eyeing the dog.
The god cracked his neck to the side and spoke again, and for some reason, his accent was British. I could never figure that out. “You have no idea how much I’m going to enjoy you later.”
“I doubt it’s something I’m going to enjoy.”
Artemis cleared her throat. “Really, can we save the snark-off for another time? We are here to handle the shades. You have…” She trailed off as one of Cerberus’s offspring trotted up to me, sniffing my leg.
I swear to the gods, if it pissed on me it was losing one of its heads. “Nice puppy,” I murmured.
It lifted its three heads and snarled, baring sets of shark-like teeth before it moved beyond me.
Solos rounded the corner, skidding to a halt as he saw the two gods and one of Hades’s “puppies” prowling along the edge of the courtyard. “Holy balls…”
The god of the Underworld smiled. “Funny you mention balls…” He looked at me pointedly.
My eyes narrowed.
Shaking his head, Solos refocused and his stark face caused my stomach to drop. “A group of Sentinels who’d been protecting the dorms made it out of the campus. It’s believed they were possessed.”
I didn’t even stop to think.
Pivoting around, I took off toward the dorm, running past bodies that didn’t move, others that moaned in pain. My heart was in my throat and I was vaguely aware of Luke behind me, but the space between us grew larger.
I raced up the dorm steps, my stomach knotting as I saw the glass doors blown out. There were no Sentinels in the lobby. The place was a ghost town. Veering to the right, I hit the hall at a dead run.
The moment I saw the open door, I knew—I fucking knew.
Rushing inside, I struggled to catch my breath, and I’d never been out of breath before in my life. The living area was a mess. The coffee table was shattered. A stupid painting of a god was on the floor, broken.
A soft moan came from the bedroom.
Stumbling back, I pushed through the door, gripping its frame. The blanket from the bed was pooled on the floor. Red blotches were sprinkled across the sheet. Pillows were torn, the down filling lying on the carpet. And there was the dagger I’d given Josie.
Dread exploded in my chest as I made my way around the bed. Deacon was struggling to sit up, the side of his hair matted with blood.
I dipped down beside him, gripping his shoulders. Unfocused gray eyes drifted over my face as I held him up. “Where is she?” I demanded. “Deacon, where is she?”
“They were Sentinels,” he said, gripping my arm. “We thought they were safe. I tried…to stop them.”
A potent kind of terror gripped me. “Dammit, Deacon, where is she?”
His pained eyes met mine. “They took her.”
CHAPTER
31
MY TEMPLES throbbed and my jaw ached as I came to. It wasn’t the only part of me that hurt. My stomach was still recovering from a vicious kick. I started to sit up, but a hand pressed down on my center of my back, getting my face smushed into what felt like vinyl.
“Stay down, or I will put you down.”
I sucked in a sharp breath at the sound of the guy’s voice. They were Sentinels. They were supposed to be good. Deacon had opened the door… My sore stomach seized as concern for Deacon flooded me. It had been quick and brutal. With the minimal training I’d had, I sure as hell hadn’t been prepared for it. They had taken out Deacon first, slamming his head into the wall with enough force to crack the plaster.
Oh God.
They smelled like death, like the guy back at Radford had. My mind raced. They had to be shades and that meant—
The vehicle rolled to an abrupt stop and my heart seized. I had no idea how long I’d been out, but from what I could tell, it seemed darker than before. I had no idea how in the hell they’d gotten me out of the University and into a car, but we were here.
I already knew who was waiting for me.
Hands landed on my shoulders as several car doors opened. I was yanked out, and my knees cracked off cold, hard ground as I fell forward onto my shaking hands.
The thin nylon pants were nothing against the icy, night air. I was lifted up onto my bare feet—what’d happened to my shoes?— and pushed forward with a rough shove in the back.
“Go,” the man said.
In the dark, I could make out a set of steps that led up to a porch. Trees crowded what appeared to be a cabin. I had a feeling we were still in the Black Hills, or at least I hoped that we were.
There was no way I was going in that cabin.
I only had one chance to get away, so I didn’t stop to think about it. Pushing to the side, I kicked off and started to run, my arms and legs pumping, my eyes trained on the trees. I had no idea where I was running. There were spots of the ground covered in snow. I obviously wasn’t dressed for this, but anything would be better than facing off with what I knew waited for me inside.
I made it a couple of feet before an arm snagged me from behind, lifting me clear off the ground and depositing me in front of the steps again.
Someone laughed as the air froze in my lungs.
The cold burned the soles of my feet as I climbed the steps. I started to look behind me, but the push came again. Anger flared and I tried to turn again, but a sharp point suddenly pressed into the skin under my throat.
“Do not test us,” the voice was a slick whisper in my ear. “Get inside.” When I didn’t reach for the door, the man—the thing— cursed as he grabbed the knob. The hinges groaned as it opened, and a stale scent tinged with metal rushed to greet me as I was shoved inside what appeared to be a mudroom.
The door slammed shut behind me, and I jumped, sucking in a shaky breath. Oh Christ, I was so screwed. Stepping forward, I winced as the boards creaked under my feet.
A single candle placed in the middle of the floor lighted the next room. The small flame flickered, not penetrating the thick shadows seeping out onto the floor.
I folded my arms across my chest, shivering as I inched forward. My breath puffed out in front of me, forming small, misty clouds. Through a narrow hall, I could see another room. A dim light was on in there.
Something somewhere in the room moved, a shuffling of clothing. A moan stopped my heart, halting my slow progression. I turned toward the sound, scanning the darkness. One of the shadows seemed to be thicker. Something lay against the wall in a crumpled heap.
Knowing that this could be a trap, but unable to keep walking forward, I bent down and picked up the thick pillar candle. I held it out in front of me, holding my breath as I moved toward it.
The soft glow of the candle cast a light over the wall and as I lowered the candle, I exhaled roughly.
Oh my God.
Almost dropping the candle, I rushed forward and knelt, pressing my knees into the dirty floor. I reached out with my other hand, hesitating, because… “Erin?”
The broken body on the floor stirred. No part of her that I could see was not bruised or scratched. Her face was swollen, raw-looking, and she appeared to be stuck between her mortal form and that of a furie. Her body was shades of gray and mocha. A wing was twisted over her, shielding her nude body. My chest cracked wide open as I saw the chain around her neck, attached to the wall.
Bile rose in my throat as I placed the candle down beside me. “Erin.”
Her head moved, but her eyes were sealed shut. Cracked lips moved restlessly, punching out two words. “I…failed.”
The flame went out.
My heart stopped.
Tiny hairs all over my body rose, and I opened my mouth, but the scream was cut off as a hand curled around my neck, dragging me to my feet. I immediately went on defense. Reaching behind me, I clutched the thick wrist and tried to twist out of the hold.
A deep, dark laugh rippled through the room like an ominous cloud.
Erin whimpered.
“I think you should give your friend some time to rest. After all, I’ve work
ed her over hard.”
Horror rose, but fury snapped on its heels, drenching every cell of my body with its red-hot venom. “You son of a bitch!” I shrieked. “You nasty son of—”
He wasn’t holding me any longer. I wasn’t even standing. The next thing I knew I was flying down the narrow hall. My arms flailed, but there was nothing to grab hold of.
My back hit the floor, pushing the air out of my lungs as pain exploded along my back. Stunned, I lay there for a moment, unable to move or to even think.
Two booted feet appeared on either side of my legs and Hyperion bent over me, his expression carved from ice and black eyes absolutely soulless. “You know what I hate more than anything?”
I opened my mouth, but his hand closed over my lips. “No. I don’t want you to answer.” His smile was creepier than his eyes. “I hate waiting. And I had to wait far too long to get my hands back on you.”
A second later I was on my feet. He crowded toward me, forcing me to limp backwards.
“Did you also know that the gods watch over the Covenants? They would’ve seen my friends causing a little havoc.” He kept coming, and I forced my body to move. “And we’re not very far from the campus.”
I darted to the side, keeping him in front of me as I tried to pull together the training Seth had given me.
“They will find us. And they will come.” He turned to me slowly. “Your father will come.”
I choked out a laugh as I searched the room for a weapon. There were dusty chairs and an old table with a lamp. I started toward it, not sure if I could really use it against him, but I had to get out of there. I had to get Erin and get out of there. “No, he won’t.”
Hyperion dipped his chin. “Oh, he will.”
Twisting at the waist, I reached for the lamp. My fingers brushed over the metal base as I was jerked back and was pressed into the wall with one hand in the center of my chest. Before I could react, he spoke in a language that burned my ears, and then it happened. Fire ripped through me. Not a spark. Not an ember. A full wildfire erupted. My last thought, before the pain took over, was that I’d promised Seth I’d be there when he returned. I’d promised him.
There was no way I could shake the feeling that history was repeating itself in the worst kind of way.
Marcus stood in front of me, trying to talk me down, to wait, just like he had when Alex had gone missing all that time ago, when she’d left the Covenant to find her mother, but he had been talking Aiden down then.
Big difference here was that, with Alex, I had been able to feel her. I’d been able to track her down, but with Josie I felt nothing.
“Wait,” Marcus said carefully, glancing over to where Artemis stood as still as one of the statues in front of the window. “You run out there, you have no idea where to even begin to look for her. Let Artemis do her thing.”
Once we discovered that Josie had been taken, Artemis had popped up and summoned some giant fucking golden hawk that was out there now, scouring the mountain.
And I was in here, standing around with my dick in my hand. Night had fallen and Josie, she was…
Turning away from Marcus, I shoved my hand through my hair. Luke was in the corner, dabbing some shit on Deacon’s skull. The pure hadn’t really spoken much since everything had gone down.
The door to Marcus’s office opened. Two Sentinels stepped aside as Solos strode in. “All of the shades have been removed from the campus. Hades and his…uh, dog took care of it, and I think…I need to go vomit now.”
Marcus sighed as he paced the length of the room. I knew he wanted to talk about how screwed up everything was, about how he needed to protect the whole campus, but he got one good look at my face and apparently decided he valued his life.
At the window, Artemis suddenly turned, and holy shit, her eyes were all birdlike, bright yellow with large pupils. “I’ve found them.”
“Where?”
Her head tilted to the side. “They are about thirty miles from here, still in the Black Hills. In a cabin. There are five Sentinels guarding it.” She blinked and her eyes were all-white, which somehow, was an improvement. “It must be a trap. They did not go far.”
“I don’t care. Can you poof me there like Apollo does when he’s bored?”
Artemis arched a brow.
“Seth,” Marcus moved toward me, but drew up short. “If it’s a trap, you should stop—”
“I don’t care.” I focused on the goddess. “Can you do it?” Marcus tried again. “Seth—”
“I was supposed to protect her!” I snapped, whirling on the
Dean. The glyphs reacted to my anger, swirling across my skin.
Paintings on the wall rattled and the room tinted amber. “I was supposed to keep her safe.”
He raced his hands passively. “I know it was a job, but—” “It wasn’t just a job to me,” I seethed, and Marcus’s eyes widened in surprise. “Going out there and defending the Covenant was a job—one I should’ve walked away from, but because I did my duty, I failed her, and she is anything but a job to me.”
“I will take you,” Artemis said calmly.
I started to say “hell yeah,” but she popped out from where she stood in front of the window, appeared in front of me, then placed a hand on my shoulder. A split second later we were in the woods, under a starry night, breathing in cold wind.
“Gods,” I murmured, trying to gather my bearings.
Artemis stepped back. “This is as far as I can take you. A Titan awaits you and…I will fall to him.”
Well, wasn’t that reassuring as fuck?
“Just beyond the stand of trees, he awaits.” Her form shimmered, fading out. “Good luck, Apollyon.”
And with that, the goddess of the hunt and see-through clothing was gone.
I had no idea why Artemis was choosing to help me. Yeah, Josie was important to the gods, but they rarely stepped in when needed, usually only after their help would’ve been handy. But I wasn’t looking a gift horse in the mouth. And I also knew I was walking in to face off with a Titan.
But I was going to walk back out with Josie, even if it killed me.
I raced through the cluster of trees, jumping over boulders, and clearing the last within seconds. Nothing I’d done was quiet. The cabin came into view, rising out of the gloom, and the five Sentinels were waiting.
The whole “not killing them” thing was dust in the wind.
Summoning akasha, I felt my cells light up as I tapped into the fifth and deadliest element. The coil ripped down my arm, arcing out from my hand. It smacked into the first Sentinel, and look at that, he went over and there was no black smoke pissing out of his mouth.
No wonder they’d run last time.
Moving forward, I took out the second, the third, and then the forth. The last one rushed me, practically ran right into my hand. I gave it to him, right up and close, sending a jolt of akasha right from my palm and into his chest. It lit him up from the inside, turning all the veins amber under the skin before blowing out his eyeballs.
I was already on the steps by the time he went down.
There was no way I was fooling myself into thinking that Hyperion wasn’t aware that I was here, so I didn’t bother ghosting into the house. Entering the enclosed space, the first scent I picked up was blood, and as my eyes adjusted to the darkness, I stepped into a large dark room.
I saw her immediately, and my stomach roiled. Going to her side, I knelt down, gritting my teeth as she drew back from me. The chain around her neck was keeping her here, and as my eyes swept over her, I couldn’t even bring myself to drudge up a flicker of the animosity I normally felt for her kind.
What had been done to her was monstrous, cruel, and beyond anything I could understand. Even in my darkest moments, there had been a line. The Titan had traipsed all over that.
Sliding my fingers under the chain, I called on the element of
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