The Struggle

by Jennifer L. Armentrout

  He cocked his head to the side. “Josie, you were taken captive by a psychotic Titan who had a major bone to pick with your father. How would you be doing okay after that?”

  A shaky laugh escaped me. “Well, I’m as okay as I can be, I guess.”

  His gunmetal gray eyes met mine. “I was really scared for you. We all were.”

  I swallowed hard. “I was scared for myself,” I admitted quietly. “I didn’t think . . .” I shook my head and drew in a deep breath as I reached up, tugging the band out of my hair. “I didn’t think I’d ever see anyone again.”

  Deacon stepped, curling an arm around my shoulders. He pulled me in, and I went, circling my arms around his slim waist. “I said it before, but I’ll say it again. I’m glad you’re here. And if you need anyone to talk to, you got me. Don’t forget that.”

  I squeezed my eyes shut against the sudden burn. “I won’t.”

  “Good.” He kissed the top of my head and then drew back. “Now, let’s go coax this girl out of her room.”

  Smiling weakly, I nodded. We started back down the hall, and I discovered that she had been placed in a room about five doors down from where I had stayed. I pulled myself together as we stopped in front of her door. It was important that we got her to understand what was happening here so she didn’t end up like Mitchell—like me.

  “I know someone’s out there,” a voice from the other side of the door came. “I can hear you breathing.”

  Frowning, I looked at Deacon and raised my brows.

  He grinned and murmured, “Heavy breather.”

  Rolling my eyes, I leaned against the wall. “Hi. My name is Josie. You’re Cora, right?”

  “Yes. That’s my name.” There was a pause. “If you’re not here to let me leave, then you need to go away.”

  I was guessing now wasn’t a good time to ask why the town she lived in was named Thunder Bay. I was curious as to how it had gotten such a badass name.

  Placing my hand on the door, I drew in a shallow breath. “I know you’re probably freaking out. I’ve been there. For real.”

  “So, you’ve been kidnapped and told that you’re a demigod?” she fired back.

  “Actually, yes.” I glanced at Deacon. “I don’t like to use the word ‘kidnapped’, but when I was found, I didn’t believe anything that was being said either. But it’s true. All of it. And I know it doesn’t seem that way, but we’re the good guys and you’re safe here.”

  There was a long stretch of silence and then, “Is that guy out there?”

  “Deacon is here with me.”

  “Hi!” Deacon chirped. “I’m one of the guys who kidnapped you.”

  My eyes widened as I looked at him. He just shrugged.

  “Not you,” came the response. “The other guy. His name is Gable.”

  “No, he’s not here,” I answered, wondering where he was since I hadn’t seen him yet. “Do you want to talk to him?”

  There was another gap of silence. “No.”

  “Josie is the daughter of Apollo,” Deacon said from where he’d positioned himself on the other side of the door. “But she doesn’t have any cool abilities like you do.”

  I flipped Deacon off.

  “I don’t have any abilities!” the girl shouted.

  “That’s not what I hear.” Closing my eyes, I tilted my head against the wall. “I hear you can bring dead plants back to life. That’s really cool.”

  “And also something that mortals can’t do,” Deacon pointed out. “But we’ve already had this conversation.”

  “Deacon is right, though. I don’t have any special talents,” I said, and Deacon snorted. I ignored him. “Well, I can control the elements, but that’s like nothing.”

  A couple of moments passed. “You said your name is Josie, right?” The voice was closer to the door.

  “Yes.”

  “Gable mentioned you. He said you’d been taken by . . . by freaking Titans.”

  “I was. I got free. I was lucky, but some like us weren’t as lucky. I know you don’t feel this way now, but you should know how lucky you are that Deacon and Luke got to you first. If you’ve seen what I’ve seen, you wouldn’t doubt that for a second.” Opening my eyes, I found Deacon staring at me. “Nothing they’ve told you is a lie. The Titans were looking for you, and if they found you, you would . . .”

  “Would what?” she asked.

  Lowering my gaze to the floor, I said, “You’d wish you were dead.”

  About a minute went by and I was afraid she was going to ignore us. “I couldn’t always bring plants back to life.”

  Deacon pushed off the wall, his face sparking with interest. I was guessing this was new info. “You couldn’t?”

  “No. It started a couple of weeks ago. I found out by accident. I knocked over an old flower that I had in a vase, and when I picked it up the damn thing came to life,” Cora said, and then she laughed. “At first, I just kind of ignored it. Because, come on. Then I did it again, a day later. I reached down to pluck up a dead dandelion and those little white wispy things came right back to life.” Another brittle-sounding laugh emerged. “I feel like I’m going crazy.”

  I had no idea why that ability had started to show recently. “You’re not.”

  “That’s not all.”

  “It’s not?” Eagerness filled Deacon’s voice.

  “I can tell things. Like when someone is sick. They have this grayish glow to them, like an aura. I thought I was having vision problems,” she said, and the more she talked, I had to wonder how she thought she was a normal mortal. “And I know when women are freaking pregnant! At least I think I do. And by the way, that got me fired.”

  I blinked slowly.

  “Do tell,” Deacon murmured, eyes glittering with interest.

  “So I was working at the indie bookstore and my manager came into work one morning, late as usual with her husband, and when I looked at her stomach, I could see this little ball of light that for some reason, in my head, was shaped like a baby! A freaking fist-size ball of light shaped like a baby.”

  Deacon and I exchanged looks.

  “So what else would I do? I blurted out that she was pregnant,” Cora continued on from the other side of the door. “Little did I know, her and her husband had hit a major dry spell, and if she was pregnant, it couldn’t have been her husband’s.”

  “Oh my,” I said.

  “Yeah, oh my. So she fired me that afternoon.” There was a thump from the other side of the door that I really hoped wasn’t her head. “Of course, I learned to not just blurt out random hallucinations real quickly.”

  Deacon grinned. “Smart move, but it probably wasn’t a hallucination.”

  Cora’s sigh was audible through the door. “This is real, and you guys aren’t going away, are you?”

  “This is real and we really don’t want to leave you,” I said, pushing off the wall. “You have to be hungry, right? We can get food and answer all the questions you have.”

  There was no immediate response, but then I saw the door knob starting to turn. Stepping back, I crossed my arms over my stomach. I had this nearly overwhelming urge to run away before the door opened. If she could see a baby in a belly . . .

  Okay.

  I was being stupid.

  I was not pregnant.

  Uncrossing my arms, I hoped the smile that I fixed on my face wasn’t as creepy as the one Deacon was rocking.

  The door cracked open slowly, and then I saw the girl that Deacon and Luke had technically kidnapped. She was about my height and was absolutely stunning. Raven-colored hair hung in tight, springy curls all the way to her breasts. Her skin was a deep, warm brown that was a startling contrast to eyes so pale they were somewhere between gray and blue.

  “Hi,” I said, giving her a little wave.

  Cora turned from Deacon and looked at me strangely, her light gaze dropping to my stomach. Her brows shot up and then she squeezed her eyes shut as she pinched the bridge of her nose.
“I’m not crazy. I’m not crazy.”

  I stood as still as a cat in front of a hellhound.

  Glancing over at Deacon, it didn’t appear that he had noticed anything weird, but I was seconds away from freaking out.

  Okay.

  That was more than just a little weird.

  Cora moved aside, holding the door open for us. I forced a smile as I stepped inside the dorm room, hiding the fact that I wanted to find the nearest corner and start rocking in it. She either saw that I was sick—sick from the bands—or she saw something else.

  Something that looked like a baby-shaped ball of light.

  “We have a lot to talk about,” Deacon said, closing the door behind us.

  Cora glanced nervously between us, and I made sure the smile was still planted on my face. “We do.”

  And as soon as we got done there, I needed to find Alex.

  ~

  About an hour later, I walked out of Cora’s room and headed toward the lobby. Deacon was still with her, and she’d calmed down a lot, but was still understandably mind blown by everything.

  My stomach had settled and I no longer felt like I was about to spew vomit everywhere, but there were tiny coils of tension deep in my belly for a whole different reason.

  I knew I was probably being dumb, but I needed to take a pregnancy test just to set my mind at ease. The last thing I wanted to do was share the fact that I was most likely overreacting like a mofo, but I had no idea where I could get a test. I doubted they carried them in their university bookstore.

  Or maybe they did?

  Then again, I remembered hearing that many of the students were given birth-control shots.

  That was something I probably should’ve looked into.

  Anxious and jittery, I hurried through the common area. A few of the halfs looked in my direction, but no one really paid me any mind as I pushed open the doors and spied Alex.

  She was leaning against one of the columns, talking to Luke and a dark-haired half-blood I had sort of gotten to know before we’d gone to retrieve the other demigods.

  “Hey,” Colin turned with a smile, his blue eyes as bright as I remembered. “Holy crap, I was wondering if I was ever going to see you again!”

  “Hi.” I gave him a little wave. “How have you’ve been?”

  Colin gave me a quick one-armed hug. “Perfect. I hear things have been a little crazy for you guys.”

  “Understatement of the year,” Alex chimed in, and I wondered if she knew that Colin totally idolized her and Aiden.

  “Yeah, that’s the truth,” I commented.

  “Glad to see you’re doing okay.” He glanced at Luke. “I heard things got . . . a little rough.”

  Pressing my lips together, I nodded as I forced my arms across my chest. “I’m doing good.”

  “How did things go with Cora?” Luke asked, stepping around Colin.

  “She finally opened the door and let us in. She’s starting to come around. I mean, she believes us now,” I told him. “But I think we need to proceed with baby steps so we don’t overwhelm her.”

  “Baby steps?” Colin’s dark brows lifted. “And you left her in there with Deacon? He’s probably lighting things on fire for her.”

  “Shit. You’re so right.” Luke sighed. “I better go check on them.”

  Before Alex followed Luke, I tapped her arm. “Can I talk with you for a moment?”

  “Sure.” She pushed away from the column as she brushed her long ponytail off her shoulder.

  “Sorry,” I said to Colin, feeling bad that I had busted in on the conversation. “I didn’t mean to interrupt or steal her.”

  “Nah. It’s cool. I was going to try to follow Luke. Like to meet another demigod,” he said, grinning. “It’s like you guys are popping up everywhere now.”

  “Tell me about it,” Luke said, motioning Colin to follow him. “Let’s go make sure Deacon hasn’t traumatized Cora.”

  “More than you all did when you kidnapped her?” Colin clapped a hand down on my shoulder as he passed me by.

  “Look, it wasn’t really kidnapping.” Luke opened the door. “It was more like witness relocation against her will. Totally different.”

  Their conversation was cut off as the door closed behind them. Alex raised her brows. “How much do you want to bet they’ll have that girl rocking in a corner somewhere?”

  “Or marathoning Supernatural. There’s no in-between.”

  Alex laughed. “True.” Her eyes squinted as she looked up at the fading sun. “So, what did you need to talk to me about?” Concern briefly flickered across her face. “You haven’t heard from Seth—”

  “No. Nothing like that.” My stomach dipped as I glanced at the doors. “Can we walk and talk?”

  “Sure.” Curiosity now filled her gaze.

  I kept my arms crossed as we walked off the wide steps and started along the incredibly impressive marble walkway. The amount of money they had to have spent just to lay the pathways on the campus could probably have fed a small country.

  Several knots had formed in my belly. I couldn’t believe I was actually going to have to say these words. Especially to someone who had more than once made out with the guy who could possibly be my baby’s daddy. Granted, I’d moved way past having a problem with that, but still—awkward. I just didn’t know who else to go to.

  “Josie?” Her quiet voice snapped me out of my thoughts. “You’re starting to worry me.”

  “I’m sorry. I don’t mean to. It’s just that . . .” I took a deep breath and pulled my big-girl undies up. “Do you know where I could get a . . . a pregnancy test?”

  Alex tripped over her own feet. Throwing out a hand, she caught my arm before she went face-first into the pathway. Her wide-eyed gaze swung in my direction as she straightened. “Um. I . . . Wait. What?”

  Cheeks burning a thousand shades of red, I glanced around. No one was near us. “I think . . . I think I might be pregnant.”

  Her lips parted, forming a complete circle. Several seconds passed while she looked like a fish out of water.

  I started to get super uncomfortable.

  Alex seemed to recover, blinking once and then twice. “I’m sorry. That just totally caught me off-guard. Was not expecting that.”

  “You and me both.” Lifting a hand, I pushed the hair out of my face. “I mean, we used protection except for that one time and I . . . Well, I don’t know if I’m just being crazy or what.”

  Alex faced me. “I’m assuming you have real reasons to suspect the whole pregnancy thing?”

  I nodded, deciding I really didn’t want to get into the whole Cora thing. “I just need to know if I am or not. Do you know if there is any way to get one here?”

  “You’d have to go to the infirmary to get one.”

  I cringed. “Seriously?”

  “Yeah.” A look of sympathy crossed her face. “They don’t sell the tests in the stores here because they like to keep track of who’s getting pregnant. Completely barbaric and an embarrassing violation of privacy, but unless we can leave here—which wouldn’t be smart—you’d have to get one done in the infirmary.”

  “Oh, sweet baby Jesus,” I murmured under my breath.

  Alex squeezed my arm. “Do you want to go now? I’ll go with you.”

  What other choice did I have? Resigning myself to what I had to do, I sighed. “Yeah. I’d like that.”

  She smiled tightly and then we started walking again, this time back toward the main buildings. “It would make sense.”

  I glanced at her.

  “You being sick,” she explained. “Maybe it’s not just the bands on your wrists.”

  Feeling like I just might pass out, I was silent for a couple of minutes. “I just . . . I don’t know how I could be after what went down with Hyperion.”