Sentinel

Walking onto the Council dais was freaky. After all, Head Minister Telly, the leader of all the Councils, had once tried to place me under the Elixir and commit me to servitude during a Council session. So, yeah, I wasn’t a big fan of walking before the twelve thrones. All I could think, as I stopped in the center, flanked by two pure- bloods, was that I wished I had prepared a speech or something.

A lot of people were staring at me—well over three hundred, if I had to hazard a guess. In the back were all the Guards and Sentinels not on patrol, and the numbers were disheartening—maybe a hundred to a hundred and fifty. And most of them had to be from the University, meaning most of the others didn’t make it here…or they had sided with the other side.

So not good.

Council members who resided at the University were easy to pick out. They were in their ceremonial robes: red, blue, white and green, representing the different houses of power. Fire. Water. Air. Earth. Council members who had taken refuge here weren’t dressed in their finery, but the cool disdain of seeing a half-blood standing where they belonged was written all over their faces, as well as on the faces of many students and staff members.

One would think in a time of war that prejudice wouldn’t be strengthened, but it seemed to only fortify the age-old beliefs that halfs were less than pures.

A Council member in the front curled her lips as she leaned over to another member, whispering what was probably a very flattering observation.

And then, before I could even open my mouth and say a single, embarrassingly inept attempt of joining the masses, a Council member in red robes stood and the real fun began.

“She should not be standing before the thrones of Ministers,” he said, his hands forming fists against his robes. “This is not what the Council chambers should be used for. And a traitorous pure- blood stands there, too! One who used compulsion on his own kind. It’s a disgrace.”

Aiden arched a brow, looking wholly unrepentant.

I sighed and folded my arms.

A low murmur started from the back of the room. A student shot to her feet. She was a pure-blood, a beautiful redhead who reminded me of Dawn, Lea’s sister. “People are dying outside these walls, mortals and pures and halfs alike, and the first thing you have to comment on is the fact that there’s a half-blood standing on the Council stage?”

The Council member whipped around. “As a pure-blood, you should respect the laws of our society!”

“Laws of our society?” The girl’s eyes widened as she laughed. “Are you insane? I heard that daimons almost broke through the walls yesterday, and that a god was controlling them. Who gives a shit about our laws right now?”

I kind of really liked this girl.

Marcus stepped forward, clearing his throat as he tipped his chin up. “You may not agree with the use of the Council chambers, Minister Castillo, but that is not the point of this meeting.”

As the Minister clearly stated why he felt this was the perfect moment to discuss his opinions, my gaze met Laadan’s. I immediately thought of what she’d told me about my father while we were in Illinois. I’d hoped I’d find him here, but deep down, I knew he wouldn’t be. He’d most likely stayed in the Catskills with the other half servants, protecting and leading them. Head Minister Telly had enslaved him, placed him on the Elixir, and even cut out his tongue, but my father…he was a leader.

And I was his daughter.

“This is stupid,” I said, loud enough that it shut up the over-talkative Council member. All eyes were on me. I took a step forward. “We’re arguing over whether or not I belong on this stage—this stupid stage. That’s all this is. And these thrones? They’re just chairs. Who cares? They mean nothing to me or to the rest of the world. They only mean something to you because you made them so.”

The minister turned the color of his robes. “How dare you?”

“Oh, I dare.” Tapping into some of the anger that simmered in my stomach like a poison, I pulled it to the surface. “Yes, I am a half-blood. I am one of many trained to give their lives so you can sit in your precious chairs. So how about you show the halfs a little bit of respect?”

“Alexandria,” Marcus said in a low voice, stepping up beside me.

I was on a roll, and there was going to be no stopping me. “But I am also the Apollyon. If I wanted to, I could blast your asses into next week, or use compulsion to gain everyone’s agreement here, but I don’t believe in forcing people to do things they don’t want to. You could learn from that.”

Several heads turned to one another. Whispers grew. The Minister tipped his chin up defiantly. “I see what you’re getting at, but that does not change the blatant rape of our laws!”

“Rape of our laws? Whoa. That isn’t insulting or anything.” I shook my head at all of those nodding. “You people are insane. You don’t get it. When Ares gets through the wards, which he will, he will be sitting on one of your precious thrones. None of you will be. And he will do with you as he pleases.”

“He is a god,” another Minister argued, a women in her late forties. “We are their servants. If he—”

“Oh, yeah, you’ll definitely be his slaves. Maybe we should stop right here and invite him in. Karma is a big, fat—”

“Alex,” Aiden said, shaking his head slightly.

I rolled my eyes, but took a deep breath and forced my gaze away from the Minister before I made him start squawking like a chicken. Honestly, that would make just as much sense as the words he was saying. I scanned the crowd. “I watched Ares kill people without lifting a finger. I heard his plans. He doesn’t care about any of you. He sees pures just as you see the halfs. He will enslave you along with the mortals. He believes the gods should rule over the mortal realm once more, and that’s a dangerous desire. He will make war on the mortals, on you, and any god who stands in his way. There will be no Council to argue over. There will be new rules and new laws to follow, and all of us will still be on the same level. I can promise you that. And if he succeeds in turning the First into a God Killer, then the other gods will rip this world apart to stop him. They’ve already begun.”

Some stared back in disbelief, others wore masks of fear. One of the Sentinels in the back spoke up. “Can we even stop Ares?”

No, whispered that voice. No one can stop Ares. Pressure clamped down on my chest. Swallowing hard, I struggled to ignore the now-familiar anxiety rising within me.

“He defeated you. That’s what I heard,” said a student. “And you’re the Apollyon. If you can’t defeat him, how can any of our Sentinels or Guards do anything?”

“Maybe we can reach some sort of agreement with him,” suggested an older pure. “Fighting is not the only answer.”

One of the Guards scoffed loudly. “Ares is the God of War, not the God of Treaties.”

“He is the God of War,” argued the pure. “How can we defeat him?”

“So we do nothing?” asked Val from the side of the dais. “We let the fear of falling in battle lead us into surrendering? Is that how a Sentinel or Guard behaves?”

There were several shouts of disagreement, and all were from the Sentinels and Guards—soldiers who would never leave their posts.

“I don’t know,” I said, and again, the mass quieted. “I don’t know if we can stop Ares. And you’re right, he did kick my ass every which way from Sunday, but I know that no one is safe if he succeeds. I also know that we’re not alone. We have Apollo, and Artemis, and other gods behind us, and we…we have…”

A strange feeling unfurled within me, sending a series of shivers like icy fingers all over my skin. I shook my head, causing a sharp pain to crack down my neck. I suddenly found it hard to breathe. It was like waking up unexpectedly and realizing I was already late for something.

“Alex?” Aiden stepped up beside me, his brows knitting. His eyes searched over my face. He placed a hand on my arm. “What’s wrong?”

I saw him and Marcus, but every fiber of being was focused on someone else, outside this building and so very close. The crowd shifted nervously. A tremor coursed through my body. Deep inside my core, the cord snapped alive, thrumming frantically. The marks of the Apollyon bled to the surface, swirling over my skin. My heart hammered as tiny hairs rose all over my body.