It had been like seeing a car about to hit an ice patch, knowing it was about to spin out of control and hit a road barrier, and not be able to look away.
Alex’s grunt was off, rougher than usual. “She likes it that way. I’m surprised you lasted as long as you did in her presence. Most people can’t.”
Maybe that explained why I felt so weird. “Really?”
Alex glanced down. “Selene says she’s like looking at the sun. Agatha met her once and hasn’t seen her since. She says she saw her life flash before her eyes and claims she knows the day she’s going to die.”
My eyes went wide. “That’s amazing and scary as hell at the same time.”
He raised his eyebrows in a mix of pride and wariness and maybe something else.
“What is she?” I asked.
“She says she’s the last full-blooded one of our kind. She’s the strongest… the most powerful of all of us.”
My mouth dropped open. “Oh shit.”
Then I processed what he’d said. Hewaspart human.
Those bluish-purple eyes flicked toward me, and he nodded. “She can’t be around most people because they sense what she is. Or at least, they know she isn’t like everyone else unless she wants to hide it, and she rarely bothers. Her abilities go… further than the rest of ours.”
I didn’t want to ask, but chances were a drop of sweat was about to roll down my spine.
“She’s the one who wanted you to find me, right?”
Somehow his grunt sounded suspicious, but I wasn’t about to poke at it too much. I already had too much to think about. Turning my attention toward the ballroom, I spotted a waiter making his way over, holding a tray of something. “Say, Alex, she knew my grandpa.”
I peeked at him. He raised an eyebrow, not looking surprised even a tiny bit.
“She said she met him in Costa Rica.”
“She lived in a lot of places before coming here seventy years ago.”
“I wanted to talk to her more about it, but you know, she’s kind of scary. I wonder if she was friends with my great-grandmother.”
He turned to me slowly, measuring his words, thinking a thousand words a minute from the look in his eye.
I got this feeling again, just a tickle in my stomach. “Just out of curiosity, how powerful is she? Like really?” I asked.
“She’s the reason why the Trinity was formed, Gracie,” he answered. “We think she might have had a vision of what would happen if some of us didn’t come out in the open, and that’s why she pushed it.”
Oh boy.
“I only know a fraction of what she’s capable of. My mother told us to never ask for more information unless she offered it first. There’s a reason she picks and chooses who she meets.”
I squinted at him. “You’re scaring me.”
He tilted his head to the side, something about him suddenly feeling heavy and extra thoughtful. “I won’t let anyone hurt you.”
Yeah, that drop of sweat went straight down my spine. “I haven’t done anything to anyone. I don’t want to die,” I whispered.
That got me an instant eye roll. “Why would my grandmother want to kill you? She’s why we met. I told you that.”
“You literally just said you’d protect me….”
“I was trying to make you feel better,” he said in exasperation. “Anyway, I don’t think the three of us could stop her if we tried, but I still wouldn’t let anyone hurt you.” He picked up my hand and put it back on the crease of his elbow. “I promised.”
I was going to shit myself.
