of the death demigod than the war demigod. “I’m about to get to the point.” He cleared his throat. “First-years, now’s the time for you to stop being useless and tell me exactly what you know about demons.”
A few girls shot their hands up. They sat in the front, so they’d all turned to face the back of the bus. Instead of looking at the lieutenant, their eyes were glued to Héctor. I could see how badly they wanted to replace me and sit with him. I growled.
“What’s the matter, lamb?” Héctor landed his fingers on my chin and turned my face to him.
He had no idea how appealing he was to females. When I had spent my first night in the dorm, all the girls had been talking about him all night. And that night, I’d had a wet dream about him, except that dream had been kind of real.
I snuggled closer to him, and he wrapped his arm around me.
“If there’s anything on your mind, you can always tell me,” he said softly.
I peered into his sapphire eyes, which held the depths of the galaxy. He was an ancient, powerful warrior with a god’s blood running in his veins. He’d been so lonely for an eon. He thought that he’d finally found his true mate, yet the one who nestled into him was a demon princess who pretended to be someone else.
Perhaps the death demigod isn’t all that innocent either, a dark voice chimed in my mind.
Perhaps. I tensed beside Héctor.
There were a lot of things about him I didn’t know. Paxton had told me that all of his demigod cousins had dark secrets and that the secret sin of my origin wasn’t any worse than theirs.
But what could be worse than being a demon?
Héctor’s eyes searched mine, full of understanding and adoration as if he was trying to tell me he wouldn’t change his feelings for me no matter what I was. He’d once confessed just that to his cousins while I pretended to be asleep, but then he hadn’t known I might be the lost demon princess.
Could I trust in such a thing as unconditional love?
There are many things on my mind, Héctor, I said in his head.
Yes, my lamb? He gazed at me with all the tenderness in the world as if he’d been looking forward to the day when I would be completely open with him.
That broke my heart again. I just couldn’t tell him.
Could you not call me “lamb” in public? I asked, swallowing hard. Could you call me “Icy Dagger”?
“Don’t be silly, lamb,” he said out loud.
There was a tinge of disappointment in his rich, husky voice. No one else could tell, but I was bonded to him. I could sense my demigods’ moods without hearing their words.
My heart skipped a beat before flapping like a crazy bat’s wings. What had he expected me to tell him? Had he learned about the other half of my origin already? I shook my head. That couldn’t be unless Paxton had told him, but I doubted the Demigod of Sea would tell anyone.
My dark secret was Paxton’s key to my lock. He wouldn’t give it up easily.
Héctor pressed me to him and kissed the tip of my nose, and I instantly melted into his comforting warmth.
Cameron cleared his throat again.
“Go ahead, Michelle Ann,” the lieutenant encouraged one of the girls who raised their hands.
Michelle had bragged about knowing more about demons than anyone, but now she stuttered and forgot what she was going to say. Maybe she shouldn’t have stared so long at Héctor before she opened her mouth.
“Demons are bad,” she murmured, completely losing her train of thought.
Cameron looked at her with disapproval. “Get your shit together, initiate!” He turned to another pretty girl. “Linley Grande, go. I hope you won’t be a disappointment.”
Linley smiled at Héctor, but he wasn’t looking at her. He stared into the empty distance, his mind somewhere else while he stroked my arm.
“Uh,” Linley said. “I’ve learned all about demons since the time I could walk. I was homeschooled.”
I smiled at her. I could relate to her homeschooling experience. Maybe I would act more approachable to the other students who weren’t mean.
“No one cares if you were homeschooled or not,” Cameron said. “Get to the point.”
He could be such an ass. In my opinion, the Dominion lieutenant could use some therapy. He could afford it, I bet. That reminded me to ask Axel if we all got health insurance