The Return (Titan 1)

Turning away from Marcus, I shoved my hand through my hair. Luke was in the corner, dabbing some shit on Deacon’s skull. The pure hadn’t really spoken much since everything had gone down.

The door to Marcus’s office opened. Two Sentinels stepped aside as Solos strode in. “All of the shades have been removed from the campus. Hades and his…uh, dog took care of it, and I think…I need to go vomit now.”

Marcus sighed as he paced the length of the room. I knew he wanted to talk about how screwed up everything was, about how he needed to protect the whole campus, but he got one good look at my face and apparently decided he valued his life.

At the window, Artemis suddenly turned, and holy shit, her eyes were all birdlike, bright yellow with large pupils. “I’ve found them.”

“Where?”

Her head tilted to the side. “They are about thirty miles from here, still in the Black Hills. In a cabin. There are five Sentinels guarding it.” She blinked and her eyes were all-white, which somehow, was an improvement. “It must be a trap. They did not go far.”

“I don’t care. Can you poof me there like Apollo does when he’s bored?”

Artemis arched a brow.

“Seth,” Marcus moved toward me, but drew up short. “If it’s a trap, you should stop—”

“I don’t care.” I focused on the goddess. “Can you do it?” Marcus tried again. “Seth—”

“I was supposed to protect her!” I snapped, whirling on the

Dean. The glyphs reacted to my anger, swirling across my skin.

Paintings on the wall rattled and the room tinted amber. “I was supposed to keep her safe.”

He raced his hands passively. “I know it was a job, but—” “It wasn’t just a job to me,” I seethed, and Marcus’s eyes widened in surprise. “Going out there and defending the Covenant was a job—one I should’ve walked away from, but because I did my duty, I failed her, and she is anything but a job to me.”

“I will take you,” Artemis said calmly.

I started to say “hell yeah,” but she popped out from where she stood in front of the window, appeared in front of me, then placed a hand on my shoulder. A split second later we were in the woods, under a starry night, breathing in cold wind.

“Gods,” I murmured, trying to gather my bearings.

Artemis stepped back. “This is as far as I can take you. A Titan awaits you and…I will fall to him.”

Well, wasn’t that reassuring as fuck?

“Just beyond the stand of trees, he awaits.” Her form shimmered, fading out. “Good luck, Apollyon.”

And with that, the goddess of the hunt and see-through clothing was gone.

I had no idea why Artemis was choosing to help me. Yeah, Josie was important to the gods, but they rarely stepped in when needed, usually only after their help would’ve been handy. But I wasn’t looking a gift horse in the mouth. And I also knew I was walking in to face off with a Titan.

But I was going to walk back out with Josie, even if it killed me.

I raced through the cluster of trees, jumping over boulders, and clearing the last within seconds. Nothing I’d done was quiet. The cabin came into view, rising out of the gloom, and the five Sentinels were waiting.

The whole “not killing them” thing was dust in the wind.

Summoning akasha, I felt my cells light up as I tapped into the fifth and deadliest element. The coil ripped down my arm, arcing out from my hand. It smacked into the first Sentinel, and look at that, he went over and there was no black smoke pissing out of his mouth.

No wonder they’d run last time.

Moving forward, I took out the second, the third, and then the forth. The last one rushed me, practically ran right into my hand. I gave it to him, right up and close, sending a jolt of akasha right from my palm and into his chest. It lit him up from the inside, turning all the veins amber under the skin before blowing out his eyeballs.

I was already on the steps by the time he went down.

There was no way I was fooling myself into thinking that Hyperion wasn’t aware that I was here, so I didn’t bother ghosting into the house. Entering the enclosed space, the first scent I picked up was blood, and as my eyes adjusted to the darkness, I stepped into a large dark room.

I saw her immediately, and my stomach roiled. Going to her side, I knelt down, gritting my teeth as she drew back from me. The chain around her neck was keeping her here, and as my eyes swept over her, I couldn’t even bring myself to drudge up a flicker of the animosity I normally felt for her kind.

What had been done to her was monstrous, cruel, and beyond anything I could understand. Even in my darkest moments, there had been a line. The Titan had traipsed all over that.

Sliding my fingers under the chain, I called on the element of fire, melting the links in the chain she had obviously been too weak to break herself. I freed the furie, and leaned down, whispering, “Get out of here now, Erin.”

I didn’t wait to see if she listened or if she responded. If she was smart, she would get out. I went down the hall, toward the dimly lit room, unable to mentally prepare myself for what I could see.

If Josie was… If she was hurt…

I stepped into the room, my gaze immediately moving to the chair in the corner. My heart stuttered, and I suddenly thought back to after the fight with Ares, to when I’d held Alex in my arms, up to the moment she’d simply turned to nothing.

Hyperion sat in an old armchair, and he faced the door. He was waiting. In his lap, draped over the arms of the chair, was Josie, her face leached of color. I could barely see her chest move under the thermal she wore.

“I was hungry,” he said, placing a large hand on her stomach. “I’m sure you know, Apollyon, that demigods have such an interesting value to us. This one in particular.”

Rage I have never ever known erupted inside me, intense and violent. “Let her go.”

“Or what?” Hyperion replied, glancing down at her as she began to move. Her lashes fluttered open, and then her chest heaved as her gaze focused on me. She started to sit up.

“Seth,” she whispered hoarsely.

Akasha crackled over my skin, casting shadows. It took everything to not charge forward, putting her at further risk. “What do you want in return for her safety?”

Josie gasped, but Hyperion eyed me, curiosity marking his expression. “What could you possibly give me that I would want?”

“Anything,” I swore.