Текст книги "Apollyon"
Автор книги: Jennifer L. Armentrout
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Текущая страница: 15 (всего у книги 22 страниц)
Stepping up to the basin, I stared into the still red water that reminded me of blood. Actually, it was thick like blood, and there was a faint metallic scent. Ew.
A second passed, and then I said, “Solaris.”
Nothing happened at first, and then the water rippled as if I had blown a soft breath upon it. Part of me expected her face to appear in the basin, but the water settled again. Then there was a sudden fissure of energy that crawled up the walls and rolled over the floors. Tiny hairs on my body rose and a shudder worked its way across me. There was a soft gasp of surprise and I turned.
Solaris had arrived.
CHAPTER 26
When I’d stepped into the Underworld, I really hadn’t known what to expect. The same could be said for Solaris. I’d really had no clue, and still I was blown away.
Solaris stood directly in front of Caleb and she looked a lot better than I’d thought she would. For some reason, I’d expected that she and the First would be serving it up in Tartarus, but her white gown was pristine and intact. Silvery-blonde hair, long and wispy, settled over thin shoulders. She was tall and willowy and her eyes were like mine—a bright amber color. Her delicate, porcelain features reminded me of a frail, exotic flower, which I hadn’t been expecting. Maybe I was rocking one hell of an ego or something, but I’d thought she’d look like me.
She was the complete opposite of me.
Solaris looked around the room, her pale brows rising as she took in where she was. Surprise and a little bit of fear flitted across her face, but when her eyes landed on me, a keen understanding seeped into those ashen eyes. A sense of familiarity washed over me, mirrored in her expression.
Striding forward, Solaris stopped a mere foot from me, her head tilted inquisitively. When she spoke, her voice was soft. “You are the Apollyon.”
There wasn’t much time for me to figure out how she knew what I was. “I’m one of them.”
Another flicker of surprise shot across her face, quickly followed by sorrow. “So there are two again?”
I nodded.
She glanced over her shoulder. “And neither of these are he. I can tell. One of them is dead. One of them is a pure-blood.”
I ignored Caleb’s offended look. “No. The First isn’t here.”
Solaris faced me, brows knitted. “You have Awakened. I can see the marks of the Apollyon.”
“You can?” I glanced down, surprised to find that my visible skin was all marked up. I hadn’t even felt them.
“How can you be Awakened and not be with the First? You are not dead.”
Yet. “It’s complicated. That’s why we’ve come to talk to you.”
“Oh.” The sorrow deepened and her lashes swept down. “He is like mine?”
Everyone in the room, even Persephone, was fixated on Solaris, but she seemed wholly unaware of them now. I took a breath and fought the sudden tightening in my throat. The grief rolling off Solaris was palpable.
“Yes.” My voice sounded hoarse. “He’s like yours.”
Twisting away, she wrapped her arms around herself. “Then there is nothing that I can do for you.”
I stared at her. “But we haven’t asked anything.”
“If he has lost himself to the aether, to the call of akasha, there is nothing to be done.” Her chin tipped down, causing her hair to slip forward, shielding her face. “And there is nothing to be done for you. I tried… but the power transferred.”
“Wait.” I stepped toward, pushing down on the frustration roaring inside me. “I haven’t transferred my power to him. He’s only the Apollyon. Not the God Killer.”
Solaris stiffened. “That’s not possible.”
“It is. I haven’t been near him since I Awakened. There is something about the aether and akasha with him, but he’s still just the Apollyon.” I paused, drawing in a long breath. “I need to know how to stop the transfer.”
She remained quiet.
“And I think– I know—that you know how to do it.”
Her head swung toward me. “There is no way. I blocked that knowledge so no other Apollyon could learn it.”
“Well… I saw something when I Awakened. You turned to him, tried to stop him. You knew how, but the Order found you first.”
Solaris laughed a dry, brittle laugh. “Is that what history tells you?”
I glanced at the goddess, figuring she’d know, but she looked as confused as I felt. “But I saw it—”
“Did you? The Awakening is what the previous Apollyons wish for you to see. At the moment of your death, when it does come, you will implant your memories. Some of them may be as you wished to see them, but not how they truly existed.”
Well… daimon butt. Did Seth know that? “What happened, then?”
Her lashes swept down again. “When I first met him, he wasn’t like he was in the end. He was a beautiful, kind man who just happened to be the Apollyon.” A small, sad smile pulled at her lips. “We really didn’t understand any of it. We were the first to exist in the same generation. He didn’t even understand why he came to find me. It was like he was drawn and I didn’t understand what was happening when I Awakened. The pain… I thought I was dying.”
I winced, unable to imagine going through that without Aiden and without any knowledge of what was happening.
“But when we met, it was like it was destined. For many months, we got… we got to know each other. I do not think even the gods knew what could happen.” A distant look crept into her eyes, not quite overshadowing a pain that still hadn’t healed. “He seemed to grow more powerful the longer we were around each other, able to harness akasha with little effort, and he would not grow tired. But he was more unstable. Never toward me, but I knew… I knew that it was because of me. There was a situation…”
My stomach sank as my gaze flickered to Aiden.
“A large group of daimons had attacked one of the Covenants and during the battle, he… pulled from me. The power he displayed was unimaginable. The Council grew concerned and then… then I met the oracle.”
Ah, the oracle strikes again.
“She told me what would happen. That he would pull all of my power from me and he would attack the Council. I didn’t believe her, because that would be insane.” Solaris laughed softly. “But she was insistent that I stop him. That if I could not find it in my heart to kill what I loved most, then I must take the power.”
My breath caught, and the walls seemed to do a Tilt-a-Whirl.
“I never thought he would act, but the Council moved against us. They wanted us separated, and neither of us, in our naïve selfishness, could bear such a thought. We left the safety of the Council and we went out on our own.” Solaris shook her head. “They followed, sending their most skilled Sentinels. When they didn’t succeed, the Order of Thanatos came.”
She swallowed thickly. “He threatened the Council then, and I knew what the oracle had said was all coming true. She had given me the means to stop him, but it was too late.”
I bit my lip. “What did he do?”
Her eyes met mine. “He would’ve never done it if the allure of the power—the draw of supreme power—hadn’t overtaken him. But it did. Before I could stop him, he drew from me. There was a moment, immediately after he took my power, when he was not yet able to channel it. Like an Achilles’ heel, so to speak, and the Order attacked. The rest… the rest is history.”
I didn’t know what to say. Sorrow rode the back of my throat. It was obvious that Solaris had loved her First, so much so that not once did she speak his actual name. I couldn’t bring myself to askjust to quench my own curiosity, because I knew speaking it would only bring her more pain.
“I’m sorry.” It was all I could say.
Solaris nodded. “What is your First doing?”
I told her everything—the destruction, the impending war, and the hope that somehow we could stop history from repeating itself. If she was surprised, she didn’t show it. Solaris simply walked up to me.
“I blocked it from him and from the other Apollyons,” Solaris said again. “I’m not sure how you even saw it. Perhaps it was Fate?”
Gods, for once Fate wasn’t trying to force me to take one for the team. Nice change. “Perhaps.”
“It’s simpler than you think.” Solaris reached out, placing her cold hand over my right one. “You must follow the order of the marks as they appeared on you. The original.” Solaris squeezed my right hand, “Θάρρος.” Courage.
Then she cupped her hand around my left. “ Ισχύς.” Strength.
Letting go of my hand, she placed hers below my ribcage, over my navel, “απόλυτη εξουσία.” Absolute Power. Then finally, she reached up and cupped the nape of my neck. “αήττητο.” Invincibility.
The air went out of my lungs and Solaris nodded. “You will need to press your flesh to his and call upon each mark by its true name.”
“Wait,” Aiden said. “Isn’t that how he would transfer her power to him?”
I already knew, so when Solaris stepped away and turned to Aiden, I could barely look at him. “Yes,” she said. “She will have to do it before he does.”
Aiden opened his mouth, but there were no words. We had learned how to transfer power and that was something, but it would also be damn near impossible.
“Is that all?” she asked. “I wish to leave.”
Persephone cleared her throat. “I believe so.”
For an instant, Solaris’ eyes met mine and I thought I’d be seeing her again. And sooner than I probably expect. I didn’t know where that thought came from—if it was rooted in any real possibility or just paranoia.
“Are you sure this is what you want to do?” she asked, voice low enough for only me to hear. “For the power of the God Killer will transfer to you. And though you may feel strong and you may think you can control it, it can warp you, too.”
Looking terribly sad, as if she knew this great secret, she sighed. “And for whatever purpose the gods seek to use you for, once they do, will you be left standing in the end? As the oracle warned me, there cannot be two of our kind in any generation.”
And then she was gone, but her parting words lingered deep, wrapping their way over my heart and soul. Her words weren’t a warning, but more of a statement of fact. I glanced down at my left hand and I felt as if my fate had been sealed long before I even knew what I was.
I let out a shaky breath.
“Well, that was depressing.” Caleb ran a hand through his hair. “If I wasn’t dead already, I’d feel a tad bit suicidal.”
“No doubt,” Persephone murmured. “But dead people—no offense—tend to be on the depressing side of things.”
Caleb shrugged. “No offense taken.”
Each time that I’d seen Caleb, he hadn’t seemed depressed. As if he read my mind that moment, he smiled and I remembered what he’d said when I’d been in limbo. “You told me there was still hope for him.”
Caleb swaggered over to me, seeming so alive it was painful to see. Wrapping his arms around me, he held me tight. “There’s always hope. Maybe not the kind of hope you’re thinking about, but there ishope.”
I didn’t understand at first, so I snuggled closer, knowing our time was quickly coming to an end. As I inhaled the fresh scent of Caleb, I realized I needed to know something that would probably slice me into tiny ribbons.
Pulling away, I turned to Persephone. “Where is her First?”
A whole minute passed before she answered. “He is in Tartarus.”
I pressed my fingers to my mouth before the lump came all the way up. It wasn’t so much the fate of the First, but what it signified. If I succeeded and was able to kill Seth, his fate would be the same. And so would mine.
I was like Velero on Caleb for the next fifteen minutes or so, while Aiden busied himself studying the weapons and Persephone filed her nails or whatever. While we sat on the floor of the war room, our knees pressing together, Caleb told me about some of the stuff he was doing down here to pass time and I told him how much Olivia had wanted to see him. We didn’t talk about what would happen next. I was pretty sure that Caleb was aware of all the crazy stuff going on and neither of us wanted to tarnish these precious minutes.
“Did you tell her what I asked you to?” he asked.
I nodded. “She cried, but I think they were happy tears.”
Caleb’s smile was broad. “I miss her, but can you do me another favor?”
“Anything.” And I meant it.
“Don’t tell Olivia that you saw me.”
I frowned. “Why? She would—”
“I want her to move on.” Caleb grasped my hands and stood, pulling me to my feet. “I need her to move on, and I think hearing about me is stopping her. I want her to live and I don’t want to be shadowing every step she takes.”
Gods, I hated the idea of lying to Olivia, but I understood what Caleb was saying. Olivia would never move on, knowing that, in a way, Caleb was conscious and as alive as he could be in the Underworld. It was like he was there, not reachable, but still there. Knowing that, how could she really move on?
So I agreed. I promised to tell everyone that it had been only Persephone who had found us. Even if Apollo knew the truth, it wouldn’t matter as long as Olivia didn’t. In a way, this was his gift to her.
“Thank you,” Caleb said, and hugged me once more. Part of me wanted to stay in Caleb’s arms, because he’d always had this grounding effect on me. Caleb was my rational side. He was more than that; other than my mother, he was the first person I’d ever truly loved.
Caleb would always be my best friend.
“It’s time,” Persephone said quietly, and when I pulled away and looked at her, there was sympathy in her gaze. A god who could empathize was an abnormality.
Aiden returned to my side, swinging the backpack onto his shoulders before handing me back the weapons that the guards had stripped off me, as well as my yucky cloak. Persephone drifted toward the center of the war room and waved her hand. A black void appeared, completely opaque. “This gate will take you back to the one you came through.”
“Thank you,” I said to Persephone.
She nodded gracefully.
As I said goodbye and looked over my shoulder one last time, my chest squeezed as I met Caleb’s blue, blue eyes. I knew then that death could stop a lot of things, but it could never cut the bond of friendship.
Caleb smiled, and I returned it with a watery one of my own, and then I turned back to the void waiting for us. Threading my fingers through Aiden’s, we stepped back through the gate, armed with the knowledge we needed, but bearing the burden of needing to accomplish the impossible.
CHAPTER 27
The Hummer was where we’d left it, and according to the clock on the dashboard, only three hours had passed—three hours in the mortal realm, forty-eight hours in the Underworld, and a lifetime for Aiden and me.
I offered to drive back, but Aiden insisted that he was fine and I knew he wanted me to sleep. I knew I should—to avoid Seth using the connection—but it didn’t seem fair. Aiden had to be exhausted.
But it was a battle I wasn’t winning anytime soon, so I snuggled into the passenger seat and tried to get some sleep. The only problem was that my brain would not shut down. Ever since I’d stood in the war room, something had nagged at me. What Persephone had said, the sheared ponytails on the wall—all of it seemed familiar, but I couldn’t place how or why. And it was more than that. Solaris’ parting words were unsettling and they poked around in my head.
What I could never figure out was why Apollo had kept me alive once Seth had gone all crazy-pants on the Council. Or why Artemis had stopped Hades from taking me into the Underworld. The gods—or at least all of them except one—feared the transfer of power, because when that happened there’d be no stopping Seth. Taking me out of the picture before I’d Awakened, or putting me out of commission afterward, made sense.
Keeping me alive didn’t.
But I remembered what Artemis had said in that convenience store as she’d faced down Hades. Prophecies could change, and it didn’t take a leap of logic to know that, if I became the God Killer, the prophecy would change.
Unease blossomed in my chest. Had Apollo and the others known that this was possible? Then I felt dumb for even questioning that. The oracles belonged to Apollo, and even though he didn’t know all of their visions, the portion of what the oracle had told Solaris could’ve been shared with Apollo. Which made sense since Apollo had been oh-so supportive of me going down to see Solaris.
Part of me was naïve enough to hope that wasn’t the case, because that meant Apollo had some explaining to do. The other part was more analytical about it, more reasonable. Apollo had said before that they needed to stop the god who was obviously working with Lucian. And how else would they stop him?
They needed the God Killer.
The real kicker of this whole crappy situation was that Lucian controlled Seth, and this god—whoever it was—controlled Lucian, and therefore he/she controlled Seth and all of those who were following Lucian. So if Seth succeeded and transferred my power to him, this god would then control the God Killer. Risky, because Seth could always turn on him, but in the end, once the god had Seth do what he wanted, I was sure he’d be creative enough to somehow keep him under control. Possibly that meant keeping a member of the Order stowed away, safe and sound.
My muscles tightened in reflex as I worked this out. None of it looked good. And Seth was being manipulated from every which direction and he had no idea. Hell, he refused to even think that was the case.
As the miles between Kansas and Illinois disappeared, I couldn’t shake what Solaris has said about the gods using me, and what it would mean. Neither could I let go of the feeling that, by learning how to transfer the power to me, I had sealed my own fate.
The sudden weight of Aiden’s hand on my knee drew my attention to him. His eyes were on the dark highway. “You’re not sleeping.”
I smiled as I placed my hand over his. “How did you know?”
“I just do.” He sent me a brief grin. “What are you thinking about?”
Everything was on the tip of my tongue—my suspicions, my concerns about what Solaris had said, and what I now knew Apollo was hiding—but when Aiden glanced at me again, I found I couldn’t tell him.
He hadn’t heard what Solaris had said, and I didn’t want to burden him with this on top of everything else. If my suspicions were correct, if everything was leading to one thing…
Taking a deep breath, I focused on the white lines parting the darkness. “I was just thinking about how I’m supposed to get close enough to Seth to transfer his power to me. Seems impossible, right?”
“I don’t like it, Alex. I’m going to be honest; I think it’s insane. To me, it’s like sneaking up on a cobra. It’s not going to work.”
“I know, but what choice do we have? Besides, we don’t just have to figure out how to get close enough to him. There’re all the Sentinels and Guards who are backing him.”
Aiden squeezed my hand. “We’re going to need an army.”
Slowly, I looked at him. “And where are we going to dig up one of them?”
“Good question.” He barked out a short laugh. “What we need to find out is exactly how many Lucian has backing him—”
“I can always ask Dionysus to do some scouting,” Apollo’s voice boomed from the backseat.
Shrieking, I sprang forward, knocking my knees off the dashboard. Aiden’s hand jerked on the steering wheel, swerving the Hummer into the left lane, which was thankfully empty.
Aiden cursed under his breath. “You need a freaking bell.”
I twisted around in the seat, ready to knock the grin off the god’s face. I was already pretty pissed off at him without him giving us a heart attack. “You could’ve caused an accident!”
Apollo leaned forward, resting his arms on the back of our seats. “But you didn’t. Aiden has the reflexes of a hellhound.”
Making a face, I shook my head. “How did you just… pop in here?”
He gave me a very un-god-like duhlook. “These wards make your power invisible to the gods; they don’t keep us out. You carry my bloodline. I can find you when I want.”
“Well, that’s not creepy.”
Aiden glanced in the rearview mirror. “You want to know what we found out?” When Apollo nodded, a scowl appeared on Aiden’s face. “And you couldn’t have waited until we got back to Apple River?”
“Let’s see…” Apollo tapped a finger off his chin. “The whole world is on the verge of a god apocalypse. Should I wait another six hours?”
“Six hours isn’t going to change anything,” Aiden replied, eyes turning a steely gray.
“I hope not.” Apollo turned his gaze to me. “What did you learn?”
I debated telling him that I hadn’t learned a damn thing, but that was pointless. “I learned how to transfer the power to me.”
Apollo showed no reaction, and I really think I hated him right then. “And do you think you can do it?”
I glanced at Aiden. “There’s the tiny problem of getting to Seth.”
“Like I said, I can have Dionysus do some scouting. See what they have going for them,” he replied.
“We still don’t have an army.” I flipped in my seat, facing the front and feeling all kinds ofbitchtastic.
“Actually…”
I refused to turn around and take the bait. “What?”
When he didn’t answer, Aiden growled deep in his throat. “What, Apollo?”
“About an hour after you guys left, one of the Sentinels who had been using Solos’ cabin before you not-so-nicely kicked them out showed up. He brought news.”
Aiden had gone completely motionless, and I wondered how he could still manage to drive like that. “And you trust this Sentinel?”
The god laughed darkly. “Let’s just say I made sure he was playing on our team.”
Curious, I started to ask how, but Apollo grinned at me. “Use your imagination,” he said, and my imagination went to some really weird places.
“Anyway,” he continued. “Most of the pures are fleeing the Covenants and their communities, heading to the University in South Dakota. So are their Guards. Makes sense—the location of the University is pretty remote and almost certainly cannot be breached. The Sentinels who haven’t fallen in with Lucian have left their duties and are en route to the University.”
“What about the daimons?” I asked.
“What about them? They will go where the pures are, and the pures will be well-protected. Then there are the daimons that Lucian is feeding the pures to. Nothing we can do about that.” Apollo sat back, eyeing the roof of the Hummer like he’d never seen one before. He tapped the internal light once and it flicked on, then he turned it off. Shiny things must be distracting for gods, too. He did it again, brows furrowed.
“Apollo,” I snapped.
His gaze settled on me. “There is a good chance that Lucian and the First will overtake the New York Council, so Council members and Sentinels are being secreted out of the Covenant.”
My heart tipped over. “My—”
“I don’t know if your father is among the ones who have already arrived at the University or is en route or alive. I’m sorry.”
My shoulders slumped. “So what are they doing? Moving the base of operation to there?”
“Yes. So there will be hundreds, if not thousands, of Sentinels and Guards there. Those who have seen their friends and other Sentinels killed by those who have sided with Lucian. Those who want nothing more than to get a piece of him.”
Aiden nodded slowly. “An army—our army.”
“Marcus and Solos are already making plans to travel to the University. The sooner you all get there, the better.”
I could get behind this plan. And yeah, there was a bit of a selfish reason behind it. Any chance that my father might be there was enough for me.
“It would be safer there for Deacon and the others,” Aiden said. “It would be best.”
Now I felt like a douche for only thinking of what I could gain. “How early can we leave?”
“As soon as possible,” Apollo responded. “Once at the University, we can appeal to those who wish to put an end to this. Then we could move against Lucian—”
“And the god who’s pulling the strings?” I threw in, unable to help myself. “We’ll want to move against him or her, right?”
Apollo’s vibrant blue eyes met mine and he held my gaze. “Yes. We will.”
Right then I wanted to call him out, but the only thing stopping me was Aiden… and that part of me, the tiny part that Laadan had claimed was growing, becoming more mature. Shesort of understood.
“But I need to check in with Dionysus.” Apollo was still looking at me, and I knew I’d be seeing him real soon. “Check you guys later.”
And then he was gone.
Aiden slid me a sidelong glance. “Sometimes I really hate him.”
“You and me both,” I muttered.
We arrived back at Apple River just as the sky overhead was turning from black to a dark blue. The cabin was dark as we climbed out of the Hummer and the distant call of birds was the only sound.
Aiden stretched, bowing his back as he worked out the kinks. He stopped, catching me watching him from the other side of the vehicle. “Come here.”
He was probably the only person in the world who could demand that of me and I’d listen. All too obediently, I headed around the front of the Hummer and stopped in front of him. “What?” I asked, stifling a yawn.
Aiden cupped my cheeks and tilted my head back. “You didn’t sleep at all.”
“Neither did you.”
A tired grin appeared. “I was driving.”
I placed my hands on his wrists. Our eyes locked. “I can’t believe we went to the Underworld and came back out.”
“Me, neither.” His thumbs traced along the curve of my cheekbones. “You were perfect.”
“Except for the spiders…”
His head dipped and his nose brushed mine. “I wasn’t talking about the spiders.”
“You weren’t?”
Aiden laughed and his breath was warm and tantalizing. “No. I was thinking about what came after the spiders.”
“Oh… oh!” I sucked in a sharp breath and my legs suddenly felt weak. “ That”
“Yes.” His lips brushed mine. “That.”
I started to smile, because that really had been perfect, but then Aiden kissed me and I melted into him. There was strength in that kiss, along with love and a taste of what a future would be like with him. I loved– loved—that in the midst of everything, we could still have moments like this. Where it was just us and there weren’t any walls between us. The kiss deepened, his tongue slipping past my lips, and my fingers dug into his wrists. A low, sultry growl came from Aiden, and I wanted—
“You two should really get a room,” Apollo said from out of nowhere. “My poor eyes…”
I groaned. Even in his true identity, he still had impeccable timing.
“Gods,” Aiden spat. He pulled back, casting Apollo a disgusted look over my head. “Do you get off on sneaking up on us?”
“You probably don’t want to know what I get off on.”
I made a face. “Ew.”
Aiden kissed my forehead as his hands slipped off my cheeks. Dropping an arm around my shoulders, he pulled me into the shelter of his body and I went, resting my cheek against his chest. “Did you already talk to Dionysus?”
Apollo leaned against the bumper. “Yes. He’s on it as we speak.”
“How can we trust that Dionysus isn’t the god behind this?” I smothered another yawn. “And that he won’t lie to us?”
“Dionysus cares little for war, and he doesn’t have the motivation to engineer something like this.”
“How long until he lets us know?” Aiden asked.
“We should hear from him by the end of the day.” Apollo’s gaze flickered to the deep blue sky. “It’s almost morning. You two should rest.”
Aiden glanced down at me. “Let’s head in.”
I pulled away, glancing at Apollo. “I’ll be in in a few seconds. I want to talk to Apollo.”
He hesitated, sending me a questioning look. I hated keeping him in the dark about this, but there was no other way, because if Aiden knew, he would stop it, and then the world would go to crap.
“It’s okay.” I smiled. “I’ll be right in.”
Aiden looked at Apollo and let out a low breath. “Okay. I’ll go… wake up Deacon or something.”
“I’m sure he’ll appreciate that,” I said.
A brief smile appeared. “True.”
At the sound of the front door shutting behind Aiden, I looked at Apollo and felt the mask I’d been wearing slip away.
Our gazes met and Apollo sighed. “Alexandria…”
“I knew there was something you’d been keeping from me. That there was a bigger reason to why you all would want to keep me alive when it would be so much easier to just kill me. It would fix the problem with Seth, so I just didn’t get why you’d risk it.”
He looked at a loss to what to say. Good—I’d struck a god speechless. Score one for me. I was going to go for point two. “You need the God Killer.”
A long moment passed. “We need to stop this from happening again.”
“You need me to kill the god responsible.” Anger grew inside me, but so did hurt, and that hurt had been festering since we’d left the Underworld. I didn’t know why. Apollo might be related to me by blood, but he was a god and they’d missed out on the whole empathy train, sort of like a bunch of sociopaths, but it still hurt something fierce.
It cut deep.
Because in the end, I was the lion andthe lamb; I would slaughter and then be slaughtered. Apollo didn’t say it, but I saw it in what he wouldn’t say.
“We cannot risk this kind of destruction again, Alexandria. Thousands of innocent people have died, and there willbe more. And even if we stop the First, this will happen again.” He placed his hand on my shoulder and it was heavy. “We cannot kill one another. We need the only thing that can kill us. We need the God Killer—we need you.”
I stared at him, dumbfounded. “You don’t want me to kill Seth, then.”
He snorted. “On most days I do, but you must take his power, and he has to be alive for that. I need you to be able to defeat him and transfer his power to you.”
My hands balled into fists and it took everything in me not to grab hold of those golden locks and rip them out. “You’ve been lying to me this entire time.”
“No I haven’t.” He didn’t even blink.
“Bull! You told me before I Awakened that you wanted me to kill Seth! You know, over grape soda and Spider-man cake?”
“I wantedyou to kill Seth, but it’s not what I need.”
My mouth dropped open. “That’s not even semantics!”
“And I didn’t know for sure then that there was a way to transfer his power to you,” he argued calmly. “I had my suspicions. So did my sister, but we couldn’t be sure. Either way, he cannot be allowed to take your power. If you cannot defeat him and take his power, then you must kill him.”
Apollo made it all sound so simple, like he was asking me to go to the store and pick up Crunchy Cheetos and if they didn’t have them in stock, to get Cheetos Puffs. Insane.
