As long as I lived, I’d never get used to the way Seth switched topics so frequently. He made my brain hurt. “What?”

“There was an attack at the Tennessee Covenant last night. It was a half who’d been turned. He cut up a pure, drained him of aether, and tossed him out of a seventh-story dorm window.”

Horrified, I jackknifed up. “Oh, my gods! Why didn’t you say something at the beginning of practice?”

He stared at me. “I clearly remember telling you I had something you’d be interested in knowing and you said it was doubtful.”

“Well, you could have explained it a little better.” I fell back against the mats. “Holy crap, what are they doing about it?”

“The same thing they are doing here, but they caught the daimon—it was a Guard once upon a time, and since the pure died, they’re taking more extreme measures.”

“Like what?”

“There’s talk of segregating the pures from the halfs.”

“What?” I shrieked.

Seth flinched and scooted away. “Ouch. Damn, Alex, I can only imagine what you sound like in the throes of—”

“Are you serious?” I sat up again, folding my legs under me. “How can they do that? We share dorms with the pures. And classes. It’s the same everywhere!”

“From what I hear, they’re going to put all the pures in one dorm and all the halfs in the other. And change the class schedules.”

I rolled my eyes. “Oh, so they’re going to make the dorms co-ed? Yeah, that is going to go over well. Everyone’s going to be having sex.”

“Sounds like my kind of place.” Seth grinned. “Maybe I can get a transfer.”

“Do you ever take anything seriously?” I pushed to my feet.

Seth shot to his feet, towering over me. “I take you seriously.”

Eyeing him, I stepped back. “This is serious, Seth. What if they do something like that here? What if this is the beginning of everything changing?”

The ever-present—and annoying—mix of smugness and amusement faded from those eerie, golden eyes, revealing a level of gravity I didn’t think Seth was capable of. “Alex, everything has already changed. Don’t you see that?”

I swallowed and folded my arms around me, but it didn’t stop the sudden coldness from washing over my body like I’d stepped into the freezing downpour outside.

Aiden had said the same thing.

“There are two of us,” Seth said quietly. “Everything changed the moment you were born.”

I tapped my finger along the edge of the keyboard. I was having one of those nights where I questioned everything that ever was, and I was getting on my own nerves.

I blamed Seth.

Everything changed the moment you were born.

I tried not to think about how the whole Apollyon business worked most of the time. Usually I pretended like it wasn’t a big deal. But that didn’t mean I wasn’t dealing with it, I just knew there was nothing I could do about it. It’s like not crying over spilled vodka and cranberry juice or whatever. But there were times—like earlier with Seth—when the idea of becoming this thingthat people expected something miraculous from, and were also scared to death of, terrified me.

I stared at my computer screen, forcing myself to stop worrying about the Apollyon stuff and what was happening at the Covenants. I then played about a dozen rounds of minesweeper and solitaire—anything to keep my brain nicely blank. It worked beautifully for a short while.

Another question poked at me. Why had Lucian intervened on my behalf? And why was Lucian handing over so much information to Seth? Yes, he was the Apollyon, but Lucian was the Minister and Seth was just a half-blood. Why would Lucian allow Seth to be privy to such information?

Then there was the business with the Council. I had this feeling I didn’t have many fans on the Council and my time with them was going to suck daimon butt.

All of this made my brain sore.

Groaning in frustration, I dropped my head on the keyboard. An immediate, shrill buzzing filled the otherwise quiet room, but I ignored it until I had a streak of brilliance. And it had nothing to do with the Apollyon, the Covenant, or Lucian.

It had to do with Aiden.

Lifting my head, I bit my lip and opened up an internet page. For the last week, I’d been scouring the internet for the perfect gift for Aiden’s birthday. Not just a birthday gift, but a peace offering, too. I figured I could get him something—I don’t know—special. I’d come up empty-handed for the most part, but tonight, I had an idea.

It had to do with what I’d seen in his cottage that night—a ridiculous number of books, comics, and a colorful assortment of guitar picks. I’d thought then it’d been a strange thing to collect, but at least he didn’t collect something gross like body lint. Anyway, I knew there was one color he didn’t have—black. But I didn’t want to get him just some crappy, old plastic pick. I wanted—needed—something special.

An hour later, I came across an online store dedicated to rare picks and I knew I’d found the perfect gift. They had one made out of onyx gemstone, and apparently it was a super extraordinary guitar pick. I had no idea why. Buying the thing would be hard, though. I hadn’t been trusted with a bank account for some reason.

The next day I cornered Deacon before class started. “Can you do something for me?”

“Anything for my favorite halfy.” He gave me a little nod as he eyed Luke, who was gesturing wildly at the front of the class.

“Halfy? Never mind. Forget it. You have credit cards, right?”

He flicked a wayward curl out of his eyes and smiled. “Loads of them.”

I shoved a piece of paper in his face. I’d scribbled the name of the website and the stock number of the pick on it. “Can you order this for me? I’ll give you cash.”

Deacon glanced down at the paper and then lifted his head, looking at me. “Do I even want to know?”

“Nope.”

“This is for my brother, isn’t it?”

I felt my cheeks flush. “I thought you didn’t want to know.”

He folded up the paper and stuck it in his pocket, shaking his head. “I don’t. I’ll order it tonight.”

“Thanks,” I murmured, feeling overexposed.

Staring at the front of the classroom while not really seeing anything the teacher wrote on the board, I hoped Aiden liked the pick— lovedit. My muscles locked up at the idea of love and Aiden in the same sentence.

Just because I was buying him a stupid little guitar pick didn’t mean anything. And just because I wanted to jump his bones didn’t mean I… loved him. Halfs didn’t love pures. So where had that thought even come from?

I ignored Deacon for the rest of the class and slipped into a weird mood that lasted all day long. Not even Caleb and Olivia’s hilarious bickering at lunch snapped me out. Not even when Lea tripped in the hallway. Practice with Aiden couldn’t shake me out of the funk.

Aiden’s tense and concerned gaze followed every one of my movements. I imagined he was waiting for me to fall asleep and crack my head or something.

But I didn’t.

By the end of practice, some of the tension had eased off his face and a lopsided grin appeared as he picked up my gym bag. “I want to do something different tomorrow.”

“Are you going to let me off my Saturday training?” I was only half-joking. The idea of lying around in bed all day did sound really nice.

“No. That’s not what I was thinking. Not really.”

I reached out for my bag, but he held it back. I grinned. “What were you thinking?”

“It’s kind of a surprise.”

“Oh.” I perked up. “What is it?”

Aiden chuckled. “It wouldn’t be a surprise if I told you, Alex.”

“I can act surprised tomorrow.”

“No.” He laughed again. “That would kind of ruin it.”

“All right, but it better be good.” I reached for the bag again, but Aiden caught my hand. His fingers wrapped around mine. Our hands fit perfectly together. Well, at least I thought so. A swarm of butterflies stirred in my stomach. My eyes flicked up, and I was immediately snared. I could always tell what Aiden was thinking by the color of his eyes.