Quiet as he was, I knew Seth didn’t sleep that night either.

A few hours into light practice a day later, Council Guards arrived and stated that Minister Telly wanted to see me. Clearly only my presence had been requested, but Seth refused to leave my side.

The Council session had paused for lunch, and we were led to an elaborate office inside the Council building. I’d never seen so many gold-plated things in my life. What was left of my family was present: Marcus and Lucian. They were seated on luxurious leather chairs. I decided to stand, which meant Seth stood directly behind me.

Telly gazed out a circular window, a glass of dark wine in his hand. He turned around, his pale gaze flickering past me, narrowing on Seth. “Miss Andros, I apologize for interrupting your training, but I wanted to express my sincere relief to see that you were not permanently injured due to such a misfortunate event.”

He didn’t sound sincere. “Someone used a compulsion on me,” I said. “I wouldn’t consider that a misfortunate event.”

“I would have to agree,” Lucian said. “My stepdaughter is not given to flights of fancy.”

Telly pushed away from the window, his eyes settling on my stepfather. “I would hope not, but I can assure you there is no one here who would be so audacious to use a compulsion against a guest of mine.”

“Then what are you suggesting, Minister?” asked Marcus. Today he was dressed in a navy blue suit. I’d kill to see the man in jeans.

“I am as curious as you to find out how Miss Andros ended up in that predicament,” Telly said. “I have my best Guards investigating the matter. Perhaps they will discover what truly happened.”

“You say it like I’m somehow responsible for what happened,” I said, which earned me a bland look from Telly.

“I know we are rather lax around here in regards to drinking.” Telly took a leisurely sip of his wine. “Did you have anything to drink with your dinner?”

My mouth dropped open. “I wasn’t drunk!”

“Alexandria,” Marcus’s head snapped in my direction. Turning back to the Minister, he smiled politely. “I can attest that Alexandria didn’t drink at dinner.”

“Hmm? What about afterwards?” asked Telly.

“I spoke with her afterwards and she went straight to the training arena.” Seth’s annoyance with the whole thing radiated from him.

Telly’s brows rose. “You’d cover for her, would you not? Since she is yours and your fates are so intricately tied together?”

“I’m not—”

“Are you calling me a liar?” Seth cut me off, his annoyance flipping right into fury.

Lucian stood, smoothing his robes. “Minister Telly, I trust you are taking this event seriously. If not, I cannot agree to keeping Alexandria here.”

“She must give her statement at Council.”

“She also must be kept safe and that is the priority,” replied Lucian. “Not her statement.”

Telly took another drink, his pale gaze falling back to Seth and me. “Of course I take her safety very seriously. After all, she is such a rarity, and we would not want anything to happen to the Council’s precious Apollyon.”

“ The Council’s precious Apollyon,” I spat, swinging out harder than I probably should. They hadn’t been Seth’s words, but he was the only target I had. He barely dodged me. “This ‘precious Apollyon’ is going to shove her foot so far up his—”

Seth caught my fist. “Alex, if you don’t take it down a notch we’re going to stop. I don’t know why I agreed to spar with you when you’re in this kind of mood.”

Stepping back, I wiped my forearm across my forehead. “I loathe the way he speaks, the way he looks at us like he wished he could zap us into oblivion.”

“And you shouldn’t be practicing this hard,” Seth continued as if he hadn’t heard me. “You were an ice cube not too long ago. You need to take it easy.”

“Stop babying me. I feel great.” That wasn’t a lie, even though the chilly air whipping through the clearing made me feel a little icky.

Seth sighed. He was getting really good at the sighing thing. This one said I don’t know what to do you with sometimes.

“And he hates half-bloods. Did you know that?” I continued, lashing out with a fierce back kick. Seth deflected that. “Aiden told me so. Did you also know that he’d like to see all half-bloods enslaved? Even Lucian thinks he’d like to see things go back to the old way. Jerk-off, stupid mother—”

Seth caught my shoulders, giving me a little shake. “Okay. I get it. You hate Telly. Guess what, everyone does, but he controls the entire Council, Alex.”

I was breathing heavily, sucking in cold air. “I know that!”

He smiled. “With him controlling the Council, nothing will change. The Breed Order will remain the same. If anything, the lives of half-bloods will get worse.”

“Oh, well, that makes me feel so much better. Thanks.”

“But—but listen to me, Alex.” A look of eagerness crept over his face. “When you Awaken, we can change the Council. We have supporters, Alex. People who would surprise you.” He brushed a strand of hair off my check.

I swatted his hand away. “Don’t touch me. I don’t need any more never-fading-magical-runes to appear.”

Seth dropped his hands, grinning. “Still hasn’t faded?”

I shoved my hand in his face. “Still there?”

“Yep.”

“You don’t have to sound so happy about it.” I dipped around him, stopping. We had company.

Cross, Will, and Boobs stood at the edge of the field. Will held a small cooler in his hand. “We thought you guys could use some drinks since you missed the party.”

Seth fell into an easy banter with them while I fiddled with the string on my pants. “Drinks” consisted of cheap wine coolers that Caleb would’ve laughed at, but I was so thirsty I wasn’t complaining. Once Seth shut up long enough to allow someone else to talk, Will began drilling me about the daimon battles I’d taken part in. Cross watched on with this sort of hero-worship look on his face, which was so different from the ones sent my way in North Carolina. None of them here knew the whole story surrounding my rise to fame—or the crash and burn I’d taken on my way down. I wanted to keep it that way. I relaxed on the rock eventually, sipping my drink while I answered their questions.

“So how many times were you tagged?” asked Cross, two wine coolers in hand.

Will turned to his friend slowly. “Dude, that’s not a question you ask someone. You fail.”

I froze. Unintentionally, I had exposed my neck by flipping my hair back. Flushing, I tipped my head so my hair fell forward in a heavy curtain. Seth, who’d been in a deep conversation with Boobs—probably about himself—pulled his head out of gods know where, and twisted around to us.

Cross grimaced. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to… offend you. It’s just that I think it’s awesome that you fought daimons and survived. Not that you were tagged, of course. That’s not awesome. That’s pretty messed up.”

Will rolled his eyes, groaning. “Just shut up, Cross.”

“No. It’s okay.” I cleared my throat, deciding if I didn’t make a big deal about it then none of them would. “I don’t know how many times. A couple, I guess.”

Cross looked relieved, but then Seth stood, and Cross shifted further back. I watched him stride between us and stop, blocking both Cross and Will as he faced me. I had no idea what he was doing, but what came out of his mouth wasn’t even on the possibility list.

“Dance with me.”

I stared up at him. “What?”

Seth bowed gracefully, extending one arm to me. “Dance with me, please?”

“Why do you want to dance in the middle of a field, Seth?”

“Why not?” He wiggled his fingers. “Dance with me, pretty please.”

“With sugar on top,” Will added, chuckling.

Seth’s grin grew to epic proportions. “Dance with me, Alexandria.”