Seth shot the basketball into the hoop, and the crowd roared. I mean, roared. The game was tied, five-five. Our team was going up against Southern Cali Technical High School, and they were the second best team in the state. Behind us, Tower High School, of course. I sat in the front row of the bleachers, with my best friend Maya next to me. She clutched my arm tightly, her red-painted lips gaped in excitement.

"I'm so glad you convinced him to join the team," she oozed.

"So am I."

The referee blew the whistle for a time-out on Southern Cali Tech's side. Seth got slaps on the back from his team members, well, at least the ones who were on the court. Billy, Carter, Todd, Victor, and John. Maya and I rolled our eyes like twin bobble heads when John walked by. Seth followed, and he winked his ridiculous orange eyes at me as he did. He melted me, without a doubt.

I told him to join the team during our peacetime, just to have something to do with himself. He didn't work, he didn't come to school that often, and he didn't have many friends.

That's because he was a god. The Egyptian one of chaos, violence, war, and the desert, to be specific.

My life had been flipped upside down when he entered it in September, and it wasn't in a good way, at least not at first. I hated him with a passion, and he hated me even more. He actually wanted me dead, and he made several attempts on my life. But each time he tried, he couldn't bring himself to finish me off. He decided to protect me instead. He protected me from his evil brothers, Oz and Horus, from his archenemy Hondo, who was a powerful master of the magic Seth created, Chaos magic, and from himself. His kisses nearly killed me, but that was another story. Over the course of two months with him, it was an understatement to say I'd fallen hard, and he had, too.

It had been three months since the day our lives were changed forever, the day Ra gave us a warning. Our enemy would rise again. We didn't know who our enemy was, but we kept our eyes peeled at every moment. This was a grace period, and we were enjoying it, but it wasn't an excuse to let our guard down.

Anyway, after I convinced Seth to start coming to school more often, he'd skyrocketed to disgusting levels of popularity. When he first stepped into first period English on the first day of school, he'd been "popular" by default, for obvious reasons. His body looked like it had been sculpted from the fantasies of every woman from ages fifteen to twenty-five. Not too muscly, not lean, either, and his face wasn't much different. Nice cheekbones, rigid jawline, hard-set, full lips, thick eyebrows... but his eyes were what caught attention, if one wasn't already completely mesmerized by everything else. Strikingly orange, exactly the color of a bright orange crayon. Basically, the terms drop-dead-gorgeous, hot, handsome, good-looking, or sexy were all huge understatements and almost offensive.

When he joined the team, it only got worse.

Everyone knew who he was. Every girl with eyes kept them peeled and googly around him, and it was an unspoken rule at Tower High that if you were a guy and you found Seth attractive, it wasn't particularly gay. It just mean you had, well, again, eyes. I'd even seen teachers give him a few suspicious looks. Everyone swooned over him, and if I was a normal girlfriend, it would've bothered me, but it didn't, because I was a goddess, too.

Yup, me. Hailey Roberts. Egyptian goddess of magic. Seth killed the other one.

Ma'at, the goddess of balance, gave me the title when my dad's transformation from a natural magician to a Chaos magician changed my DNA. Instead of being just a natural magician, I could control both types of magic. That wasn't allowed. I died. But Ma'at gave me the role of a goddess, and brought me back to life. I was immortal, and I had powers.

I also had a very, very big destiny, but I wasn't really focused on that. In fact, I tried to think about it as little as possible.

But back to jealousy. I had none, because I knew how Seth felt about me. He was mysterious, even after knowing him for months, and he had a habit of being dishonest to protect people he cared about, but he never hid his feelings for me, not once. He told me I was the only person he'd ever truly needed, and I didn't feel the same way (I needed Maya, she was literally my spirit animal), but I did need him. A lot. Trust me. I'd lost him once, and I turned into a very, very cruel person. I may or may not have killed my father. He deserved it. Did I just give myself away? Whatever.

Seth's tall body flew past me again, and I saw him shove the ball out of his hands, and across the court into John's. Hated that guy, literal embodiment of a stinking, decaying trashcan. I sometimes threw items at his car just for fun, kind of like how Seth threw the ball to him. John scored, and my side of the arena exploded into uncontrollable cheering. He'd just scored the basket that pulled us ahead of Cali Tech in the championship match. Still thought he was trash.

"I really wish Kyle was here," Maya groaned, "I need a boytoy to use as eye candy at events like this."

I laughed, but it was halfhearted. Most people thought Kyle had simply moved, but he was actually at a boarding school for troubled teens because of all the messed up crap that had happened to him. I missed him, too, but I couldn't really blame him for leaving. Tower had been a really screwed up place for the last five months. He'd left the day after Hondo died, and honestly, I hoped he found peace. He was one of the nicest, most caring guys I'd ever met, and he didn't deserve one bit of the terrible stuff that had been thrown at him.

"Do you have a date to the season-end party?" I asked.

Maya grunted and tossed her long, curly hair behind her in irritation. "No. That means I can't go. I'll be stuck at home watching reruns of Hannah Montana!"

I opened my mouth to comfort her, but then she spoke again, scratching her chin with one acrylic fingernail.

"Actually, that sounds pretty great. Disney never re-runs that show anymore. It'll be like watching Halley's Comet, only with a really expensive blonde wig."

I tried to slap a hand over my mouth to cover up my laughter, but Maya grabbed it and cheesed with her shiny white teeth. I laughed out loud in the generally quiet arena.

"That's right, girlie, let it all out."

"Maya!" I hit her right above the chest and pressed my hand over my lips. About ten rows of people all over the building were now staring at me.

The game seemed to drag on forever, but I didn't mind waiting. I wanted our team to win, and most of all, I wanted to see Seth happy. He told me all the time that he was rarely sad; his face just wasn't upturned, so it looked like he was always doing one of those male model-y angry-pouts. But seeing him smile was an event in its own, and I wanted to see it happen.

The game went into overtime, and by that point I was on my feet, my teeth clenched nervously, along with my entire side of the arena. The place was packed, pretty much every single student and parent from both schools turned out to support. Maya and I held both hands together in a sort of anxiety-ball, and shook nervously. This was it. Thirty seconds on the clock, and the game had just been tied up again. Jake Reynolds passed John the ball. Ew.

Twenty-five seconds.

John dribbled to center court, opposite team member stole the ball.

Twenty seconds.

Opposite team member runs down court and shoots, and makes it. Cali Tech is ahead. We get the ball.

Fifteen seconds.

Cali Tech steals the ball again after Carter trips over himself. What the heck? Cali Tech team member tries to score, blocked by Billy.

Eight seconds.

We're going to lose, I can feel it. All these games, all these practices only to lose at the biggest meetup of the entire year. Not to mention the team is all seniors. We won't get to see this happen again.

Seth gets the ball. He runs down the court at inhuman speed, dribbling, without missing a beat and without knocking anyone over. Scores, the game gets tied again. Maya and I were nearly crying at this point. The game is tied, but only five seconds are left. Cali Tech has the ball.

Three seconds.

Seth grabs the ball from the Cali Tech player, who is already at Tower's hoop. With two seconds left on the clock, Seth lifted up his arms and sprung the ball from the complete opposite side of the court.

It sailed straight through the net, and we won the game.

I swear I'd never been closer to deafness.

The arena exploded, but both sides contributed. Cali Tech's side drowned in moans and cries and groans and whimpers.

Tower's side collapsed into mayhem.

Screams, cheers, cries, shouts, yells, a whole bathtub of adjectives described the pandemonium that occurred on the Tower High School side of the stadium when we won the game. Maya and I leaped into the air and hugged each other so tightly that I was sure we were suffocating each other. Usually, she'd only be suffocating me, because I'm about skinny as a twig and she's curvy as a supermodel. Seth had been doing strength training with me every day for the past two months, and even though I was still skinny as a twig, there was a thin layer of muscle under my skin and I loved it. Maya and I's mutually abusive hug ended, and I saw the tiny little referee basically toss the championship trophy into the numerous hands of the basketball team.

Our side of the arena cascaded onto the the court, at the same time that Cali Tech's team and school community dejectedly made their way out of the building. I could basically feel the depression rolling off of them. I felt bad for a split second, but I got over it. The team lifted John and Seth into the air, and handed Seth the trophy. They named an MVP at the end of every championship game. They were clearly about to bestow the honor on Seth.

Then, in true Seth fashion, things changed.

He shoved the trophy at some random player, slid down from his shoulder-seat, and started to push his way through the crowd. He was coming towards me, his intense eyes locking with mine as he approached. I swore I started sweating.

"Ooohh, looks like your sexy superstar's coming for a reward."

"Shut up," I mumbled, color shooting into my face.

He finally made his way to me, and suddenly the whole place got about fifteen degrees hotter, and that was saying a lot. In Southern California, it was January twenty-seventh, but it was also eighty degrees outside. By the time he reached me, I was shaking. He made me nervous, even though I trusted him more than I ever thought I'd be able to trust someone. He curled his strong arm around my shoulders, and brought me close to him. I wasn't that much shorter than him; he was about 6'3, and I was around 5'8. My lips touched the middle of his chest when I was this close. His breath naturally smelled good, kind of sweet; no harsh gum or breath mints. And he didn't sweat, not even a little bit. His voice was sort of entrancing, and as soon as he spoke I almost went lightheaded.

"Let's go."

What? He'd just won the championship basketball game, he was about to be named MVP, and he sounded like he didn't even care. In fact, his face looked about as bored as bored could be.

"Go where?"

"You ask too many questions."

He slid his hand down to mine and pulled me towards the opposite exit of the arena, leaving Maya looking dumbstruck, but also excited. I turned to her briefly and shrugged my shoulders, but I knew she understood. Seth was completely uncontrollable, unpredictable. We got out to the giant parking lot, where parents and students alike from Cali Tech eyed us with pure anger. Yeah, they hated us, no doubt, but I couldn't even explain how much I didn't care, and clearly, I would do an even worse job of explaining how much Seth cared, since his black Porsche was parked smack dab at the front of all of the vehicles from the opposing team.

"You didn't."

He let go of my hand and slid into the driver's seat, while the angry losers held their sad/hateful eyes on us, watching like we weren't about to just drive somewhere and makeout. Like we were about to steal some facemasks and go rob their homes. Seth floored out of the parking lot, and onto the main road. The arena was about sixty miles from Tower, and Seth had no problem putting distance between us and the mix of celebration and sadness at the huge building.

"Why didn't you stay?" I asked. "They were going to name you MVP, you know that."

"I hate sports."

I rolled my eyes. "Then why'd you join the team?"

I shouldn't have left my hand on the console between our seats. It was like a fat dead fish floating at the top of a lake, and Seth was a top-notch fishing expert. He laced his fingers with mine, and planted his lips briefly right at the back of my palm, without taking his eyes off the road.

"You asked me to."

My heart shot into my throat. He was so... yeah. That's as far as I ever got. We sped down the empty highway, roaring past abandoned, overgrown farmland that eventually turned into desert. I saw the speed tick behind the steering wheel. We were almost going one hundred. I was terrified for a split second, but then I remembered our reality. I was immortal; even if Seth slammed full speed into a mile-thick brick wall, I wouldn't die. I'd be seriously banged up, but I'd survive. And him? He had a special type of immortality. One that couldn't be taken away by anything or anyone. I didn't think he feared anything anymore.

"Where are we going, Seth?"

The Porsche veered off the road, and I screamed. Literally screamed, like an axe murderer was chasing me, even though I was immortal so an axe murderer wouldn't do much damage but the point is that I screamed really loud. The ground dipped, and I nearly lost my breakfast, then it rose like a sandy, desolate ramp, and I thought for a second that Seth had taken up car stunts. Then, it slowed from one hundred miles per hour to a nice, slow, peaceful zero. I forced my lungs to function again, and whipped my head to him so fast that I almost broke my neck.

"What was that?"

His upper body was already out of the car. He shut the door behind him, and gestured with two fingers for me to follow. I was pissed at him now. He was easy to get angry at, but I could probably count down from five on my fingers to when he'd make everything better. I blinked my eyes to adjust to the sunlight, and almost gasped in awe. I looked back, and everything made sense.

Seth veered off the lone road into the desert, and drove the car right up a giant formation. It seemed like a mountain if you looked at it straight forward, but as I walked towards the edge, I saw that nothing was supporting it underneath. It jutted out like a gigantic ledge. My mouth was dry. It was beautiful.

"But... this wasn't here, I would've seen-"

My speech stopped as his arms wrapped around my waist from behind, and his lips met with my neck just below my ear. I shuddered with pleasure from that alone; he was an expert when it came to touch.

"Think about it, sweetheart."

It didn't take that long to figure it out. "You made this? While you used it to drive on?"

"Sure did."

His lips pressed firmer against my neck, and I closed my eyes. This was perfect. Absolutely perfect. He took my hand again and led me back to the Porsche, where we laid out on the hood. He used the windshield as a sort of pillow, and his arms were behind his back, with one leg bent up. I laid my head on his chest and kept one of my hands right above his stomach. The slight rise and fall with his breathing calmed me to a point where I felt like I could stay there forever.

"Do you ever think about what'll happen in the future? I try not to, but it's hard with this whole destiny thing."

I could tell I'd caught him off guard. "Not until recently."

"What do you mean?"

"I didn't have any thoughts about my future until recently."

"That sounds a little... dark."

"I'm not the cheeriest guy in the world."

"I mean, you didn't have any plans?"

"I've been around for five thousand years. There wasn't anything else for me to do."

He had a point. "What made you start thinking about it?"

He paused for a moment. "You."

I admit, I should've seen that coming. "I made you-"

"Of course you did. I don't plan on going any further in this life without you, sweetheart."

That made me happy. His hand idly stroking the hair behind my temple made me even happier.

I didn't know how long we laid out there, the sun beating down on us, a constant slight breeze always giving him something to smooth down, but eventually, the sun started to set.

"We have to go to that end-of-season party, Seth. Everybody's gonna want you there."

He didn't respond for a few moments. "I'm not big on parties."

I sat up. "I know, but don't you want to go out, have some fun?"

"We could have some fun right now."

He pulled me down over top of him and kissed me, and I was weak for a few seconds, but I mustered up enough strength to pull away. How? Absolutely no clue. He had his hands right where they needed to be, and I was pretty sure it took more than godly strength to overcome that desire.

"Nope. Come on. We're going."

I rolled off the hood, and he reluctantly followed. "Party killer," he mumbled as he sat in the driver's seat.

It took us about an hour to get to The Man In Black's Beach House, a really, really nice bar/restaurant on West Beach, about five miles out from Tower. We were about an hour late, too. Seth could barely find a parking spot, and I was about to tell him to take the really cruddy one by the back of the lot, but I forgot who I was driving with.

He parked in the owner's spot. Of course.

The place was really cool. It looked like someone had stolen a tiki hut from Hawaii, super-sized it, and doused it with a generous amount of gross-smelling alcohol and drunk under-aged basketball players. Yeah, it was that bad, but it was the legendary end-of-season party, and we had to go. If I didn't experience every second of it and relay it moment by moment to Maya on the phone that night, she probably wouldn't speak to me until graduation.

I stepped out of the car, and Seth followed. His face was stony. He really didn't want to be here, and I didn't expect otherwise. Seth wasn't the type of person who enjoyed being around lots of people. He did it, from time to time, only because I asked him to, but he'd spend most of the events with his elbows propped back on the bar table, just watching. If he wasn't disturbingly attractive, it would be creepy. He walked close behind me as we made our way up the wooden, decorative ramp to the entrance, and I tried to steady my heartbeat. Having him that close without even touching me still sent a shiver up my spine.

When I opened the wood-framed glass door and was hit in the face with the smell of meat and booze, something changed. I didn't know what, but my stomach starting lifting into my throat and I didn't like it. It was a nervous feeling, but I felt like it was being done on purpose, like someone wanted me to be on edge. Seth must've felt it, too, because I felt his fingers brush the skin over my shoulder.

"Do you feel that?"

I opened my mouth to speak, but he moved closer, and his lips were brushing my ear. "Not me. Something else."

He knew me too well. "I feel it. What is it?"

I heard him take a breath as his shoulders shrugged. I didn't know what that meant. Seth and I both felt something, and I had stopped believing in coincidences. But he didn't know what it was, so did that mean it wasn't important? I pushed a hand through my hair. This wasn't going to ruin our night, no way. I slid my hand into his, and we stepped into the party.

It was like someone tore the sound limits off of a thousand stereos.

The entire building erupted into shouts and hoots and hollers, and obviously buzzed basketball team members barreled over to Seth, and I was pretty sure at least three of them were flirting with him. I was also sure that those three had girlfriends, but whatever. Okay, not whatever. I stepped a little closer to the mayhem. I could compete with girls that wanted Seth, but guys? No fair. They were big and muscly and I was small. I wanted to call foul.

The coach, some old guy who didn't even do anything else at our school, grabbed a huge, silver trophy off a counter in the rear of the place, and shoved it into Seth's arms.

"Our MVP, Seth!"

Again, screams and shouts and cheers and hollers and every other loud noise that a human could make. I swore I saw the entire cheerleader squad unzip/button their tops a little farther. I kind of stood awkwardly to the side, because I wasn't friends with any of these people. I mean, not anymore. When I dated John, I was an honorary "popular" girl. Now, none of these people cared about me. I wanted Seth to enjoy his success, he deserved it. Of course, what I expected of Seth was never the reality.

He looked about as bored as a child at a funeral. Seriously. Everyone might as well have been wearing black and sobbing instead of cheering for him.

He gave, I think, a smile that lasted about half a second, dropped the trophy next to the door, shoved through the crowd of worshipers, and grabbed my hand. He didn't care about any of this, only me. That made me feel a way I couldn't describe, not even if I tried. He dragged me over to the bar, and sat next to me on a stool. He swiveled my seat to face him, and met my eyes with his.

"You made me come here, and you're gonna make it worth my while."

I gulped. I hoped that sounded more menacing than he'd hoped.

"What-"

"I want to see you have fun. That's why you wanted to come, isn't it?"

Okay, that's what he meant. "I'm having fun. Sitting here is fun."

He clenched his jaw in an attempt to look frustrated, but I could tell by the glint in his eyes that he found me funny. "Want a drink?"

I nodded. "Water?"

He pushed himself off the stool and made his way to the drink table, which irritated me slightly. Why have a drink table when there's a bar- never mind.

Then Carlie Caster sat next to me, and everything just got so much worse.

Carlie Caster. Carlie freaking Caster. Head of the cheerleaders. Biggest bi- mean person, I had ever met in my entire life. She was nasty, rude, hateful, all of those terrible descriptive words, wrapped into one bucket of awful. She had blonde hair, green eyes, a killer body, pale skin, a gorgeous face, and I hated her for all of it. I was skinny, with long brunette hair, my skin was a little less pale than hers, I had lighter green eyes, and a... pretty face. Seth called me gorgeous all the time, probably more than he called me my actual name, but of course he thought that. I wasn't going to apologize for thinking I was average looking, even if I was the only one who thought it.

"Hey, Hailey! What's up?"

I could smell the liquor on her breath. Why was she even talking to me? She didn't like me at all. She'd spread rumors about me every single waking moment when I was dating John, because apparently I'd "stolen him" from her.

"Nothing, just-"

"Your boyfriend is super hot. Please tell me you're nailing that."

Alright, or you could just interrupt... what? I gulped, and I knew she could tell I was caught off guard. I hadn't taken that step with Seth yet. It's not that I didn't want to, just... I wasn't ready. Not yet. And he never asked about it, never told me that he wanted to, or anything like that. Sure, he got a little touchy, but that was fine. I liked that. He never pushed anything further than what I wanted. I opened my mouth to respond, but her full, red-painted lips spread in shock.

"You're not?"

Crap. She caught me. "I didn't say that."

She licked her lips. How the heck did her lipstick stay on? "You didn't have to, sweetie." She crossed her legs, and leaned towards me on the stool. She sort of reminded me of Marilyn Monroe, only, like, the evil, nasty version.

"If I were you, I'd start getting in his pants, you know, giving him what he wants, before he finds... someone else to do it."

I really hated the way she said "someone else." It sounded a lot like she was using it as a synonym for "me." I glared at her for a few moments, but I couldn't think of anything else to say, so I decided that I didn't have to deal with her, and left the bar. I pushed through the crowd of rowdy, drunk athletes, until I ran right into Seth.

Something was off.

I really wanted that water, but he didn't have it. In fact, he wasn't even coming from the direction of the drink table.

"Seth?"

He didn't respond. His orange eyes probed me, like they usually did, but this time I didn't enjoy it. I didn't feel the heat of having him so close, or having his eyes explore me. His eyes weren't intense or passionate. They were cold. Unfeeling. Calculating. Judgmental. Everything Seth hadn't been in a long time. I was afraid, and I hadn't been afraid of Seth in so long that the feeling frightened me even more. In a quick move, he tore his gaze from me and began to walk away. His walk wasn't even the same. It was determined and confident like usual, but something else was different. He walked like a general, like he was the ruler of a powerful army. I followed after him. Something was very wrong, and I intended to find out what.

I lost him in the pulsating crowd, even though he was taller than most of the of the party-goers.

Then, I saw him again, but this time, he was coming towards me with a glass of water in his hand, and nothing was wrong. His eyes were still tough and calculating, but I saw the warmth and the love he held for me in them. When he dragged his eyes down me, just halfway, I felt the heat almost like he was touching me. He passed the water to me, his fingers sliding against mine as he did.

"What was wrong with you back there?"

He cocked an eyebrow. Why was he confused? I was speaking plain English.

"Seth, I bumped into you back there," I pointed back in the direction of the bar, to the left of the dance area. "You looked at me really strangely, and... something felt weird. It wasn't like you. Then you walked off."

He shook his head. "I've been at the drink table, sweetheart. I didn't bump into you."

It made sense. Seth couldn't have come from the drink table to the other side of the dance floor and bumped into me. There was a giant, decorative wedge-shaped wall between the two areas. And he couldn't have walked off and got me drinks then come back; I'd only lost sight of him for a second. I felt panic creep into me. Something was more than wrong. Something was happening.

Whoever I bumped into wasn't Seth.

OOOOOO, spooky. Thanks for reading! For those who are coming over from Secret (this is the sequel to that story, if you're new, hey, how are ya, nice to meet ya, you should definitely read that story first haha) HEY! How are ya? Did you like the first chapter? Tell me everything you thought in the reviews, y'all know I love your feedback! Next chapter will be up soon, till next time stay wonderful xo