The Return (Titan 1)

“Please stop saying that,” I cut in. “Please stop calling him psycho.”

Deacon blinked. “Okay. He was searching for Alex, thinking if he could reach her, he could get her back under his control, which would mean under Ares’s control. Whatever bullshit that god was feeding him, it…it warped him, Josie. Yeah, he could be a smug dick before, but what he was like under Ares’s thumb…” He trailed off, shaking his head, and I suddenly wanted to cry, because none of this was fair. “But something happened that changed everything, something reached into Seth and broke him free.”

I exhaled roughly. “What do you mean? He turned against Ares?”

“Yeah, in the end, when it really mattered, he gave Ares the middle finger.” Deacon cringed. “Sometimes the gods can be cruel. In ways I hope you never have to experience or see what they’re capable of.”

Understanding crept in. I guessed it. “Ares got hold of Alex, didn’t he?”

He nodded, his expression full of sorrow. “He got into here, the University, and Alex was with her uncle—Marcus—and Aiden when he revealed himself. She got them out of the room, because she knew Ares would kill them. She squared off with Ares, but… but he was the god of war, Josie. He beat her so badly that there wasn’t an inch of her skin without scars. It was so bad that Apollo had to take her to Olympus to be healed.”

“Oh my God.” Tears pricked at my eyes, pain for a girl I’d never met, a girl that Seth had cared deeply for.

“It was horrible.” Deacon’s voice cracked and I reached out, squeezing his arm. He smiled faintly. “My brother…Aiden heard the whole thing go down, but couldn’t get to her, couldn’t help her. That… Yeah, that killed a part of him. And the only good thing that came from it was…that Seth was connected to Alex when she was fighting Ares. He felt everything she felt.”

Another dose of horror rose in me. How could this get any worse?

“Seth didn’t know Ares was going to do something so awful, and that didn’t mesh well with him. It broke the hold. Somehow he convinced Ares that he could sway Alex into joining him, and he left for the Covenant, bringing Lucian with him.” He took a big breath and let it out slowly. “When he showed up at the gates, we thought it was about to go south, but he simply handed over Lucian to Alex and kind of… He kind of turned himself over. I think…I think he was just done, you know? He’d never meant for Alex to get hurt. I think, deep down, he’d never meant for anyone to get hurt.”

I felt something wet on my cheek and I reached up, hastily knocking it away. God, all of this was so terrible and so sad.

“Even then, Seth wasn’t the guy we knew in the beginning. He was quiet. Completely withdrawn. Kind of like he is now. That shit…it had to have messed with his head.”

My eyes squeezed shut. It had changed him. And it had messed with his head.

“But, that’s not the end of the story, Josie.” When I opened my eyes, he was smiling a little. “Seth was on our side in the end. He worked with us. They ended up freeing one of the Titans to help fight Ares. Aiden had to make a deal with Hades to do so. Yeah, Hades is hot, but also a dick. Aiden had to promise an eternity as one of Hades’s guards once he died in return for releasing Perses—Perses the Titan.”

I gaped at him.

“Who was also a major dick.”

I gaped at him some more.

“Yeah, that apparently was a bad idea, but that wasn’t Seth’s bad idea, so…any-who, in the end…Seth did something truly amazing.”

“He did?” I whispered, wondering how, after hearing all of that, Deacon could even be in the same country as Seth, but then I remembered the first morning here. Deacon had thanked Seth.

His smile strengthened, turning his eyes dove-gray, and I wondered if his brother shared that eye color. “Yeah. You see, it was fated and prophesied that there could only ever be one of them—Seth and Alex. Like total Highlander shit.”

“Huh?”

“Mortals.” He rolled eyes. “Never mind. In the final battle, Alex tapped into Seth and became the God Killer. That was Seth’s idea, because he knew, with his past issues with power, it was too much of a risk to let him do it. They fought Ares together. They won. The God of War is no more. But that damn prophecy could not be changed. The remaining gods appeared. They would not allow a God Killer to exist. Alex…she knew that, you know. She knew what she was doing—she knew the price and still did it. The girl…she had balls.”

I stiffened, going so still I could mimic one of those statues.

“Seth was with her. He held her while the gods killed her.”

“Oh my God!” I shouted, jumping out of my seat. “What do you mean, they killed her? She did all that and they—”

“Calm down, honeycombs. Apollo took care of her.” He waited until I sat down, but my heart was still racing, and I couldn’t shake the image of Seth holding this faceless girl as she died. “When Apollo had Alex in Olympus, turns out he’d given her ambrosia, the nectar of the gods. She died a mortal death, but ambrosia made her immortal. She became a demigod. Not like you, being all cool and born that way, but Apollo saved her nonetheless.”

“Oh.” That was kind of confusing as crap, but I was happy to hear she wasn’t dead dead.

“Then Seth surprised all of us. He knew about the deal Aiden had made, and knowing that he couldn’t be with Alex, because she has to stay in the Underworld for like six months out of the year—total Persephone rip-off right there—and the fact that Alex would never age, he made a deal with Apollo and Hades.”

I held my breath, waiting.

“He pledged his life to the gods and his soul to Hades, virtually becoming their bitch, in return for Aiden being given ambrosia as well.”

“Wow,” I murmured.

“I don’t think you get it. Seth sacrificed his future, his afterlife, his everything for Aiden and Alex, so that they could be together,” Deacon explained, and, yeah, I got it. I just couldn’t believe it. “For how long he has left here—and that’s solely up to the gods—they control him, and once he dies, he will be a slave of Hades. He gave up everything in the end.”

Rocking back, I stared at Deacon, totally mind-blown. “Oh my gosh, Deacon, I don’t…”

“You don’t know what to think or say? I get that. None of us really did. No one expected that from him, but what he did was huge. He gave my brother everything. He gave Alex everything, and in the end, he got nothing.”