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He squeezed my hands "Casualties of war--it happens"

I pulled my hands free My sto?"

"It’s not that I’th"

"No," I whispered "That has nothing to do with strength"

Sethstrands free from the leather tie Had he always been like this? There had always been a degree of coldness to hi like this

"It will be okay," he said finally "I pro to be okay You have to let o We have to be apart from each other"

"I can’t, Alex Maybe in tiet about him and…"

"This isn’t about Aiden!"

Facing me, his lips twisted into a bitter, cynical smile "It’s always about Aiden You don’t care about the mortals If you could still have him and let us have our way, you wouldn’t care"

"I do care You’re going to have to kill innocent people to do this, Seth Can you seriously live with that? Because I can’t"

"What pure is truly innocent?" he asked instead of answering my question

"There are pures who don’t want to see halfs enslaved And yeah, the gods are a bunch of dickheads, but that’s what they are"

"We’ve already been over this, Alex We aren’t going to agree Not yet, at least But your birthday is only days away You’ll understand then"

I gaped "Seth, please listen tohiet it, Alex I can’t--won’t let you go"

"Yes, you can! It’s quite simple You just let me walk out of this house"

Seth was in front of ainst mine "You don’t knohat it feels like now, but you will The --nothing feels like that It’s pure power, Alex And you haven’t even Awakened! Can you iine what it will be like then?" His eyes took on that crazed, overly-passionate gleaive that up"

"Gods, do you hear yourself? You sound like a dai like that It’s better"

That was about when I realized that between Lucian’s influence and the allure of akasha Seth had been twisted into soht Daht

And I had been so, so wrong I was in a precarious, bad position Anything was possible and my heart rate doubled I wanted to s Apollo stash estion, all I could think was that hat Lucian had wanted to do I was disgusted withwas not so I ever did

But now I needed to run, because that was the only s to do

"I want you to leaveand I stood "Now"

"I don’t want to leave," he replied evenly

My heart leapt into my throat "Seth, I don’t want you in here"

He cocked his head to the side, eyes heating up a notch "Not too long ago you had no proble in your bedrooht to be in here You’re not my boyfriend"

Seth’s brows flew up "You speak as if e are can be siirlfriend You’re right about that"

I pushed away fro for a way out of the room There was only a bathroom, closet, and oneAndhere? Perched atop the house was a creepy porcelain doll I’d hated as a child and still did

Sneaking up behind me, he whispered in my ear "We are the sas You can love whoever you want and you can tell yourself whatever you want We don’t have to love one another; we don’t even have to like each other It doesn’t matter, Alex We’re stuck with one another, and the connection between us is far stronger than whatever you feel in your heart"

Whirling around, I put space between us "No This is it I’ on that promise you made me I don’t want to do this You need to leave I don’t care where you go Just go--"

"I’ far worse and fardeep and spreading through my veins like venom "You promised me, Seth You swore that you would leave if this became too much You can’t take that back!"

His eyes met mine "It’s too late for that I’ed"