Apollyon

I could totally see the bars through him. Freaky. “Caleb?”

He glanced down at himself. “Yeah, it’s me, in shade form for your viewing pleasure.”

“Are you really here, or have I lost my mind?”

A slow, easy grin pulled at pale lips. “I’m here. Well, as here as I can be.”

I drew in a breath, but it got stuck. “Can I touch you?” My legs were moving me forward in jerky motions. No graceful Apollyon here. “Can I hug you?”

His brows lowered. “No, Alex, you can’t. You’d go right through me.” He grinned. “Though you seemed to enjoy it the first time around.”

I laughed, stopping short of touching. “Gods, I want to hug you so badly.”

“I know.” His grin faded. “But we don’t have a lot of time.”

We never did. I rocked back on my heels, smiling. “You’re here to break me out, aren’t you?”

“Ah, no, I’m not here to break you out.”

My smile slipped off my face. “Why? I don’t understand. I need to get out of here. My Seth needs—”

“I’m here as a last-ditch effort, Alex.” He reached out as if to touch me, but stopped. “Apollo sent me.”

I folded my arms and scowled. “What does he have to do with this?”

“He hopes that I can reach you, Alex.”

“Do you know he hit me with a god bolt?”

Caleb winced. “Yeah, I heard. Everyone in the Underworld sort of heard, but Alex, you kind of had it coming.” When I opened my mouth, he silenced me. “Apollo would be here if he could.”

“And why can’t he?” I turned away, trying to push down my anger, which was like screwing a lid on a box— it wasn’t working. “He’s afraid of me, isn’t he? He should be. Apollo is totally on my shit list.”

“Do you hear yourself? A god afraid of you?” He sounded dumbfounded. “Apollo’s not here because Aiden, the love of your life, banned him from here.”

I spun around, eyes narrowing. “He’s not the love of my life.”

Caleb shook his head. “He has always been yours, Alex. And you’ve always been his.”

My mouth puckered as if I had tasted something sour. “Is this why you came from the great beyond? To talk about my love life?”

“Well, the love of your life banned Apollo from entering this house because Aiden’s afraid Apollo will harm you.” Oh, yeah, Caleb got an eyeful of my shock. “And Apollo had one of his nymphs come down to the Underworld, pulled me right out from underneath Hades’ nose to help you. Both of them—Aiden and Apollo—are doing crazy things to save you.”

“But… I don’t need anyone to save me.”

“Exactly!” Caleb threw his arms up in the air. “That’s what I said!”

Okay, I wasn’t following this conversation. “Then why aren’t you helping me escape? You could go shade yourself right up to wherever the keys are. I’m sure Aiden has them.”

He rolled his eyes and they disappeared for an instant. Yikes. “You can save yourself. Only you, and you need to get a-crackin’ on it.”

My lips pressed together. Here Caleb was, my best friend—my dead best friend, but whatever—I hadn’t seen in what felt like forever, and we were arguing. I didn’t want to argue with him.

“What are you doing, Alex? This isn’t you. None of this is what you ever wanted.”

I took a deep breath. “It’s what I want now.”

Caleb growled low in his throat. He looked like he wanted to strangle me. “What you’re doing is going to get you and Seth killed. Yeah, that’s right—you aren’t invincible. Neither of you are! And there’s a war brewing in Olympus and it’s going to rain all kinds of holy hell down on Earth. Do you want to be responsible for that?”

Squeezing my hands into fists, I glared up at him. “We want to change things, Caleb! You of all people have to understand that! Together, Seth and I can free the servants—my father! We can overthrow the Council. We can—”

He barked a mad sort of laugh. One that usually meant he was close to pushing me into a corner. “Do you really think that’s what’s going to happen once you succeed in wiping out all the Councils? That Lucian is going to free the halfs and everyone is going to love one another?”

I opened my mouth, but he kept going. “And let’s pretend that’s not absurd and we’ll all be high on happy pills. The gods are never going to allow it. They will risk exposing themselves to the whole mortal world to stop you. Innocent people will die. You will die.”

My heart tripped up a little. “So I should do nothing?”

“No. Don’t you know? The supreme art of war is to subdue the enemy without fighting.”

“And whoever came up with that was a complete and utter idiot. To win the war, the enemy must be stripped down to their bare bones and destroyed.”

His eyes narrowed. “You’re an idiot.”

My lips twitched. “Shut up.”

Caleb drifted over to me. “Alex, you have to break the bond with Seth. Break it and you will understand everything.”

“No.” I backed up, running my hands along my hips. “You told me to not give up on Seth. And now you want me to?”

“I don’t want you to give up on him,” he said, voice taking on a pleading edge. “There’s still hope for him, but only if you can truly reach him. And being the head of Seth’s fan club isn’t going to do it.”

I laughed then. “That was so you when you were… you know, around. You totally had a boy crush on him.”

“And I still do. He’s pretty awesome, but right now he’s high on power. Like a meth-head. No. Better yet. A crack-head and a meth-head rolled into one. He’s out of control. Good gods, he’s working with daimons! And if you get out of here and connect with him—transfer your power to him? It’s all over, Alex. He will drain you dry without even meaning to.”

I gasped. “He would never do that.”

“He wouldn’t mean to, Alex. But he would. And once he has, he’ll become the God Killer and no one needs you.” He shook his head sadly. “That’s if you even make it to him. Apollo will stop you. Every god will come down here to stop you.”

Shaking my head, I refused to believe this. My Seth would never drain me. He needed me, like I needed him. And together, we would be unstoppable. We could change things. As the Apollyon, I wouldn’t lose people like I’d lost Caleb and my mom.

I shook my head.

“Alex,” he pleaded softly.

“No. No! Because I’m powerful enough now that no one I love will ever die again!”

“Alex—”

Stupid, weak tears burned my eyes. “If I had been the Apollyon when we were attacked, I could’ve saved you!”

His form flickered. “No, Alex, you couldn’t have.”

“Don’t say that. Don’t ever say that.” My chest was too tight. He faded a little. “What’s happening?”

“I have to go.” Caleb looked stricken. “Break the connection, Alex. It’s the only way to save you both.”

I shook my head so fast my hair slapped my cheeks. Before I could utter a word, he flickered out and was gone. I stood there for minutes, maybe hours, staring at the spot where he’d stood, fighting tears and everything he’d said. I didn’t—couldn’t believe what he’d said.

Caleb didn’t get it. He’d never lost people like I had—people like him. While he was in the Underworld playing Mario Go Kart, I was up here, knee-deep in the pain and anguish of losing him and my mom. I was dealing with the fact that my father was a damn servant.

He didn’t get it!

Being connected with my Seth was the only way to save us. By the time my Seth and I were done, there would be no more pain.