Jennifer Armentrout - Half-Blood

I snickered. “Charitable?”

“Marcus, this isn’t necessary.” Aiden moved in front of me. “She’s only beginning to learn blocks correctly.”

I scowled at Aiden. Jeez. Way to have my back there, buddy. My ego roared back to life and I pushed around Aiden. “I think I got him.”

Marcus tipped his head back and laughed, but Aiden looked less than amused by the whole situation. “Alex, I’m tel ing you not to do this. Be quiet and listen to me.”

I looked at Aiden innocently. “Do what?”

“No. She has this , Aiden. Let’s see what she’s learned.

Since she is chal enging me, I assume she is ready.”

I planted my hands on my hips. “I don’t know. I’d feel bad for beating up an old guy.”

Marcus’ bright emerald gaze settled on me. “Attack me.”

“What?”

He looked perplexed, but then he snapped his fingers.

“That’s right! You haven’t learned any real attack moves.

Then I shal attack you. You do know defensive blocking techniques?”

Marcus knew about defensive blocking techniques? I shifted my weight and glanced at Aiden. He did not look pleased by any of this. “Yeah.”

“Then you should be adeptly trained to defend yourself.”

Marcus paused and the smile slipped away. “Just picture me as the enemy, Alexandria.”

“Oh, that won’t be too hard, Dean Andros .” I raised my hands and motioned him forward. I was a total badass.

Marcus gave no warning other than the fine tremor in his arm right before he moved. I raised my arm, just as Aiden instructed, and blocked the jab. I couldn’t fight the wild grin as I deflected another bone-jarring punch. My gaze narrowed on my uncle as he straightened and prepared for another attack.

“Back off.” Aiden’s voice came from the sidelines, low and harsh. “You’re too close.”

I pushed forward, blocking another one of Marcus’ hits.

Cockiness took over. “You’ve got to be faster—”

Instead of Marcus fol owing through on what I expected would be a pretty damn good roundhouse kick, he grabbed my arm and twisted. As he spun me around he brought his other arm around my neck, placing me in a brutal choke-hold.

My heart slammed against my ribs. Any movement I made only succeeded in twisting my arm to an even more unnatural angle. Within seconds, he’d rendered me helpless. In any other situation, like one where it wasn’t my uncle holding me in a choke-hold, I would’ve given him props for such quick maneuvering.

He bent his head, speaking directly into my ear. “Now just imagine if I was a daimon,” said Marcus. “What do you think would happen next?”

I refused to answer, clenching my teeth.

“Alexandria, I asked you a question. What would happen if I was a daimon?” His grip tightened.

My gaze met Aiden’s. He watched the whole thing with helpless anger etched into his face. I could tel there was a part of him that wanted to step in, but he knew he couldn’t.

“Do we need to try this again?” asked Marcus.

“No! I’d… be dead.”

“Yes. You’d be dead.” Marcus let go and I stumbled forward. He brushed past me, addressing Aiden. “If you even hope to have her ready by fal , you may want to work on her attitude and make sure she actual y takes your instructions next time. If she continues this way, she wil fail.”

Not taking his eyes off me for one second, he gave Marcus a curt nod.

I silently fumed until the moment Marcus disappeared.

“What the hel did I ever do to him?” I rubbed my neck absently. “He could’ve broken my arm!”

“If he wanted to break your arm, he would have. I told you to be quiet, Alex. What did you expect from Marcus? Did you think he was just some lazy pure-blood who needed protection?” His voice dripped sarcasm.

“Wel , he looks like one! How was I supposed to know he was secretly Rambo in Dockers?”

Aiden stalked up to me, reaching out and catching my chin. “You should have known, because I told you not to push him. Yet, you stil did. You didn’t listen to me. He used to be a Sentinel, Alex.”

“What? Marcus was a Sentinel? I didn’t know that!”

“I tried to tel you that.” Aiden closed his eyes and let go of my chin. Turning away, he ran a hand through his hair.

“Marcus is right. You won’t be ready in the fal if you don’t listen to me.” He sighed. “This is why I could never be an Instructor or a Guide. I don’t have the patience for this crap.”

This was one of those times I knew I needed to shut up, but I couldn’t. Angry as hel , I fol owed him across the mats.

“I am listening to you!”

He whirled around. “What part did you listen to, Alex? I explicitly told you not to push him. If you can’t listen to me, how can anyone—including Marcus—expect you to listen to your Instructors in the fal ?”

He was right, but I was too embarrassed and angry to admit it. “He only did that because he doesn’t like me.”

He gave an exasperated sound. “It has nothing to do with whether or not he likes you, Alex. It has everything to do with the fact that you don’t listen! You’ve spent too much time out there where you could easily defend yourself against mortals, but you’re not in the mortal world anymore.”

“I know that. I’m not stupid!”

“Real y?” His eyes flashed furious silver. “You are behind every single person here. Even the pure-bloods who’l be attending school in the fal wil have the basic knowledge of how to defend themselves. You stil want to be a Sentinel?

After what you’ve shown me today, I doubt that is the case.

Do you know what makes a Sentinel? Obedience, Alex.”

I felt my cheeks flush. The sudden rush of hot tears stung my eyes. I blinked and turned away from him.

Aiden cursed under his breath. “I’m… not trying to embarrass you, Alex. But these are the facts. We’ve only been training for a week and you have a long road ahead of you. You need to listen to me.”

Once I was pretty sure I wouldn’t start crying, I faced him.

“Why did you even stick up for me? When Marcus wanted to hand me over to Lucian?”

Aiden glanced away, frowning. “Because you have potential, and we can’t afford to have that potential wasted.”

“If I… hadn’t missed so much time, I know I’d be good.”

He turned back to me, eyes shifting back to a softer gray.

“I know, but you did miss a lot of time. Now we have to get you back to where you need to be. Battling your uncle is not going to help you.”

My shoulders slumped and I looked away. “He hates me.

He real y does.”

“Alex, he doesn’t hate you.”

“Oh no, I think he does. This was the first time I’ve seen him since the first morning here, and he was more than eager to prove that I’m a jackass. It’s obvious he doesn’t want me to be trained.”

“That’s not the case.”

I looked at him. “Real y? Then what is the case?”

Aiden opened his mouth but closed it.

“Yeah. Exactly.”

He was quiet for a few moments. “Were you two ever close?”

I gave a short laugh. “Before? No. I only saw him when he visited Mom. He never paid any attention to me. I always figured he was one of the pures who weren’t too fond of…

my kind.”

There were a lot of pures out there who looked down on halfs, seeing us more like second-class citizens than anything else. They knew they needed us, but it didn’t change how they viewed us as something other than pure.

“Marcus has never felt that way about… halfs.”

I shrugged, suddenly tired of talking. “I guess it’s just me then.” I glanced up and forced a weak smile. “So… wil you show me what I did wrong?”