The Power

by Jennifer L. Armentrout

  Would Seth and I ever get to that stage? Would we have a chance? I sucked in a short breath and forced it out slowly. We would have that opportunity. I had a plan. Not the greatest. I just needed Apollo to hang around long enough for me to put that plan into action.

  The door opened and, as I looked over. Hercules strolled in. His upper lip curled. Distaste was clearly etched into his handsome features. “Even this room is small. Why is everything so small here?”

  “It’s a dorm,” Luke explained, and I had to give him credit for even trying. “Things are kind of small in dorms.”

  I thought about my dorm back in Radford. “And this is actually bigger than—”

  “This is not big,” Herc cut me off, and then lifted his arm, flexing his bicep. “This is big.”

  I opened my mouth, but yeah, I had no words.

  “But why do you all have a better room than me?” he asked, looking around with a critical eye. He gazed at Aiden. “I mean, who are you, anyway?”

  “Well.” Alex popped up from the ottoman. “I’m hungry. You want to go get some food with me?”

  Several seconds passed before I realized she was talking to me. I stood slowly as she walked over to the door, sending me a look that warned I better hurry. I did.

  Once out in the hall, she lifted her arms and shook her fists at the ceiling as she stomped her feet. Full tantrum mode.

  I grinned.

  “Oh gods, I can’t even deal with that guy,” she said. “It’s only been a couple of hours and I want to gouge his eyeballs out with my toenails.”

  “Toenails?”

  “Yes,” she seethed. “Because they are blunt and it would hurt more, after I delivered a kick to his stupid face.”

  I laughed as the image formed in my mind. “He’s definitely a jerk.”

  “I’m not even surprised that Apollo managed to find the most annoying demigod,” she said as we walked down the hall. “Besides the fact that he has impeccable timing, he has a superpower when it comes to finding douchebags.”

  The fact that Alex was aware of how bad Apollo’s timing was made me think of how she’d discovered that. We reached the crowded lobby. Several students standing near the furies gawked openly at her as she strode toward the door. Night had fallen.

  “Wait.” I caught up to her, keeping my voice low. “Isn’t there a curfew?”

  Alex snorted as she opened the door. “Yeah, but it doesn’t apply to us.”

  My brows flew up as we walked out of the door and, sure as hell, walked right past the Guards enforcing curfew. They said nothing. Not even when Alex wiggled her fingers at them.

  Alrighty then.

  “I hope there’s still something to eat in the cafeteria,” she said, glancing over at me. “By the way, I’m almost always starving.”

  “Same here.” I wished I’d had my hoodie with me. The wind was still cool, even in June. “They will probably have some cold food out. They normally do overnight. Someone keeps it stocked throughout the night.”

  “Cool.” We walked a few moments in silence and then she said, “Are you good with everything? Leaving for Cali and what we might face out there?”

  I nodded and immediately stopped myself from reading more into what was definitely a harmless question. “I am. I mean, I don’t know what exactly we might come across, but I’ve . . . I’ve faced a Titan before.”

  Her lips pursed. “I’d heard. You took Hyperion out.”

  “Kind of,” I said as we followed the walkway, eerily alone on the quad. “I just put him out of commission.”

  “After being . . . alone with him,” she added quietly.

  I glanced at her sharply. She was staring straight ahead. I didn’t respond.

  “You know I fought Ares, right?” she asked.

  “Yes.”

  She wet her lip and then stopped walking, facing me. “Ares didn’t just kick my ass and he didn’t do it quietly. He . . . he broke me for a long time, in a way that I wasn’t sure I’d ever really recover from.” Each word she spoke was painfully blunt and obviously wasn’t easy for her to speak. “I don’t know what happened when you were with him. No one has said anything, but I know how . . . I know how evil works.”

  Closing my eyes, I looked away and swallowed. There’d been no nightmares the last couple of days. I was hoping they’d stay away. Total textbook avoidance, but I really didn’t have the time for a mental breakdown.

  “Anyway,” she said. “I’m just putting this out there. If you want to talk about any of that stuff with Hyperion, I’m here.”

  “Okay.” I cleared my throat as I flipped my ponytail over my shoulder.

  Alex smiled a little, a small one that kind of made me feel bad for being upset earlier about her and Apollo.

  As we stared at each other, realizing that we had yet another thing in common, a very tenuous bond formed between us. It was frail, brand spanking new, but we’d both looked into the eyes of . . . evil and were standing here despite it.

  “Sooooo,” she drew the word out as we started walking again. “You and Seth . . . ?”

  Oh my, that was going from one awkward conversation to another.

  “Looks like things have changed since the last time we talked.” Alex laughed then, and the earlier somberness washed away, as if she had practice moving on quickly from terrible, horrific things. “Which was what, just a day ago?”

  “Yeah.” I laughed along with her. “Feels like weeks, right?”

  “That’s how it always is when stuff is going on.” She hopped up on a low wall and walked on the edge. All right, I was back to not liking her, because I would’ve fallen right off that like a three-legged llama. “So, it seems like you guys have worked things out.”

  Part of me didn’t want to talk about this, but my tongue started moving as always. “I think so. Yes,” I corrected myself. “We’ve worked things out.”

  At least I thought we had. We hadn’t had a chance to really talk. We were together, but sitting down and actually having a conversation about the state of things was probably a good idea.

  When she didn’t respond, I looked over at her. Her expression was blank as she walked the wall.

  “He doesn’t think he should be happy or have anything good in life,” I told her, and maybe I shouldn’t have said any of that, but I wasn’t sure if Alex really got the kind of place Seth had been existing in, what he was living. “Some of it has to do with what he had to do. After what went down with Ares, the gods used him to hunt down and kill those who sided with Ares. He was basically their assassin.”

  Alex’s lips parted. “I . . . I really didn’t know that.”

  “And I know all about the things he did when he was working with Ares. He hasn’t forgiven himself for that. Not that some of those things he’d done or been a party to even warrant forgiveness, but he . . . he’s stuck, and it’s not right,” I said, stopping when she came to the edge and peered down at me. “I know there are things you probably will never be able to either forgive him for or forget about.”

  She cocked her head to the side. “Sometimes I’ve completely forgiven him. Other times I still want to punch him.”

  “Understandable.” I met her gaze.

  Several moments passed and then Alex turned her gaze to the sky. Her shoulders rose. “I worry about him.”

  “You—”

  “I worry about what he’s capable of,” she added, and I tensed. “I know that’s not something you want to hear and please know it’s not . . . it’s not coming from a bad place. Seth is . . . he gave up everything to make sure Aiden and I had forever. There is good in him, so much good, but . . .”

  I thought about what Medusa had said. “But what?”

  Her lashes lowered, shielding her eyes. “There is so much darkness in him.”

  “I know,” I whispered. “But he can find the light.”

  Alex said nothing.

  “He deserves a real life,” I insisted. “He deserves a second chance.”


  “Agreed.” She jumped off the ledge, landing nimbly beside me. “I mean, Seth has issues, but he deserves happiness. He really does.”

  “I’m going to make sure he has that,” I told her, and I wanted to scream it from the mountaintops.

  Alex’s eyes widened as she stared at me. “That’s pretty hardcore.”

  I shrugged. “It’s true.”

  There was a pause. “You love him, don’t you?”

  There was no hesitation. “I’m in love with him.”

  Chapter 24

  With a hammering heart, I tried to hold still, to do exactly what Seth had ordered me to do, but this was pure torture.

  Blissful, crazy, delicious torture.

  Seth’s calloused palms glided up my inner thighs and around to grip my rear. I stared at the top of his bowed head. Part of me couldn’t get over the fact that he was on his knees in front of me.

  Tension ebbed and crested, and I bit down on my lip as his tongue moved along the seam of my thigh. He was killing me. Slowly. Like he’d killed me that night before, when he finally returned from meeting with Solos and we snuck back to his room. We didn’t get a lot of talking done then. Our tongues and mouths had been busy with other things. We didn’t have a lot of time alone today either. Not when we had to spend the majority of the day preparing for the trip in the morning.

  My hips twitched as his tongue moved closer to where I really, really wanted his tongue to be.

  “Don’t move,” he commanded in a rough voice that sent a shiver racing across my skin.

  At my sides, my fingers spasmed with the need to bury them in his hair and guide that wonderful, and somehow still incredibly annoying mouth over just a few inches. “I’m not moving.”

  “You’re moving.” He kissed my inner thigh. “Restraint is an acquired skill.”

  I glared at the top of his head.

  “One that I haven’t really mastered.” Lashes lifted, and air lodged in my throat as our gazes connected. “Which will be sort of obvious in a few seconds.”

  His warm breath danced over where I wanted him so badly. I held my breath. He moved his hands, using his thumbs to open me up.

  “Oh gods,” I whispered.

  His tongue skimmed along the heated flesh, wringing a tight gasp from me. He moved to the other side, avoiding the center, and he kept licking and tasting until my legs shook.

  “Ambrosia could not be sweeter than you,” he growled, and then his tongue delved in. He lapped and sucked, and I couldn’t keep my hips still. There was no way. I moved against his mouth.

  There was a stuttered heartbeat and then his mouth closed over me. Crying out, I let my head fall back as he suckled deep and hard. I fell right over the edge, into waves and waves of shuddering pleasure.

  Suddenly, I was flipped around. A hand landed on the center of my back, guiding me over. My hands hit the bed and my arms shook as Seth gripped my hip with his other hand. I was still coming when he entered me from behind.

  This position was new, and holy crap, I’d never felt anything like it. He was in and in deep, and moving, pounding. His strokes were hard and fast, knocking my hair forward and in front of my face. My arms gave out, but before I could fall forward, I was lifted up once more. He moved me, controlled me with an ease that was overwhelming.

  And hot.

  Really, really hot.

  I was on my back and my legs were over his shoulders and he was in me, plunging and retreating, and the tension was spinning tighter and tighter again.

  Seth’s striking face was a mask of determination, jaw hard and lips thin. His eyes were an incredible, luminous tawny color. My hips buckled and my back arched as he drove in, over and over until the tension broke apart once more, taking him with me. He stiffened, kicking his head back as he groaned out my name. Veins jutted out in stark relief as he pulsed deep inside me.

  When he lowered my legs and eased out, he climbed over me, kissing my lips. I had a hard time mustering the energy to do much more than lie there as he disappeared to take care of the condom. I hadn’t moved by the time he returned.

  Seth was all okey-dokey about that.

  He stretched out beside me, tossing his arm and leg over me. He drew me close and every part of us was touching. Both of us were nude and sweaty and it was freaking perfect. In moments like this, it was easy to let myself think, dream, that he and I were just normal, like any other couple in the world.

  His hand grazed my breast. “I was thinking . . .”

  “I didn’t know you were capable of that,” I teased.

  He chuckled. “Sometimes.” That wandering thumb of his found the hardened tip. “But I was wondering if there was any way I could convince you to stay here while we head to California.”

  That knocked me out of my pleasure-induced haze. I turned my head toward him. “Come again?”

  “You don’t really need to be there. Hercules, the legendary Bag of Dicks, can find them without you,” he explained as my eyes narrowed. “We can bring the demigods back here, to you, where it’s safer.”

  “Besides the roaming packs of daimons, potential shades and Titans, and halfs and pures fighting constantly,” I pointed out.

  He raised his head up, propping his cheek on his fist. “Yeah, but the Covenant is warded against Titans.”

  “For now.”

  “But you’ll still be safer.” He smoothed his thumb over my nipple, but that wasn’t going to distract me. “I just don’t want you in a dangerous—”

  “Don’t say it.” I lifted my hand, placing my fingers against his lips. “I get it, Seth. I really do. You want me to be safe. I want you to be safe, but you know that you can’t keep me here. Eventually I’m going to have to fight the Titans.” My heart rate kicked up at the thought even though my voice was level and calm. I sounded so mature and accepting of my future that I thought I sort of deserved a basket of chicken tenders or something. “That’s going to happen.”

  A muscle thrummed along his jaw, but he kissed the tip of my finger. I smiled at him. “We don’t even know what’s going to happen out there. Probably nothing but really awkward conversations with some person who has no idea we’re about to tell them they’re a demigod.”

  “Yeah, I figured that would be your response, but I had to try.”

  “And that’s the only reason why I’m not throat punching you right now,” I paused, smiling sweetly, “with love.”

  His lips curved up on one corner. “Can you make me a promise though?”

  I waited. “Yes. I promise to forever use you as my Pillow Pet.”

  Seth chuckled. “I’m glad to hear that, but that’s not what I was asking about.”

  I giggled. “Okay. What?”

  There was a pause. “If we run into any problems, promise me that you’ll stick close to Alex and Aiden.”

  Unsure I heard him correctly, I looked over at him again. “What?”

  “If anything goes down, you’ll stick close to them,” he repeated. “I know you’ve been training. I know you can fight and you’re using the elements. I’m not saying this because I doubt your ability to fight and hold your own.” He paused, brows furrowing together. “Even though I sort of suggested that earlier, but I was being a dick because, well, I’m a dick.”

  I snorted.

  “But I just want you to stick close to them, okay?” he finished.

  I really had no idea where to start with this. “Why would you tell me to stay close to them and not you?”

  His hand stilled on my breast. “I can get a little . . . out of control if a fight turns bad.”

  My brows inched up.

  “I just don’t want anything to blow . . . back on you,” he added as his lashes lowered. “I couldn’t deal with being the reason something—”