The Prophecy

by Jennifer L. Armentrout

  Basil was already running back toward the house. Several people were frozen, their expressions mirroring the horror pinging around in me.

  This couldn’t be happening.

  Not after everything, this wasn’t happening.

  Alex and Aiden were beside us. They were shouting, but their words weren’t making sense to me. Erin was there, as frozen as one of the entombed furies.

  Josie shuddered, her entire body rocking mine. My gaze flew to hers. Her eyes were closed. “Josie! Open your eyes. Babe, come on. Open your eyes for me. Please.”

  Her eyes didn’t open.

  Terror turned my skin to ice. “Psychí mou, please open your eyes. Please, baby. Open your damn eyes.”

  She didn’t move.

  Her chest didn’t rise.

  “Oh my gods,” Alex whispered, dropping down to her knees.

  Hands slick with blood, I checked for a pulse, sliding my thumb along the side of her neck. I felt… Oh gods, I felt nothing. No pulse.

  Nothing.

  “No. No. No.” I fell back on my ass, pulling Josie into my lap. She was so limp. Her arms hanging loose at her sides. I looked up at Alex and then Aiden. His silver eyes were shadowed. “I don’t know what to do.” My voice cracked. “Tell me what to do.”

  He shook his head wordlessly.

  “She can’t go without oxygen for long. Her… The baby…” I turned back to her, dragging her hair out of her face. “I’ve got to get her breathing again.”

  “Mouth to mouth,” Alex suggested, her voice thick. “You can try—”

  A fissure of energy rippled across the beach. The glyphs appeared on my skin. There was a flash of light and then a shadow fell over us, blocking out the sun.

  Apollo knelt between Alex and Aiden, his gaze focused on Josie.

  “Help her,” I begged him. I didn’t care that I had never begged a day in my life before. “Please, Apollo. Help her.”

  He touched her forehead. “Her soul is leaving, Seth. The wound is deadly. Your child is already—”

  “No!” I shouted, my grip tightening on her. “She is not dead. Our child is not dead.”

  He smoothed the blood from her forehead, blood I had tracked there. “I’ve seen this,” he said, trailing his fingers down the side of her face. “I’ve known this was going to happen. You do not understand how hard it is to know how your daughter and grandson will die.”

  I stared at him. “No.”

  His gaze shifted to mine. “It is Fate, Seth. It is the prophecy written eons ago.”

  “No.” Rage filled me as I rocked back. My cheeks were damp as my vision blurred. “Fuck Fate! Fuck prophecies! I will not lose her or my child. This will not be taken from us. I swear to gods, I will—”

  “You will do nothing,” he said calmly, his eyes turning all-white. “For it is not your prophecy. It is mine. And it is your son’s. For love is the root of all that is good, and the root of all things that are evil. Love is the root of the Apollyon. Fate is afoot,” he continued, moving his hand to Josie’s sternum, over his icon that was engraved in her skin. “Things cannot be undone. Fate has looked into the past and into the future. History is on repeat.”

  “What the hell?” snapped Alex, recognizing the prophecy that she’d heard years ago at the Covenant in North Carolina.

  Fine hairs rose all over my body as Apollo’s voice carried through the salty air.

  “Know the difference between need and love.” Apollo began to glow. From the top of his golden head, down through his entire body, he became as bright as the sun. “For what the gods have feared has come to pass. The end of the old is here, and the beginning of the new has been ushered in.” His voice rose, carrying out to sea and over the cliffs, just as Ewan the nymph’s voice had. “For the sun child and the new god will give birth to a new era and the great creators will fall one by one, reshaping our homes and hearths, reaping man and mortal alike.”

  I shuddered as the glow radiated from his hand and enveloped Josie in warm golden light, blurring out her features as I held her in my arms.

  “A bloody path was chosen,” Apollo said, and lightning ripped across the rapidly darkening sky. Night fell, pitching the world into darkness. “The Great War fought by the few has come to pass, and in the end, the sun has fallen, and the moon will reign until the new sun rises.”

  My skin burned from holding onto Josie, but I didn’t let her go. I would not let her go. I’d promised her I wouldn’t let go, and I would never do it. Never.

  Apollo’s voice had weakened as the light pulled back from Josie and traveled up his arm. I could see Apollo’s features again. He stared down at Josie. “She carries the god of music, truth, and prophecy, the god of sun and light, plague and poetry, and when he comes of age, he will take his rightful place among the Olympians. He will rule until end times.”

  The bright glow receded from his eyes. The whites were milky and flat. “Tell her that I have always been proud of her. That I have always loved her. Tell her that I give this to her not out of obligation, but out of love for my child. Tell her that, Seth.”

  I opened my mouth, but fuck, I was out of words. All words. Across from me, Alex fell to her butt, a broken sound coming from her, because Apollo… He was…

  Coming apart.

  Flaking piece by piece, drifting into the air around him. The night cleared as rays of sunlight streamed down, reflecting off the glittering sand. Apollo was slowly, right before our eyes, becoming nothing as he returned to the light all around us.

  “The new sun…” Apollo said, his voice faint as he simply disappeared. “…has risen.”

  Josie jerked in my arms, and my gaze shot back to her face. Color returned to her skin, spreading across her face and down her throat, a pink flush that brought life back to her body. I trembled. Her eyes flew open as she dragged in a huge gulp of air. Her chest rose and fell heavily.

  “Seth?” she whispered, voice hoarse.

  Fuck.

  Lifting her against my chest, I buried my face in her neck as I lost all control. Didn’t even care. I fucking sobbed as I held her.

  “Seth.” Her voice was muffled. She managed to pull back and lift her arms. She clasped my cheeks and tilted my head up. Seth? Why are you crying?”

  A hoarse laugh escaped me as I pressed my forehead against hers. “I love you, Josie. I love you.”

  Chapter 33

  Seth

  The rising sun crested along the horizon, turning the sky a burnt orange and deep violet as a warm breeze washed over my skin, stirring the gauzy curtains of the open doorway behind me. Having woken an hour or so ago and unable to lie still, I found myself out on the balcony, listening to nothing but the rolling waves and distant call of waking birds.

  I wanted to be in there, asleep beside Josie, but my damn brain just would not shut down, damn near replaying every moment of my life the last couple of years. From the moment I found out I was the Apollyon, to when I first stepped foot on Deity Island and beyond, it was “Seth’s Greatest Hits,” and then not so much, on repeat.

  It was like I was trying to figure out how, after everything that had happened and everything I’d done and after every good and bad moment, I had still gotten here.

  Closing my eyes, I tilted my head back, letting the warmth of the sun bake my skin. The future was…it was here.

  Sounded corny as hell to think that, but it was true.

  How did I get so lucky? It was a question I’d asked myself a hundred times since I met Josie, but after I’d almost lost myself only to almost lose her and our child, it was a question I couldn’t shake. There were so many people who were better than me who had lost so much.

  But here I was still tasting the bitter fear and rancid hopelessness as I’d watched the life start to seep out of Josie’s beautiful eyes. Probably be a hundred years, maybe even a thousand before I forgot that feeling. Hell, there was a chance I never would, but Josie was safe. Our child was safe.

  And I wasn’t living with t
hat fear and hopelessness. I wasn’t living that life of loss that Josie had experienced while I’d been trapped in that nothingness. Instead, we were…

  We were home.

  This island, this house, had never felt like home to me. Hell, no place had felt like a home, but this house? It had been a cold and barren place, no matter how bright the sun shone on it or how many people filled the rooms. This house was just the bones of a home, nothing of substance inside, tainted by memories of a cold mother and a fate I’d never asked for.

  Until now.

  Never before would I’ve thought of the house where I’d spent many lonely years as something I want to come back to, start a family in. I used to think of this place as a ghost, one that always haunted the fringes of my thoughts.

  Not anymore.

  Now it felt like a home, because my entire world was curled up a few feet away, sleeping peacefully. It even looked differently when we arrived yesterday. Brighter. Warmer.

  Home.

  This was going to be the place we would always come back to when we left. This was going to where we would raise our child, and I knew in my bones that every nook and cranny of this house that was once cold and empty would be filled with life and love. But home wasn’t really a place.

  It was really a person.

  Opening my eyes, I found myself back in the bedroom, standing at the foot of the bed. Josie was lying on her side, the sheet twisted around her hips. One of her lovely legs peeked through the sheets. Tempting. So damn tempting. Everything about her. Even the way her arms were crossed in front of her bare chest, her hands balled loosely. That amazing hair of hers, a wild array of blondes and browns streamed across the pillow.

  Gods.

  Unable to help myself, I moved closer to her.

  A raw knot of emotion crawled up the back of my throat. Damn tears stung the back of my eyes as I brought one knee onto the bed and then sat beside her.

  She was psychi mou.

  She was my everything.

  Reaching over, I curled a finger around a strand of hair lying across her cheek and tucked it back behind her ear. Her hips wiggled, and her fingers curled on reflex. The corners of my lips tipped up as the sunlight creeping across the bed reflected off the diamond on her ring finger.

  She was my wife.

  A hoarse laugh parted my lips. My wife. Gods, I never thought I’d be married. Pretty sure the vast amount of people who’d met me would’ve never thought that, but here I was.

  Lucky.

  My hand drifted down her arm, over the curve of her waist to the flare of her hip.

  Josie let out this soft little sound as she eased onto her back. Thick lashes fluttered and then lifted. Bright, beautiful blue eyes focused, and I was blessed with a sleepy smile. “Hey,” she murmured.

  “Hi there.” I swallowed, but the damn knot of emotion was still there, choking me.

  She turned her head to the open doorway. A frown pinched her face. “What time is it?”

  “It’s early. The sun just rose.” I placed my hand on the other side of her hip.

  “Mmm.”

  “I didn’t mean to wake you.” That was the truth. “You should still be sleeping.”

  Lifting her arms above her, she stretched that beautiful body of hers, arching her back and giving me one hell of a show. Her breasts jutted up, all rosy and perfect as she bit down on her plump lower lip. The sheet slipped, revealing her lower stomach. There was a larger…bump there, a roundness that stole my breath in the best possible ways. There wasn’t a scar left from Enyo’s attack. Not a single blemish save for Apollo’s mark.

  “You’re staring at me,” she said.

  I was always staring at her.

  Especially when she was naked and pregnant with our child. Kind of couldn’t help myself.

  When I didn’t answer, she lowered her arms. The lingering sleepiness vanished. Her brows knitted and then she rose onto her elbow as she cupped my cheek. “Are you okay?”

  “Yeah,” I said thickly.

  Her gaze searched mine. “You sure?”

  “I am.” I folded my hand over hers. “I’m just…thinking about everything.”

  One eyebrow rose as she sat up. Hair fell over her shoulders. “That’s a lot to be thinking about.”

  Lowering our joined hands, I kissed the center of her palm and then pressed her hand against my chest, above my heart.

  “Why are you awake?” Her gaze searched mine. “Talk to me, Seth.”

  “It’s nothing. Everything is okay.”

  “Really?”

  “Yeah. It’s just that…” I caught a strand of her hair and gently tugged on it. “I’m so damn lucky. I can’t stop thinking about that.”

  She was quiet for a moment. “You think it was all luck?”

  “I don’t know,” I answered truthfully.

  “We’re both lucky.” She scooted closer. “But it’s not all luck that got us here. I think we worked damn hard to be here. We both fought hard to be here.”

  That we did.

  We had the scars that didn’t show on the skin to prove it.

  “And we had help. Loads of it,” she continued, placing her other hand on my thigh. “And my father…”

  It was hard to think of Apollo. There was a part of me that still got irrationally irritated just hearing his name, and the other half missed the annoying son of a bitch, popping in and out without any warning, but what he did for Josie and our son could never be forgotten. “Yeah, he really came through for us, didn’t he?”

  She nodded, and I hated seeing the sadness creeping into her expression. I’d given her Apollo’s message once she remembered what had happened. It had been hard, watching as she fully understood the sacrifice Apollo had made. He’d given his godhood to save her and our child, and from what we could tell, his life as well.

  And it hadn’t just been hard for Josie.

  Alex and Aiden couldn’t process it even though they saw it with their own eyes. The god had been a part of their lives longer than Josie’s, and for Alex, it was also like losing a father.

  It was hard for everyone.

  Even me.

  “I wish I had…time with him.” Her gaze dropped. “To actually get to know him. You know? Because I really didn’t know him at all.”

  “I’m sorry.” It seemed inadequate to say, but I was. “He loved you. At the end of the day, he proved that and then some.”

  “I know.”

  “I just wish he’d showed it in a different way.” And that was the damn truth. “Like, I don’t know, taking you out for ice cream or some shit.”

  Josie coughed out a hoarse laugh. “That would’ve been nice. Spending any real time with him would’ve been… Well, I really wanted that.” She cleared her throat as she lifted her gaze to mine. “So, it wasn’t just luck. We fought to be here. People sacrificed everything for us to get here, and not just my father.”

  No, it hadn’t just been Apollo who had given his life. Solos. Colin had, before we even met him. Countless others. Some were nameless, but their sacrifices were just as important.

  But Josie was…she was right.

  I wasn’t saying some of it wasn’t luck. I used to think there was no such thing, but I knew better. And maybe some of it was even fate. I knew enough to know fate was a real thing. Fate could be reshaped, but it was a damn freight train at times, running right over you.

  But we did fight to get here. I fought to get here. It wasn’t just luck or fate. “It was us.”

  She nodded. “And it’s over. It’s really over, Seth.”

  Words I’d never thought I’d have the luxury of hearing.

  “No more creepy shades. No more Titans,” she continued, sliding her hand along my inner thigh. “The Olympians know their place and we know ours.”

  “Yeah, we do.” My cock thickened as her hand came precariously close. “Our place is here.”

  “It is.” She leaned in, kissing the corner of my mouth. “And whatever crazy things
may come our way, we’re going to face them. Together.”

  If the remaining Olympians were smart and played their cards right, they’d make it their top priority not to piss either of us off.

  Alas, the Olympians were not known for being smart or playing their cards well, even though the last time we’d seen them, things had been cool. One never knew what they were going to get from the Olympians, but I’d be ready for them if they ever tried to step out against us.

  Or if they tried to stop our son from taking his rightful place among them when he was of age.

  I caught the fierce glint in Josie’s eyes and corrected myself. We would be ready for them.

  “Together,” I agreed.

  Her head tilted back as her gaze roamed over my face. She cupped my cheek again and then traced the curve of my jaw with the pad of her thumb.

  Turning my head, I caught the tip of her finger between my teeth. Passion clouded her eyes as I nipped down.

  “You need to stop doing that,” she said, pulling her hand away and sliding it down to my chest.

  I raised my brows. “Why would I do that?”

  “Because for some reason, these pregnancy hormones have me wanting sex for, like, nearly twenty-four hours a day,” she said, and hell if that didn’t go straight to my dick. “You do something like that, and I just want to climb on you like a sex-deprived manic.”

  “Okay. I don’t care what you say.” Wrapping my hand around the nape of her neck, I kissed her. “I am so fucking lucky.”

  Josie laughed against my mouth. “Because I’m horny all the time now?”

  “Yeah.” I pressed my forehead against hers and drew in a long, slow breath. “And for the fact that, after all of this, you’ve never given up on me.”

  “I could never give up on you.” She kissed me again, nibbling at my bottom lip. “Not just because I love you, but because you’re worth fighting for, Seth. You’re worth loving, and if takes a hundred years to prove that to you, I will.”

  Her words were a lightning bolt to my chest.

  “Hell,” I growled. Snatching the sheet that had pooled at her waist, I tossed it aside. The silk sheet floated in the air beside the bed and then fell quietly to the floor.