Chapter 21
Seth
Josie dragged the huge-ass Myths and Legends textbook out from under the bed and plopped it down next to me.
“How did that book end up under the bed?” I asked, looking up at Josie. She’d fixed her robe, but she’d barely tied the sash at her waist, so the halves of the robe were gaping in very interesting, very distracting ways.
“I don’t know.” She crawled across the bed, sitting cross-legged beside me. “It fell off the bed one day and I was too lazy to pick it up.”
I grinned at her.
“What?” She ducked her chin as she started opening the book, flipping through the pages. “This book is heavy.”
I could’ve pointed out that she had the air element at her disposal, but I figured she’d be likely to knock me upside the head if I did.
I leaned back against the headboard. “What are you looking for?”
“I’m looking for…this!” Picking up the sides of the book, she dropped it on my stomach.
Grunting, I grabbed it before it slid back onto a very sensitive part of me. I looked down, scowling when I saw that it was open to several paragraphs about Ares. “Josie.” I looked over at her. “Ares’s son hasn’t been to the campus.”
“I know, but he’s not Ares’s only son. Okay. So, when Deacon was telling me about Alex and Aiden and, well, you, he told me what happened to Alex after she fought Ares the first time. That she’d been, I guess you could say, infected by two of his sons.” Leaning over, she scanned the page and then pointed at the section about Ares’s children. “Phobos and Deimos, right?”
Tension crept into my shoulders as I stared at their names. “A thousand years could pass, and I won’t forget those bastards.”
They’d done a number on Alex, preying on her fears and amplifying them. Worse yet, they’d made her think she was pregnant. It had been…fuck, it had been horrible. The fallout for both Alex and Aiden…
Josie pulled her hand back. “Apollo had summoned them out of her, right? He looked at Alex and knew she’d been infected.”
I nodded. “Artemis had seen something in Alex, but it was Apollo who saw them.”
“Do you think it’s possible that they are here, infecting someone and influencing others?”
Shaking my head, I looked back at the page. Ares had quite a few children, as did most of the gods. Being alive that long, you could accumulate quite a brood. “Anything is possible, but they only infected Alex. Not saying they couldn’t have a larger impact if they wanted to.”
“But it’s not impossible, right?” Josie’s eyes glimmered with excitement. “It could be any number of his kids. Phobos instills fear. Deimos can cause terror, which by the way seems like the same thing to me, but whatever. And then there’s Enyo, or however you pronounce her name. She was his sister and lover, and ew, but she can cause discord. Discord, Seth.”
I wanted to believe that Josie was on to something. That all we had to do was find this one person or entity and everything would magically be resolved.
But it rarely worked out that way.
She pulled the heavy book off my stomach and held it in her lap, curling her fingers around the edges. “And if we could get one of the gods to come here and do whatever summoning mumbo-jumbo they need to do, we could stop what’s been happening here and all these deaths. And Colin’s death wouldn’t be for nothing.”
Damn.
I saw it then, what was shining in her eyes and why she was so desperate to believe that she had the answer to fix this. She wanted revenge for Colin’s death. She wanted his death to mean something in the end.
And she wanted to be the one to bring him justice.
I got that.
I really did.
Tugging the book from her grasp, I closed it and placed it aside. I shifted closer to her, leaning over and planting my weight on one arm.
“Why’d you do that?” she demanded.
My eyes met hers. “I know you want to find the people or person or god responsible for Colin’s death. I completely understand that.” Cupping her cheek, I then slid my hand to the back of her head, tangling my fingers in her hair. “I want to find those people too.”
She stiffened. “You didn’t even like Colin.”
That was true. “I still want to find the person responsible. I just don’t think you’re going to find the answer in that book, babe.”
Her shoulders slumped as she looked away, and I hated seeing the sadness creeping into her expression. “Why can’t it be one of them?” she asked after a moment.
“It could be, but…Josie, there has been a long history of violence and hatred toward the halfs. Centuries worth of bigotry and discrimination. Some of that was fueled by the gods. And some of it is because there are a lot of pures that are just fucking disgusting assholes. There’s no one causing them to be this way. They chose to be this way.”
Josie gave a little shake of her head. “How can anyone choose to be so full of hatred that they murder people?”
“I don’t know.” I kissed her cheek. “I mean, I guess I kind of do know.”
“What?” Josie pulled back, her eyes searching mine. “What do you mean by that?”
I lifted a shoulder. “I did terrible shit when I was with Ares. I killed people, Josie. I can blame Ares, but it wasn’t like I wasn’t in control of myself. I’d been swayed to believe certain things and I acted on them. Some of these pures have been swayed to believe in certain things. They can be taught differently. I was, but does learning and changing wash away my crimes?”
Josie opened her mouth, but I already knew what she was going to say.
“I know you believe that it does for me,” I said. “But I know I still have an extraordinarily long road ahead of me when it comes to making up for everything I’ve done.”
She didn’t say anything as she scooted her way toward me. Quietly, she clasped my cheeks and kissed me. And that soft sweep of her lips led to a much deeper one that also led to a hell of a lot more than a kiss.
Hours later, I ended up lying beside her while she slept. My mind was too all over the damn place to get any shut-eye, so I was awake when someone knocked on the door.
Easing my arm out from underneath her, I wasn’t all that surprised that all she did was snuggle down in the bed, wiggling those damn hips of hers in a way that made it so fucking hard to get out of the bed.
But I did.
Because I was mature like that.
Finding my pants on the floor, I pulled them on and then made my way out to the sitting area. I opened the door and found Aiden standing there.
“Well, apparently you guys made it back here.”
“Yeah, obviously,” he said as I stepped out into the hall, closing the door behind me. “Is everything okay with Josie?”
“She’s okay.” I dragged a hand through my hair, shoving it out of my face. “There was an incident here.” I told Aiden about what had happened with the pures and with Colin. “Josie is fine, though. Turned out to be a pulled muscle.”
“Damn.” Aiden bowed his head as he placed his hands on his hips. “Colin seemed like a good guy.”
I made some sort of noise of agreement.
“This crap with the pures is the last thing we need.”
“No doubt. So, did Apollo bring you guys back?”
Aiden nodded. “Yeah, he managed to, uh, convince Erik that it would be a very wise choice for him to come with us.”
Leaning against the wall, I crossed my arms. “I don’t know how I feel about him being here. I know he can’t be out there, not where the Titans can find him, but I also don’t like the idea of him roaming around. We have enough problems without an untapped demigod who might be pissed off about being here.”
“Agreed. He’s currently on the second floor, under Luke’s watchful eye. We put Erik near Deacon and Luke.” Aiden glanced down the hall. “Alex went to see if Marcus was still up, but I guess, considering everything that just went down, she’s going to be gone a while.”
“Probably.”
Aiden focused on me. “That’s not the only reason why I’m here.”
I was still leaning against the wall, but every muscle tensed.
“Apollo wants to see you.”
My jaw clenched, and a moment passed before I could trust myself to even respond. “Does he now?”
“Yeah,” Aiden gruffed.
“He’s obviously not here. I don’t feel him.”
“Well, I’m guessing he’s coming back. Said to have you meet him in my room.”
My molars were starting to ache. “Now, I find this strange. He’s never had any problem just popping into my rooms, no matter what I’m doing. Hell, he usually takes great pleasure in that.”
“Yeah, I find that strange too.”
Looking away, I shook my head. The fucker was avoiding Josie. I pushed off the wall. “Let’s go.”
Aiden sighed. “This should be fun.”
Damn straight it was going to be just fucking dandy. I prowled down the hall, and the moment Aiden opened the door and I stepped in, a fissure of energy rolled down my spine. The glyphs bled through, swirling over my skin.
Apollo appeared in front of me, in the center of shimmering lights, in all his golden glory. The moment he became visible, I slammed my fist into the fucker’s jaw.
“Gods,” Aiden stepped back and to the side as Apollo’s head snapped back.
Apollo turned his head back to me, his all-white eyes narrowed as he rubbed his jaw. “Was that necessary?”
“Not really, but it made me feel so fucking good.”
Apollo dropped his hand. “I see some things never change.”
“Yeah, ditto, fucker.” I stepped up, going toe to toe with him. “Because I see you’re still doing the ‘played-out absentee father’ thing.”
The sun god’s nostrils flared. “You should go do something, Aiden.”
“Sounds like a plan.” Aiden backed up to the door. “I think I’ll go see if Alex is with Marcus.”
I didn’t acknowledge any of that. All I heard was the door close behind Aiden. “You don’t want Aiden to be here when we talk about how your daughter calls out to you, time and fucking time again, and you never answer?”
“I’m here because of my daughter,” Apollo growled, and he took a visible step back from me. “I told you once before, boy. Don’t even begin to think you know what I would do for her or have done—”
“I don’t give a flying fuck what you think you’ve done or are doing for her.” Anger flowed through me like lava. “You obviously know she’s pregnant. You obviously know that she needs you in her life.” The last part nearly killed me to admit, but it had to be said. “And you’re not there.”
Apollo turned from me, and without saying a word he walked to the couch and sat. Several moments passed as he stared straight ahead, as if he were focusing on something only he could see. “Is the baby okay?”
I curled my hands into fists and strived for patience I didn’t have. “The baby is okay.”
He closed his eyes. “I could…feel her panic earlier. I knew it had to do with the baby. That was why I came for you.”
“Great. Glad you did that so I could be there for her, but that doesn’t answer why you didn’t go to her yourself.”
Opening his eyes, he looked at me. They were somewhat normal. The same vibrant shade of blue as Josie’s. “You don’t understand.”
“No shit. I don’t understand. The furies were unleashed, Apollo. You do know they could’ve seriously injured her. Possibly killed her.” I stepped toward him. “She watched one of her friends die. So, yeah, I don’t understand why you didn’t step in.”
“It’s not as easy as you think it is.” He turned his head. “I know she was calling for me this morning. She wanted to know how the demigods’ abilities can now be unlocked.”
“You have the answer to this?” I demanded. “One that you couldn’t tell her yourself?”
“I’m telling you.” Apollo’s glacial gaze met mine. “The demigods’ abilities cannot be unlocked now. They cannot fight the Titans.”