time I see the library, I don’t know, I want to go inside.”
“That’s weird.”
I laughed as I pressed my chilled hands together. “I know.”
“You haven’t checked it out with the guys?” Seth grabbed my hands, capturing them between his. “Gods, your fingers are like ice cubes.”
My gaze drifted from the library to him. His head was bowed, and shorter strands of his hair had slipped free, brushing his cheeks, as he rubbed his hands over mine. It was such an intimate thing to do that I didn’t want to respond at first. “No,” I said quietly. “Neither of the guys is keen on the whole library thing.”
“Neither am I.” He shifted closer, still concentrating on my hands.
“Why doesn’t that surprise me?”
He peeked up through long, thick lashes. “I’ll have you know I’m practically a genius.” I snorted.
“You’ll pay for that,” he warned lightly. My fingers were all kinds of toasty now. “So, you want to check it out?”
“What? The library? Don’t we have to run eight more miles or something?”
Seth chuckled. “Joe, you can’t run eight miles.”
Yanking my hands free, I smacked his arm. “You just wait until I’m a demigod. Then I’ll run hundreds of miles around you. And don’t call me Joe.”
He grinned as he reached up, catching a few wind-swept strands and tucking them back behind my ear. His touch lingered.
“What are you doing?” I asked.
His lashes swept down, shielding those unique eyes. “I don’t know. Staring at you.”
I laughed even as I felt my cheeks flush. “Okay.”
His grin spread, and my tummy flopped. I thought for a moment that he might kiss me, but his gaze moved from me to over my head. The curve of his lips straightened out, and I twisted around.
Three students stood beneath a statue of some robed lady that I assumed was a goddess. They were staring openly at us, not in a bad way, but definitely in a weird way. That happened a lot, especially whenever I was out and about with Seth. Wherever we went, people stared at him. Just like they had when his mother put him on display.
My skin pricked with anger. “Let’s go in. Now.”
He blinked and centered his focus on me. I forced a grin. “Race you to the door?”
A brow arched mockingly. “You’d fall on the steps and break a leg.”
“Dick.” I shoved him in the chest, and he didn’t budge. “You’re going to eat your words later.”
I spun to get a head start, but by the time I reached the middle of the steps, he was already standing by the large marble columns. I strutted past him, flipping him off in the process.
Seth’s deep laugh floated like music on the wind. He sidestepped me and opened the door. The first look at the inside of the library almost knocked me flat on my butt.
“Good gods,” I whispered, because seriously, “gods” was the only word fitting for what I was seeing.
Giant statues of the gods were positioned through the main floor, between deep aisles full of shelves, holding up a second floor with their marble hands. The library was deep and endless, chilly, and smelled like mothballs were hidden behind every book.
But the weird, almost nervous, energy in the pit of my stomach ramped up. I placed a hand over my tummy, feeling slightly nauseous. Confused, I broke away from Seth and walked between the dark wooden tables. No one sat in the heavy-looking chairs. It was as quiet as I imagined a tomb would be.
I headed down the first aisle, running my fingers over the thick spines of books that were free from dust. The stacks were at least eighteen feet tall, and I wondered if some of the people here could fly, because I didn’t see a ladder. Then again, many of the pures could just summon the air element. So could Seth.
And I would be able to, once my powers were unbound.
Freaky.
“Live up to your expectations?” Seth murmured as he touched the small of my back.
I shivered as I shook my head. “It’s pretty amazing.” “Yeah, it is.”
Something in his voice coaxed me into looking up at him, and when I did, I was snared. He was staring down at me in a way… well, in a way I had little experience with. That nervous energy dropped lower, and another shiver coursed down my spine.
His gaze drifted from mine, to my mouth, and my muscles tensed as my lips parted. Immediately, I forgot the purpose of coming into the library. A pleasant hum invaded my veins as I swayed toward him, feeling hot and dizzy, like I’d been out in the summer sun all day.
Seth’s chin dipped as he lifted his hands to my hips. He barely touched me there, but his fingertips seared through the thin material of my pants. I started thinking about the tips of his fingers being elsewhere, and that made me even more dizzy. I inhaled deeply and caught his scent, a mix of the outdoors and something citrusy.
He drew his hands up to my waist, and then lifted one to my temple. Slowly, he traced the curve of my cheekbone. My pulse thrummed as his intense stare followed his fingertips. He trailed them down my face and then over my parted lips.
“Seth.”
He jerked back, dropping his hand as he turned at the sound of his name. I squeezed my eyes shut as I gripped the edge of a shelf. When I reopened them, I peered up over his shoulder and saw Marcus, the Dean of the University. He wasn’t alone. The man with the scar was with him—Solos—and so was another older man, dressed in all black, that I saw around the campus a lot.
“What’s going on?” Seth asked, shifting his legs so that his stance was wide, a movement I now recognized as a fighting stance.
Unease blossomed in the pit of my stomach.
Marcus nodded in my general direction, and then those bright eyes centered on Seth. “We need to talk.”
The “in private” part wasn’t spoken, but I got what they were saying. Seth glanced over his shoulder at me, and I shrugged.
“I’ll be right back,” he said.
“Not going anywhere.” After the horrific chaos in the cafeteria, I wasn’t keen on roaming around the campus by myself. I actually hadn’t even eaten in there since then. The boys usually brought me something to eat in the training room or to my dorm.
Seth joined the group of very stern-looking men, and they immediately started talking, their voices too low for me to hear, but it didn’t stop me from trying. I learned fairly quickly that I sucked at reading lips. Everything looked like they were saying “tomatoes” or “I love you” and I doubted that was what was being said.
I sighed as I leaned against the stack, grateful when the whole thing didn’t come down on my head. That would’ve been embarrassing and just my luck. I could almost see it now, thousands of books raining down.
A sudden cold draft curled through the aisle, stirring the hair around my temples and fluffing my ponytail. Frowning, I turned around.
A woman stood several feet behind me. She must’ve been part ghost, because I hadn’t heard her walk up.
She was incredibly tall, as tall as Seth, and very slender. Elegant, long-fingered hands were folded in front of her. Her blonde hair was pulled up, the mass of tight curls intricately pinned along the top of her head. Most of her features were hidden behind oversized, movie-star-quality sunglasses, but from what I could see, her cheekbones were sharp, lips full and rosy.
“Hello, Josephine,” she said in a distinct, cultured accent. The corners of her lips tilted up in a slight, almost shy, smile.
Another shudder worked its way across my flesh. “How…how did you know my name?”
She drifted closer, and although she wore heeled shoes— super-pointy heeled shoes—there was no sound. There was a strong scent of patchouli and orange blossoms. “I’ve been waiting for you.”
Okay. That wasn’t creepy or anything. Part of me wanted to take a step back, but I held my ground. “Who are you?”
Her head tilted to the side. “I am the Librarian.”
Um. Yeah. Since when did librarians wear sunglasses indoors? I glanced over my shoulder. Seth was still with the Dean, and as Solos spoke, Seth looked over. Our gazes collided, and sucking in a breath, I turned back to the librarian.
The space in front of me was vacant.
“What the…?” I strode forward, all the way down to the end of the aisle and looked both ways. Nothing—even the scent was gone.
“Josie?”
Turning back to Seth’s voice, I met him halfway down the aisle. “What were you doing?” he asked.
“I…I don’t know.” Seemed silly to mention the lady. “Is everything all right?”
His eyes searched mine. “Let’s talk as we head back to the dorm, okay?”
That didn’t sound good, but I started walking with him. Once outside, he scrubbed a hand over his forehead. “Marcus limited the coming and going of the students when he learned of the Titans escaping Tartarus. However, groups of Sentinels come in and out of those gates all the time. Some are hunting. Others are doing patrols. There’s no way to completely keep those gates closed for a long period of time.”
I folded my arms across my chest to keep the chill out—from the air and from what I had a feeling his words would bring.
“All of the Sentinels check in hourly. No one screws around with that.” His voice dropped as he placed a hand on my shoulder, steering us around a group of students who’d simply just stopped in the middle of the pathway. He waited until we were several feet beyond them. “A rather large scouting group has gone missing.”
Oh no.
“That’s not entirely uncommon,” he continued, voice clipped. “It doesn’t mean it has anything to do with Hyperion or the Titans. They could’ve run into problems with daimons. Or, gods know, it could be something else entirely.”
“There’s a ‘but’ coming, isn’t there?”
A slight smile formed on his lips. “We need to make sure that there is no connection to the Titans.”
A cold burst of fear clawed at the inside of my stomach. “You’re going out to see if you can find them, aren’t you?”
Seth nodded. “I’m the Apollyon. This is the kind of stuff I do.”
But he also was just…just a guy. Yeah, he was some kind of superhero or something, but he was more than that and it didn’t sit well with me, because it felt like I was seriously the only person who saw him as anything else.
Silence followed us back to our dorm, and he opened the door to my room. He didn’t come in, not that I expected him to. I looked up at him, and our gazes met and held.
The muscles in my neck tensed. “You’re going to be careful?”
That ghost of a smile formed. “I’m always careful.” He placed a fingertip on my chin, and my heart squeezed in my chest. “I’ll see you later. Okay?”
None of this felt okay, but I nodded and forced myself to step back, further into the room. When the door closed, I exhaled roughly. What if it was Hyperion? If he got into the University, it was going to be bad. Not just for me, but for everyone.
Needing something to do to pass the time, I took a shower, and then changed into a pair of jeans and a chunky sweater. I was just about to brave the wilds of the Covenant against orders when Deacon showed up, bearing cheeseburger subs.
“Where’s Luke?” I asked, grabbing the bottles of soda out of his hand and placing them on the small coffee table.
“He’s with some Sentinels right now.”
My brows rose. “I thought he wasn’t doing anything like that anymore.”
“He’s not.” Deacon dropped onto the loveseat. “But he’s good at it and they…they need him right now.”
I sat down next to him much more slowly than how he’d thrown himself down. “You know about the missing group?”
He nodded as he smashed a hand down on top of the sub, flattening it. “Yeah.”
Not having much of an appetite, I nibbled at the sub, my thoughts caught up in what could be going on outside the walls.
“He’ll be okay,” Deacon said, and when I looked up, I was amazed to find that he’d already eaten his sandwich. Damn. His gray eyes locked onto mine. “Just like Luke will be okay. That’s something you’ve just got to believe in. If not, you’ll drive yourself crazy.” His gaze shifted from me to the framed photo on the coffee table.
Erin had packed it for me, but I hadn’t pulled it out and placed it anywhere I could see it until yesterday evening, after the guys left and before Seth had shown up.
“That’s your family?” Deacon asked, reaching for it. “Well, not including daddy?”
“Yeah,” I breathed, watching him lift the frame. I pressed my lips together, wondering if I had been ready to put that picture out. “That’s my…um, my grandparents and my mom. It was taken about two years ago.”
He studied the picture for a moment and then placed it back on the table carefully. “I’m sorry. Luke told me. I’m guessing Seth had told him.” He peered at me through a mass of curls. “It gets easier. I know that sounds lame, but I didn’t think that when my parents died. I had my brother, though, and even though I was a little shit for a long time, I know it gets easier.”
“How…how did your parents die?”
“A daimon attack. Only Aiden and I survived it,” he said, sighing. “Sentinels ended up saving our asses. It was why my brother became a Sentinel. Back then, it was rare for a pure to make that choice.”
“I’m sorry about your parents.” When he smiled slightly, curiosity got the best of me. “Where is your brother now?”
He tilted his head. “That’s a long story.”
“We’ve got time.”
Deacon laughed softly. “But it’s not just my brother’s story.”
That didn’t make much sense to me.
“Okay,” he said, smacking his hands off his thighs. “Luke is going to kill me, but whatever. Time to get real.”
My brows rose. “Um. Okay. I guess.”
“You like Seth. Don’t even try to pretend. I’ve seen the way you look at him.”
Heat blasted my cheeks. Oh dear.
“And I’ve seen the way he looks at you.”
Oh double dear.
Deacon leaned over, knocking his shoulder against mine. “I’ve seen it before, you know, the whole ‘I want someone I shouldn’t or can’t have.’ But you look at him like you want him. He looks at you like he can’t or shouldn’t. It’s all very ironic, come to think of it. It’s really like watching history repeat itself.”
I faced him, unable to stop myself from saying, “He can have me if he wants me.” I felt like a dork when his grin went up tenfold. “I mean, I get that he thinks he…he doesn’t deserve me.”
His brows rose. “Did he tell you about everything?”
“He told me about what he was doing this past year.” When Deacon’s face fell, I sighed. “There’s more, isn’t there?”
“Uh, yeah.” He stared at me for a long moment, and then he leaned against the arm of the loveseat. “Seth will definitely murder me for this, but there’s a lot you don’t know—that I think you need to know.”
A sudden shiver wrapped its way down my spine.
Scrunching fingers through his hair, he sighed. “I’m only telling you this because I think it will help you understand where Seth is coming from, but you’ve got to be ready to hear this, Josie. The Seth you know now is not the Seth we all knew back then.”
My stomach tumbled. “I’m ready to hear.”
Deacon pursed his lips as he lowered his hand. “I’m going to tell you a story—it’s practically a legend among us now. It’s the story of Seth and Alex.”
CHAPTER
27
MY CHEST felt like it had a minor seizure. “Alex… That’s a girl, right?”
He nodded. “Alex is short for Alexandria. She’s named after her dad. He’s a Sentinel here. Runs around. Doesn’t speak. Kind of scares the shit out of me because he’s a badass, like his daughter, but anyway, she was also another Apollyon. Awesome chick. We’re good friends. But I’m going to get one part of the story out of the way first.”
“Okay,” I whispered. Out of everything I thought about Seth’s past, I never thought it involved another girl.