“This,” Athena spoke, lifting her hand. She held a vial with a bluish-red liquid in it. “This is for you, child of Apollo.”

Uh . . .

Athena held the glass vial out to me. “It is the blood of a Pegasus. You know what it does.”

This was the most bizarre day of my life, and that was saying something.

Slowly, I lifted my hand and closed it over the vial. My skin brushed Athena’s and a jolt of electricity shocked me.

Athena’s lips curled up on one side.

I glanced down at the vial. This would definitely come in handy, especially since it worked against the Titans.

“There is something you must know,” Athena said, and her voice seemed to carry on the wind. The sound was everywhere. “Medusa guards this gateway and these icons, but her power to turn man to stone does not work against deities.”

“Unfortunately,” muttered Medusa.

Athena ignored her. “She will not be able to stop the Titans or even a demigod, and especially not the Apollyon.”

My head jerked up. I hadn’t known that. I assumed Medusa’s freaky eyes worked on everything. I also didn’t like the way Athena tacked Seth onto that like he’d be the biggest threat. Seriously? Like, maybe the Titans were the ones they should really be worried about, but I understood their trepidation when it came to Seth. He’d sided with Ares and gone against them in a plot to overthrow the mortal realm and Olympus. That was going to take a while for them to get over.

“You will need the toxin,” Medusa warned, drawing my attention back to her. Thankfully, her hair had returned to normal. “But not for whom you expect.”

CHAPTER 21

Seth

Restless, I shifted where I sat on the couch and wondered for the hundredth time how in the world I’d ended up sitting next to Alex and Aiden while they tried to keep their hands in their own laps.

I’d been sitting here first, when it had just been Solos, Marcus, and Alexander discussing the issue of the breached gate and the attack last night. Aiden had been there also, but he’d done the dark and brooding thing, leaning against the wall until Alex showed up with Deacon and Luke.

They’d brought lunch.

Laadan even appeared before heading off with Alexander to do things that would probably traumatize Alex. Of course, once I started thinking about those kinds of things, my mind wandered to Josie and to all those kinds of things I’d rather be doing in that moment.

And that just made shit real awkward sitting next to Alex and Aiden, because with her this close, I was picking up on what she was feeling. Not as strongly as I used to, when it had gotten to the point where it felt like we were virtually the same person. I could pick up the barest trace of emotions, almost like a word that was forgotten as it reached the tip of the tongue. There was a faint, warm sensation of arousal and the bitter tang of dread. A very odd combination radiating off of her.

That also meant she could probably feel mine, so I really needed to stop thinking about finding Josie and seeing how many times I could make her scream my name.

I shifted again, spreading my thighs.

Alex glanced over at me, her cheeks slightly flushed. Great. I rubbed my finger along my brow as Deacon reached across the round table and swiped a handful of Tater Tots out of Luke’s carton.

“Do you think classes will resume tomorrow?” Deacon asked, stacking the Tots on his plate. “I guess I should’ve asked Marcus when he was here.”

“They’ll probably have a service for those who fell during the attack,” Solos said, walking over to the table. He flipped the chair around and sat down, resting his arms on the back of the chair.

Deacon’s fingers stilled over the Tater Tot snowman he appeared to be building. “Gods,” he murmured, sitting back. “I would like to go just a couple of months without having to go to a funeral service.”

That didn’t seem likely.

I glanced at the door. Josie had gone to the library again, but I was thinking she should be done by now. I’d told her where I was going to be, so she knew where to find us. Part of me wished I’d gone to the library with her.

“It’s weird,” Alex said as she picked up Aiden’s hand. I had no idea what she was doing, but it looked like she was massaging his fingers or something. “We see so many people entering Tartarus on a daily basis, so you think we’d be accustomed to it, you know?” She shook her head as she stared at Aiden’s hand. Her fingers moved over his. “But I’m not. I guess it’s different down there, because you know they’ll be happy, but I’m . . . I’m just rambling.”

“It’s okay.” Aiden leaned over, kissing her temple. “We don’t have services down there.”

“Makes sense,” Solos said, lips kicking up. “Everyone’s sort of already dead.”

Alex rolled her eyes.

“Do you ever think we could visit?” Deacon asked, grabbing a packet of ketchup. “I mean, I’d like to see—”

A sudden shot from outside interrupted him, then a loud bang, like a crack of thunder. I shot up, right beside Alex. Aiden made it to the window first.

“Gods,” he said.

We were on the first floor, toward the back of the main Covenant building, and the window overlooked a decent portion of the north quad, which gave us a bird’s-eye view of a pretty decent throw-down between groups of halfs and pures. The crashing noise had to have been from the shattered statue closest to the building. They’d managed to knock that thing over.

“Ouch,” Alex murmured as a half landed an impressive roundhouse.