Deity (Covenant #3)(48)

Fear spiked. “You seriously think he has something?”

“Telly is a lot of things, but he isn’t stupid. He waited until he knew that neither Lucian nor I were anywhere near you before he made his move. I wouldn’t be surprised if Telly didn’t screw with the elixir weeks ago as a fallback plan. He needed a distraction and he got one. And Aiden isn’t stupid, either,” he said. “He’s telling you what you need to hear to stop you from doing something stupid.”

Feeling dizzy, I sat back down. “Shit.”

“Listen to me, Alex. None of them—your uncle or Aiden—is important. Stay away from Telly. Let him act on his threat, whether he has proof or not.”

“What?” I stared at the phone as if he could somehow see me, which was kind of dumb. “They’re important to me, Seth.”

“No. Aiden is important to you. In reality, you could care less about the rest,” he corrected.

“That’s not true!”

Seth laughed, but there was no humor in it. “Alex, you’re a terrible liar.”

What the hell? Did everyone think I was prone to acts of stupidity and a terrible liar? But I wasn’t lying. Laadan and Marcus were important to me. Even Leon, though he was kind of weird.

I took a deep breath. “So, you think Telly does have something?”

“I don’t think Telly would make idle threats and hope you fall for them. Look at all that he’s done so far.”

I dropped my head into my open palm. “Seth, I can’t let him go after them.”

“You can and you will. They. Are. Not. Important. You are. We are.”

“I hate it when you say things like that,” I seethed.

“Because it’s true, Alex. Why? Because once you Awaken, we can change things.” Seth paused and then his voice lowered. “You have no idea what the majority of the Council wants done to the half-bloods up here. Luckily, my presence seems to be keeping most of them in line, but they do want them killed, Alex. They see the half-bloods as a problem that they don’t have the time or manpower to deal with. Especially now that the daimons have no qualms about attacking the Covenants.”

“I thought you didn’t care about the half-bloods.” I lifted my head and stared at the blank wall across from the bed.

“Not losing sleep over their crappy lives and being okay with exterminating them are two different things, Alex.”

“Gods, Seth.” I shook my head. “Sometimes I don’t even know you.”


“You never tried to,” he said, without a trace of anger. “And it really doesn’t matter right now. All that matters is that you stay safe. Look, I got to go. Just stay in your room, at least until Telly leaves. I know he has to be back here by Friday because they are having a session.”

“All right,” I said. “Seth?”

“What?”

I bit my lip, having no idea what I wanted to say to him. There was just so much, and none of it was anything I was willing to get into right now. “Nothing. I’ll…I’ll talk to you later.”

Seth hung up, without making me promise to stay out of trouble. I think he knew my word was just as good as his.

The next twenty-four hours crept by painfully slowly. I wasn’t allowed to leave my room. Food was brought to me by one of my babysitters. Besides them, I had no visitors. Bored out of my mind, I cleaned my bathroom and started to rearrange my closet, which ended with clothes strewn across the floor.

There was a moment when panic punched a hole through my chest. Was I making the right decision by not turning myself in?

I tried calling Seth a few times but that was a total bust. He eventually called back just after I’d changed for bed. We didn’t talk for long or about anything important. I think he was just surprised that I was still in my dorm and hadn’t done anything dumb yet.

It took hours of tossing and turning to drift off to sleep. But I didn’t stay asleep for long. I woke up while it was still dark, the comforter twisted around my legs.

I watched slivers of light slice across the ceiling, disappearing when the moon dipped behind a cloud outside my window. My brain immediately kicked into hyper drive, replaying everything that had happened with Telly, then with Aiden and Seth. What if Seth had been right and Telly had a way of finding out that it was Aiden? Or even if he didn’t, what if he did go after him? And it wasn’t just Aiden I cared about. What would it say about me if I let others be harmed so I skated through until the next time? Because there would be a next time—I knew it. And who would risk their future and their life then?

It wasn’t right or fair.

Sitting up, I swung my legs off the bed and stood. Cool air spread goosebumps over my bare legs. I grabbed a long, chunky sweater off the corner of my bed and slipped it over my tank top. Creeping to the window, I pried the blinds apart and peered outside. I couldn’t see anything in the darkness and I wasn’t even sure what I was looking for.

“What am I doing?” I asked myself.

“Absolutely nothing if I have anything to do with it.”

Shrieking, I dropped the blinds and spun around. Heart pounding, I squinted at the tall outline taking up the entire doorway to my bedroom. Once I recognized who it was, it did nothing to calm my racing heart. “Holy daimon babies! You gave me a heart attack.”