I rubbed my eyes until they ached.
What day was it? Sometime in April? Less than a month from now, I was supposed to be graduating from the Covenant. That was so obviously not going to happen. So much had changed, and so much would never be the same. I wondered if my Fate had changed, too, or if this had always been a part of it and no one had thought to clue me in.
An idea occurred to me. It was insane, but I thought about letting the wonky connection with Seth happen. The ache was in my temples. Maybe I could tell him what I knew. Maybe there was a part of him that still cared enough.
I shook my head and lowered my hands.
Seth would probably just use it as another reason for me to jump ship.
Taking several deep breaths, I pushed thoughts of Seth out of my head and, for some reason, I thought about my father. Features roughened by a hard life fell into place. Broad cheekbones and a strong chin spoke of a warrior’s face. We really didn’t look too much alike, but it was his eyes… they were mine.
I tried not to think about my dad. Perhaps that was wrong, but it was hard sitting here knowing that he was in the Catskills. And it was even harder acknowledging that there might be a good chance we’d never meet face-to-face, aware of what we were to each other.
Squeezing my knees together, I thought about the sacrifice he was making—had made—for so many years. Deep down I knew he probably wanted to be here with me, but he had a job to do. Through and through, my father was a Sentinel.
I respected him for that.
I don’t know how long I sat there, but it couldn’t have been that long before the door behind me eased open. Boards creaked as the footsteps drew near.
Aiden sat beside me, still in his Sentinel uniform. He stared straight ahead and said nothing. I looked at him. The dark waves were messy, going in every which direction. A slight shadow was forming on his jaw.
“Didn’t wake up Deacon?” I asked.
“Nah, if I did then I’d probably never get to bed. He’ll need entertainment or something and you know how that goes.” Aiden tilted his head toward me. “When did Apollo leave?”
“A little while ago.”
Aiden was quiet for a moment. “Is there anything I should know?”
My heart skipped a beat. “No.”
His eyes met mine and I couldn’t tell if he believed me, but he extended his arm. I scooted over, fitting myself against the side of his body as he locked his arms around me. He rested his cheek against my hair and I felt his breath.
Minutes passed, and then he said, “We’re in this together, Alex. Don’t ever forget that. We’re in this together to the end.”
CHAPTER 28
By the time Apollo reappeared later that night, I hadn’t really come to terms with everything. I mean, how could I? Going through all of this, facing only gods-knew-what, knowing there was a 99% chance I’d die in the end really didn’t help with the whole motivation factor. So I decided to do the only thing I could do.
Forget about the end result.
Probably not the wisest method, but it was the only way I could do this and keep sane, because right now I didn’t know how to change any of it.
Apollo didn’t return alone. When he popped into the living room, he brought along Dionysus. It was the first time I’d seen the god. He looked like a frat boy in his Hawaiian shirt and cargo shorts.
Dionysus dropped onto the couch in a lazy, arrogant sprawl. His heavy-lidded gaze moved over the females in the room, sizing them up like one looks at a menu. When his freaky eyes landed on me, I arched a brow.
He grinned. “So this is the Apollyon?”
“That would be me.”
“For some reason, I expected you to be taller.”
What the hell? Folding my arms, I shot him a bland look. “I don’t know why people keep saying that.”
Aiden leaned against the desk I sat on. “You are pretty short.”
My height wasn’t our biggest problem. Thankfully Marcus reined the conversation in, bringing it back to more important things. “Do you have news of Lucian?”
The god stretched, folding his arms behind his head. “Well, I got as close as I could. Something’s different this time around.”
Apollo frowned. I didn’t like it when gods frowned—usually it meant something really, really bad. “What do you mean?”
“I could only get so close. Something barred me from getting among them, even barred my nymphs.” He wiggled his toes. “No ward can do that. Only another god.”
“I don’t understand,” I said. “How could another god block you?”
“A powerful one can, little Apollyon.” Dionysus winked one all-white eye. “It would be like hitting an invisible wall. The First and the pure-blood are well protected.”
“Hermes?” Marcus said, rubbing his jaw thoughtfully.
Dionysus snorted. “Hermes couldn’t pull something like that off.”
“Who could?” Solos asked, gaze shrewd.
“One of the core,” Dionysus answered with a smirk.
“What do you mean?” Luke leaned forward in his chair, dropping his arms over his knees. “‘One of the core’?”
The god spared him a brief glance. “There’s a social… or political structure to things in Olympus—a ranking by power.”
Across the room, Laadan cleared her throat. Beside her, Olivia remained quiet. She hadn’t spoken since asking about Caleb earlier. I had kept his promise, as much as it sucked.
“Can you give us a little more detail?” Laadan asked politely. “I believe this is something that we are unaware of.”
“Not really,” Apollo answered. “You modeled your Councils after Olympus, with each Council having a leader, so to speak. Olympus is the same.”
My curiosity swelled. “So who is the core?”
Dionysus might not have had pupils, but I was pretty sure that, when his head swung back to me, he was staring at my chest. And I was also sure that Aiden believed so, too, considering the way he stiffened.
“Zeus and Hera, followed by the ever-popular Apollo and his sister Artemis, then Ares and Athena,” Dionysus answered. “Last but not least, Hades and Poseidon. They are the most powerful gods and the only ones who could pull that off.”
“Well it’s not Hades. He wanted to take me to the Underworld. And I doubt it was Poseidon since he went all water-god on Deity Island.”
Aiden slid Apollo a look.
The sun god’s eyes narrowed. “Yeah, like it’s me.”
“Could really be any of them,” Dionysus said, and then yawned loudly. “They’d have to be fooling everyone, so they could’ve fooled even us.” He shrugged as if none of this was a big deal. “It is what it is.”
“Did you sense anything?” Apollo’s hands closed at his sides when Dionysus shook his head. “Did you see anything that might tell us who the god was? Anything?”
“Really wasn’t looking for that. You told me to see how many that idiot pure-blood had with him, and I did.”
A muscle popped in Apollo’s jaw and he all but growled, “So what did you see?”
“Nothing good.”
“Details,” Apollo said, exhaling through his nose. “Details.”
I wondered if Dionysus was drunk or high. My gaze caught Deacon’s on the other end of the couch, and I could tell he was thinking the same thing. Even Lea, who was sitting on the arm beside Deacon, was giving Dionysus a what the hell look.
“He has damn near close to a thousand half-blood Sentinels and Guards, maybe more. Plus, he’s surrounded by some sort of inner circle—other pures. And it gets even better.” He paused, and I knew it was for dramatic effect. “There were mortals with him.”
My mouth dropped open. “What?”
“Soldiers,” Dionysus replied. “Mortal soldiers—like the ‘Be all that you can be’ kind of soldiers. There were probably about five hundred of them.”
I almost fell off the desk.
“How is that possible?” Lea demanded. Then she squeezed her eyes shut, features pinched. “He’s using a compulsion.”
“No.” Marcus shook his head as he turned to Apollo. “No pure-blood could control that many mortals. Not even if he had a hundred pures surrounding him.”
“It’s the god.” Apollo looked disgusted.
My stomach heaved at the thought. Using mortals like that was wrong on so many levels. They’d never survive a fight against a Sentinel or Guard, no matter how many guns they had. We were simply so much faster and better trained. Mortals would be canon fodder and nothing more. It was revolting.
Anger filled the room, so thick I could practically taste it.
“I don’t get it.” Deacon ran a hand over his head, clasping the back of his neck. “How is the mortal world not paying attention to something like that?”
“One of the mortals must be high up in the army, someone who can make that kind of call and give some sort of reason.” Apollo’s lips thinned. “At least that’s what I’d do.”
“And they could’ve called some sort of state of emergency,” Marcus added. “No part of the U.S. has gone completely unscathed, and I’m beginning to wonder if this god even cares about exposure.”
Aiden gripped the edge of the desk. “I think it’s obvious that the risk of exposure isn’t important. Hell, maybe it’s even planned.”
All eyes turned on him.
“Think about it. Why else would a god be orchestrating all of this? Or going along with what Lucian wants?” Aiden asked. “To take out the gods and then what—rule Olympus? Or rule Olympus and the mortal realm?”
A shiver raced across my shoulders. My wildest imagination couldn’t even fathom what it would be like if the world knew that gods did exist—and on top of that, if the world ended up being ruled by one.
“We can’t let that happen,” I said.
Apollo’s eyes met mine. “No. We can’t.”
I averted my gaze, because right now I didn’t want to think about what stopping this god meant. I cleared my throat. “I wonder if Lucian and Seth even know.”
“Does it matter?” Lea asked, snotty as ever.
My lips quirked at her tone. “I guess it doesn’t, but you have to wonder who’s using who. And what will happen to them in the end if the god is successful. Does he plan to keep them around or get rid of them? Do they even have a clue?”
Most of the people in the room couldn’t care less—that much was apparent—but Marcus strode over to where I sat and leaned against the desk on the other side of me. “I doubt they know. In a way, no matter what they have been responsible for, it is tragic.”
“It will be tragic if they succeed.” Dionysus stood and stretched his arms over his head. “Well, I’m out.”
Apollo nodded and Dionysus bowed to the room, sweeping his arms out to the sides with a flourish. And then he was gone.
I shook my head. “Okay. Who else thinks he was high as a kite?”
Hands went up across the room and I grinned.