I tried, because I badly wanted to knock him upside the head. Every muscle in my body tensed, but I still couldn’t break through the hold. “Stop it now.”

Frustration flared in his eyes. “How many are there on your arms?”

“Stop it!” Something shifted in me, a sense of deep awareness. Suddenly, everything around me seemed acute and vivid. The overcast sky was more muddled, the cawing of the crows sounded closer, and the golden hue of Seth’s skin became a pearly luster.

“Then sit up! Break this hold, Alex!”

A couple of things happened next.

I felt the rage snap deep inside my core—a tightly coiled ball of energy unraveled. It was so strong, so vibrant, that I imagined it looked like the cord I’d seen wrap around Seth and me the first time we’d touched.

Seth leaned in, going for my arm this time. Too close, he was waytoo close. The coil raised, my heart stopped, and something—the rock I’d stood on—blew up.

The shattering boulder startled Seth enough that he let go of the crushing wind. Every muscle in my body had been straining to sit up. So when he let go, I flew up so fast I rammed right into him. The impact of my body knocked Seth flat on his back. His arms immediately swept around me.

I wasn’t sure what that had to do with practice.

We remained that way for a second, both of us struggling to breathe. I couldn’t process it or even begin to understand what had happened.

“Alex…?”

I pushed off his chest and stared down at him. The marks of the Apollyon shifted over his skin crazy fast. I’d never seen them move quite like that before. “Um…”

Seth’s eyes were wild, practically glowing. “I didn’t do that.”

“Me, neither.”

“Bull.” His expression was full of amazement.

I swallowed. “Okay. Maybe I did.”

“What did it feel like inside, when it happened?”

“I don’t know, kind of like a coiling feeling in my stomach.”

His lips parted, working slowly. “This can’t be possible, but it is. You’re Awakening already. I don’t believe it, but it explains how you’ve been able to sense my emotions.”

“What?” I started to sit up, but his hands dropped to my hips, holding me in place. “What do you mean I’m Awakening? Am I like ahead of schedule or something?”

Seth tried to laugh, but it came out more like a gasp. “No. I don’t know. I mean, who knows? Right? The other two Apollyon were never around each other before Solaris Awakened. He only sensed Solaris aftershe Awakened. Maybe… maybe this is what happens. Has anything like this happened before?”

“Yeah, I blow up rocks in my spare time. Jeez. No.” I started to move again. “Seth, you can let go.”

He smiled the kind of smile that warmed his features. “I don’t think I’m ready to. And get that freaked look off your face. This isn’t a bad thing, Alex. No—nope, not at all. This is good. We can start working on your powers and…”

I tuned him out. The freaked-out look on my face had nothing to do with blowing up rocks. I had long come to terms with the fact that I’d be some weapon of mass destruction one day. The look came from the fact our bodies were touching in all the strategic places bodies liked to touch.

“Alex, are you listening to me?”

“Yes.” I stared at the runes gliding down his neck. When they reached his pulse they throbbed. I shifted my weight. A raw ache hit me hard. I wanted to touch them—needed to touch them. Something, I was sure, would happen if I did.

“You are so not paying attention to me.” Seth sighed. The movement brought us closer. “You know,” Seth was saying, “this opens up so many possibilities. We—”

I reached out my right hand and touched the rune on his neck, where his pulse pounded, with just the tip of one finger. A burst of crackling blue light flared. The light split, one strain shooting through the tip of my fingers, the other pulsating over his neck. Pinpricks of pain burst across my hand, searing and intense.

Seth‘s back bowed as his fingers dug into me. Under my left hand, his chest rose and fell rapidly. His eyes snapped open, wide and unseeing. The glyphs on his face shifted shapes and changed color, becoming a shade of blue that mirrored the sky seconds before dusk.

The air popped and fizzed as the blue light spilled onto the ground, and out of that blue light, another shone much brighter, more intense. An amber cord radiated from the glyph on his neck, quickly twining itself around my finger, twisting over my hand, up my wrist… trying to connect us once again.

CHAPTER 18

I JERKED MY HAND BACK AND IT FOLLOWED ME, AN AMBER LINE arching through the space between us. I needed to get up—get away, and put as much distance between us as possible, because this was weird as hell. “I—”

The amber cord vanished, as did the blue light. Seth fell back to the ground, letting out a ragged sigh.

“Seth? Are you okay?” I clutched my throbbing hand to my chest. Seth wasn’t moving, wasn’t talking. Fear blossomed in my chest. What if I’d killed Seth? I knew I’d said I wanted to kill him—I’d said it a lot—but I hadn’t meant it. Not really. “Seth, please say something.”

An eternity passed before his eyes opened. “That… felt wonderful.”

A sudden wave of dizziness crashed over me and my stomach dropped.

Seth’s head lolled to the side, his smile lazy and faint. “I’m pretty sure I could stop a truck with my hand right now.”

“Okay…” I took a shallow breath. “That tells me nothing. And I really want to know what happened when I touched your marks—”

Seth twisted up, rolling me onto my back in one fluid motion. Hovering above me, he used one arm to support himself. Only our legs touched, but it still felt like… well, like every part of us was still touching. “Angel, that’s like Apollyon foreplay right there.”

“For real?”

“For real.” He reached out and brushed a strand of hair off my cheek.

I swallowed. “I didn’t know that. My bad, but that’s kind of weird. Usually takes more with most guys.” I had no idea why I just said that.

Seth’s fingers trailed over my cheek, down to my chin. “Does it, Angel? Well, what does it take?”

This was probably a conversation not to have with Seth, especially when he was practically lying on top of me. “I think you of all people would know.”

His hand slipped to my neck. “I have a secret to tell you. It’s not Apollyon foreplay; I’m just messing with you. I have no clue what that was.”

“Gods, I hate you.” Flushed with embarrassment, I knocked his hand away.

Seth caught my hand and sat up, pulling me along with him. “How do you feel?”

“Fine. I’m just a little dizzy.”

He nodded. “I’ll tell you what, my skin still tingles. Man—that was one hell of a rush. I’ve never felt anything like it.” He turned my hand over, palm up. “We should try it— what the hell?” His fingers slid over my palm as he studied it, then his eyes widened. “Oh. Wow.”

“What?”

He held my hand up between us. “Look.”

I squinted at my hand. “I don’t see anything.” Sighing, he flipped my hand over, and my jaw hit the ground. A faint blue line marked the center of my palm with a smaller line through it. It would’ve looked like a cross, except the horizontal line was slanted.

“Oh. My. Gods.” I jerked my hand away, scrambling back. “I have a rune on my hand. It’s an Apollyon rune, isn’t it?”

Seth rested his hands on his knees. “I think so. I have one like that.”

“But why is it still there? Why is it there at all?” I flipped my palm over several times, shook it, but the faint blue tattoo was still there. “You can see it, right? Like right now, you can see it?”

“Yes. It hasn’t faded.” Seth leaned forward, catching my hand. “Stop shaking it like it’s a damn Etch-A-Sketch. That doesn’t make them disappear.”

I met his eyes with my own wide ones. “What makes them go away? Yours go away. They’re not there all the time. I haven’t Awakened, have I? Wait—what if I have? Need or want something, and I’ll see if I want it, too. Go ahead. Try it.”