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. Sucks 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?”
Aiden walked up to me, and for a couple of moments, we just stood there, nearly toe to toe, neither of us speaking. How many times in the past had we ended up in this stance? More times than I could count. Usually we’d be seconds away from going at each other’s throats. We did not have the greatest past together, but the last time I’d seen him . . . I saw a man who was broken.
Now I saw a man who was whole.
“There’s a couple of things I need to tell you, and then there’s something I need to ask you.” Aiden lowered his chin as he spoke. “I know you aren’t exactly thrilled that we’re here, but Alex has been waiting to see you since she found out what you did. I know you don’t want to hear it, but I’m going to say it, and the next time Alex goes to say it, you’re going to let her do just that.”
I opened my mouth, but he went on. “We owe you everything and we know that. And I know you don’t want to hear this, but thank you. Thank you for what you did for us.”
Mouth clamped shut, I fixed my gaze on the wall.
“We won’t forget that,” he added, and then after a pause, “even if there are days—months, and probably years—where I wish I could forget that.”
I huffed out a laugh as I looked back at him. “I really don’t like you, Aiden.”
His lips twitched. “Good. Because I still don’t like you either.”
“Perfect.” I started to back up. “Anything else, Saint?”
“Yeah. Just one more thing.” Aiden’s eyes turned gunmetal gray. “Are you still connected to Alex?”
“Why don’t you ask her?”
“I’m asking you.”
I drew in a deep breath. There was no point in lying. “Yeah. Yeah, I am.”
Chapter 15
Josie
“This is kind of weird,” Colin stated as he stared out over the nearly empty cafeteria. “It’s like a ghost ship. Well, maybe a ghost cafeteria.”
Holding my plate of bacon and bottle of apple juice, I had to agree that this was weird. Normally there were a lot more students in the cafeteria on Sunday morning. Right now, I could count on both hands how many were actually in the room, and they were pures.
Pures who watched us warily as we sat at a small round table near the windowed wall overlooking the statues of the eleven remaining Olympian gods. I could feel their stares as I screwed the lid off my juice.
What was also weird was that Luke and Deacon were normally waiting for us in the lobby of the dorm or, if one of us was late, they were already in the cafeteria. Luke was an earlier riser, meaning he’d drag Deacon out of bed even if the boy was half-asleep.
They weren’t here.
Of course, it sort of made sense. Deacon was probably spending time with his brother. They might even end up here. And from what I gathered, Luke was super close with Alex. The whole gang might walk in at any moment. So it made sense, but it was also just weird, because we were missing people.
And Seth?
Seth had stopped coming to breakfast the day he’d stopped training me. I was still getting used to it.
“You think everyone is in hiding?” Colin asked, scooping up his egg whites. Ew. Who just ate eggs without the yolk? The yolk was the best part. “Or was there a massive party last night and we weren’t invited?”
“And everyone is hungover now?” I smiled as I picked up a slice of bacon. “It’s possible.”
He snorted as he rested his elbow on the table. “We’re just that uncool.”
I was feeling pretty uncool and in desperate need of a pity party, but I didn’t know Colin well enough to be comfortable with me turning into a whale-sized baby in front of him. “Probably has to do with the fight yesterday. Maybe people don’t feel entirely safe right now.”
“True. I like the idea of there being a big party, though.” He chewed his eggs. “Or it could be the fact we now have two more demigods roaming around campus.”
The yummy-tasting bacon turned a little sour in my stomach.
“You guys are like mogwais fed after midnight,” he continued.
I cracked a smile at that. Though none of us were as cute as a mogwai.
Colin finished off his eggs and then moved on to his whole-wheat toast. All the butter in the world dumped on that bread wouldn’t make it taste like anything besides cardboard. “So, do you know those two? Aiden and Alex?”
Shaking my head, I put my bacon down, no longer hungry, which was a crime when it came to bacon. “No. Yesterday was the first time I’d even seen them.”
“Man, they are like legends.” He shook his head, and there was no mistaking the awe creeping into his tone. “They actually are legends among our kind.”
“Really?” I murmured, staring at my pile of bacon.
Colin munched on his toast. “I never actually formally met them, but I was here when they first came, before they left to fight Ares. The fact that they did that willingly is freaking beyond amazing. I mean, who would want to fight the God of War?”
Not me, but that was no big surprise.
“They’re pretty badass,” he went on, and I swallowed a sigh. “I might have a crush on Alex.”
I slowly lifted my gaze to his. Seriously?
He flushed. “I mean, not in that way. I’m smart enough to realize Aiden would kill me. I have a respect crush on her. She’s badass. She left to fight Ares knowing she wasn’t going to walk out of the battle.”
How fast could I haul butt out of that cafeteria?
“That took major balls.” He paused, frowning at his half-eaten toast. “Well, it took major ovaries. She had no idea that Apollo, your father, had given her ambrosia. Or at least that’s the legend and she . . .”
Colin’s praise party faded in a dull hum that matched the ache behind my eyes. I knew my irritation was unreasonable, and I also knew exactly what the source of my anger was.
Jealousy.
My skin should have been green by then. Seeing Alex yesterday had totally confirmed what I al
ways believed about her. She was literally everything I wasn’t.
How in the world could Seth have ever been interested in me after sort of being involved with someone like her?
It wasn’t her fault. Hell, the girl didn’t even know I existed. She was batting in the major leagues and I was still trying to get into the minors. My irritation and frustration were all on me.
I was woman enough to admit that.
After breakfast, I parted ways with Colin even though he was all about us going for a run or something—and who in the hell did he think I was, that I was going to voluntarily do that? Ha. I went to the library, trolled around in there for hours with no luck, and then finally moped back to my dorm.
I stopped at my door and turned to Seth’s. Chewing on my lower lip, I willed the door to open and for Seth to step out. I don’t even know why I wanted that. He’d made things pretty clear yesterday. He’d made it clear weeks ago.
Turning around, I walked into my room, went to the bedroom, and picked up the old picture of me with my grandparents and mom. I wished I could crawl back in time and commit the moment to memory, because I didn’t remember the hours leading up to it or after it.
None of us had second chances.
Well, except Alex and Aiden. And Seth. And me, in a way. A lot of us had second chances, but we didn’t get to pick what they would be.
Based on my appearance, it was around the time of middle school. I was so freaking chubby, a total butterball, and the pattern on the paisley shirt didn’t help. But I was smiling. So was Granny. And Papa. And Mom. It had been a good day.
Placing the picture on my nightstand, I wiped the back of my hand under my eyes. My cheeks were damp, and I wasn’t sure what or who I was crying for. All I knew was that I’d been crying a lot lately, and I hated that crying made me feel weak.
What in the hell was so weak about it? Like that was the worst thing I could be doing right now. I mean, I could be engaging in self-harm or risky behaviors. I could be shit-faced or high as a kite. Nope. I was weepy, and I had a feeling there were people out there who probably thought going out and picking fights or drinking until they vomited was better than having a good cry.
On second thought, drinking until I didn’t know who I was sounded good right about then. I just . . . I really didn’t want to . . . feel anything. I missed my family. I missed Erin, and as much as I wanted to turn Seth’s nuts into a punching bag, I missed him—the him from before.
The Power (Titan #2) Page 14
