Heart heavy, I stood. “Sorry.”
Aiden reappeared, taking my hand. “Are you okay?”
I nodded. “You?”
“Yes.” His gaze moved to the pile of ashes and his hand tightened. “We need to get going.”
On the other side of the Hummer, two Sentinels were on their knees before Solos in the dirt and gravel. I recognized one of them as the guy I’d flung into the tree. Both were bruised and bloodied.
“Who is the god behind this?” Solos demanded.
One lifted his head and spat a mouthful of blood. Tree Guy laughed.
“Did I say something funny?” Solos knelt before them. “I didn’t think so. I’ll ask one more time. Who is the god behind this?”
“Kill us now, because we aren’t going to talk.” Tree Guy lifted his head and his gaze settled on me. “You guys can’t win in this. They are going to change the world, and if you stand in their way, they will destroy you.”
I stepped forward. “By ‘they’ you mean Seth, Lucian, and this god? You do realize that not a single one of them gives a flying monkey’s ass about halfs, right?”
Tree Guy laughed again, the sound broken and chipped. “And you do realize that you can’t escape him, Apollyon?”
Anger flared. “I think I’m doing a pretty good job at staying away from Seth, jerk-face.”
The other Sentinel arched a brow. “Do you think we’re talking about the First?” He laughed. “You have no idea what you’ve stepped in, little girl. This is bigger than you and the First, bigger than a simple Council seat.”
A shiver shot straight down my spine and I took an involuntary step back. “What is?”
Neither of the men answered. They said nothing as Solos questioned them about Lucian’s plans. Marcus stepped in then, but when he used compulsion on them, they remained silent.
“They’re not going to talk,” Marcus said, hands clenched at their sides. “Either it’s a stronger compulsion than a pure can do, or it’s blind loyalty. Either way, we are wasting precious time and risking too much.”
“We can’t let them go,” Aiden said quietly.
My heart sank a little in spite of the fact that, if given the chance, these two men would slit the throats of those standing next to me. They were young, maybe a few years older than me—too young to be out here, about to die. But Aiden was right; we couldn’t let them go.
Marcus quickly rounded up Deacon and the others, taking them back behind the damaged Hummer Solos had been driving. It was still drivable, but would draw attention if we had the thing out during the day.
Placing my hand on Aiden’s arm, I twisted toward him. “I can—”
“No.” He used that voice that I’d come to loathe and respect—the no argument tone. “You will not do this.”
Laadan, who’d stayed out of the fight with Deacon, turned away.
I wanted to, because an execution was the last thing I wanted to see, but as Aiden broke free of my side and headed toward them, I forced myself to stand still. If he had to do this, then I had to witness it. It was the most I could do, and the least.
Aiden moved lightning fast. The kills were clean and quick. They hadn’t felt it. Their bodies slumped forward, separated from their heads.
No matter how quick and painless Aiden had made it, I knew that he would feel this in the dark corners of his soul for a long time to come.
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.