Alex threw her head back and laughed as she grabbed her father’s hand. She all but dragged him over to where Aiden stood with Luke and Deacon. Then, unsurprisingly, Solos was suddenly with them. The whole gang was back together.
Except for all the ones who’d died and didn’t come back as demigods.
Gods, my skin was crawling and not in an unpleasant way, but in a familiar way I’d hoped I wouldn’t experience again, and that could only mean one thing.
Tucking her hair back behind one ear, she glanced over at me. Our eyes met, and I knew she was feeling it too. Oh yeah, that happy little buzz that tasted of aether was there. Shit on shit-covered bricks.
How had I not been paying attention to the time that had elapsed? Oh, right. My mind had been focused on a different girl. I should’ve been prepared for this. Prepared for the very real possibility that we’d . . .
Fuck.
That we’d still be connected.
Had it been too much to hope that wouldn’t be the case?
Scrubbing my hand through my hair, I turned and checked on a pure who was lying facedown. I knelt, checked for a pulse and found one. Pures were notoriously hard to kill, just like with halfs, but it wasn’t impossible. They could be seriously injured. I looked up, seeing the girl who’d been struck by the disc being carried off on a stretcher. A hard-enough knock to the head could still do some damage, just like it would to a mortal.
I rose and immediately my attention focused on Josie. She was still standing where she was, her arms wrapped around her waist as she watched Alex and Aiden. Slowly, her gaze trekked over to me. Her throat worked on a swallow as she pressed her lips together.
My feet were carrying me over to her before I even knew what I was doing. I stopped in front of her. “Are you okay?”
Josie nodded. Her gaze roamed over me and then drifted beyond my shoulder. Her voice was barely above a whisper. “That’s . . . that’s her, isn’t it?”
“Yeah.” I faced the happy little group. Alex was doing some kind of dance with Deacon. My lips twitched. “That’s her.”
She was quiet for a moment. “She’s so beautiful.”
I glanced at her sharply.
“I mean, not that I expected any less,” Josie was quick to add. “It’s just that I . . . I don’t know, I just didn’t know what she looked like. But look at how happy all of them are! It’s . . . I’m rambling, and God, wasn’t all of this just crazy? The fighting? It was like East Side versus West Side. Marcus really has his hands full.” She kept going, a mile a minute. “I hope that girl is okay. Do you think she will be? I mean, that would’ve killed a mortal. Like, dead on arrival kind of dead. And half of them didn’t even seem aware that a freaking door appeared out of nowhere and—”
“Whoa.” I touched her arm. Electricity danced from her skin to mine. I tried, and failed, to ignore it. “Slow down, Josie.”
Her gaze dropped to her arm and then flicked up. “I’m not going fast.”
I raised an eyebrow.
“Whatever.” She stepped to the side, and my arm fell back as she stared at the group again. “Shouldn’t you be over there?”
I coughed out a dry laugh. “Uh. No.”
“Why?” Her nose wrinkled. Cute. Dammit. Still so cute. “I’m sure they would like to, I don’t know, hug you and stuff. You did so much for them. You did everything for them. You—”
“I did what I had to do for them. What I shouldn’t have had to do in the first place,” I cut her off, unable to listen to her making me sound like I’d done something heroic. “They wouldn’t be where they are now if it hadn’t been for me.”
“You’re right.” She straightened out her arms and looked me head-on. “They wouldn’t be standing here, being all immortal and stuff if it hadn’t been for the sacrifice you made. And I hope, or at least I’m hoping, they recognize that. If they don’t, then they aren’t worth what you gave—”
“You don’t know what you’re talking about,” I snapped, uncomfortable with what she was suggesting, and uncomfortable with everything that was going down. Everything. “That’s the problem here, Josie. You only see what you want to see. You have no fucking clue what you’re talking about, especially when it comes to them—to her. So just drop it,” I said, slicing my hand through the air between us, “because it’s none of your business.”
She paled as she stepped back, folding an arm across her stomach. Thick lashes lowered, shielding her eyes. “No,” she said, her voice reedy. “I’m seeing everything now, but you’re right. Them. Her. They aren’t any of my business.” She took another step and then turned, her voice pitched low. “I’ll see you . . . around.”
Dammit.
My anger had risen to the surface, like water boiling over, and I’d lashed out like the dick that I was. None of this was her fault and she meant well. Josie always meant well.
Things with her were messed up, but she didn’t deserve this shit from me. Keeping my distance from her the last three weeks had made me experience serial-killer levels of asshole, but she, of all people, didn’t deserve this.
I started after her, but I didn’t get very far. Marcus finally appeared. Happy reunion number five million took place, and before I could sneak off, and by sneaking off I meant following Josie, I was surrounded by what Deacon had dubbed the Army of Awesome.
While Marcus dealt with the latest civil breakdown, we ended up in one of the large conference rooms in the main Covenant building. I had no idea what I was doing there, but every time I tried to leave the room, someone asked me a question.
Namely that someone was Alex, who was sitting on the leather couch, squeezed in between Aiden and her father. Deacon was perched on the arm, beside Aiden, and Luke was sitting on the ottoman. Solos was leaning against the wall, grinning. Everyone was happy.
Not that I wasn’t, but I didn’t want to be in this room with them, so I stayed by the window, watching the Guards escort pures and halfs back and forth. But my attention kept wandering back to who was sitting on the couch. Out on the quad, I’d managed to ignore it, but I couldn’t seem to stop it now. Every fiber of my being was aware of potent aether emanating from the two demigods, but it was more than that. The long-dormant cord was thrumming to life, and I was doing my best to—
“Why do you keep staring at me?”
Realizing I was, in fact, staring at Alex, I blinked. Awkward.
Aiden leaned against the cushion on the couch, tossing his arm along the back. “Good question.”
I shot him a bland look before focusing on her. “You look like . . . like you did when we first met.”
“I do, right?” She lifted her hair in both hands and wiggled the ends. The last time I’d seen her, her hair was much shorter. Ares had gotten hold of it, lopping it off with a knife. “Apparently when you die, you get doused with Scar Begone or something.”
Jaw working, I looked away from her. When you die . . .
“Not that she really died,” Aiden intervened quickly, always the mediator. “But when you enter Tartarus the correct way, you’re kind of . . .”
“Reassembled?” Alex said with a laugh. “Caleb is the same way. So are Olivia and Lea.”
The names of those who had perished echoed in my skull.
“How are they doing?” Luke asked.
“Great. Caleb and Olivia are together, just like they were, um . . . here. Topside. And we’ve played Mario Kart with Persephone a couple of times.”
Alexander’s brows rose at that.
She giggled. “She gets mad when she loses, though.”
“And when she gets mad, that usually means Hades is going to be in a worse mood than usual.” Aiden grinned a little as he glanced at Alex. “We make ourselves scarce when that happens.”
“Sounds like fun,” Solos said, but his tone was the complete opposite.
“It’s really not that bad. Pretty much whatever you want is there,” Alex replied, leaning her head onto her father’s shoulder. “But we miss you guys. Su
cks that we have to wait six months and we aren’t allowed to communicate with anyone topside during that time. Feels like forever to us down there.”
Her father turned, dropping a kiss to the top of her head.
Aiden leaned forward, his gray eyes serious. “So, we’ve heard about what’s going down with the Titans.” His stare landed on me, and I thought it was ironic how they couldn’t communicate with us but they seemed to know what was going on somehow. “Any updates?”
“Not really.” I folded my arms. “Hyperion was out of commission for a while, but I’m sure he’s back or will be soon. Apollo is supposed to be bringing a demigod back with him to help locate the other ones so they can entomb—”
“Other demigods?” Alex frowned. “Demigods like Aiden and me?”
“You don’t know about that part?” I asked.
Aiden shook his head. “This is the first time we’re hearing about anything demigod-related.”
“Why am I not surprised you guys only got half of what is important?” I sighed, pressing my shoulders against the wall. “I’m going to give you the version for dummies.”
“Gee, thanks,” Alex replied. “Otherwise, we might not be able to process it.”
I smirked. “When I was created, the gods knew something was going on and that there was a chance that we’d connect and one of us would turn God Killer on them, so they took precautions.”
“Man.” Aiden slid a hand over his face. “This is going in so many directions.”
“The gods came down to earth, got it on with various men and women, and produced twelve demigods. Born demigods. Not made ones like you two. You know, real demigods,” I pointed out, and Alex rolled her eyes. “The gods locked their abilities, basically turning them into sleeper demigods. Of course, Hera ended up killing some. So did . . . so did Ares. Six remain. The Titans got hold of two of them, but Apollo said that one of the original demigods would be able to find the other three. If we get the six of them together, then their abilities will automatically unlock.”
“The Titans have two of them?” Aiden asked.
“They’re feeding off them,” Solos added. “It’s how they’re getting their powers back.”
“Oh my gods,” Alex whispered. “Feeding off them? Like daimons?”
“Basically.” Solos pushed off the wall. “We have no idea what condition they are in or even where the other three are. We’re waiting on Apollo, and you know how he takes his time with stuff.”
“Did you know Ares was taking out demigods?” Aiden’s gaze latched onto mine.
I resisted the urge to flip him off. His suspicions were warranted. “Contrary to popular belief, I didn’t know everything Ares was up to. I didn’t know about any of this until Apollo told me.”
“We didn’t think you knew everything,” Alex threw out, but yeah, didn’t quite believe that.
Aiden glanced at her and then his attention flipped back to me. “Hold on a sec.”
“Holding,” I murmured.
He ignored that. “You said that there are six demigods alive. Two were with the Titans and you needed to find three more. Shouldn’t it be four more? Or did I forget how to count?”
“Yep. You forgot how to count,” I replied dryly.
Aiden looked unimpressed with my comment. I thought it was pretty astute. “Do we need to find three or four of them?”
“I think it’s cute how you’ve inserted ‘we’ into this.” I smiled tightly.
“We’re up here for the next six months,” Alex stated slowly, like I needed the time to comprehend. “So, duh, we’re going to help while we’re here. This isn’t a vacation for us.”
I was going to throw myself through a wall.
Aiden nodded in agreement. “So, there are—”
“Oh! Holy shit balls.” Deacon jumped up from the couch and looked around the room, the corners of his mouth turning down. “Where is Josie?”
“Hell,” Luke grunted as he too glanced around, like he was going to find Josie hiding under a chair or something. “Did we forget her? She’s not still out on the quad, is she?”
Yes, I wanted to tell them. Yes, you totally forgot about Josie. “She went back to her room.”
Deacon’s brows furrowed together. “Why did she do that?”
Well, let me count the reasons . . .
“Who’s Josie?” Alex asked, confused.
“Uh . . .” I looked over at Deacon. “You want to do the honors? I know how much you love awkward conversations.”
A wide smile broke out across his face. “Of course, especially when I’m not the center of the awkwardness.”
Luke snorted.
“So!” Deacon clapped his hands together as he faced Alex and Aiden. “Did you guys happen to notice a certain girl out on the quad when you did your magic doorway thing?”
Aiden glanced at Alex. She raised a shoulder. “There were a lot of people out there that I hadn’t seen before.” She paused. “I noticed Boobs, though.”
I slowly shook my head.
“Um, that’s not who I’m talking about. Anyway,” Deacon said, his gray eyes light. “She’s pretty tall. Well, taller than you and everyone is practically taller than you, Alex. Has long blondish-brown hair. Kind of weird hair.”
“Awesome hair,” Luke added.
Alexander frowned silently.
“She does. It’s like an array of colors. One moment it looks completely blonde. The next it’s long brown and then it changes again. It’s very cool,” Deacon continued, and I had to agree with him on that. “And when you see her, you’re going to think, wow, this girl looks familiar. You won’t be able to put a finger on it at first, but it’s going to nag at you and then, when it hits you, you’ll—”
“Deacon,” Aiden warned. “Who is Josie?”
His brother pouted for a second and then sighed. “Fine. She’s a demigod. Like, a born demigod. Powers unlocked and all, and she’s super-cool and really nice.” His gaze slid over to where I stood and his expression turned sly. “Isn’t that right, Seth?”
I eyed him. “Right.”
“You’re forgetting the best part.” Solos walked past the couch, sending me a long look. “Which god she came from.”
Aiden seemed to get what wasn’t being said first. His eyes closed as he rubbed his fingers along his brow. “Gods.”
“What?” Alex looked at him and then at me. “Whose kid is she?”
“Apollo’s,” Deacon answered, his smile going up a notch when Alex’s gaze flew to him. “Yep. Josie is Apollo’s daughter.”
Her mouth dropped open.
“And that kind of makes you and her cousins? I guess?” Luke frowned. “I don’t know what exactly, but it does make you two related. Somehow. I don’t know how, but she does have some of your mannerisms. It gets really weird sometimes.”
Alex twisted toward her father, and he nodded. She didn’t move until Aiden curved his hand over her knee, then she whipped back around. Her mouth moved wordlessly for a few seconds. “Holy crap. I . . . I don’t know what to say.”
“That was pretty much our response at first,” Luke sympathized as he hooked one leg over the other. “Seth brought her to the Covenant.”
Alex’s brows flew up. “Oh, really?”
“Apollo put him in charge of her safety,” Solos added, voice roguish as he jerked his chin in my direction. “And he takes her safety very seriously.”
“Huh.” Aiden tilted his head to the side.
“You see, Hyperion was gunning for Josie. Seth made sure she got here, and some shit went down, but Seth kept her real safe,” Solos continued. Next time, I wasn’t going to stop when I had my boot on his throat.
Alex eyed me intently. “I feel like I need to say thank you. I mean, she’s family. Which is kind of weird. And actually,” she paused as she scooted forward, “there’s a lot I need to thank you for.” She glanced at Aiden. “A lot that we—”
“That’s not something we need to do.” I was off the wall in
a nanosecond. “I’ve got to go.”
I didn’t wait for a response. I stepped out of the room and headed through the relatively empty lobby. The door didn’t swing shut behind me.
“Seth.”
Fuck me.
“You keep walking,” Aiden said. “I’ll keep following.”
Of course.
Tipping my head, I swallowed a mouthful of curses before I turned around. “What do you want?”