I screamed, yanking the sharp end of the sickle out. Then he fell. First to his knees, then face first onto the marble floor. I lifted my head, the bloodied sickle clenched in my shaking hand. I didn't even know the Guard's name... and I'd killed him.

The male pure must have risen to his feet at some point. He stared back at me, equally horrified. He opened his mouth, but nothing came out.

"I had to do it," I pleaded. "He was going to kill me. I had to do it."

Dawn whimpered from behind the figure of Themis. The statue had been damaged during the battle. The scales had tipped-no longer equal.

So many rules governed the half-bloods. I really couldn't keep them all straight. But there were two I always remembered: never get involved with a pure-blood, and never kill a pure-blood. Self-defense didn't matter. A pure's life was and always would be valued higher than mine. Being an Apollyon didn't make me above that law. Breaking one rule had seemed bad enough, but both of them?

Well, I was so screwed.

Footsteps thundered into the reception hall, the only sound that seemed greater than the pounding of my heart. Innately, I recognized the two. How had they known where I was? Of course, Seth would know-always know-where I was.

Aiden was the first through the door. Both he and Seth halted a few feet away. I could only imagine what they saw-piles and piles of blue dust, the bodies, the broken doors, and two pures cowering under the statue.

Then they saw me, standing with a bloodied sickle in-hand and a dead Council Guard lying at my feet.

"Alex, are you okay?" Aiden crossed the room. "Alex?"

He stepped around the fallen Guard and stood in front of me. A bruise shadowed under his right eye, and a scratch slashed across his left cheek. His shirt was torn, but the blade hooked to his pants didn't have blood on it.

"Alex, what happened?" He sounded desperate as his eyes searched mine.

I blinked, but I kept seeing the look on the Guard's face.

Seth surveyed the mess with a cold, almost feral look to him. "Alex. Tell us what happened."

It all came out in a nervous rush. "I was fighting the furies and he told me I did a good job, Aiden. Then he apologized. I had to do it. He said there couldn't be two of us and that he had to protect his race. He was going to kill me. I-I had to do it. I don't even know his name and I killed him."

Pain and panic flared in Aiden's eyes, and then they took on a hard, steely edge. Resolve burned from them while a red-hot fury built behind him. Seth dipped down and rolled the Guard over.

"Okay." Aiden reached out to pry my fingers from the dagger. "Let me have the blade, Alex."

"No." I shook my head. "It has my prints on it. It's mine."

"You have to let me have it, Alex."

I shook my head, holding the sickle tighter. "I had to do it."

Aiden gently pried the blade loose. "I know, Alex. I know." He glanced over his shoulder before turning back to me. "Do not speak a word of this to anyone. Do you understand?"

"But-"

"Alex." His voice rose sharply. "Do not speak about this to anyone. Ever. Do you understand me?"

"Yes." My breath was coming out in sharp, little gasps.

He spun toward Seth. "Get her out of here. Take Lucian's jet to North Carolina. Use compulsion if you have to to get them to leave without him; I don't care. If anyone stops you or asks why you're leaving now, tell them the daimons had plans to take the second Apollyon. That the risk was too great for her to remain here."

Seth nodded, his eyes glowing. "What about them?"

Aiden glanced back at the pures. "I'll deal with them." His voice was low. "What happened in here will never leave this room. You can trust that."

"Are you sure?" Seth frowned. "If you change your mind, it's all over for Alex. We could just take care-"

"We will not kill them," Aiden hissed. "I know what I'm doing!"

Seth's eyes widened. "You're insane-as insane as Alex. If anyone finds out what you're about to do, you're-"

"I know. Go-go now. Before anyone else comes. I'll take care of this."

Would Aiden use compulsion on another pure? That alone was another forbidden act, another rule to be broken. How else would he get them to keep this secret? Especially Dawn? She was a Council member, obligated to report what'd really happened.

Aiden would compel the pures. Everything else would fall into place. The halfs who'd been turned had all used daggers. People would find the Guard and believe a daimon half had ended his life.

But if anyone ever found out the truth, Aiden would be deemed a traitor.

He would be killed for it.

I shot forward. "No. You can't do this. I won't allow it. You won't die-"

Aiden spun around and grasped my shoulders. "I will do this and you will allow this. Please, for once, don't fight with me. Just do as I say." His eyes met mine and when he spoke again, he did so barely above a whisper. "Please."

I closed my eyes against the sudden rush of tears. "Don't do this."

"I have to. I told you before I'd never let anything happen to you. I meant it." Aiden turned toward Seth. "Leave now."

Seth took my hand in a firm grip. There was so much I wanted to say to Aiden, but there wasn't time, not with Seth dragging me past the bodies and the shell-shocked pures. I did get one last glance, though.

Aiden was already setting his plan into motion. He crouched in front of Dawn, speaking low and quick-the same way he'd spoken to me that night in the warehouse.

A compulsion-he was really using a compulsion on another pure.

Seth pulled my hand. "We have to hurry."

The two of us raced through the hallways, avoiding the more heavily populated areas. We passed rooms where soft cries filled the space between our footfalls, corridors where bodies of half-bloods covered the floor. As Seth swiped a set of keys from a dead Guard, I looked into a dark chamber. Half-blood servants littered the floor, all of them dead or dying, and no one seemed to even care. No one tended to them. There were only moans and pleas for mercy. Pleas for help-help that would never come. I started toward them.

"We don't have time. I'm sorry, Angel. We just don't have time. We have to go." Seth wrenched me away from the room.

Numb-I was numb inside. So numb that I really didn't feel the bruises the hits had left behind, the ache that each step jarred out of me. Finding a Hummer wasn't hard, but ignoring the sounds of fighting all around us was difficult. Instinct demanded that I throw myself back into the fray, but I doubted Seth would appreciate that.

I scanned the dark grounds, relieved to see that Guards still held a line around the school. The daimons hadn't broken through. At least the students were safe.

But what about the servants?

On the way to the airport, Seth carried out Aiden's plan. After several unsuccessful tries, he was able to reach Marcus. I stared out the window, still numb with shock.

Seth said exactly what Aiden had instructed, telling Marcus that the daimons had tried to take me. "-and get her out of here in Lucian's plane tonight."

It sounded as though Marcus agreed with the idea of getting me out of New York. "Lucian is among the survivors. I'll pass on the information."

Some of the tension in my body eased off knowing that Lucian and Marcus were alive, but there were still many more whose fates were unknown at this point. There'd been so many bodies, so many daimons. What about Laadan?

Seth and I didn't talk until we'd boarded Lucian's jet. I took a seat beside a window while Seth encouraged the pilot and the servants to take off without Lucian.

I rested my head against the cool pane, squeezing my eyes shut. My stomach felt hollow. At some point after the plane took off, I stopped thinking. I just sat there, existing in a world where I might not even have a future. So many things could go wrong at this point. What if the compulsion failed to work? If so, Guards would be waiting for us the moment the plane landed. And even if Aiden was successful, compulsions weren't guaranteed to be permanent. They could wear off after time.

Then what? Both Aiden and I would lose everything.

Seth dropped into the seat beside me. I lifted my head and glanced at him. He held two glasses in his hands, filled with something that looked a lot like liquor. "What is it?"

"It's not the brew." His joke fell flat, but I smiled weakly and took it. "It's just scotch. It should help."

I downed the glass and handed it back. "Thank you."

"You really stopped the furies?"

Nodding, I handed the glass back to him. "Cut their heads off. They said they'd be back, though."

"Only a god can truly kill another god." He paused. "Or a god killer, but if you cut off their heads I can imagine that would put them out of commission for a while."

"Seth, they said... they said I was the threat." I bit my lip, shuddering. "Oh, gods, I killed a pure."

"Shh. Don't ever say that again. You know how much Aiden is risking. Don't let it all go to waste." Seth leaned over, draping his arm around my shoulders. After a few seconds, he spoke. "He really... isn't like the other pures, Alex."

"I know," I whispered. Aiden wasn't like anyone I knew, and there was no way I could accept that his actions tonight were a sense of duty on steroids.

But there was nothing I could do about that right now.

I looked out the tiny window, out into the dark night. Below, diamond-shaped lights grew smaller and smaller, becoming insignificant and vanishing as we moved into ominous clouds. I drew in a deep breath, but it got stuck in my throat. I'd killed a pure-blood and the man I loved was down there, covering it up, risking everything for me.

What had I done?

Thinking back on those seconds when I'd seen the pure raise the dagger, I knew there'd been time to avoid the deadly plunge of the blade. I was fast. I could've moved out of the way. I could've run. I hadn't needed to kill him.

Seth's arm around my shoulder's tightened as if he could read my mind. "You were defending yourself, Alex."

"Was I?"

"Yes. They declared war on us. You had no other choice."

"There are always choices." I pulled my gaze from the window and looked at Seth. There are always choices. I just had this terrible habit of making the wrong ones and now I had to deal with it. So did Aiden. So did Seth.

Seth reached out slowly, as if he was afraid to startle me. His caught my chin with the tips of his fingers. He didn't say anything. Not that he needed to-the connection between us was there, sparking alive.

I needed it right now-needed Seth.

Closing my eyes, I let him guide my head to his shoulder. And after I could take the first deep breath of air without choking on it-after I'd made my choice-I finally let the connection in completely. Seth's presence-his warmth surrounded me. Waves of comfort washed over me, easing the knots in my stomach. Not filling in all the cracks, not replacing ones that lingered back in the Catskills, but filling enough that I felt a little better, a little saner.

This e-book contains a bonus scene from Seth's Point-of-View I watched Dawn place her hand on Aiden's arm and once again felt a wealth of gratitude that Alex had decided not to attend this ball. If she were here watching this, she might've ripped out every strand of the pure-blood's coppery hair.

Images of Alex going all girl-fight filled my head, and I snickered.

Aiden raised his brows at me. "Doing okay over there?"

I rolled my eyes, not even bothering to answer. Just because I was standing next to him-only because he was the least undesirable option at the moment-didn't mean I was going to be chatty with him. On a good day, the animosity levels between us were usually at CODE RED. Bad days they were at CODE I'M GOING TO KILL YOU.

We had more bad days than good days.

The pure's gray eyes narrowed before he turned back to the one of the Councilman's sons, who was currently describing how thrilling yachting on the open sea was. Boredom was going to kill me. My gaze slid over to where Lucian stood, surrounding by the Ministers. Even he was looking like he'd be a more stimulating company.

Aiden sighed under his breath, loud enough that I could hear him, and I almost laughed out loud. Apparently he and I shared more than one thing in common: our current boredom and one- A shiver of awareness rolled over my skin, and I could feel the marks tingling, responding to the presence of her. Alex.

I turned slowly, zeroing in on where she was. Now what in the Hades was she doing down... my brain pretty much emptied of all rational thought.

Alex stood just inside the entrance of the ballroom, looking as frightened as a wood nymph having earned Apollo's favor. Her anxiety hummed around her, but I wasn't feeling it. Well, I was feeling something.

There always was this certain beauty to her-one that was rough at the edges, making her unique to those around her. But tonight, dressed in a red gown that should've been illegal on her body? I'd seen Alex in workout clothes, in those little distracting pajama bottoms, and in regular clothes, but damn. That wild tangle of hair was twisted up... and those eyes...

Tonight she was the most beautiful thing I'd ever seen.

I watched her move away from Laadan and Lucian, retreating to the side. She didn't belong there. Hades, she didn't belong here.

Finally, after what seemed like forever, her eyes met mine. She lifted her glass, silently saluting me. Every muscle in my body locked up, and then I realized I was staring at her like an imbecile.

"Holy crap," I murmured.

I felt Aiden stiffen beside me, and I wondered if he somehow knew that she was here, if there was some kind of bond that coursed between those two that was far more powerful than what Alex and I shared. Impossible... but I wondered.

Then he looked over his shoulder, and dear gods, I never seen a man more surprised by a girl in a dress than Aiden. Okay. Lie. I had been just as surprised, and if he was thinking half of what I was thinking, I sort of wanted to hit him more than I usually did.

The look on both of their faces actually did make me want to hit-no, zap something. Right here, out in the open, they were doing the eye-screw thing.

And it was about to get worse. Aiden seriously was walking toward her. Clenching my jaw until I was sure my teeth would crack, I slipped away from the group, passing Lucian and Marcus. When I made it behind Laadan, she lifted her gaze.

"She's not for you," she murmured over the rim of her glass. The slight, knowing smile of hers didn't fade. I didn't even want to know how she knew. "A penny wise, Seth..."

"And a pound shut-the-hell-up."

Laadan arched a brow, but said nothing else, which was fine by me. Out of all the pures I knew, she freaked even me out. I moved past her toward Alex and briefly considered grabbing a napkin off the table to help with the drool, but I doubted she'd appreciate the offer.

Sighing, I slid up behind her, placing my hand on her shoulder. She didn't even flinch, but I did. Zeus could be feeling her up right now and she wouldn't even notice. But Aiden noticed. He did nothing to hide the flash of rage contorting his usually cool expression.

My lip curled up on one side.

Aiden looked like he was going to hit me, and I sort of hoped he did. I would love nothing more than shove my foot so far up his... but Alex-it wouldn't end well for Alex.

Leaning into her, I inhaled the scent of peaches and something mysterious and uniquely hers. "People are starting to stare."