Gable looked at Seth, brows puckered. “And you’re the Apot-polla?”

I laughed. “Wow. That’s not a version I’ve heard before.”

Seth sighed. “Apollyon.”

His lips moved as he silently pronounced it, and I had a feeling he was still saying it wrong. “So . . . what do we do now?”

“We take you back to the University in South Dakota, where you can be protected and trained until we locate the rest of you guys.” Seth pushed off the door and walked across the room. Gable tensed in his chair. “It’s a lot to swallow and you probably have an awesome life here, but that life is going to change. It has to.”

Seth wasn’t really good at the motivational speeches.

“You’re very important, not just to us but to the entire world,” Aiden said, obviously seeing the alarm swelling in Gable’s gaze again. “You have a higher calling, Gable.”

I shot Seth a look as he turned around and rolled his eyes.

“You will save not only the world, but the Olympians. Not only that, but once your abilities unlock, you’re going to be immortal,” Aiden continued. “So your life you have here, right now, is just a speck. You’ll be able to come back to it, at least for a while, but there . . . there are bigger things waiting for you.”

Immortal.

Something I didn’t really think about as I watched Aiden’s little pep talk smooth over Gable’s ruffled edges. I was immortal. Unless someone cut my head off? No. According to Seth, that wouldn’t even kill me. It would hurt, but I guess my neck would reattach. Only a god or another demigod could kill me.

Or Seth.

Or a Titan.

Oh my God, why was I even thinking about that right now? My train of thought had derailed massively, but I was immortal. Seth wasn’t. If the gods left him alone, he would age, and then once he died, he would be indentured to Hades.

How had I not really thought about that until now? Granted, there were a ton of things going on that had distracted me, more pressing items to think about. So now I needed to figure out how to get him out from under the gods’ thumbs, get his deal undone with Hades without it affecting Aiden, and make sure he was immortal.

It had to be doable.

I mean, Apollo had made Aiden immortal, right along with Alex. So it was possible, and I was his daughter. He did it for them. He had to do it for me. I nodded to myself, because that helped cement my belief that there was no way he would refuse my request.

“What do you think, Josie?”

I blinked and twisted toward Alex. “I’m sorry. I dazed out. What?”

Alex’s lips curved up at the corners. “Instead of staying here tonight, Gable says he has enough room at his place for all of us. Then we’ll start to head back in the morning.”

Glancing back to where Hercules was sprawled across the bed Seth and I were sharing, I cringed. The middle of the already weak bed sagged. “Sounds like a plan to me.”

Waking Hercules up and getting him to his room to gather up his stuff took longer than it ever should’ve, but the guy slept like the dead. For only a handful of minutes, Seth and I were left alone. We quickly packed up our things, shoving them into the oversized travel bags. When we were done, I dropped mine on the bed and started to turn, but Seth walked up behind me, wrapping his arms around my waist. He didn’t say anything, just skated his lips down the side of my neck.

Closing my eyes, I leaned back as I settled my hands on his arms. His warm breath and hot mouth had me yearning for more than a few stolen minutes.

“Do you think this is smart?” I asked. “Heading to Gable’s house?”

Seth hesitated and lifted his head. “I don’t know. Part of me thinks it could be a bad idea. We don’t know this guy, but it can’t be any more open and risky than staying in this place. The shade has spotted him. They’ll be out looking for him. Only good thing is they can’t know where he lives. Or they’d already have gone for him.”

“True.” Turning in his embrace, I looped my arms around his neck as I rested my cheek on his shoulder. “This has been surprisingly easy.”

“Yeah,” he replied after a moment. “And that’s what worries me.”

CHAPTER 28

“What did you say your mom does for a living?” I asked.

Gable glanced over at me as we walked up a fancy stone driveway, the kind that has different colored pavers lined up to look like cobblestone. His smile was sheepish. “She used to be an actress, back in the late eighties, early nineties. Not anyone you’d know, probably. Did a lot of B-rated stuff.”

That B-rated stuff must’ve opened a lot of doors, because Poseidon’s son lived in a mansion. One of the huge houses we’d seen on the bluffs, overlooking the beach and ocean below. The place was a massive stone estate, several stories, complete with some fancy foreign car parked in front of the porch and double-glass doors.

“Was she in porn?” Hercules asked, and when we all looked at him, he shrugged massive shoulders. “What? We get porn in Olympus.”

“But not Supernatural ?” Alex asked. “That doesn’t even make sense.”

Hercules squinted. “I must check out this Supernatural.”

“Is your mother here now?” Aiden glanced over at Solos. If she was, this could be awkward. Of course, they’d break out the compulsion, so they probably weren’t that worried about it.

Gable shook his head as we walked up the wide set of stairs and then across a covered porch. “She’s actually in Europe with her latest husband.” Stopping by the doors, he tapped his fingers along a small black box. It beeped three times and then flashed green. He opened the door, and cool air rushed out. “No one is here.”