The Return (Titan 1)

Oh no.

“That’s not entirely uncommon,” he continued, voice clipped. “It doesn’t mean it has anything to do with Hyperion or the Titans. They could’ve run into problems with daimons. Or, gods know, it could be something else entirely.”

“There’s a ‘but’ coming, isn’t there?”

A slight smile formed on his lips. “We need to make sure that there is no connection to the Titans.”

A cold burst of fear clawed at the inside of my stomach. “You’re going out to see if you can find them, aren’t you?”

Seth nodded. “I’m the Apollyon. This is the kind of stuff I do.”

But he also was just…just a guy. Yeah, he was some kind of superhero or something, but he was more than that and it didn’t sit well with me, because it felt like I was seriously the only person who saw him as anything else.

Silence followed us back to our dorm, and he opened the door to my room. He didn’t come in, not that I expected him to. I looked up at him, and our gazes met and held.

The muscles in my neck tensed. “You’re going to be careful?”

That ghost of a smile formed. “I’m always careful.” He placed a fingertip on my chin, and my heart squeezed in my chest. “I’ll see you later. Okay?”

None of this felt okay, but I nodded and forced myself to step back, further into the room. When the door closed, I exhaled roughly. What if it was Hyperion? If he got into the University, it was going to be bad. Not just for me, but for everyone.

Needing something to do to pass the time, I took a shower, and then changed into a pair of jeans and a chunky sweater. I was just about to brave the wilds of the Covenant against orders when Deacon showed up, bearing cheeseburger subs.

“Where’s Luke?” I asked, grabbing the bottles of soda out of his hand and placing them on the small coffee table.

“He’s with some Sentinels right now.”

My brows rose. “I thought he wasn’t doing anything like that anymore.”

“He’s not.” Deacon dropped onto the loveseat. “But he’s good at it and they…they need him right now.”

I sat down next to him much more slowly than how he’d thrown himself down. “You know about the missing group?”

He nodded as he smashed a hand down on top of the sub, flattening it. “Yeah.”

Not having much of an appetite, I nibbled at the sub, my thoughts caught up in what could be going on outside the walls.

“He’ll be okay,” Deacon said, and when I looked up, I was amazed to find that he’d already eaten his sandwich. Damn. His gray eyes locked onto mine. “Just like Luke will be okay. That’s something you’ve just got to believe in. If not, you’ll drive yourself crazy.” His gaze shifted from me to the framed photo on the coffee table.

Erin had packed it for me, but I hadn’t pulled it out and placed it anywhere I could see it until yesterday evening, after the guys left and before Seth had shown up.

“That’s your family?” Deacon asked, reaching for it. “Well, not including daddy?”

“Yeah,” I breathed, watching him lift the frame. I pressed my lips together, wondering if I had been ready to put that picture out. “That’s my…um, my grandparents and my mom. It was taken about two years ago.”

He studied the picture for a moment and then placed it back on the table carefully. “I’m sorry. Luke told me. I’m guessing Seth had told him.” He peered at me through a mass of curls. “It gets easier. I know that sounds lame, but I didn’t think that when my parents died. I had my brother, though, and even though I was a little shit for a long time, I know it gets easier.”

“How…how did your parents die?”

“A daimon attack. Only Aiden and I survived it,” he said, sighing. “Sentinels ended up saving our asses. It was why my brother became a Sentinel. Back then, it was rare for a pure to make that choice.”

“I’m sorry about your parents.” When he smiled slightly, curiosity got the best of me. “Where is your brother now?”

He tilted his head. “That’s a long story.”

“We’ve got time.”

Deacon laughed softly. “But it’s not just my brother’s story.”

That didn’t make much sense to me.

“Okay,” he said, smacking his hands off his thighs. “Luke is going to kill me, but whatever. Time to get real.”

My brows rose. “Um. Okay. I guess.”

“You like Seth. Don’t even try to pretend. I’ve seen the way you look at him.”

Heat blasted my cheeks. Oh dear.

“And I’ve seen the way he looks at you.”

Oh double dear.

Deacon leaned over, knocking his shoulder against mine. “I’ve seen it before, you know, the whole ‘I want someone I shouldn’t or can’t have.’ But you look at him like you want him. He looks at you like he can’t or shouldn’t. It’s all very ironic, come to think of it. It’s really like watching history repeat itself.”

I faced him, unable to stop myself from saying, “He can have me if he wants me.” I felt like a dork when his grin went up tenfold. “I mean, I get that he thinks he…he doesn’t deserve me.”

His brows rose. “Did he tell you about everything?”

“He told me about what he was doing this past year.” When Deacon’s face fell, I sighed. “There’s more, isn’t there?”

“Uh, yeah.” He stared at me for a long moment, and then he leaned against the arm of the loveseat. “Seth will definitely murder me for this, but there’s a lot you don’t know—that I think you need to know.”

A sudden shiver wrapped its way down my spine.

Scrunching fingers through his hair, he sighed. “I’m only telling you this because I think it will help you understand where Seth is coming from, but you’ve got to be ready to hear this, Josie. The Seth you know now is not the Seth we all knew back then.”

My stomach tumbled. “I’m ready to hear.”

Deacon pursed his lips as he lowered his hand. “I’m going to tell you a story—it’s practically a legend among us now. It’s the story of Seth and Alex.”

Chapter 27

MY CHEST felt like it had a minor seizure. “Alex… That’s a girl, right?”

He nodded. “Alex is short for Alexandria. She’s named after her dad. He’s a Sentinel here. Runs around. Doesn’t speak. Kind of scares the shit out of me because he’s a badass, like his daughter, but anyway, she was also another Apollyon. Awesome chick. We’re good friends. But I’m going to get one part of the story out of the way first.”