Sentinel

That was it. I felt dead inside.

Frustration coursed like acid in my blood. My fingers fisted in the soft sheets as I dragged in a deep breath. He stilled beside me, like he held his breath and waited, then let out a ragged exhale.

My heart plummeted.

Gods, all I needed to do was open my eyes, not walk a tight rope.

That frustration quickly flipped to anger—a soul-deep kind of rage that tasted of hot bitterness. My heart rate picked up, and that’s when I realized it was there—the cord. It had been absent in Olympus, but it was back. I hadn’t felt it at first because I’d only been acknowledging the ache in my muscles and bones, but the cord connecting me and the First buzzed like a million yellow jackets, steadily increasing until I swore I could see it in my mind, an amber-colored cord tangling with a blue one.

Seth?

His reply didn’t come in the form of thoughts or feelings, but a rush of energy so pure it was like being zapped by lightning. Strength poured into me, a torrential downpour of vitality encasing every nerve ending. Every distinct sound in the room was magnified. My own breathing, more steady now, and the deep and slow inhales of the man beside me. Doors opened and shut in the hallway outside the room, and there were voices, muted but distinct. My skin came alive. Glyphs bled through, swirling across my body in response.

I didn’t understand it, but I knew Seth was lending me his power, like he had in the Catskills when I’d fought the furies for the first time. He’d claimed no knowledge of what had happened, chalking it up to adrenaline, but Seth had…he had lied about a lot of things.

But now he was helping me. It didn’t make sense, since I was much easier to deal with in this state, but I wasn’t going to look a gift horse too closely in the mouth right at the moment.

My eyes flew open.

And I saw him.

Aiden was on his side, facing me. His hand still cupped my cheek, his thumb smoothing along my skin, and I could feel the marks of the Apollyon gliding toward his touch. His eyes were closed, but I knew he was awake. Thick, sooty ashes fanned the tips of his broad cheekbones. His dark brown hair was a mess. Waves tumbled over his forehead, brushing the graceful arches of his brows.

An ugly, purplish bruise marred his left eye, and I wondered if he could even open it. There was another violent mark, an astonishing mixture of reds, shadowing the strong line of his jaw. His lips were parted, neck and shoulders tensed.

Without warning, I was thrown back to the very first time I’d seen him.

The Covenant in North Carolina no longer stood, but it felt like I was there again, standing in the training room used for novices. I’d been practicing with Cal and Caleb. I’d done something incredibly moronic, which was nothing new, and the three of us had been laughing. I’d turned and had seen Aiden by the doors. At that time, I didn’t think he really saw us. He was a pure-blood, and they didn’t show any interest in halfs, so I had assumed he was just dazing. Even then, I’d been captivated by him. To me, he’d honestly been the most alluring male I’d even seen—a face that could be both hard and beautiful. And those eyes, flashing between heather gray and quicksilver, had been permanently etched into my memories from that moment on. That curiosity had been inflamed when he’d shown up in Atlanta, saving me from some really annoying and talkative daimons three years later.

Our love had never been easy.

As a pure-blood, he was untouchable to me even though I was the Apollyon, and even now he risked everything to be with me. He was my strength when I needed him to be, my friend when I needed someone to talk me down, my equal in a world where by law I would always be less than him, and honest to gods, he was the love of my life.

And he would wait forever for me, just as I would wait forever and a day for him.

Except forever will probably end up being fairly short, whispered an insidious voice, and it was right. Even if I managed to get past all the obstacles between me and Seth, and transfer his power to me, there was no doubt in mind that, even as a God Killer, I was going to have problems fighting Ares. And if, by some miracle, I survived that, there was a really good chance the other gods would kill me.

So why even bother?

Aiden and I could run away together, live as long as we could and be happy. He’d do it if I asked. I knew he would. We could hide until we couldn’t hide anymore, but we’d be together, and we’d be alive. And for a little while, there’d be no more pain and no more death to deal with.

A huge part of me, especially that dark, cold place that had been born when Ares held me down, agreed wholeheartedly with that plan. Run away. Nothing seemed smarter or simpler to do.

But I couldn’t, because there was too much that had to be done. People relied on me, and the world would descend into absolute chaos if Ares wasn’t stopped.

I held onto that needle-thin thread of duty with my life and spoke. “Hey.”

His lashes fluttered opened, revealing silvery eyes that never failed to make the muscles in my stomach tighten and my heart do a little pitter-patter.

Our gazes met.

Aiden jerked up, his face paling by several degrees, making the bruises along his jaw and left eye stand out in stark contrast.

Fear exploded in my stomach, which was kind of strange since terror typically wasn’t my first reaction to sudden movements, but I scrambled against the headboard. My breath stalled out as my body protested the sudden movement.

“What?” I croaked. “What’s wrong?”

Aiden stared at me with wide eyes. Color hadn’t returned to his face. He was as pale as a daimon, and while disbelief shattered his gaze, pain churned in them.

He reached out but stopped short of touching me. “Your eyes…”

“What?” My heart beat so quickly I was sure it would jump out of my chest and do a little jig on the bed between us. “I opened them. I heard you asking me to.”

Aiden winced. “Alex…”

Now I was really starting to freak out. Why was he reacting this way? Had Ares rearranged my face so badly that my eyes were on my chin or something?

He glanced toward the door and then back to me, his face going stoic, but he could never hide his feelings from me. I could read everything in his eyes. There was so much pain in them that it broke my heart, but I didn’t understand why.

“What are you feeling?” he asked.

Uh, what was I not feeling? “I’m…I’m going to go with confusion. Aiden, tell me. What’s going on?”

He stared at me so long I started to feel a wee bit self-conscious. Several seconds passed, and then I really became convinced that my eyes were on my chin, but then it made sense. Panic unfurled in the pit of my stomach and spread like a virus.

Springing from the bed, I hit the floor. Hot slices of pain ricocheted up my still-healing bones. I stumbled to the side, catching myself on the wall.

In a heartbeat, Aiden was off the bed and beside me. “Alex, are you—”

“I’m okay.” I bit back a moan.

Aiden reached out, but I pushed away from the wall before he could touch me. Each step hurt like Tartarus. Sweat dotted my forehead, and my legs shook with the effort to make it to the bathroom that joined the two suites together.

“I have to see,” I gasped out.

“Maybe you should sit down,” he suggested, close behind.

I couldn’t. I knew what Aiden was thinking. I was connected with Seth, and maybe he even thought this was a trick of some sort and was waiting for me to break free and pull out Deacon’s ribcage, but Seth was quiet on the other end of the cord.

Reaching around me, Aiden pushed the bathroom door open, and I all but fell inside. Light flooded the small but efficient washroom when he found the switch on the wall. My reflection formed in the mirror.