Apollyon

Aiden lay on his side, one heavy arm over my waist. “You could’ve slept longer.”

I idly played with the hand that rested on my stomach. “I’m fine. It’s your turn. I’ll keep an eye on things, make sure no spiders run off with you.”

He pressed his lips to my cheek and let out a little chuckle. “I’m worried if it comes down between me and a spider, I might be screwed.”

“I’d face down a horde of spiders for you, baby.” I gri

“That’s true love there. Some serious stuff,” he teased.

“It is.”

There was a pause and then he said, “While you were sleeping, I was thinking about what Apollo said about there being another god involved.”

Curiosity piqued, I tipped my head back so I could see his face. “Yeah?”

“I know Seth hasn’t let on to who it could be, but Marcus has his bets on Hermes, and since he did help Seth…”

“It’s always Hermes. He’s like the gods’ punching bag. The big joke.”

“Exactly.” Aiden brushed a damp strand of hair off my forehead. “It seems too obvious that it would be him. And even though Hermes has been known to pull some stunts, his actions are usually relatively harmless. This—what has been done to the whole world, Olympus included—is bigger than him, almost like it’s personal.”

He had a point. “I bet being the butt of Olympus’ jokes could make things personal after a few thousand years.”

“True, but I don’t know…” He yawned. “I keep thinking about Seth—about his personality.”

“Oh dear…”

A tired smile appeared. “Whether you want to admit it or not, you carry some of Apollo’s traits. So logically, Seth would carry some from his own lineage.”

There were worse things that being compared to Apollo. “Seth is arrogant and smug. That really doesn’t narrow down the list.” At Aiden’s tired nod of agreement, I squeezed his hands. “Go to sleep. We’ll figure this out in the morning.”

Aiden insisted he wasn’t that tired, but it didn’t take more than a few moments before his breathing became deep and steady. I stayed in his arms, eyes glued to the entrance. I was still tired, and the headache had kicked back up the moment I’d awakened, spreading from my temples, but it was manageable.

Mulling over what Aiden had said, I had to give the idea there was something personal behind this some cred. But the only problem with that was the fact that all the gods probably had a damn good reason to cause discord. Apollo even had said once before that, after thousands of years of being together, they had nothing better to do than tick each other off.

We needed to figure out who it was behind this, but what could we do? Taking out a god was unheard of. Even the Titans had been entombed, not killed. The loss of any god carried cosmic consequences. The world wouldn’t stop spi

One massive problem at a time…

Seth and Lucian were our biggest problem. Hopefully, we’d find Solaris and she held the answer to stopping him. Part of me hadn’t given up on the tiniest sliver of hope that somehow Seth could be saved—that he could be fixed. I sincerely believed that, without Lucian’s and the aether’s influence, he wouldn’t have done the things he had.

But who was I to say that absolved him of his sins? If a drug addict killed someone while under the influence, he was still guilty. Seth had done what he had done and it felt like there was no going back from that.

Sorrow was like slush in my blood, dirty and messy, because it felt misplaced. As if I felt bad for a killer…

Pushing thoughts of Seth aside, I stroked the length of Aiden’s fingers and wondered if I’d ever hear Aiden play the guitar again. I hoped so. Maybe even get him to sing, because he had a nice voice.

I wasn’t sure how much time passed, but it couldn’t have been more than an hour. The sky peeking through the holes in the roof of the cavern was still a deep blue and my headache… had steadily increased. Now it throbbed behind my eyes.

There was no fooling myself. I knew what it meant. Seth was on the other end of the bond and he was trying to reach me. The venom of panic gave me a sharp bite. Now was so not the time for him to pull this kind of crap. A freaking army of spiders could descend on us while I was with him. Worse yet, we could be discovered by Hades.

Carefully wiggling free of Aiden’s embrace, I pushed to my feet and went to the pool, scooping the jasmine-scented water up and splashing it over my face. It had seemed to help before, but I had a feeling I was beyond help.

I sat down, concentrating on my breathing. I could feel the cord now. It still slumbered, but the hum was louder, more powerful. Placing my head in my hands, I squeezed my eyes shut and waited. Part of me already knew there was no stopping this.

Seth was incredibly strong and hellishly determined when he wanted to be.

So I waited for pain to come, but it never did. Instead, the hum of the cord became louder and stronger, until it felt like my entire body vibrated. Then out of the white noise filling my head, a whisper grew until I could make out the words and recognize the voice.

Nice to see… or hear you again, Alex.

Seth.

My eyes snapped open and, unlike last time, I wasn’t mentally transported somewhere by Hermes. The spring was still in front of me. I could hear Aiden’s deep breaths and feel the slight chill in the air of the cavern.

I know you can hear me, Alex. I can feel it.

I groaned. I’m really starting to get a