The Power (Titan #2)

by Jennifer L. Armentrout

  I’d forgotten all about him.

  He crept out from behind the stairs. He hadn’t made it farther before everything went crazy. There was no color in his face as he stared at Solos. “We . . . we have a lot of property. There are . . . um, shovels out in the shed, by the pool.”

  Aiden turned to his brother and Luke. “Go with him. I need you guys to make sure he stays safe.”

  For once, Deacon didn’t argue. With one last look at Solos, he rose and joined Gable. They followed the shaken man toward the kitchen. At the last second, Deacon veered off and hurried into the living room, returning seconds later with a blanket.

  “I can’t leave him there like that,” he explained as he walked up to where Solos lay. Carefully, he draped the blanket over him, covering Solos’s face and chest, along with most of his legs.

  Then Deacon was gone.

  “We need to figure out what to do with Seth.” Aiden dragged a hand under his bloodied lip.

  I stilled, looking up at him.

  “He pulled aether from us,” Hercules said, sounding like sandpaper had gotten inside his throat. “I was not told he could do that. No one should be able to do that.”

  I looked back at Seth. The glyphs had now faded, seeping into his skin. His eyes hadn’t been amber when he’d faced me. Had the others seen that? They’d been all white, like a god’s.

  “He didn’t just stop Atlas.” Aiden clutched a dagger as he neared us. “He . . . he took out Atlas. He killed a Titan.”

  Hercules shook his head back and forth. “That’s not possible.”

  “Looks like it to me.” Alex rubbed at her hip and chest as she walked over to the spot where Atlas had stood. The stone was charred. “Looks real possible.”

  “That means . . .” Aiden trailed off.

  “Means what?” I asked, placing my hands on the stone. I pushed up, climbing to my feet. “What does it mean?”

  “Only the demigods can kill the Titans, right?” Aiden walked around to stand behind Seth’s head. I tensed. “Or entomb them, but no one else except . . .” He didn’t finish again, almost like he didn’t want to give word to what he feared.

  “The only thing that could take out a Titan would be the same thing that could take out one of the Olympians.” Alex’s face paled. “That would be the God Killer.”

  Air punched out of my lungs. What had Medusa said? “But that’s not possible. You were the God Killer before—well, before you ended up in the Underworld. He’s not the God Killer.”

  Her gaze met mine. “He shouldn’t be, but what he just did was the same thing I did to Ares.”

  “But you’re not connected to him, are you?” I reasoned, refusing to believe where everyone was heading with this, refusing to believe that I hadn’t heeded a warning given to me.

  “Nope.” She lifted her hands. “I am not Team Seth right now.”

  I frowned.

  “Something hardcore just went down,” she continued, gesturing at Seth. “But if he has somehow become the God Killer, tripped up some sort of celestial rule, then all the Olympians would be here, right? They showed up immediately after I killed Ares. They wasted no time.”

  “That’s because they knew you were on their side. They knew you were aware of what most likely would happen. They didn’t think you were insane. They fully believe Seth is insane.” Hercules took a step back. “If he’s the God Killer, they aren’t coming anywhere near him. Who would? He could take them out.”

  “Damn,” spat Aiden.

  “And why are we even here? He can take us out with the snap of his finger,” the demigod continued. “Fuck this. We need to blow this joint and—”

  “He’s not going to take us out.” My hands formed fists. “Stop overreacting.”

  “You don’t know that,” Hercules replied icily. “None of us do. I say we take one of these nifty daggers and shove in through his—”

  “You do that and it will be the last thing you do without being tied up by your own intestines,” I warned, a hundred percent serious. “You are not going to harm him.”

  Herc blinked. “Hell. That’s excessive.”

  “Stabbing him isn’t?” I shot back.

  Alex stopped several feet from Seth and didn’t go any closer. “Dammit. They were . . . they were concerned for a reason.”

  “What?” I asked, not following.

  “Hades warned us before we came up. The Olympians were worried about Seth’s . . . his stability. He’d done something before we left Tartarus that had them flipping out,” Alex explained, and she winced when she looked over at me. “We didn’t say anything, because the Olympians sometimes freak out when someone sneezes too loudly. They wanted us to keep an eye on him.”

  “That’s . . .” I shook my head. “That’s wrong.”

  Alex looked at me and didn’t respond, but her expression said it all. It was a cross between pity and understanding.

  I opened my mouth to tell them that they should’ve said something, but then I realized what Seth could’ve done that had them freaking out. “He fed off me.”

  That got everyone’s attention.

  “It was an accident,” I explained, my gaze falling once again to where Solos lay. “Things got out of control and he fed on me, stopping before I even knew what was happening. It was right before you guys came here. I didn’t know until . . . an hour ago.” Had it only been an hour? Felt like days. “It wasn’t on purpose.” I felt the need to reiterate that. “Doesn’t change what he did, but I think . . . I know he’s been struggling.”

  “Damn,” Aiden muttered. It looked like he wanted to say more, but changed his mind. “Right now we need to do something with Seth.” Aiden was moving to Seth’s head. “Before he wakes up.”

  “I have . . . there’s a panic room in the basement.” Gable had returned with the boys. I hadn’t even heard them. “It’s not a hundred percent ready, but it’s got walls and a reinforced steel door that will lock.”

  “That’ll work for now.” Aiden turned to Hercules. “Grab his feet.”

  “What about Solos?” Deacon’s red-rimmed eyes flicked over to the blanket-shrouded figure. “We need to bury him.”

  “We will.” Luke wrapped an arm around his neck. “But we’ve got to secure Seth first.”

  I stepped forward. “Wait. This doesn’t feel right.”

  “I get that it doesn’t, especially to you, but we have to do this.” Alex looked me straight in the eye. “We really don’t know what we’re going to be facing when he wakes up, and I hope—no, I pray—that he’s fine, but we can’t take that risk.”

  I didn’t like it.

  But I did understand it. Pressing my lips together, I nodded curtly. Everything that happened over that next hour was surreal. I felt oddly detached from it all.

  Gable led us down to a semi-finished basement. He’d walked to what appeared to be a normal wall, but hit his hand on the center. A section of the wall separated, swinging open, revealing a room . . . with another room inside of it.

  “My mom’s husband put a mattress in here to see if it will fit,” Gable explained as Seth was carried over and placed on a thin mattress. “I guess they plan on doing this room up also. Bathroom isn’t finished, though and . . . none of that matters.”

  A hand folded around mine, startling me. Luke held my hand. “Come with me.”

  I dug my feet in.

  “I know it’s hard.” His voice was low. “But we’ve got to leave him here, at least for right now.”

  “It doesn’t feel right,” I told him. “I should be here when he wakes up.”

  “And if he wakes up not in the right mind, and he does something to accidentally hurt you, what do you think that’ll do to him?” Luke reasoned. “It’ll make everything worse.”

  I wasn’t sure how anything could get worse at this point, but Luke was right. I let him lead me out of the panic room and up the stairs. I tried not to hear the door shutting behind them.

  And then we all went outside, this
time with Aiden and Hercules carrying Solos’s body to a patch of land south of the landscaped pool. The shovels weren’t used. They weren’t even necessary, because Alex tapped into the earth element and a deep . . . a deep grave was formed. I realized that Aiden had sent Gable out of the room on purpose. Probably to clear his head, make him feel useful. Smart move.

  Solos was placed in the grave and two coins were placed over his eyes. I’d never seen anything like it.

  And I didn’t cry.

  Even though I really wanted to.

  The messy ball of emotion pinging around my chest might have been relieved that way, but all I could do was stand there as they moved the dirt back onto the grave.

  “He will be awarded a warrior’s welcome in Tartarus,” Aiden said solemnly, his silver eyes oddly bright. “He will want for nothing.”

  Staying outside wasn’t wise. Neither was going inside, but what other options did we have at this point? Once inside the kitchen, Gable turned off the oven, but there would be no getting rid of that burnt smell. Everyone split before I even realized what was happening, and I was the last to drag myself upstairs. Halfway down the hall, I heard voices—Alex and Aiden.

  I should’ve kept going, but that’s not what I did. Creeping to the door, I stopped when I heard them talking in hushed voices.

  “I’m going to call Marcus,” I heard Alex say.

  “And I can summon Apollo and see if we can get Hephaestus to finish a cage,” Herc said, sounding surprisingly level-headed. He’d been all business since the Titan had showed up. “That will hold him.”

  “It held me for a while,” Alex spoke. “But I wasn’t the God Killer at the time. And I think we all need to accept the fact that Seth has somehow become just that.”

  I was hung up on the fact they were talking about putting Seth in a cage. An actual legit cage?

  “The problem is, will Apollo answer your summons in a timely manner?” Aiden asked. “He pretty much answers when he feels like it, even when it’s majorly urgent.”

  “That is a problem.” Herc paused. “I can go back to Olympus and retrieve Apollo. Or even Hephaestus.”

  “What?” Alex demanded, and I wondered if Herc would even return. Didn’t sound like he wanted to be anywhere near Seth. “How?”

  “I’m not of this realm, and I am able to reenter Olympus . . . under the right circumstances.”

  “Of course,” muttered Alex, and I could almost picture her rolling her eyes. “What are the right circumstances?”

  “I need to spill a little of my blood at the highest point of wherever I am, which is convenient since we’re on cliffs,” he explained.

  There was a pause and then Aiden said, “That doesn’t sound complicated. You can do it now, before Seth even has a chance to wake up.”

  My heart dropped.

  “Well, I can only do it at the exact moment the sun rises,” Hercules added. “Not sure why, but I don’t make the rules.”

  “That’s . . .” Alex sighed. “That’s at least six hours from now. We have no idea how long the Pegasus blood will work on Seth. Even if it does keep him under long enough to get Hephaestus here, we can’t stay here for long. Atlas might be gone, but the other Titans have probably sensed his death. They will be gunning for us.”

  “Just keep the room guarded and hopefully Hephaestus can fashion us a kennel or something,” Hercules advised, and my eyes widened. A kennel? “But to be fair, you don’t know what he will be like when he awakes. He may not even try to escape. He may be the friendly neighborhood God Killer.”

  Shocked that Hercules was actually sort of defending Seth, I almost fell over. Those two had not hit it off on the right foot.

  “Let’s hope that’s the case.” Weariness clung to Aiden’s tone. “But based on previous experience with him, when he goes ape-shit, he goes full-on ape-shit, and it’s not a brief thing.”

  They weren’t even going to give Seth a chance. He hadn’t gone “ape-shit” for fun. He’d lost it after Solos had died. Anger blasted through me. I pushed away from the wall, about to make my presence known.

  “What about Josie?” That was Alex, and I stopped myself, holding my breath. “You really think she’s going to leave him in the panic room? Nothing against her, but she . . . she didn’t know the Seth we did.”

  “I don’t think she’ll do that. She saw how violent he was. She wouldn’t put everyone here at risk,” Aiden replied. “Besides, we’ve got Luke watching his room now. She wouldn’t hurt Luke, not even to free Seth.”

  Okay. That was sort of true. I didn’t want to hurt anyone who didn’t deserve it, but I would hurt someone to protect another. However, I didn’t plan on releasing Seth until I knew where he was mentally and emotionally. Things were messy between us right now, but that didn’t mean I’d given up on him. Right?

  I wasn’t sure what to think anymore.

  Suddenly exhausted, I crept away from the door and made my way back downstairs before I was discovered. It was strange. The atrium was virtually unblemished, as if nothing had happened there.

  As if Solos hadn’t lost his life in there.

  Drawing in a shallow breath, I forced each step forward. I don’t know why I walked into the library. Maybe there was something soothing about being surrounded by books. The familiar scent eased my nerves.

  I walked to the couch positioned across from the window and sat down, curling up against the arm. Smoothing my hand over my face, I pushed the hair back from where it had fallen over my eyes.

  What had happened?

  Gods, I couldn’t really process it all.

  Everything had changed. Somehow I’d seen this happen. Had Atlas been invading my dreams or . . . or was it something else? Right now, that didn’t matter. Solos was gone, here one second and then just gone. A tear snuck free, trailing down my cheek. I tried to comfort myself with the knowledge that there was an afterlife. That Solos was ultimately okay. As Aiden had said, Solos would be awarded a warrior’s welcome in Tartarus. That didn’t make it easier, though. Not really, because death was death, and to me, it was still final.

  It was the end.

  Sorrow dug deep, hooking itself in with tiny claws that hit bone and muscle. You couldn’t cut it out. Grief was there to stay.

  And Seth . . . I didn’t even know what was up with Seth, who he was going to be when he woke up. The Seth who made horrible mistakes but wanted to do better? The Seth who’d stood in the bedroom, vulnerable and nearly broken as he apologized?

  Or the Seth who had leveled all of us, including Atlas? He hadn’t just tapped into my aether. He’d gotten all of us, something none of us had known he could do, and deep down, I honestly didn’t believe Seth had even realized he could do that until he’d done it.

  I dropped my hand, curled it against my chest as I drew in a long breath that didn’t seem to ease the tightening there.

  I’d done the right thing by stopping Seth. I knew that, but was sitting by and keeping him locked up in a room okay? Herc would leave soon, and he would bring back a god who could trap him. Was I wrong for thinking that wasn’t the right thing to do? I didn’t know.

  Right now, more than anything, I needed my . . . my father.

  I needed him to do what fathers did. Give me advice. Help me. Get on my side. Support me.

  Closing my eyes, I pressed the tips of my fingers under my chin. “Apollo?” I said into the quiet room. Maybe he wouldn’t respond to Hercules, but when I’d called his name the night Hyperion had me, he’d come.

  Nothing but a soft tick of a nearby clock sounded. I tried again. “Dad?”

  And still nothing.

  No matter how many times I called his name, Apollo didn’t answer. Pressure increased in my chest and more tears snuck free. They kept falling silently, and I squeezed my eyes shut. By the time exhaustion dragged me under, I wasn’t sure who I was crying for the most.

  Chapter 31

  Seth

  Josie’s horrified face was the last thing I saw and
the first thing I recalled the moment my eyes peeled wide open and my chest rose sharply.

  Holy shit.

  I dragged in mouthfuls of air.

  What had I done?

  The buzz of pure aether still sang in my veins, lighting up every nerve ending and filling every cell with light and power. My skin buzzed and my senses were hyper aware.

  What in the fuck had I done?

  Something had happened to me.

  It wasn’t just the stolen aether charging me up. Every single cell in my body had been reshaped. Raw energy zinged through my veins. A slow smile pulled at my lips as I stretched my neck from left to right. I knew what I was feeling.

  I was the beginning and the end.

  The God Killer.

  My smile spread, but it froze as that knowledge sunk in. How? How was this possible? Immediately, I reached out to see if the bond between Alex and me was strong again, but it was still the same, there, but muted, in the background. That couldn’t bode well.

  The bright haze of power threatened to drag me in, but the high was tainted—oh gods, it was a bitter joy coursing through my veins. The events before Josie had used that damn poison and knocked me into next week replayed over and over in my head. I didn’t need to close my eyes to see Josie’s back bow the very second I connected with her and fed. I didn’t need to use my fucking imagination to recall how her legs crumpled under her. Or how everyone else’s legs gave way as well.

  There was no debating this anymore. No pretending that I could stay with Josie and not be with her, because fuck, that obviously hadn’t lasted longer than a hot second.

  I was not safe.

  I was never going to be safe.

  Especially when it came to Josie.

  Worse yet—gods—the worst thing was the look on Josie’s face. She was horrified, but she hadn’t been scared. She hadn’t looked betrayed, not even when I’d fed on her, not even when I had hurt her.

  Frankly, I didn’t give a shit about the rest of them, but her?

  I sat up, barely aware of the thin mattress that was under me, and swung my legs over the side. Standing, my heart pounded in my chest as I took a step forward. Lifting my gaze, I found a steel-reinforced door. Where in the hell was I? Didn’t matter. That door wasn’t going to hold me. They had to know that, so either they were incredibly stupid or they had summoned Heph to fashion the same kind of cage that had kept Alex in one place.