Like he trusted me as much as he did a daimon starved for aether. Didn’t blame him either. He wasn’t like his brother, who seemed to see puppies spewing rainbows in everyone. He wasn’t like Josie, who didn’t know me back then. Who only knew the Seth she wanted me to be.

He stared at me like he knew I was wearing a mask and he was waiting for it to shatter, revealing what truly existed underneath.

Is it possible that Alex is still the God Killer?

What an odd question for Josie to ask. What an odd thing for me to think about right now.

Aiden pivoted around, hand clenching the car keys as I closed the door behind Josie. Solos got in the back, and once I was behind the wheel I pushed Aiden out of my thoughts. I reached into my pocket and pulled out the disposable phone we’d gotten the night before. I placed it in the cup holder.

Behind me, Hercules lurched forward, grasping the back of my seat. “You know, this is the first time I’ve been in a SUV. Apollo just kept popping me around every place, so please don’t ruin my first experience with less than stellar driving.”

I clenched the steering wheel.

“You haven’t been in the mortal realm in a while, have you?” Solos asked.

“No, but I’ve been watching a lot of TV and movies. I know all about California,” he explained sagely. “I watched all the episodes of the old and new Beverly Hills 90210, Melrose Place, and Laguna Beach.”

This guy was not for real.

I glanced over at Josie. Her lips were pressed together as she stared down. A second passed and she peeked up. Her eyes danced with amusement.

Solos sighed. “This is going to be so much fun.”

“Oh, everything is fun when I’m around.” Hercules’s knees knocked into the back of my seat as he leaned back. “This one time, when I was ordered by the gods to . . .”

I could only think of three words.

Fuck. My. Life.

CHAPTER 26

“You should drive, because I’m going to end it all. Once we’re on the freeway, I’m going to jump out of this vehicle and throw myself in front of a Mack truck.”

Josie’s laugh cut off her yawn. “That’s a little excessive.”

Adjusting the sunglasses I’d stolen from Aiden yesterday morning, I smirked. “I do not think anything is excessive when it comes to him.”

“But that won’t even kill you.”

I sighed. “Yeah, but I’m pretty sure it’ll knock me unconscious for the time being.”

She laughed again and glanced out the window. Heat rolled off the cracked asphalt. The temps were nothing like South Dakota. “Oh, geez.”

“He’s still with that woman, isn’t he?”

“Yep.”

We’d arrived in Vegas last night, about an hour or so before midnight, picking a hotel far from the strip, where only the dazzling and flashing lights could reach us. Of course, the moment Hercules’s feet touched the pavement, he was off. Kind of couldn’t blame him. The last time I’d been in Vegas had been with the Titan Perses, and if you looked up the definition of drunken debauchery, there would be a picture of Perses and me.

This time was different.

The flashing neon lights, the alcohol, the girls and the hyped-up atmosphere held no allure. Once I’d closed the hotel door behind Josie and me, I didn’t reopen it until this morning.

Like an old man, ball and chain included, and I was fucking a-okay with that.

But Hercules obviously had had a rough and interesting night.

He showed up this morning smelling like a distillery, wearing the same clothes as yesterday, except the Henley was torn and he must’ve forgotten to button his pants. And he wasn’t alone.

Hercules literally tried to convince us to allow some chick who was wearing cut-off jean shorts and a bra to come with us. Not going to happen. I looked over, past Josie. Now he was impregnating the chick’s mouth with his tongue.

Gods.

“Huh,” Solos said, tipping his head onto the back of the seat. “Good thing demigods can’t get STDs.”

“I’d be more worried about what he’d give her,” Josie commented.

True dat.

Finally, he hauled his huge ass into the SUV and, thank the gods and all their screwed-up glory, he passed out the moment we hit the freeway that fed into southern California and stayed that way the rest of the trip, proving that the gods sometimes smiled down on us.

Josie

California was shiny.

Well, at least southern California was. The sun was . . . everywhere. Big and round in the endless blue sky, glinting off the roofs and windshields of the nonstop stream of cars barely moving on I-405. Waves of heat rolled off the asphalt, and even with the air conditioner on full blast, the warmth was creeping into the vehicle.

Six hours in the car was painful and the windy mountainous roads with Seth behind the wheel had me thankful more than once that I was a demigod, but the place was . . . gods, I’d seen nothing like it before. The peaks and bluffs were vast and beautiful, and I wanted to stop at one of the many look-out points, but figured no one would appreciate that.

I’d rolled down the window and the roaring warm air lifted my ponytail and washed over my skin as we’d raced up Kanan Road. The moment we crested the last hill and the ocean came into view, I almost forgot about what we were here to do.

The sea was endless.

A shade of blue that grew deeper and brighter the closer we got. I’d never seen the ocean before, and it went on, until it faded into the sky. I’d never felt sand between my toes or the white frothy tips of an ocean’s wave. Being here, finally, was surreal.