, too. At least there was one bright lining in the cloud of crud. If Seth were here, he’d probably kill Telly.

Marcus stopped me at the door. “Alexandria?”

I turned around, hoping he’d make this fast. Bitch me out for antagonizing Telly, tell me not to do again, and warn me about my bad behavior.

He met my stare. “I am sorry that I was not here to stop him. This will not happen again.”

My uncle had an alien in him. I blinked slowly. Before I could say anything, he went back to his phone call. Sort of stunned, I let Aiden guide me out of the office and down the hall.

Once the door in the stairwell closed behind us, Aiden blocked the stairs. “I want to know what happened.”

“I just want to go back to my room.”

“I’m not asking, Alex.”

I didn’t answer, and finally Aiden turned around stiffly and went down the stairs. I followed behind him slowly. Classes were still in session, so the stairwell and the first floor lobby were virtually empty with the exception of some Guards and Instructors. We walked back to my dorm in silence, but I knew he wasn’t going to let this go. Aiden was just biding his time, so I wasn’t entirely surprised when he followed me into my room, closing the door behind him.

I dropped my bag and ran my hands through my hair. “Aiden.”

He grasped my chin like he’d done in Marcus’ office, tilting my head to the side. His jaw tightened. “How did this happen?”