Elixir (Covenant) by Jennifer L. Armentrout Page A

eat.”
    “You can never be him .”
    I rubbed the growth of facial hair along my jaw as she slowly approached the plate of food, and hope sparked deep inside me. She hadn’t eaten in the four days since she’d Awakened. I had no idea how she was still walking around. Picking up the plate of food, she backed away.
    “Are you going to eat the food this time?” I asked wearily.
    Alex smiled and then threw the plate directly at where I sat. Plastic crashed against titanium before clattering on the floor. Pieces of food—maybe mashed potatoes and some kind of meat—made it through the bars, splattering my chest and cheek. We’d stopped giving her ceramic plates after she’d tried to turn the broken shards into weapons.
    Drawing on patience I was running out of, I slowly knocked the chunks of food off me. “Did that make you feel better, Alex?”
    She pouted. “Not really.” Then she started pacing, her movements fluid and spellbinding in spite of the fact she’d thrown her dinner at me again . “I can’t take this any longer. Let me out or, so help me, I will destroy you.”
    I shook my head. “Alex, you have to be in there. I know you. My heart would not be beating if you were truly gone.”
    Dropping onto the mattress, she growled. “Gods, isn’t that just so sweet? My heart is all aflutter.”
    “There he is.” I stood and grasped the bars, mirroring her earlier actions. “I wondered how long it would take to bring you out. Does my love for her bother you, Seth?”
    She rolled onto her side, brows pinched and face pale. “Seth’s not in here, you stupid pure-blood.”
    “It hurts when he’s connected to you, doesn’t it?”
    “He’s not in here!” she screamed, her voice cracking.
    I knew she was lying. “He’s there.” I leaned against the bars. “I can see him in your eyes.”
    Alex curled, tucking her knees to her chest. A shiver rolled through her. I knew what she was doing—retreating inside herself, reaching out to Seth, making contact with him.
    “Alex,” I said.
    Her hands curled into fists as she lifted her head. “Go away.”
    My eyes met hers. “Never.”
    “I hate you,” she hissed, and she sounded like she meant it. “I hate you!”
    “That’s not true. Alex loves me.”
    She rolled her eyes. “I am Alex, you idiot. And I don’t love you. I need—”
    “You need Seth.” Fire snapped through me as I gripped the bars until my knuckles ached. Deep down, I knew it wasn’t just Seth that was forcing her to behave like this. Yeah, some of what she said was Seth to the core, but it was the need driving her. The need to be near the First was a tangible thing—potent and real.
    I could taste it.
    I remembered what the oracle had told her about need over the summer. Part of me hadn’t fully understood it then, but I did now. Need was destroying her, destroying me.
    “Need is not love, Alex.”
    Before Alex could respond, the door opened. “Oh!” She unfurled her legs and clapped her hands. “More visitors for little old me? I’m just so damn lucky. I’m tired of seeing his face.”
    Marcus, Alex’s pure-blooded uncle, glanced at me. “I see she’s in good spirits.”
    I snorted.
    She rose to her feet, swaying unnaturally to the far right. The mattress, the last item left in the room, floated several feet off the floor. We’d removed everything else. Elemental use now came easy to her. She seemed to just will it to happen and it did. And gods, did she ever love doing it.
    Marcus and I stared, morbidly fascinated with the display. It was stronger than yesterday, which meant the protective magic was wearing off. Hephaestus would need to make another visit and soon.
    “And where is here?” She pushed with those words, fueling them with power.
    I stepped back as her words rippled through me, breathed inside me. Forcing myself to break eye contact with Alex, I turned to Marcus. His eyes were glazed over and vacant. He was seconds away from spilling our location. I