Face blank and stony, devoid of all emotion, he stalked forward, and with unbelievable gentleness he wrapped an arm around the legs, stilling the poor guy. Seth lifted his left arm, and amber light danced over his knuckles. The stream of pure energy hit the center of the chain, snapping it in half.

Seth caught the body and lowered it to the marble walkway. Without saying a word, he rose. A muscle feathered along his jaw as he studied the roof of the training facility. There was no one there now, but every being here, on this campus, was super-fast. They could’ve knocked the guy off the edge and been out of sight before the . . . the neck snapped.

If that was what had killed this guy. The knife in the chest could’ve done the job. Bile rose in my throat and threatened to come out.

“What in the hell?”

I turned toward the sound of Solos’s voice. He cut through the crowd, his steps slowing as he saw the body on the ground. The tawny skin around the jagged scar on his face paled.

“Gods,” he grunted, staring down.

“Someone strung him up,” Seth said, his voice flat.

The first girl who spoke out stepped forward, her violet eyes wide. “Or someone used a compulsion on him. Made him do it.”

A murmur rose among the small group, and that horrible bile in the back of my throat got even closer to coming out. A compulsion? Good God, I couldn’t even imagine why someone would want to compel someone to do something so heinous. But pure-bloods did have that ability. So did Seth. The gods also had the ability. They could make a half-blood or a mortal do anything they wanted. I’d seen it with my own eyes. Even hang themselves. Or stab themselves. That kind of power was frightening.

Disturbing.

“Either way, whoever did it is long gone.” Seth glanced back at me. Our gazes connected for a moment and then he turned back to the body. He said something to Solos, but it was too low for me to hear.

Solos stepped to the side, facing the group. “All right, I need everyone to get moving. Go to your classes or where you need to go, but you don’t need to be here.”

“Yeah, because it’s a crime scene.” The tall, well-built guy was dressed like me, in Covenant-issued training attire. I was betting he was a half. “Or do you guys just not care, because he’s a half-blood?”

“Considering I’m a half-blood, I care.” Solos shifted his stance. Guards appeared, dressed in all white, different than the Sentinels’ black uniform. “You know that, Colin.”

Seth turned back to the body and then tugged his shirt up over his head, leaving him in a shorter-sleeved shirt. He stepped closer to the body, carefully, respectfully, draping his shirt over the man’s face.