The Power (Titan 2)

It was never right.

Alex shuffled over to Deacon and her face crumpled a second before she smacked her hands over her cheeks. She turned slightly, her shoulders tensing, and then, after a handful of moments, she appeared to pull it together. When she turned back around, her expression was devoid of emotion.

“We need to bury him with coins,” she whispered. “We need to give him that so he can cross over on the ferry at Styx. Now.”

“Agreed.” Aiden knelt by Solos, and I saw his fingers move over Solos’s face. Oh God, he was closing his eyes. “Gable?”

I’d forgotten all about him.

He crept out from behind the stairs. He hadn’t made it farther before everything went crazy. There was no color in his face as he stared at Solos. “We . . . we have a lot of property. There are . . . um, shovels out in the shed, by the pool.”

Aiden turned to his brother and Luke. “Go with him. I need you guys to make sure he stays safe.”

For once, Deacon didn’t argue. With one last look at Solos, he rose and joined Gable. They followed the shaken man toward the kitchen. At the last second, Deacon veered off and hurried into the living room, returning seconds later with a blanket.

“I can’t leave him there like that,” he explained as he walked up to where Solos lay. Carefully, he draped the blanket over him, covering Solos’s face and chest, along with most of his legs.

Then Deacon was gone.

“We need to figure out what to do with Seth.” Aiden dragged a hand under his bloodied lip.

I stilled, looking up at him.

“He pulled aether from us,” Hercules said, sounding like sandpaper had gotten inside his throat. “I was not told he could do that. No one should be able to do that.”

I looked back at Seth. The glyphs had now faded, seeping into his skin. His eyes hadn’t been amber when he’d faced me. Had the others seen that? They’d been all white, like a god’s.

“He didn’t just stop Atlas.” Aiden clutched a dagger as he neared us. “He . . . he took out Atlas. He killed a Titan.”

Hercules shook his head back and forth. “That’s not possible.”

“Looks like it to me.” Alex rubbed at her hip and chest as she walked over to the spot where Atlas had stood. The stone was charred. “Looks real possible.”

“That means . . .” Aiden trailed off.

“Means what?” I asked, placing my hands on the stone. I pushed up, climbing to my feet. “What does it mean?”

“Only the demigods can kill the Titans, right?” Aiden walked around to stand behind Seth’s head. I tensed. “Or entomb them, but no one else except . . .” He didn’t finish again, almost like he didn’t want to give word to what he feared.

“The only thing that could take out a Titan would be the same thing that could take out one of the Olympians.” Alex’s face paled. “That would be the God Killer.”

Air punched out of my lungs. What had Medusa said? “But that’s not possible. You were the God Killer before—well, before you ended up in the Underworld. He’s not the God Killer.”

Her gaze met mine. “He shouldn’t be, but what he just did was the same thing I did to Ares.”

“But you’re not connected to him, are you?” I reasoned, refusing to believe where everyone was heading with this, refusing to believe that I hadn’t heeded a warning given to me.

“Nope.” She lifted her hands. “I am not Team Seth right now.”

I frowned.

“Something hardcore just went down,” she continued, gesturing at Seth. “But if he has somehow become the God Killer, tripped up some sort of celestial rule, then all the Olympians would be here, right? They showed up immediately after I killed Ares. They wasted no time.”

“That’s because they knew you were on their side. They knew you were aware of what most likely would happen. They didn’t think you were insane. They fully believe Seth is insane.” Hercules took a step back. “If he’s the God Killer, they aren’t coming anywhere near him. Who would? He could take them out.”

“Damn,” spat Aiden.

“And why are we even here? He can take us out with the snap of his finger,” the demigod continued. “Fuck this. We need to blow this joint and—”

“He’s not going to take us out.” My hands formed fists. “Stop overreacting.”

“You don’t know that,” Hercules replied icily. “None of us do. I say we take one of these nifty daggers and shove in through his—”

“You do that and it will be the last thing you do without being tied up by your own intestines,” I warned, a hundred percent serious. “You are not going to harm him.”

Herc blinked. “Hell. That’s excessive.”

“Stabbing him isn’t?” I shot back.

Alex stopped several feet from Seth and didn’t go any closer. “Dammit. They were . . . they were concerned for a reason.”

“What?” I asked, not following.

“Hades warned us before we came up. The Olympians were worried about Seth’s . . . his stability. He’d done something before we left Tartarus that had them flipping out,” Alex explained, and she winced when she looked over at me. “We didn’t say anything, because the Olympians sometimes freak out when someone sneezes too loudly. They wanted us to keep an eye on him.”

“That’s . . .” I shook my head. “That’s wrong.”

Alex looked at me and didn’t respond, but her expression said it all. It was a cross between pity and understanding.