The Power

by Jennifer L. Armentrout

  bad about not helping.

  But I didn’t.

  Not at all.

  I looked around, expecting to find Aiden. “Where’s your shadow?”

  “He’s still at the wall with Solos. The gate was damaged during the attack, so they’re staying out there until it’s repaired.”

  “So responsible,” I murmured.

  Alex faced me. For someone who hadn’t slept, there wasn’t a shadow under her eyes. “Solos didn’t make it sound like the University’s been having a lot of daimon problems, so the attack of such a sizable grouping is pretty bizarre.”

  “Not really.” My gaze flicked back to the statues. “We have a bunch of pures here. A lot of halfs. An Apollyon. And three demigods. We have so much aether that . . .” My jaw worked. “That this place is like a damn buffet.”

  “Good point. And it’s not like they don’t know this place is here.”

  “Nope.”

  “And what about these lovely ladies?” she gestured at the furies with one arm. “Solos is thinking it has to do with what’s going on between the halfs and pures.”

  “What else could it be?”

  Her gaze met mine and she raised an eyebrow.

  She meant me.

  Lowering my chin, I coughed out a laugh. “I’ve been behaving myself, Alex.” Sort of.

  “That’s good to hear.” She paused. “Can I say something without you running off or interrupting me?”

  My lips quirked up. “Depends.”

  “I’m being serious.” Alex wound her hands around her hair, twisting it in the same manner Josie did whenever she was nervous, and man, that was weird to see. “I’ve never gotten the chance to thank you and you won’t let me, so please let me just say thank you.”

  I opened my mouth, but snapped it shut as Aiden’s words resurfaced. I kept quiet, not because of him, but I figured the sooner I allowed Alex to apologize the quicker this would be over.

  Alex drew in a deep breath. “Thank you for what you did for Aiden and for me. You sacrificed your mortal and afterlife for us.”

  Turning my head to the side, I cracked my neck. Standing here, listening to this . . . No words.

  “But I also want to thank you for that day,” she said quietly.

  “What day?”

  A moment passed. “When we fought Ares. I didn’t get a chance to thank you for staying with me when . . . well, you know what.”

  “Gods.” I squeezed my eyes shut, but that didn’t stop the rush of memories of that day. They plowed into me with the force of a freight train. Her standing in front of me, tears streaming down her face as she begged me not to leave her, to hold on, and I did. I held her until she was no more. “Alex, you shouldn’t—”

  “I said thank you and I mean it. Thank you from the bottom of my heart, but I . . .” She cleared her throat, and then without any warning, she sprang forward and wrapped her arms around me.

  I was as still as the furie statues.

  Alex squeezed me tight. “Thank you,” she whispered against my chest, and then bounced back, putting distance between us. “I still want to throat punch you from time to time.”

  I laughed hoarsely. “Yeah. Trust me. I still want to throat punch myself too. And Aiden. I’ve always wanted to throat punch him.”

  She chuckled softly as she turned back to the furies. “How’s Josie?”

  My attention sharpened at the change of subject. “Why do you think I would know how she is? And by the way, why were you in her room yesterday?”

  Alex’s lips curled up. “Well, to answer your second question first, she and I are kind of related, so it made sense to go meet her. To answer your first question, your second question kind of gives that away.”

  I narrowed my eyes.

  She sighed. “And I talked to Luke a little bit ago. He said you two were together, but . . .”

  I said nothing at first. It wasn’t like I was ashamed of my relationship with Josie or that it was weird to talk to Alex about Josie after my past with Alex. I mean, yeah, it was awkward, but we’d been inside each other’s heads more than once, so whatever. But Josie was . . . she was precious to me and that made me wary of what I said and who I said it to.

  But this was Alex.

  Rubbing at my chest again with my palm, I sighed. “Josie is good. She’s asleep right now.”

  “Huh.” There was a pause. “In her bed or . . . ?”

  I rolled my eyes. “Mine. Alex. Mine.”

  “Huuuh,” she stressed that word this time. “So, I’m guessing you two are . . . ?”

  “Together? Yes. We’re together. Look, I’m heading somewhere. I’ll be out on the wall, probably in the late morning or early afternoon.” Done with this conversation, I started toward the door, but she stopped me by calling out my name. “Yeah?”

  Alex lifted her chin. “You okay, Seth?” she asked after a moment. “And I mean, are you really okay?”

  Those statues of the furies stood between us, a symbol of how not okay things could get, because I knew Alex didn’t think their presence had anything to do with what was going on between the breeds. And maybe they didn’t. Maybe what I had done, what seemed to breathe inside me, with me, had brought them here. And maybe I was about to lie.

  Either way, I nodded. “Now . . . I’m okay.”

  Josie

  Walking the first row of skyscraper-sized shelves, I trailed my fingers along the dusty spines. I really didn’t expect today’s library stalking to be different from any other day, but Seth was meeting with Marcus and Solos about the attack, and I needed to get out and move around since I really didn’t want to bum-rush whatever meeting Marcus was hosting.

  I had a feeling that if I didn’t leave Seth’s room and was there when he returned, I’d never leave. That didn’t sound like such a bad idea, but there was still so much to be done.

  My mind just wasn’t on those things, and maybe that made me a bad demigod, but whatever. The last fifteen or so hours had been . . . life-changing in the most amazing way. Maybe I was being silly and girlish, but what-the-fuck-ever. Yeah. What-the-fuck-ever. Love and living were just as important as fighting and surviving, and being girly equaled being awesome, so . . .

  Glancing down at the marbleized floor, I bit down on my lip, but it didn’t stop the grin from spreading across my face. Last night and this morning, and then again, before I left had been absolutely . . . oh gosh . . . mind-blowing, and I had really been missing out on the whole sex thing.

  Wow.

  Though I was glad Seth had been my first, and he would be my last. There was no doubt in my mind.

  I crossed into row number two of the stacks, feeling flushed as I thought about what Seth and I had done. Warmth seeped through my skin and traveled through my veins. He was insatiable, and I was totally down with that.

  But as great and awesome and fantastic as the sex had been, the giddy grin on my face had nothing to do with that.

  Agapi.

  Yeah, it had a lot to do with that. It had to do with him calling me sweetheart. Had a lot to do with the hope swelling in my chest. Had a lot to do with everything that was and wasn’t said between us.

  And okay, the sex played a factor. I mean, come on. He picked me up and held me off the bed! Whoa. And he’d brought me a plate of bacon this morning.

  Bacon.

  I was so going to marry this guy, whether he knew it or not. And marriage could totally be in our future, because we were going to survive the whole Titan gods thing and I was going to find a way to get him out of the hands of the gods, now and for eternity. I knew who could do that and I had a plan, fostered this morning while I’d showered and it was a pretty damn good—

  “Hello.”

  Startled by the cool, oddly accented greeting, I stepped back and lifted my gaze from the floor. The first thing I noticed were black heels. Pointy-toed and spiked. Like the kind of spiked heel I would look like a baby giraffe in. My gaze tracked up thin calves and over a tight pencil skirt in c
harcoal. The white blouse was tucked into the skirt, and ruffles traveled up the center of the woman’s slim waist and chest.

  Blood-red lips were pressed together, forming a thin line, and dark sunglasses, huge ones, covered her eyes. Like before, her hair was pulled back in a tight bun, but I could tell that her hair was super curly. Excitement flooded me as I stared at the tall, slender woman.

  The librarian stood in front of me.

  Chapter 20

  Afraid the librarian would disappear if I blinked, I gaped at her. “I’ve been looking everywhere for you for, like, weeks, and that probably sounds super weird, but—”

  “I know you’ve been looking for me,” she replied coolly, her chin lifting a fraction of an inch. “But you were not ready to find me.”

  Any doubts I’d had that this librarian was normal, or whatever the closest thing to normal was around here, faded away. And the fact that she knew I was looking for her was more than just a little creepy, but I had to play it cool. I didn’t want to scare her off or say the wrong thing. My father had told me to find her, and that meant she had to be very important.

  “There is something you need to see.” She pivoted around smoothly, not even waiting for me to agree to follow her. She lifted a hand and with a flick of her wrist motioned me to follow. “Come along, now.”

  Trepidation walked alongside me. I had no idea where we were going or what she was, but I was relying on the fact that my father had told me to find her. So I was hoping she wasn’t going to kill me.

  “So¸” I said, clearing my throat as I followed her. “How did you know I was ready now?”

  “I sensed the bloodletting,” she replied, gliding ahead. I wasn’t even sure her feet were touching the floor, because her heels made no rapping sound. “That has changed things.”

  “Bloodletting?” I frowned. The tiny curls pinned back in a bun almost seemed to . . . vibrate. Or squirm. I blinked. I was totally seeing things. “What does that mean?”

  She looked over her shoulder. The sunglasses shielded her eyes, but the flat press of her lips was not exactly warm. “You are no longer a virgin, correct?”

  I tripped over my feet. Throwing out my arm, I knocked a book off a shelf in the process of steadying myself. The heavy tome smacked off the floor. “What?”

  “You engaged in fornication? There was penetration of—”

  “Oh my God, I totally get what you mean. I don’t need an explanation.” My face burned. “How do you . . . ?”

  “I can sense these things.”

  I almost asked how, but figured this was one of those things I didn’t want to ever know about. “I . . . I don’t know what is weirder. Talking about this with you, or the fact you can sense that.”

  Her laugh was like falling glass, brittle and frail. “If you think that’s weird, I worry if you have the mettle for what awaits you.”

  It took me a moment to realize what mettle was, because seriously, it was the twenty-first century and no one really used words like that anymore. “I’m not afraid.”

  I couldn’t see those eyes, but I had the distinct impression that I should have been grateful for that. “We’ll see.”

  She faced forward, her strides long and quick as she led me under the staircase, stopping in front of one of the doors that Deacon and I had seen. She opened the middle one and walked through.

  Hoping I didn’t end up on an Olympian AMBER Alert, I walked through and into a narrow, brightly lit hallway. The librarian stepped around me, walking ahead, and again, the curls of her hair moved. Wiggled?

  I shook my head. “By the way, my name is—”

  “Josephine Bethel. I know.”

  “Of course,” I muttered. “I mean, you know I’m not a virgin anymore, so . . . Anyway, I don’t know your name.” Or how do you walk in those heels with no sound. I didn’t say that last part out loud.

  She stopped in front of a . . . wall. I looked around, seeing no doors. Nothing. My gaze flew back to her. Oh geez, I was so going to end up on an Olympian missing person’s report.

  “My name? Your father did not tell you?”

  I shook my head.

  She laughed again, and this time, she smiled. Full red lips parted, revealing fangs.

  Holy crap.

  Like legit canine fangs, vampire style.

  I stepped back, pulse kicking up as I suddenly wished I’d brought the dagger with me. My next thought was that I didn’t need a dagger, because I was a demigod, and I had a whole lot of badass skills. But she had fangs, and they weren’t even like daimon shark teeth. My mind raced through the myths book I’d been reading.

  She tilted her head and there was something very, very snake-like about the movement. “You do not know who I am?”

  Goosebumps rushed over my skin as I stared at her. The sunglasses. The tight, coiled hair that seemed to move. Fangs. Snake-like movements. My gaze dropped to her feet. How did her heels make no sound? That was potentially the least important clue, but the sunglasses? Could she be . . . ?

  No.

  No way.

  I swallowed hard. “Why are you wearing sunglasses?”

  “Would you prefer I removed them?” She reached up, hooking a finger around the arm of the sunglasses. “Most would not.”

  “No,” I said quickly, lifting my hand. “That’s not necessary.”

  A close-lipped grin appeared.

  I drew in a shaky breath. “You . . . you’re not . . . ?” I couldn’t even bring myself to say it, because saying it out loud sounded so crazy. I mean, a lot of things I once thought were just some insane old myths were actually very real, but this . . . No way.

  “Are you asking if I’m a Gorgon?”

  My heart dropped into my stomach.

  “Once upon a time, I was something very different. A priestess in Athena’s temple, but then Poseidon found me.” Her smile faded, and one of the tight curls that rested along her temple swayed and then stretched. The tip of the curl wasn’t a tip.

  Oh my gods.

  The tip was the head of a tiny snake. My eyes widened as it opened its mouth and hissed, revealing a forked tongue. The librarian was Medusa.

  “He took from me what was never his, and Athena, being the goddess of reasoning and intelligence, turned me into a monster.” Her upper lip curled as she snorted. “Great judge she makes. I was punished for Poseidon’s actions.”

  “That’s so wrong.” I didn’t know what else to say.

  “That’s the way the gods are,” she replied.

  I couldn’t believe what I was seeing—who was standing in front of me. “But I thought you . . .” Oh man, how did I say this? “I thought you were killed.”

  “By that little punk bitch? Perseus? Please.” Medusa laughed. “He couldn’t fight his way out of a pack of declawed kittens without his daddy Zeus stepping in.”

  I opened my mouth, but I really didn’t have any response to that.

  “You are so incredibly naive.” She tweaked my nose with cool fingers, causing me to blink. “It’s cute. Not flattering cute. But cute.”

  My brows lifted. Did Medusa just tweak my nose? What was this life?

  “There are myths and then there are truths. Perseus decapitating me is obviously a myth. People needed a hero then. The gods gave them one. Well, namely Zeus gave them one, most likely to anger his wife, considering the little demigod was his bastard offspring.” The tiny snake curl hissed before it settled against her cheek. “But Perseus tried to fight me. He did not succeed.”

  It took me a couple of moments to find my voice. “What are you doing here, in the Covenant library?”