“The Titans have two of them?” Aiden asked.
“They’re feeding off them,” Solos added. “It’s how they’re getting their powers back.”
“Oh my gods,” Alex whispered. “Feeding off them? Like daimons?”
“Basically.” Solos pushed off the wall. “We have no idea what condition they are in or even where the other three are. We’re waiting on Apollo, and you know how he takes his time with stuff.”
“Did you know Ares was taking out demigods?” Aiden’s gaze latched onto mine.
I resisted the urge to flip him off. His suspicions were warranted. “Contrary to popular belief, I didn’t know everything Ares was up to. I didn’t know about any of this until Apollo told me.”
“We didn’t think you knew everything,” Alex threw out, but yeah, didn’t quite believe that.
Aiden glanced at her and then his attention flipped back to me. “Hold on a sec.”
“Holding,” I murmured.
He ignored that. “You said that there are six demigods alive. Two were with the Titans and you needed to find three more. Shouldn’t it be four more? Or did I forget how to count?”
“Yep. You forgot how to count,” I replied dryly.
Aiden looked unimpressed with my comment. I thought it was pretty astute. “Do we need to find three or four of them?”
“I think it’s cute how you’ve inserted ‘we’ into this.” I smiled tightly.
“We’re up here for the next six months,” Alex stated slowly, like I needed the time to comprehend. “So, duh, we’re going to help while we’re here. This isn’t a vacation for us.”
I was going to throw myself through a wall.
Aiden nodded in agreement. “So, there are—”
“Oh! Holy shit balls.” Deacon jumped up from the couch and looked around the room, the corners of his mouth turning down. “Where is Josie?”
“Hell,” Luke grunted as he too glanced around, like he was going to find Josie hiding under a chair or something. “Did we forget her? She’s not still out on the quad, is she?”
Yes, I wanted to tell them. Yes, you totally forgot about Josie. “She went back to her room.”
Deacon’s brows furrowed together. “Why did she do that?”
Well, let me count the reasons . . .
“Who’s Josie?” Alex asked, confused.
“Uh . . .” I looked over at Deacon. “You want to do the honors? I know how much you love awkward conversations.”
A wide smile broke out across his face. “Of course, especially when I’m not the center of the awkwardness.”
Luke snorted.
“So!” Deacon clapped his hands together as he faced Alex and Aiden. “Did you guys happen to notice a certain girl out on the quad when you did your magic doorway thing?”
Aiden glanced at Alex. She raised a shoulder. “There were a lot of people out there that I hadn’t seen before.” She paused. “I noticed Boobs, though.”
I slowly shook my head.
“Um, that’s not who I’m talking about. Anyway,” Deacon said, his gray eyes light. “She’s pretty tall. Well, taller than you and everyone is practically taller than you, Alex. Has long blondish-brown hair. Kind of weird hair.”
“Awesome hair,” Luke added.
Alexander frowned silently.
“She does. It’s like an array of colors. One moment it looks completely blonde. The next it’s long brown and then it changes again. It’s very cool,” Deacon continued, and I had to agree with him on that. “And when you see her, you’re going to think, wow, this girl looks familiar. You won’t be able to put a finger on it at first, but it’s going to nag at you and then, when it hits you, you’ll—”
“Deacon,” Aiden warned. “Who is Josie?”
His brother pouted for a second and then sighed. “Fine. She’s a demigod. Like, a born demigod. Powers unlocked and all, and she’s super-cool and really nice.” His gaze slid over to where I stood and his expression turned sly. “Isn’t that right, Seth?”
I eyed him. “Right.”
“You’re forgetting the best part.” Solos walked past the couch, sending me a long look. “Which god she came from.”
Aiden seemed to get what wasn’t being said first. His eyes closed as he rubbed his fingers along his brow. “Gods.”
“What?” Alex looked at him and then at me. “Whose kid is she?”
“Apollo’s,” Deacon answered, his smile going up a notch when Alex’s gaze flew to him. “Yep. Josie is Apollo’s daughter.”
Her mouth dropped open.
“And that kind of makes you and her cousins? I guess?” Luke frowned. “I don’t know what exactly, but it does make you two related. Somehow. I don’t know how, but she does have some of your mannerisms. It gets really weird sometimes.”
Alex twisted toward her father, and he nodded. She didn’t move until Aiden curved his hand over her knee, then she whipped back around. Her mouth moved wordlessly for a few seconds. “Holy crap. I . . . I don’t know what to say.”
“That was pretty much our response at first,” Luke sympathized as he hooked one leg over the other. “Seth brought her to the Covenant.”
Alex’s brows flew up. “Oh, really?”
“Apollo put him in charge of her safety,” Solos added, voice roguish as he jerked his chin in my direction. “And he takes her safety very seriously.”