Jennifer Armentrout - Half-Blood

Mom and I had been more successful than most of those who’d ventured out. The Covenant always found the people who tried to live in the outside world.

They’d just found us a little too late.

Caleb tilted his head sideways as he studied me. “How you doing being back here?”

I lay back down, staring up at the ceiling. “Good.”

“Seriously?” He stood up. “Because you’ve been through a lot.”

“Yeah, I’m okay.”

Caleb made his way over and sat down, practical y shoving me on my side.

“Ouch.”

“Alex, the crap that’s happened has to have, you know, bothered you. It would’ve messed with me.”

I closed my eyes. “Caleb, I appreciate your concern, but you’re practical y sitting on me.”

He shifted, but remained beside me. “Are you gonna talk to me about it?”

“Look. I’m doing okay. It’s not like it hasn’t bothered me.”

I pried my eyes open and found him watching me expectedly. “Okay. It’s messed with me. Happy?”

“Of course I’m not happy.”

One thing I wasn’t good at was talking about how I felt.

Hel , I wasn’t even good at thinking about how I felt. But it didn’t look like Caleb was moving any time soon. “I… try not to think about it. It’s better that way.”

He frowned. “Real y? Do I need to use basic psychology on you and go with, ‘it’s probably not a good thing you don’t think about it?’”

I groaned. “I hate psychobabble, so please don’t start.”

“Alex?”

I sat up, ignoring the way my back screamed, and pushed him off the couch. He caught himself easily. “What do you want me to say? That I miss my mom? Yes. I miss her. That it total y sucked seeing her get drained by a daimon? Yes, it sucked. Fighting daimons and thinking I was going to die was fun? No. It wasn’t fun. That also sucked ass.”

He nodded, accepting my little rant. “Did you get to have a funeral for her or anything?”

“That’s a stupid question, Caleb.” I pushed back the hair that had escaped my ponytail. “I didn’t get to have a funeral.

After I kil ed the daimon, there was another one. I ran.”

His face paled. “Did anyone go back for her body?”

I cringed. “I don’t know. I haven’t asked.”

He seemed to mul it over. “Maybe if you had a ceremony for her, it would help. You know, a little gathering just to remember her.”

I leveled a hard look at him. “We’re not having a funeral. I mean it. If you even think about something like that, I wil risk getting expel ed just to kick your ass.” Having a funeral meant facing that my mother was dead. The wal —the toughness I’d built around me—would break and I... I couldn’t deal with that.

“Okay. Okay.” He held up his hands. “I just thought it would bring you some closure.”

“I have closure. Remember? I saw her die.”

This time he was the one to cringe. “Alex… I’m so sorry.

Gods, I don’t even know how you must’ve felt. I cannot even imagine it.”

He then took a step forward, as if he intended to hug me, but I waved him off. Caleb seemed to get I didn’t want to talk about it anymore and he switched back to safer topics

—more gossip, more tales of Covenant shenanigans.

I remained on the couch after he’d snuck back out of the dorm. I should’ve been hungry or ready to go socialize, but I wasn’t. Our conversation—the part about my mom—

lingered like a festering wound. I tried focusing on the gossip I’d learned. I even tried thinking about how nice Jackson looked now—even Caleb, because he’d real y fil ed out in the last three years—but their images were quickly replaced by Aiden and his arms.

And that was so wrong.

I shifted back down and went back to staring at the ceiling. I was okay. I was great, actual y. Being back at the Covenant was far better than being out there in the normal world or cleaning toilets in some pure’s house. I rubbed under my eyes, frowning. I was okay.

I had to be okay.

I WANTED TO CURL UP IN A HOLE AND DIE.

“There you go.” Aiden nodded as I deflected one of his blows. “Use your forearm. Move with purpose.”

Move with purpose? How about moving to a spot where I could lie down? That was a purpose I could get behind.

Aiden launched himself at me and I blocked his jab. Hel yeah, I was good at that. Next, he swung around, and for someone so freaking tal , he sure could move that body like a ninja.

The heel of his foot slipped past my arms and slammed into my side. The impact barely registered on my pain scale. By now, I’d gotten used to the sharp spike of pain and the throbbing that fol owed. I inhaled slowly and tried to breathe through the agony. Half-bloods don’t show pain in the face of the enemy. At least I remembered that.

Aiden straightened, concern flickering over his face. “You okay?”

I clenched my teeth. “Yes.”

He approached me, looking doubtful. “That was a pretty hard hit, Alex. It’s okay if it hurts. We’l take a few minutes.”

“No.” I walked it off while he watched. “I’m fine. Let’s try this again.”

And we did. Missing a few jabs and kicks was far better than having to run laps like yesterday or spend the entire afternoon in the gym.

That’s what’d happened when I’d whined about my back and sides hurting last time. Aiden went through several more blocking techniques a ten-year-old could master while I obsessively watched his movements. Over the past couple of days, I’d realized how far behind I

real y was, and even I was amazed by the fact I’d managed to kil two

daimons.

I couldn’t even block most of Aiden’s kicks.

“Watch me.” He circled me, his body taut. “There is always some-thing that’l give away my next move. It could be a fine tremor of the muscle or a brief glance, but there is always something. When a daimon attacks, it’s no different.”

I nodded and we squared off again. Aiden moved in with one swipe of the hand. I knocked his arm away, and then the other. It wasn’t his jabs or punches I had a problem with.

It was his kicks—he spun around so fast. But this time, I saw his eyes drop to my waist.

Twisting into the kick, I brought my arm down in a clean sweeping motion a second too late. His foot connected with my bruised back. I doubled over immediately, grasping my knees as I slowly breathed in and out.

Right away, Aiden was at my side. “Alex?”

“That… stung a bit.”

“If it makes you feel better, you almost had it this time.”

I looked up and gave a short laugh at the sight of his lopsided grin. “Good to hear.”

He started to say something, but his grin faded as his voice gave a low warning. “Alex. Stand up.”

My back protested such a sudden move, but the moment I saw Marcus at the door, I understood why. I didn’t need to look like I’d just gotten the crap knocked out of me in front of him.

Marcus leaned against the door, arms folded. “I wondered how training was going. I see it’s moving along expectedly.”

Ouch. I took a deep breath. “Would you like to give it a try?”

Marcus’s brows rose and he smiled, but Aiden placed a warning hand on my arm. “Don’t.”

I shook his hand off. I was pretty sure I could take my uncle. With his perfectly groomed hair and pressed khakis, he looked like a poster child for yacht-club-of-the-month.

“I’m game if you are,” I offered again with a bright smile.

“Alex, I’m tel ing you not to do this. He used to be—”

Marcus pushed away from the wal . “It’s al right, Aiden. I wouldn’t accept such a ridiculous offer normal y, but I find myself feeling charitable.”