The Struggle (Titan 3)

“Neither has been watching Supernatural,” Deacon chimed in. “Luke is all about Sam. I need my Team Dean cohort.”

Blinking back sudden tears, I laughed again. These two—I’d only just met them a few months ago, but they were my friends, and I’d missed them. “Well, we need to get some tenders and fries and watch Supernatural—oh, and bacon.”

The university had amazing bacon. I don’t know how they made it differently, but they did.

Deacon nodded empathetically. “We cannot forget about the bacon.”

I barely pulled it together as Marcus smiled in my direction. “It’s good to see you again, Ms. Bethel.”

“Thank you.” I swallowed hard as Seth reappeared, this time with a dazed-looking Alex.

She stumbled a step and then shook her head. “Holy crapola, I will never get used to that. Never.”

“Try having him randomly pop into your office,” Marcus commented dryly.

Seth walked over to where I stood. “But what fun would it be if I announced my arrival first?”

“Indeed.” Marcus lifted his brows as he leaned back against the desk. “Now that we are all here—”

“The Army of Awesome reunited at last.” Deacon grinned while his brother sighed heavily. “It’s been a long time coming.”

“We do have a small issue to contend with,” Marcus continued.

“Just a tiny one,” Deacon added as Alex dropped into one of the chairs placed in front of Marcus’s desk. “Our little Canadian demigod refuses to believe that she is what we’re saying she is and we are what we’re saying we are.”

“That’s not exactly surprising.” Aiden folded his arms. “Most mortals don’t even know we exist.”

“Yeah, but she’s not like most mortals,” Luke chimed in.

Feeling a little nauseous all of a sudden, I sat in the chair next to Alex. “How so? Wait a sec. How are we sure she’s who we’re looking for?”

“That’s a good question,” Alex said, rising a brow. “Kidnapping is a felony.”

“Well, technically, even if she’s a demigod, they still kidnapped her.” Seth shrugged when we all looked at him. “Hey, I’m just pointing out the obvious here.”

Luke turned to Deacon. “You want to do the honors?”

“Of course.” Deacon would never turn down being the center of the attention. “Once we got back here with Gable, we had no idea how we were going to find the last two demigods. So I had this idea. Why don’t I try to find the librarian?”

Aiden’s mouth dropped open. “You went to Medusa? Please tell me you did not attempt to talk to Medusa.”

“I just want to add at this moment that she is not an official employee of the university,” Marcus stated, and I smothered an absurd-sounding giggle.

Deacon shrugged. “It was a risk I was willing to take. What’s the worst that could’ve happened?”

“She could’ve, you know, turned you into stone?” Alex suggested, voice pitching high.

“Obviously she didn’t see me as threat, because I’m standing here and I’m not made out of stone.”

“I would like to go on record and say I had no idea he planned on doing that.” Luke slid his narrowed gaze to his boyfriend. “He just went and did it without telling me.”

“And it worked!” Deacon reached into his pocket. “All it took was one trip to the library. It’s like she was waiting for me—like she knew I was coming. Super freaky if you think about it.”

“Seriously? It took me so many times to get her to appear,” I muttered, trying not to pout.

“Well, I’m just that special. Anyway, I told her that we were going to find the other demigods and she gave me this.” Uncurling his fist, he revealed a necklace that dangled from his fingers. Hanging from an ordinary chain appeared to be some kind of clear quartz crystal.

I leaned forward, squinting. “What is that?”

“It’s a scrying stone.” He grinned as he cupped the stone in his other hand. “If you’re looking for someone and you know what city they’re in, all you have to do is hold it over a map and bam! Tells you the exact location. We found our little Canadian demigod working at a bookstore in Thunder Bay.”

Hope sparked in my chest. If they used it to find this demigod, then we could use it to find where Mitchell was being held. As soon as the thought finished, I realized the stone would not be able to help us there. We didn’t know the city he was in.

I pushed aside that frustration as I eyed the stone. “That’s pretty amazing.”

“Right?” Deacon slipped it back into his pocket as Marcus pushed off the desk and walked behind it.

“Let’s back up for a second. What do you mean she’s not like other mortals?” Seth placed his hands on the back of my chair. “What does that mean?”

“I think I know who her godly parent is, which has to do with why she’s not exactly normal,” Luke said. “She’s Demeter’s daughter.”

Marcus sat in the chair behind the desk as Deacon nodded. “We kind of did the whole stalking her thing for a bit, trying to figure out what was the best way to approach this, when we caught her doing something very interesting after work.”

Seth opened his mouth, and I just knew it was going to be something wildly inappropriate. “Don’t,” I warned.

He smirked.

“She was walking by some old, dried-out bushes. No idea what kind they were.” Deacon hopped up and sat on the desk. Marcus sighed. “She stopped and looked around. There wasn’t anyone else outside. She didn’t see us hiding in the car like complete stalkers.”

“Nice,” Alex murmured.

“She ran her fingers over the bush and the thing came back to life. Completely,” Luke explained. “Went from dead and brown to looking like it was just planted there.”

“Demeter is the goddess of agriculture, among other things.” Marcus leaned back in his chair, crossing one knee over the other. “Which begs the question of why she is so resistant to the truth considering that is not something mortals can do. It also makes me wonder how she was able to do it. I was under the impression their powers were bound.”

I gaped. “What the hell? I didn’t have any cool abilities like that. Not at all.”

Seth was bent at the waist, so his head was next to mine when he laughed. “Ah, but you’re still special.”

“Shut up,” I muttered crossly. “I still don’t have any special abilities like that.”

Seth patted my head, and I about swung at him. “So,” he said, “is she still locked in a dorm room?”

“Yep.” Luke smiled tightly. “She’s been talking to Gable through the door, but she won’t open it, and other than the water that was in the room, she hasn’t had anything else to drink or eat. We need to get her out.”

“Then get her out.” Seth straightened. “And force some food down her throat. She gets with the program—”

“Or what?” Aiden’s eyes darkened to a thunderous gray.

One side of Seth’s lips tipped up. “There are no other options, St. Delphi.”

“Though his delivery sucks,” I reasoned, “Seth has a point. I can try to talk to her.”

“Well, while you guys convince this girl that you all aren’t crazy and not to press charges, Aiden and I are going to head to Texas.” Seth pushed off the chair.

“What?” I looked up at him.

“When Aiden and Alex were in Baton Rouge, they learned about a community outside of Houston that has had some pures disappear,” Seth explained.

“And right before we came here, I got a call from a Sentinel that they were tracking what they believed were shades,” Aiden added. “Since the Covenant is warded, we’re going to check it out.”

I was kind of surprised that Seth was willing to leave me here, but also relieved that he trusted that the Covenant was secure.

“So you guys are going now?” Alex asked.