“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 charcoal. 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.