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"Why did you let her believe you did this?" I asked "You’re not even trainingyour speaking?"

I rolled reat and terrible half-blood beater or so"

He pointed to the door "It wouldn’t be a far stretch of the iination Your Instructor allowed it to happen The doc sees more cases like this than she probably cares to"

And she probably saw very few pure-bloods who even cared enough toover here, anyway?"

There was a ghost of a s sure you stay safe is a full-timejob?"

I started to snored his amused look "So ere you here, for real?"

"I just happened to be over here and looked in the roo and watched The rest is history"

I didn’t really believe hio "I would’ve had Jackson, you know? But this daaze settled on ain "You shouldn’t be sick" He stepped forward, reaching out and carefully placing his hand around et sick?"

"I can’t be the first half to get sick"

His thumb moved over my chin, careful to avoid the tender spot That was Aiden, always so careful with h My heart ju his hand

Unsure of how to respond, I shrugged "Anyway, thanks for, u Jackson to stop"

A hard, lethal look flickered across his face "I will make sure Jackson is punished for what he has done The Covenant has enough on its shoulders without halfs trying to kill one another"

I lightly touched my chin and winced "I don’t know if it was his idea"

Aiden grabbed my hand and pulled it away from my face "What do you mean?"

Before I could answer, a fine shiver went down my spine Seconds later, the door to the rooh, eyes wide and lips thinned His gaze went from my lip to where Aiden held my hand "What the hell happened?"

Confusion and then understanding dawned on Aiden’s face He released "

Seth shot Aiden a scathing look as he made his way to where I sat on the table He clasped ers, just like Aiden had My heart didn’t flutter, but the cord did "Who were you sparring with?"

"It’s no big deal" I felt my cheeks start to burn

"It doesn’t look that way" Seth’s eyes narrowed "And you hurt elsewhere I can feel it"

Gods, I really needed to work on that shield

"Thank you for keeping an eye on her, Aiden" Seth didn’t take his eyes off me "I have it taken care of"

Aiden opened his , but then he closed it He turned around and left the rooe to junore

"So what happened to your face?" he pro away fro "I can tell This was really done while sparring?"

"Yeah, well, it was done to my face in class"

His frown deepened "What is that supposed to mean?"

I knocked his hand away and slid off the table "It’s nothing Just a busted lip"

"Busted lip?" He caughtme back "I swear I see a boot print on your chin"

"Really--is it that bad?" I gingerly touchedwhat he’d think if he saw the boot print on rasped hed and tried to wiggle free, but it was no use Seth--and the cord--wanted ainst his chest "It doesn’tfood at you, anyway?"

"Oh, I’m not too happy about that I think mayo stains" His e was pointless, but that’s what I did "No Not at all"

"Yeah," he ainst the top of my head "So who did you spar with?"

I closed , it was easy to stop thinking Just like it had been while fighting "I always get paired with Jackson"

After class the following day, I piddled around the training center I foundinto the smaller room Aiden had been in when I’d found out about my father Of course, he wasn’t in there now No one was Droppinghanging in thethat had seen better days Sections of the black leather had been knocked off Soers over the edges of the tape

Restlessness inched overti I hadn’t seen Seth since he’d dropped uessed he was still pissed about the sub issue

I pushed the bag with lyphs stared back atHad my father trained at this Covenant? Stood in this very rooain, melancholy crept over me

The door to the roo Guard Linard But it wasn’t him My heart did a brief, stupid happy dance