Laadan’s lips curved up at the corners. “You are so much like your father. Your stubbornness and tenacity.” Her gaze went to the closed door. The smell of fresh coffee grew. “And just like your father, you dared to love a pure-blood.”

My mouth opened. Touché. “Well, I kind of walked into that one.”

I thought she snickered, but I had to be wrong, because that would be so unladylike of her.

For some odd reason, some of the weight lifted from my shoulders and I went from vengeful, albeit more mature Alex, to girlie-girl in less than two seconds flat. “I do love him. I really do. More than… more than I probably should.”

She patted my hand. “You can never love someone more than you probably should.”

I wasn’t sure about that.

“He loves you just as strongly. It was obvious to me from the beginning.”

“It was?”

“The Aiden I knew, the one before he went to Atlanta to find you, had always respected and viewed halfs equally, but he never would’ve taken time away from his Sentinel duties to help any half.”

Knowing what had been done to his parents in front of him while he was a small boy, I could see where she would think that. Becoming a Sentinel and avenging his parents had become everything to him.

“And then I saw the way he was around you in New York.” Her smiled turned wistful again. “It’s all in the way he looked at you—the way he constantlylooked at you. You were his world, probably before either of you realized that.”

“You could tell all that by the way he looked at me?” I may’ve sounded skeptical, but oh, wow, that girlie-girl was jumping and shrieking inside me.

Laadan laughed then, the sound like wind chimes. “He watched you like a man starved for the only thing that could fulfill his hunger.”

My eyes popped out and my body flushed about a thousand shades of red. “Oh, wow…”

That was TMI. How come more people hadn’t noticed that? And then it hit me. Laadan would know, because it was how she looked at my father… and probably had witnessed my father looking at my mother in the same manner.

I was suddenly very sad for her.

Scooting closer to her, I wrapped my arms around her slender shoulders. It was awkward at first, because I seriously gave the worst hugs. “Thank you.”

Tears filled her eyes again. “Talking to you about your father is the least I could do. If you like, there are many stories I can tell you. It will be a… joy to speak openly about them.”

“I’d like that,” I whispered.

Laadan rested her cheek atop my head, and in that moment, she reminded me so much of my mom that it was almost too much to keep the tears at bay, but I couldn’t stop the question that formed on the tip of my tongue.

“Do you think I’ll ever get to meet him?”

Her embrace tightened. “You will. Both of you are determined enough to make it happen. I have no doubt.”

Closing my eyes, I latched onto her words. I wanted to believe them—I needed to—but doubt swelled like bitter wisps of acrid smoke. A lot stood between me and my father—years of rules and secrets existed, an army of half-man/half-bulls, and most importantly, Seth.

CHAPTER 12

A few hours later, I stood in the warded-up clearing by the cabin, covered in mud and chilled to the bone. All around me, the sounds of grunts and hard falls echoed through the otherwise silent forest.

I glanced down at my dirty hands and sighed. I was filthy. Maybe I’d get a repeat of that shower later. My gaze found Aiden’s lithe form. He was fighting Luke. In other words, he was repeatedly kicking Luke’s ass.

I doubted a shower repeat was on the menu.

A sharp pang of dissatisfaction formed in the back of my throat. I’d really thought that, since I was supposed to be training, I’d end up with Aiden and it would be like old times with a lot more touchy-feely stuff going on. Boy, was I wrong.

Solos exhaled loudly. “How long are you going to stare at your hands? I’m not getting any younger over here.”

But oh no, the moment we stepped outside, Aiden had paired up with Luke and Olivia, Lea with Marcus. Deacon and Laadan were inside, supposedly making dinner.

Now I was in full internal whine mode.

I moved forward, wincing as my cold jeans chafed my skin. “I don’t think this is the kind of training Apollo had in mind.”

Solos tucked a loose strand of hair back behind his ear. “When’s the last time you trained?”

I honestly couldn’t remember. “I was fighting, like, two days ago.”

“One day in the span of many means nothing.” Broken branches crunched under his booted feet. “Our muscles need to be used daily.”

I caught the tail end of Luke ending up on his butt. “I think they could use your help more. I could be working on using akasha right now. Seth has years of practical experience on me.”

“And you will work with that, but not right now.” Solos was nowhere near as patient as someof my previous trainers had been. He ranked up there with Romvi.

Eyes narrowing, I raised my hand. “I could just use the air element and knock—”

“Alex,” Aiden snapped, stopping Luke’s vicious kick with one hand. He gently pushed him back as thundercloud eyes sharpened on me. “I also doubt Apollo meant for your mouth to be the only thing getting a workout.”

So many inappropriate comments rose to the tip of my tongue and danced around, but I snapped my jaw shut and glared at him.

“He’s trying to help you.” Aiden swiped up a titanium dagger from where it was implanted deep in the ground. “The least you could do is go along with this without torturing those who are helping you.”

Embarrassed and angry, I was two seconds from raining my wrath down on Aiden when I stopped. Aiden wasright. I was being whiny and bitchy and flat-out annoying.

Our eyes met, and there wasn’t much heat behind his words, but he was frustrated with me and I hated that, because I was being a brat. I wasn’t sure what was wrong with me. Ever since Laadan and I had spoken, my mood had plummeted. Lack of sleep, maybe?

The sting of Aiden’s admonishment forced me back to Solos, who, by the way, had mud splattered on him like gore at a gruesome crime scene. No one in this world could get me to do what I was supposed to be doing as quickly as Aiden.

Part of me hated that. The other part respected and thanked him for it.

Cheeks burning, I dropped into stance. Solos launched at me. We went at it, blow for blow. He dipped. I spun. More times than not, he ended up sprawled on the ground, kicking up dirt and loose grass on me. My muscles were a little out-of-use, but I was fast—faster than I ever remembered being. When I’d been fighting Aiden the other day, I hadn’t been aware of what I was really doing, not the mechanics of it. But now? Whoa, I felt like Superwoman.

Solos picked himself off the ground, exhaling out his nose. We moved on to disarming one another, which usually had been a weak area for me.

I darted under Solos’ outstretched arm, caught both of his elbows and pulled back, running my hands down to his wrists as I planted a foot in his back. He released the blades and I caught them.

Waving them in his face, I grinned. “I kind of rock at this.”

He turned, brows furrowed. “I don’t even know what that move was.”

I flipped the dagger in my right hand. “It’s called being awesome and it worked.”

“There’s a difference between skill and speed.” He snatched the dagger out of my other hand. “You won’t always have speed.”

“But I have the elements,” I reminded him.

“That you do.” He gave a lopsided grin that didn’t stretch his scar. He was handsome when he smiled like that. Hell, he was handsome even with the scar—kind of like a pirate. “But correct me if I’m wrong—doesn’t using the elements tire you out?”