“Ares must’ve taken it,” Aiden said, a muscle spasming along his jaw. “The only thing that we can come up with is that those Guards and Sentinels on the highway had made some sort of contact with Ares, Lucian, or Seth, and they put two and two together.”
“Or someone is working with him.” No one in the room looked like they wanted to believe it. “Ares said he has many friends.”
Marcus’s eyes followed me warily. “That is something we’ve taken into consideration, but…”
“But how would we know who it is?”
He said nothing, because what could he say? Anyone could be a traitor, but believe it or not, we had bigger problems at the moment.
I took a deep breath and kept my eyes trained on the minuscule space between Deacon and Luke on the couch. “There’s a good chance Seth knows where I am.”
No one in the room made a sound. Not even the guys in the back of the common area. There were twenty or so Guards and Sentinels from the University. I recognized a few from the group that had been led by Dominic, the ones who had met us at the walls when we arrived here. I truly hoped there were more where they came from.
“Besides the fact that Ares had to have told Seth where I was, I…I let the shields drop when I was fighting Ares.” Shameful heat flooded my cheeks as I now stared at a tiny tear in the rug.
“We figured Seth would be aware of your location by now,” Marcus said quietly. “I’m not an expert when it comes to the whole Apollyon connection, but Seth was able to feel what you were experiencing before you Awakened. That’s how we were able to find you in Gatlinburg when you…when you…”
When I’d left to find my mom when she’d become a daimon. I could feel several eyes on me, especially a pair of silver ones. “Yeah.”
“Does that mean he felt exactly what you were feeling when you fought Ares?” Aiden asked, and his voice was deceptively even. That was also known as the calm before the apocalyptic storm.
“Do you really want the answer to that?”
“Yes.”
Glancing at him, I wished I hadn’t. Aiden looked like he already knew the answer and was ready to murder someone, and that someone was Seth. I started pacing again. “Yes.”
Aiden swore loudly. His brother jumped to his feet and went to his side, saying something too low and quick for me to make out. Aiden’s hands clenched at his sides, drawing my attention to his busted knuckles.
I wanted to go to him, but I felt rooted to the floor, near where Olivia sat on a black chaise lounge. I willed my legs to move toward him, but nothing happened. Frustration and uncertainty poured into me, overriding the numbness, and my anger skyrocketed.
My gaze locked with Aiden’s, and a godsawful sensation lit up my chest. I yearned to run to him, but a cold primal fear a need to run away from him, was equally powerful.
“Alex,” Olivia whispered.
I looked at her and saw her eyes widened with anxiety. Actually, everyone was staring at me with the same expression. What the…? My gaze dropped.
Oh—my feet weren’t on the floor.
My heart tumbled over. Closing my eyes, I forced myself back down. Relief crashed into me when my sneakers hit the carpet. “Sorry,” I said, putting some distance between me and those in the room. “I didn’t mean to do that. I’m honestly not even sure how that happened.”
“It’s okay,” Laadan reassured with a small smile.
With wide eyes, Deacon remained by Aiden’s side. “If your head starts spinning…”
“Shut up, Deacon,” Aiden growled.
He made a face but remained quiet, and I really felt like a freak.
I remembered what it felt like when the shields came down between Seth and me. So much fury had burned through the connection. Seth had been epically pissed, but I wasn’t sure if it was because of what Ares had been doing or if it was something more than that. The connection had fed him everything: all the pain and the hopelessness I’d felt when Ares had gotten the upper hand. And when I’d wanted to die instead of facing another second of soul-shattering pain, Seth had gotten a taste of that bitter, rotten emotion.
How could he have been okay with that? Did the means really justify the end for him? I’d experienced way too much at Ares’ hands to hope that Seth had changed. It seemed more believable that his anger was associated with me not submitting to Ares more than anything else.
Another random thought formed. The prophesy of Grandma Piperi, oracle extraordinaire, came back like a cold sore. You will kill the ones you love.
Part of me did love Seth—pre-jackass, of course. He was a part of me. We were yin and yin, and Seth had been there for me for a lot. I’d never forget that, but I was no longer so blinded by how he used to be that I couldn’t see what needed to be done. If I couldn’t get the power of the God Killer to transfer to me, I would kill him.
Or go down trying.
But that prophecy didn’t mean just my loved ones would die by my hand. Kain, a half-blood Guard who’d helped Aiden train me, had been turned by my mom in an attempt to reach me and died by Seth’s hand. Caleb had been murdered by a daimon because I’d been so emo over Aiden and we’d snuck out to get food and drinks, even knowing that there could be daimons on campus. And my mom had been turned into a daimon—her true death—because of me. Then I had killed her. Even though I couldn’t claim to love Lea, I’d respected her a great deal toward the end, and her death was also linked to me.
And more people I loved would die.
I crossed my arms, ignoring the way my bones cracked from the movement. “The University isn’t safe with me here.”
Aiden whirled toward me, his eyes narrowing into thin slits, but before he could speak, Marcus stepped in. “There is no other place safer, Alexandria. At least here, we have Sentinels and—”
“Sentinels and Guards are nothing if Ares finds a way in. And let’s say he doesn’t—we still have Seth to worry about.”
“We can’t leave here.” Luke leaned forward, dropping his arms onto his knees. “Not until we’ve rallied the troops and you’ve fully recovered—”
“I’m fine!” My voice cracked on the last word, a humiliating lie detector.
Luke raised a brow.
“Whatever,” I said. “I need to leave.”
“You. Are. Not. Leaving.”
Everyone in the room turned to Aiden, including me. His words hung in the air, and challenge seeped out every pore. “I have to,” I said.
“No.” Stalking forward, his powerful muscles rippled under the black shirt he wore. The black shirt of a Sentinel, and gods, he was a Sentinel through and through at that moment. “We already had this discussion. All of us know the risks, Alex.”
Challenge accepted. “But that was before Ares went all god badass on us.”
His eyes turned a furious shade of silver as he stared down at me. “Nothing has changed.”
“Everything has changed!”
“The technicalities have, maybe, but nothing else.”
I stared at him, dumbfounded. “It was one thing when we thought it was Hephaestus or Hermes, but it’s Ares. In case you don’t remember, he’s the mother-fu—”
“I know who he is,” Aiden gritted out.
“Children,” Marcus admonished.
We shot him mutual death glares.
Marcus ignored it. “Aiden is right, Alex.”
Of course he took Aiden’s side.
“We all know what we’re getting into.” He gestured at his battered face. “Trust me, we all know, and like we said before, we are in this together.”
“What about them?” I totally remembered when everyone had stood up and announced that they had my back. And one of them was dead now. I gestured at the back of the room. “What about every person at the University—the students, and all the people who came here for the safety it once offered? Are they willing to take that risk?”