“Why didn’t you do something?” Her voice broke. “You were his best friend. You could’ve done something!” She moved forward, her arm trembling as she pointed at me.

Luke reached out and wrapped an arm around her shoulders. “Don’t. It’s not Alex’s—”

“You’re the Apollyon!” Olivia cried out, her words ending in a broken sob. “Yes, I know! Caleb told me what you are, and I’ve seen you fight!” She turned to Luke, eyes pleading. “You’ve seen how fast she can move. Why didn’t she do something?”

I knew— I knewthere was nothing physically I could’ve done. I wasn’t the Apollyon—not yet—but to hear her say that? Well, it was like hearing Marcus’s voice in my head. People expect more from you, because of what you will become.

“I’m sorry, Olivia. I’m so—”

“Don’t say you’re sorry! That won’t bring Caleb back!”

I flinched. “I know.”

“Olivia, come on. Let’s go back to your room.” Luke sent me an apologetic look as he started inching her around.

Elena came forward, taking Olivia’s hand. “It’s okay. It’s going to be okay.”

Olivia slumped against Luke, her head falling to her chest. The full weight of her loss was visible for all of us to see.

Grief clawed its way through my chest. I turned away, feeling a rush of hot tears. Blindly, I stumbled away from them, roaming deeper into the memorial grounds. It wasn’t until I bumped into someone did I look up, wiping under my eyes. “Oh, sorry—” I stopped, mid-apology.

It wasn’t a person I’d run into, but a statue. A small laugh crawled out of my throat as I stared up at the striking, yet woeful face carved out of stone. The sculpture had been shaped so that he bent at the waist slightly, one hand reaching out toward something, palm open in a beckoning manner. My gaze drifted down to the base, where the name Thanatos had been scripted. Under his name was a symbol—a torch turned downward.

I’d seen it before… on Instructor’s Romvi’s arm.

CHAPTER 14

SIGHING IN FRUSTRATION, I SHOVED MY HANDS INTO

the pockets of my hoodie and scanned the night sky. Stars broke up the darkness, some shining more brightly than the others. The last time I’d seen the dark sky had been more than a week ago. I’d been behind the dining hall, holding Caleb’s cold body.

Caleb.

I squelched the rising tide of sorrow and regret before it consumed me again by focusing on something that had been nagging me since his funeral. Why in the world would Romvi have the symbol of the god of Peaceful Death tattooed on his arm? And wasn’t he the same god that old book had claimed was responsible for killing Solaris and the First Apollyon? I wasn’t sure it really mattered, but the image kept coming back to me.

“You okay?”

Every muscle in my body locked up. I reminded myself that it was only going to take eleven hours to get to the Catskills—eleven hours stuck in a car with the guy I loved, the guy I’d practically begged to love me in return. Maybe not in so many words, but that was how I felt. This was going to be easy. Yeah, really easy.

“Alex?”

I turned around. Aiden was tucking my suitcase into the back of the Hummer, watching me over his shoulder. My gaze skittered away, unable to really, really look at him. “Yeah, I was just thinking.”

“Is this all your stuff?”

Nodding, I kicked the toe of my shoe along the asphalt. I needed to act normal or this was going to be the longest car ride of my life. “How… how is Deacon?”

A few seconds passed before he answered. “He’s doing okay.” He shut the rear door. “He wanted me to tell you that he’s really sorry about… what happened.”

I faced him, keeping my eyes trained on his shoulder—which was one really nice shoulder—when I spotted a silver chain around his neck. It disappeared under his sweater. Odd—Aiden never wore jewelry. “Tell him I said thanks.”

Aiden nodded as he headed around to the side of the vehicle, but then he stopped so unexpectedly that I bounced off his back. He turned and caught my arm, setting me right. Our eyes met for a fraction of a second, and then he dropped my arm.

He stepped back. “I don’t know what you were thinking.” He broke off, glancing toward Leon, who waited under the awning of the Covenant.

“We just wanted to get some drinks from the cafeteria.” I swallowed, but the lump in my throat didn’t go away. “We were going to watch movies.”

“Are we ready?” called Leon. “We should be leaving now if we want to reach the Catskills before noon.”

“Yeah.” Aiden turned away, but then faced me again. “Alex?”

Slowly, I lifted my eyes to his. That turned out to be a mistake of epic proportions. A different kind of hurting opened up in my chest.

His gaze drifted across my face. “I’m… so, so sorry about Caleb. I know how much he meant to you.”

I couldn’t look away, couldn’t say a word.

He glanced over his shoulder and when he turned back to me, his eyes shone bright silver in the dim light. “Don’t… don’t ever do anything like that again. Please. Promise me.”

I wanted to ask why he’d care if I threw myself in front of a daimon, but those words didn’t come out. Something else did. “I promise.”

Aiden watched me a moment longer, and then broke away. After that, we climbed into the Hummer. I took a seat in the back while Aiden slid into the one in front of me. Leon drove and the other Guard took the seat next to me.

Leaning my head back against the seat, I closed my eyes and wondered how I’d ended up in the car while Seth got the private jet with Lucian, Marcus, and the Council members. They’d flown out this morning. Half-bloods—even Sentinels—usually didn’t get seats on the planes, but an exception had been made for Seth.

Car rides typically turned me into a bratty five-year-old, especially astronomically long ones, but I was too tired to really think about it. With all the sleeping I’d been doing, I probably should’ve been wide awake for days, but I drifted off quickly.

I woke up about two hours in when we stopped to get gas in Middle-Of-Nowhere, Virginia. Leon and the Guard went into the shack of a gas station, and I climbed out to stretch my legs. It was so dark out here, surrounded by woods and farms. The only sounds were the cows lowing in the distance. I strolled around the rear of the Hummer and found Aiden leaning against the bumper. He looked up when I stopped beside him. His eyes were nearly the same color as the moonlight.

“If you want to get something to eat, Leon or the Guard will get it for you.” Aiden rolled a bottle of water between his hands.

“I’m not hungry.” I moved past him, keeping my back to him.

“We don’t want to stop unless we have to.”

“I’m fine.” I hopped up on the curb and proceeded to place one foot in front of another.

Mid-step, I glanced over at the convenience store—if you’d consider that place a convenience store. It looked like an old pizza shop and the blinking red sign out front read “OPE.” Leon stood at the counter. “So… has Marcus confirmed that the Sentinel was responsible for the first attack?”

“There’s no way to really confirm that, Alex. We believe so. Another round of searches is being conducted—” He paused when I stiffened, “—to make sure she was the one.”

I reached the end of the curb. “I guess now I understand why the searches were so

important. They missed her and… look what happened. The Guards at the bridge, they probably didn’t expect anything when she showed up.”

“No. And the daimons are obviously getting smarter. She was on and off the campus a lot, making her a prime candidate. And her tags weren’t visible.”

I bent over backward, sprung off my hands, and landed perfectly on the narrow curb. I could have been a gymnast in a different life. Turning to face him, I found Aiden staring at me.