CHAPTER 31

Back on the highway, I tried not to let the chilly wind blowing in my face get on my nerves. Things could be worse. People I care about could have ended up dead. They could’ve been like those unfortunate souls we’d put down like rabid dogs.

Right now, we all had it pretty good, with the exception of that creeptastic warning the Sentinel had given us—or me.

Glancing at Aiden for like the hundredth time since we’d gotten back into the car, I chewed on my lower lip.

“Penny for your thoughts?” he said, not taking his eyes off the road.

I took a deep breath. “So, we know that the god is a ‘he’, and apparently I don’t know what I’m stepping in.”

“Do any of us know what we’re stepping in?” Luke commented dryly.

“I don’t think we do,” I said, staring at the dark stretch of highway. “Was it just me, or did it sound like they were loyal to the god, and not Lucian or Seth?”

“That’s the way it sounded to me,” Aiden said.

“Unless even their loyalty came from a compulsion.” Marcus sounded bone-weary. “But it doesn’t matter. Loyalty is just as bad as a compulsion. The end result is the same.”

I nodded. “I wonder if Lucian or Seth know. I mean, I know it doesn’t matter, but Seth and Lucian both have egos the size of a god’s. If they think they have complete control over their army or whatever, but they really don’t? That isn’t going to be pretty.”

“Who knows how much they really know?” Aiden gripped the steering wheel so tightly that his knuckles bleached. “This god could be promising Lucian the head of the Council or gods know what else. And Seth, well he… he will have everything he wants.”

Hot and uncomfortable knots twisted my insides. Seth had said the same thing, but what he wanted—love and acceptance—he’d never get this way. It would be a caricature of the real thing. One day he might realize that, and it would be too late… for all of us.

And gods, he did deserve better than this. I knew I shouldn’t think that, but I did.

Letting out a low breath, I tipped my head toward the passenger window and watched the blur of dark trees. Most of South Dakota was prairie land, but the Black Hills were something else entirely. Trees clustered together, so thick that no one could see what rested beyond. Somewhere up ahead, the University was spread across one of the largest mountain meadows.

“Do you think Apollo is telling you guys everything that he and the other gods know?” Deacon’s voice broke the silence.

I snorted. “I think Apollo tells us what he thinks we need to know when he wants to.”

“Gods are such douche bags,” Deacon muttered, sitting back.

Marcus actually laughed, and I thought the world was coming to an end. “They are arrogant,” he said. “That’s the problem. With arrogance comes great blindness.”

It was kind of funny hearing that, because I thought of three blind mice, but it was true. All of the parties involved were pretty arrogant. Gods know I had a healthy dose of it myself.

“None of them think anyone will truly step up against them, not even one of their own.” Marcus sighed. “Their arrogance led to this.”

Everyone fell quiet after that, lost in their own thoughts. I was doing a mental rundown of all the gods, trying to figure out who won for Most Arrogant. Seriously, it could be any of the male gods: Hades, Poseidon, Zeus, Ares, and even Apollo. It might not even be one of the core, but a lesser deity tired of being pushed around. It was like looking for an especially drunk guy at a party full of drunk guys—impossible. Good news was that we at least knew it was a “he,” unless the Sentinel was messing with us.

Closing my eyes, I breathed out slowly and winced. My temples throbbed something fierce. It was like having a toothache in my entire face and I had no idea how long I’d last before it was time to have another chat with Seth.

I stared. “Holy…”

“Crap,” Deacon whispered over my shoulder.

Silence fell, thick and heavy as we all sat in the car and stared. I knew the same thing was happening behind us in the other Hummer. None of us knew what to say.

Horror engulfed me. This… none of this had been expected.

About an hour earlier, Aiden had found the narrow lane that looked like a fire access road, but was really the five-mile long entrance to the University. We’d made it up the rocky road about a half a mile when the scenery had changed from clusters of juniper trees to… a scene straight out of Red Dawn.

The headlights from our cars cast light on a gruesome scene. Burnt-out Hummers crowded the sides of the road, resting against equally-charred trees and scorched ground. There were so many—half a dozen crispy car skeletons. I couldn’t tell if there were bodies in them, not from this distance.

I swallowed. “Aiden…”

He placed a hand on my arm. “It could’ve been Sentinels trying to infiltrate the University.”

Blinking rapidly, I shook my head. I had a bad, bad feeling about this. Call it a spidey-sense or whatever, but this wasn’t good.

“Can we, like, call ahead?” Deacon said in a hushed voice. “I mean, they’re expecting us, right?”

“They are.” Aiden glanced back at his younger brother. “It’s okay. I promise. Nothing is going to happen.”

“I can’t get a damn signal at all.” Marcus glared at his cell phone like he could wish it into Tartarus. “Nothing at all.” He glanced up, eyes hard as gems. “Any of you?”

Aiden checked his phone. “Nope.”

I wet my lips as my gaze fell back to the scorched vehicles. My heart pounded and my head ached. “There must be a lot of firebug pures in there…”

“No doubt,” Aiden muttered, both brows rising.

Solos appeared on Aiden’s side of the car, running a hand through the dark strands of hair that had escaped his ponytail. In the shadows, his scar was less visible. “You think the Covenant did this?” He gestured at the vehicles. “Their version of torch security?”

“It’s possible,” Aiden replied, but I wasn’t sure he believed it.

“I can’t get hold of them, so I’m assuming you can’t, either, right?” When Aiden nodded, Solos folded his hands behind his head and stretched so that his back bowed. “I guess we can make it through.”

“We can from what I can see.” Aiden sat back, thrumming his fingers off the wheel. “We’ll have to go slow.”

As I watched the two Sentinels, I knew in my core that Aiden and Solos didn’t want to do this. We were blind to what lay ahead. It could be a murderous band of grizzly bears, or a legion of Sentinels waiting to make S’mores out of us. We just didn’t know.

Solos sighed and dropped his arms. “Well, I guess we do this.”

“We really don’t have any other option.” Aiden shifted the gears back into drive. “Let’s do this.”

With a curt nod, Solos loped back to his vehicle. I squirmed in my seat as the Hummer lurched forward. Easing around the torched cars wasn’t an easy feat. It was like driving a boat through a china shop. Thank the gods that Aiden was driving because I would’ve plowed through the wreckage on the first narrow turn.

More burnt-out cars lay by the side of the road every so many feet, and with each one we passed, the scorch marks looked fresher, the acrid smell thicker… as if each time someone had tried to reach the University, they’d made it a little farther than the group before them. And farther up, deep orange flames crawled across the hood of a Hummer, licking at the smoke-filled air.

Oh, this was so not good.

“How will they know we’re friends?” Deacon asked, thinking along the same lines as me. He leaned between the seats, face pale. “Aiden, we should stop—”

Aiden suddenly did stop, but not because of what Deacon was saying. Debris was strewed across the access road, choking the lane. As far as I could see were scattered skeletons of cars. Many of them still smoldered, glowing hellish red in the pre-dawn dark. The apocalyptical landscape was something straight out of nightmares.

“Gods,” Aiden muttered darkly.

My stomach twisted into knots as I undid my seatbelt. “This isn’t good.”

No one said anything for several moments, and then Marcus spoke, “We’re going to have to walk it from here.”

“How many miles?” I asked.

“We’re about three miles out.” Aiden killed the engine, leaving the headlights on.

All of us climbed out of the Hummer, casting anxious looks at all the burnt-out cars surrounding us, feeling like we’d been driving around with a giant bull’s-eye on us.

Quickly, we weaponed-up with daggers, sickle blades, and Glocks. As I strapped a gun on, I looked over my shoulder and saw that the crew with Solos was doing the same thing.

We looked like we were preparing for war as we came together between the two Hummers. In a way, we were—we had been this whole time. We were at war.

A chill suddenly snaked its way under my skin. We stood in a circle, the nine of us, silent with the exception of titanium clips clicking into place, daggers snapping onto our sides. We were nine. But somehow—in a way I couldn’t explain but knew to be the truth—I knew we weren’t going to return as nine. At that cold realization, I looked at the faces of those around me. Some had been virtual strangers, others enemies until recently, and a few I’d considered friends from day one.

And then there was Aiden.

I took a breath, wishing I could forget the fatalistic feeling taking up residence around my heart. But the somber faces of those around me pretty much told me that I wasn’t the only one who was thinking the same thing at that moment.

As a unit, the nine of us turned. Ghastly, flickering flames lit the road ahead The weight of the daggers and guns was sobering and grounding. We had no idea what waited ahead of us, other than the big, fat unknown, and most likely a big, fat kick in the face. The gravity of that was killing me—killing us.

I squared my shoulders. “Release the Kraken!”

Several sets of eyes settled on me.

“What?” I gave a lopsided shrug. “I’ve always wanted to yell that since I saw that movie. Seemed like the perfect moment.”

Aiden laughed.

“See! That’s why I love him,” I told the group. “He laughs at the stupid crap that comes out of my mouth.”

In response, Aiden leaned over and pressed his lips against my temple. “Keep talking about loving me,” he murmured, “and we’re going to scar some of these guys for life.”

I flushed beet red.

Someone cleared their throat. Another groaned, but I was grinning as I lifted my gaze back to the road. Jokes aside, everyone was waiting for one person to take the first step, so I did. And then we all did.

Our eyes adapted to the darkness, but I stayed beside Aiden, who stuck close to Deacon and Luke, as we carefully made our way around the shells of vehicles. I didn’t look inside them, absolutely refused to, because there was a certain stench in the air…

The night was eerily silent with exception of our footsteps. In South Dakota, I expected to hear the chilling call of the mountain lion, the scurry of tiny creatures, and the squawking of birds that could probably snatch up a baby, but there was nothing.

Dead silence.

The creeped-out vibe didn’t go away after we started making quick progress, covering well over two miles. The destroyed cars littering the roadway didn’t help. There were so many of them.

“Gods,” Lea whispered, stopping beside one of the charbroiled piles. “Oh, my gods…”

I told myself not to look at what so obviously horrified her, but I rarely listened to that little voice of common sense. I turned and almost lost the Skittles.

Behind the charred wheel of a Hummer was a body… or what was left of one. Burnt, blackened fingers still clutched the steering wheel. Nothing else about the body was distinguishable. It could’ve been a male, female, or a hydra. And it wasn’t alone. Charred remains were in the passenger seat…and in the rear seats.

Someone sucked in a sharp breath. “The plates are crispy, but these are New York tags.”

“Gods,” someone else said.

People were moving backward, checking the plates on cars that’d received less damage, but I already knew in my heart. These weren’t Lucian’s Sentinels coming to fight. These were people—innocent pures and halfs—seeking sanctuary.

In the furthest seat of the Hummer, some of the clothing remained, just bits and pieces of singed material, but the color was a deep forest-green. Council robes, I realized slowly.

Mother-freaking Council robes.

It dawned on me suddenly that it was a really good thing that we’d gotten out of those damn Hummers, because these people—they’d been trapped. And this whole road was nothing but a graveyard.

“We need to get out of here,” Aiden ordered, and my heart dropped. “We need to go now.”

Lea whirled around. “But where are we going to go? This has—”

A ball of fiery light split the darkness ahead, casting an eerie glow over the debris and the burnt, twisted ground. It flew past the car I stood by, smacking into a small juniper tree, enveloping it in flames and thick, bitter smoke.

I jumped. “Holy…”

Everything happened so fast. Balls of fire seemed to come from the heavens, raining down on us. Everyone scattered, splitting into smaller groups as we moved off the road and into the uneven terrain. A hand found mine—Aiden—and I was running with him and his brother. Luke was behind us. In seconds, I lost sight of everyone else.