sidestepped me. “Give it back.”
“Maybe I want to read it for fun.”
I stared at him. “Are you twelve or something?”
“I was wondering the same thing,” Luke said, and Seth shot him a droll look. Deacon was grinning like the Mad Hatter.
Seth smirked as he lifted his gaze to mine. “Actually, come to think of it, reading this for fun is practically the lamest—”
“Oh, shit!” Colin shouted, his eyes widening as he stared across the quad.
As Seth and I turned, I reached over and ripped the book from his hands just as I caught sight of the disc of doom winging over the pure. Someone shouted, but it was too late. The Frisbee on steroids slammed into the back of a girl’s head with a sickening crack, knocking her over. She hit the ground, red mixing with her blonde hair. The people sitting around her flew to their feet. Several crowded around her. The book slipped from my fingers as the red-headed pure who’d controlled the disc laughed. The guy actually laughed.
One of the halfs from a nearby group stood and hit the ground running at full speed. He was as fast as a cheetah. One second he was by us, and the next, he was tackling the red-headed pure to the ground.
Chaos erupted.
It happened so fast, one side converging on the other, that scuffles broke out everywhere around us within a matter of seconds. Deacon sprung to his feet, right beside Luke just as a pure fell into Colin. They went down in a tangle of punches and kicks.
Oh man, someone was going to end up on fire.
Seth was suddenly in front of me. “You need to go back to the dorm now.” He took hold of my arm and spun me around, toward Deacon. “Make sure she is—”
“Are you freaking serious?” I tore my arm free from Seth. “I can fight and I—” My words were cut off as he shoved me to the side and snapped forward, catching a pure in the chest with a solid swipe of his arm, knocking him back.
Seth looked at me pointedly. “You can do what again?”
“I can fight, you giant jackass of jackass proportions.” Spying a pure who was going all firestarter a few feet to my left, I lifted my arm and opened my hand. Summoning the element of water, I grinned when lightning cracked overhead and a white glow surrounded my palm. Power left me, but it was akasha. As the bolt of energy streamed out, it turned into a jet of water. The liquid slammed into the pure, knocking him over, head over feet. Closing my hand, I spun around to Seth and lifted my middle finger. “How’s that?”
He arched a brow as he spun, catching a half-blood that had stumbled backward. Righting the younger kid on his feet, Seth gave him a gentle push. “You’re going to want to stay out of this.”
I was going to have to agree with Seth on that.
Things had escalated quickly, and there was no way I was staying out of it like I had done that day in the cafeteria, while innocent people had gotten so horrifyingly injured.
It wasn’t something I even thought twice about, and maybe later, I would look back and be a little shocked by how quickly I got in the middle of it, but right now, it was instinct.
Pures didn’t fight fair. That was for sure.
A pure had a half pinned against a tree with the air element. Leaving Seth’s side, I stalked up behind the pure. Clapping my hand on her shoulder, I spun her around. Surprise widened her eyes and she dropped the half-blood.
“That’s not very nice,” I told her.
Her lower lip trembled, and when I let go, I figured she was going to run off. She didn’t. Throwing out her hand in my direction, I knew she was going to summon the element.
“Not smart.” I caught her arm and twisted as I stepped behind her, bending her over as I did exactly how Seth and Solos had trained me in the beginning. I shoved my leg between hers and wrenched to the right. Down she went.
As she scrambled off, I lifted my head just as a pure guy bum-rushed me. Like, legitimate rushing at me like a linebacker. A moment of trepidation seized me and then I shut it off. Sidestepping the massive dude, I dipped down and kicked out, sweeping his legs out from under him. He fell backward, hitting the ground with a fleshy thud.
Spinning around, I saw the guys. Deacon had his phone in his hand, snapping pictures with a smirk on his face while Luke had two pures, one in each hand. He brought them toward each other, knocking their heads together. Colin had a cursing pure restrained on the ground and Seth . . .
Seth power-bombed a pure into the ground with one arm.
Whoa.
That was hot.
A hand snagged my ponytail, jerking my head back. I cried out, more in anger than in pain. I caught the slender arm and twisted around, bringing up my leg. I slammed my knee into the flat stomach of a pure. She dropped my hair and doubled over as I jumped back.
“Are they insane?” I asked, dodging a ball of flames that smacked into the tree above Deacon’s head. “I’m a demigod. For real?”
“And I’m the Apollyon, and yes, they are just that dumb.” Seth darted around me, catching a pure by the shoulders and taking him down to the ground. He raised a fist. “Really dumb.”
“Not dumb,” the pure spat back. “Pure. We’re pure and we’re going to keep it that way. And you might be the Apollyon, but you’re nothing but a dirty fucking—”
Seth’s fist ended that sentence. Blood and spittle flew. “Bigotry is dumb, you know, just in case you didn’t realize that yet.”
The pure didn’t hear him, because he was knocked out. Part of me couldn’t believe that this was happening. I turned and jumped to the side, narrowly avoiding a punch to the face.
“Gods,” I snapped, more than irritated.
Coming at me again, the pure lumbered forward, blood trickling out of his nose. He got all Fists of Fury on me, swinging with enough oomph to do some damage, but that wasn’t going to happen.
I wasn’t the same Josie who walked into the University months ago.
I was part-badass-ninja.
Catching his hand, I used his momentum and body weight as I ducked under his arm, taking him with me. I flipped the dude, laying him out flat on his back. I bet he was seeing stars. Or maybe Greek minotaurs. Whatever.
“Damn.” Seth stared at me.
“What?” I shook my arms out as I straightened, tossing my ponytail back. “Did you think I’ve just been moping around and not getting better?”
Okay. I’d been doing a lot of moping in my alone time, but he didn’t need to know that.
His lips twitched and his gaze dipped a fraction of an inch. His features tightened, and I recognized that expression. Hungry. Starved, really, and something inside me, something just as hungry and something entirely stupid, responded. My lips parted. Seth took a step toward me.
A punch of unnatural power rippled through the air. My gaze locked with Seth’s. The hue of his eyes burned a bright tawny color. “Is it a god?”
He shook his head as he scanned the quad. “I don’t know what it is. I haven’t sensed . . .” He trailed off, eyes widening. “What the . . . ?”
I spun around in the direction he was staring and my mouth dropped open. No more than ten feet away, double doors appeared. Like, literally out of thin air, and it was an ancient-looking thing. The frame was a silvery material I assume was titanium, and the rest was a smooth bronze.
Those fighting near it scuttled back, staying a good distance away. There were symbols all over the doors—ancient lettering that reminded me of the letter “F” and a really weird peace sign that also looked like a stick person. I tried to decipher the meanings, but I was too distracted to give my newfound ability the time. There was a Romanesque helmet on each door, and underneath each was what looked like a crudely drawn three-headed dog. I jerked, realizing what those etchings symbolized.
The doors swung open and cool, musty air billowed out over the grass. The green blades curled into themselves, rapidly fading to a dull brown as the heavy breeze pulled back into the gaping blackness. Two faint forms appeared.
“Oh shit,” Seth m
uttered.
I tensed, preparing myself for a horde of Titans or shades. Maybe even rabid bears or over-excited, spitting llamas. That’s not what came through the door.
A girl did.
She looked to be close to my age, maybe a year or two younger, and pretty wasn’t a strong enough word to describe her. She wasn’t very tall, but the tight jeans and tank top showed off a body that was somehow ripped and curvy at the same time. Long chestnut hair fell in waves down her shoulders and over her chest. Her eyes were a warm brown and her full, rosy mouth perfectly complemented her heart-shaped face. The girl was gorgeous in a wild, unfettered kind of way.
She wasn’t alone.
Beside her was a tall, dark-haired man, and Good Lord Almighty, he was . . . wow. He was taller than Seth, but not as broad, with dark brown, almost black hair, and eyes that were a startling shade of gray. His face was near perfect—high cheekbones, straight nose, and an expressive mouth. He was wearing jeans and a regular shirt, but for some reason I thought he looked like he’d be more comfortable in the garb of a Sentinel.
Behind them, the door folded into itself, collapsing until nothing was left except for the astonishingly good-looking couple.
“Well . . .” The girl looked around, dark brows arching as a half was lifted into the air and tossed past them like a football. Her lips were pursed. “This is super unexpected.”
“Not entirely,” the man beside her said as his silver-eyed gaze landed on us, settling on Seth as the girl stepped forward.
Deacon shouted over the melee, his voice filled with joy, and out of the corner of my eyes, I saw him start toward them. Despite all the crazy going on around us, the beautiful man smiled in response, flashing even, white teeth.
Understanding seeped in as a brawling half and pure got close to the newcomers. Throwing a punch, the half knocked the pure back several feet. He bumped into the new girl and turned, flames flickering over his busted knuckles.
Her reaction was wicked fast.
The girl’s arm shot out and her hand landed on his shoulder. She spun him around as she dipped low, kicking out with her leg. She caught the pure just below the knees, taking his legs out from underneath him. As the now-dazed pure fell forward, she slammed her palm into his back. Static burst and crackled into the air, and the pure flew forward, landing in a moaning, twitching heap facedown several yards away.
Damn.
In complete control of every muscle in her body, the girl straightened fluidly. The whitish light faded from her right hand. Her lips curved into a half-smile that was vaguely familiar as she knocked a strand of long brown hair out of her face. “Hey, Seth.”
Seth was nearly immobile as he stared at the twosome. Glyphs bled to the surface of his golden skin, piecing together and changing so fast I had no idea what the runes were saying, but the taut set of his features said it all.
“Alex,” he breathed.
Chapter 14
Seth
My skin buzzed. Blood pounded. Pulse accelerated. Energy poured into me as if I’d taken a jolt of caffeine straight to the heart. The glyphs, the mark of the Apollyon, were doing a fucking happy dance on my skin in response to Alex.
In response to the Apollyon.
Shit.
Oh shit.
The connection was snapping to life, waking up like a sleeping cobra, and it was there, between us, preparing to strike. The entire world zeroed in on this girl. The thing inside me, that felt like a part of me but something else entirely, was roaring like a freight train.
Without warning, a piece of knowledge floated among my thoughts. I can use her. I can use them. The moment those thoughts hit me they almost faded from my grasp. Like a word you couldn’t place, but waited on the tip of the tongue. Ever since I Awakened, that had happened on and off. For the longest time I didn’t understand why, just thought I was spacing out, but I realized it was from when I Awakened and what had happened. It was the same thing that happened to Alex. Thousands of years of information downloaded, passed down from every Apollyon from before. There was tons of crap I knew, but didn’t always realize since the knowledge existed in the back of my subconscious.
But now those odd thoughts, even as concerning as they were, faded away like leaves in the fall.
Alexandria Andros stood in front of me. It was really her. Flesh and bone, but she looked nothing like the last time I’d seen her. Her hair was longer, like it had been when we were first introduced at Deity Island. The hairline scars that had covered every inch of her skin were gone. Scars from when Ares had literally broken every bone in her body. Because she wore a sleeveless shirt, I could see that the tags on her arm and neck were also gone.
It was more than the physical. The emotional weight she had carried was gone, lifted from her shoulders. Those whiskey-colored eyes were happy and full of laughter. Years of pain washed away, as if none of it had ever happened, but it had happened.
I had happened.
Seeing her like this, though, carried some measure of relief. I had planned on never seeing her again. That had been ideal, because . . . well, who wanted to come face to face with the person they’d gotten killed? Because that was what had happened, and knowing what I did helped me ignore what was going on inside me.
Alex had died a mortal death, because of me.
But she looked good. She looked great, actually. And she appeared happy.
She wasn’t the only one who was overjoyed.
Deacon had launched himself at Aiden—Aiden saintly St. Delphi—nearly knocking him backward, over a fallen pure. The brothers hugged, oblivious to those fighting around them. Other than their eyes, they absolutely had nothing in common.
Which was why I liked Deacon.
Aiden pulled back, clasping the sides of his younger brother’s face. “Look at you,” he said, voice thick. “Are you actually growing a beard?”
Deacon’s laugh was hoarse. “Yeah, right. Hair doesn’t grow on this pretty face.”
“More like baby face. Gods,” Aiden said, wrapping an arm around his brother’s neck, dragging him back. “I’ve missed you.”
“Same,” Deacon muttered as his shoulders trembled.
I tensed when Alex started walking toward me. She halted when I shook my head. Her lips pursed, and for a moment I thought she would do what she wanted, because that was the Alex I knew, but she surprised me. Alex turned back to the brothers. She joined them, and they opened up, pulling her into a group hug. A second later Luke was with them, and even over the angry shouts, I could hear Alex’s happy squeal. Reunited at last.
I turned from the happy reunion and searched for Josie, finding her immediately. She was standing off to the side, staring at Alex with wide eyes, apparently unaware of the smoke billowing from the burning olive tree behind her. I couldn’t even imagine what she was thinking, but good sense told me she knew exactly who the newcomers were. Alex squirmed her way out of the group hug and scanned the quad. “What in the hell is going on, guys?”
I followed her gaze, spying Colin taking down another pure. I smirked. “Everyone is just getting close to one another. You know, love taps and all.”
She arched a brow. “Uh-huh.”
“Things aren’t good between us right now,” Luke explained as he stepped back, draping his arm over her shoulders. “I’ll explain later.”
Alex squinted and started to frown as she stared at someone. “Is that . . . Boobs?”
Turning to where she was staring, a strangled laugh crawled up my throat. Leave it to Alex to notice her nearly immediately. “Yeah, that is.”
“Huh.” Alex glanced at me, brows raised, and it didn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out the giant leap she was making. “Interesting.”
Not really.
Shouts calling for the fights to stop echoed through the quad. Guards and Sentinels rushed in, breaking up the remaining fights. Good to see they had such a sense of urgency in getting their asses over here. A lone Sentinel broke free though, his tall bod
y going rigid.
“Dad!” Alex shrieked and then took off, running at full speed toward the man. He opened up his arms, and she all but tackled him. She face-planted his chest and the older man picked her up off her feet.
Seeing that, yeah, it got me in places I didn’t even know I had. I’d never met my father. Only knew that he was long since dead. Alex grew up thinking that her father had passed when she was a baby, but that hadn’t been the truth. He’d been hidden away at the main Council in the Catskills, and it was only right before Alex and I faced down Ares that she got to finally meet her father.
They had a lot of time to make up for, and I’m sure the last time they were topside hadn’t been enough.