“And that’s not really backup. Who knows what he’ll do in the end? You need someone there with you.” Seth leaned back, stretching out his legs. “And you and I both know Aiden would be a distraction.”
I clenched my jaw. “Aiden will not be with me.”
He snorted. “Does he know that?”
“He will.” I looked at him. “Seth, we need to talk about when we’ll transfer power.”
“That’s not what we’re talking about now. There’s no way I’m letting you go face-to-face with Ares with just Perses. It’s not going to happen, and I’m not going to argue with you. You’ll need me there to run interference, if anything,” he said, returning my stare. “Besides, we shouldn’t make the transfer until we’re in the Catskills.”
I opened my mouth, but Aiden hit the floor on his back and Perses yelled out, “Girl! Your turn!”
Sending Seth a quick glance, I pushed to my feet. “We’ll talk about this later.”
He arched a brow.
While passing Aiden on the mats, he reached over, tugged on the hem of my shirt, and then kept going. I stopped in front of the Titan, muscles locking up. Over at the door, Deacon whistled and shouted, “Show him what a girl is capable of!”
I took my eyes off Perses for a second to smile at Deacon, and that was all it took. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Perses’ hand zooming for my face. At the last moment, I dropped down. The speed in which Perses’ fist shot past my head, stirring wisps of my hair—gods. If that had connected with my head, he would’ve probably knocked me out cold.
“Never take your eyes off the opponent,” Perses said, chuckling.
How many times had Ares had said that when we knew him as Instructor Romvi? Nothing flipped my kill-and-maim switch like hearing those words.
I rolled forward and popped to my feet behind Perses. Spinning around, I dodged his second punch and dipped under his arm. I knew I was fast—faster than Aiden, who was like a freaking ninja, and faster than all other half-bloods. But Perses was like Ares. Fighting was bred into their blood. There was no one in this realm better than them. I could only hope to be their equal.
But I wasn’t Perses’ equal at the moment.
The second I shot up in front of him, he anticipated the move and kicked out, his booted foot connecting with my midsection. Pain exploded along my stomach, and I doubled over. His hand slammed into my shoulder, and I lost my balance. Toppling backward, I hit the mats on my back, hard.
Perses was suddenly in my face, looming over me. A smirk graced his lips. “God Killer or not, girl, he will own you if you fight like this. And as you know, he can’t kill you, but he can make you beg for death. Is that something you want to experience again?”
Anger burned through my veins like poison. “My name is not ‘girl,’ and no, that’s not something I want to experience again.”
The smirk slipped off his face. “Then get back up, girl.”
Meeting his stare, I rolled into a sitting position. Ignoring the slice of pain, I got back up.
CHAPTER 18
By Wednesday, I was sure my entire back was an array of violets and blues. I was, literally, one giant walking-and-talking bruise. Aiden and Seth hadn’t fared any better. Last night, when Aiden and I had gone to bed, we’d been too sore and too tired to take off our pants.
Needless to say, Marcus had given up on the separate bedroom thing. Not that there was any point now. Neither of us could do anything even if our body parts touched.
The Army of Awesome was faring a lot better than us. Numbering near a thousand, they were learning basic tactical maneuvers. It was like the videos of boot camp I remembered seeing on TV. If anything, I think Perses was just trying to harden them instead of teaching them any real skills. He was worse than any Covenant Instructor I’d ever seen.
The Titan was a cesspool of insults.
Later that night, after a long soak in some kind of herbal mixture Laadan had provided, I sat on the bed, too tired to make my way back to the common area for food.
Thankfully, Aiden was possibly the most wonderful man in the whole universe. He brought a plate full of chicken tenders and fries to the room.
“Nice shirt,” he commented, nudging the door shut with his toe.
I glanced down at myself, grinning. “Sorry.”
He laughed as he eased down beside me, placing the tray between us. “As I’ve said a hundred times before, I like seeing you in my clothes.”
A flush covered my cheeks. “I was too tired to put pants on.”
Peering up through his lashes, he grinned. “And I’m not going to complain about that.” He picked up a can of soda, popped the tab, and handed it to me. “I lost the battle of wills with Deacon.”
“Uh-oh.”
Deacon wanted to travel with us to New York. He felt, since he’d christened the name of our army, he was some kind of official mascot or something. Of course, Aiden wasn’t happy with that, and I couldn’t blame him. Deacon was safer here. Who knew what we’d meet on the road, and what we’d find in New York once we got there?
“I’ve told him about a million times that I’d feel better with him staying here.” He picked the breading off his tenders, causing me to smile. “But I’m not winning this battle.”
“He’ll probably just sneak out with us, anyway.” I bit half of my tender off, breaded skin and all. “And he’s worried, you know. Not just about you, but Luke, too.”
“I get that.” He tossed the breading onto the plate. “Doesn’t mean I have to like it.”
I watched him meticulously remove more breading and then took a deep breath. “Speaking of not wanting people to get hurt and the whole keeping them safe thing? We need to talk about that.”
He peeked up, his fingers stilling. “Details?”
Finishing off my tender, I took a drink before I continued. “I’m not asking you to stay behind here, because I want you to go with me. And I know you wouldn’t do that anyway.”
Aiden lowered the chicken piece, his head tilting to the side. “Damn straight.”
“But I need you to know that I can’t face Ares with you by my side.” I rushed on, so that the words that were forming on his tongue couldn’t get out. “I know why you want to be there, and I respect that. Hell, I love you for that. But Ares is going to go after you to just get to me.”
He dropped the tender. “Alex, you’re asking the impossible.”
“No, I’m not.” I met his thundercloud-gray stare. “I love you, Aiden. I love you more than anything. And the fact that you want to be there for me is amazing. But I can’t have you there. Ares knows how much you mean to me, and you’ll be a distraction. I hate to say that, but it’s the truth.”
A muscle began to throb in his jaw. “I’m not sure if I’m supposed to feel insulted by that.”
“You’re not!” I resisted the urge to throw a piece of chicken in his face. “Look, I get that the idea of me going in there without you—”
“Makes me freaking sick to my stomach?”
“Well, yeah, that, but you have to understand that, because I love you, I don’t want to have to worry about Ares getting hold of you.”
The muscle was really ticking now. “And because I love you, that’s why asking me to let you do this by yourself is insane.”
Striving for patience, I shoved a handful of fries in my mouth before continuing. “I’m not going to be by myself. Seth will be there.”
“Oh, and that’s supposed to make me feel better?”
“Not like I haven’t tried to get him to change his mind too.” My eyes narrowed. “But he’s an Apollyon.”
“And I’m a trained Sentinel who can handle myself,” he shot back. “And besides, you think I’ll be safer with the army?”