Standing in the middle of the penthouse suite in the hotel not too far from Radford, I yelled for Apollo for the fourth time since I’d walked through the door.
Finally, there was an answer in the form of a fissure of energy permeating the room. Warm air blew over the back of my neck. I spun around, cursing when I saw Apollo standing right there. As in, he’d zapped himself into the room practically on top of me.
“Gods,” I barked. “There’s at least eight hundred square feet in here, buddy, you didn’t need to land on my ass.”
Apollo snickered as he folded his arms. “You called?”
I squared off with the god. We were nearly the same height, putting him at maybe an inch or two over my six-foot-four. “Who is she?”
There was a pause. “Josephine Bethel.”
I stared at him as irritation spun up like a high-speed cyclone. “I’ve figured that out. Thanks.”
“Is that so? By the way, you’re off to a good start with this whole ‘protecting her’ thing. Are you doing it remotely? Is that a new ability of yours I’m unaware of?” He turned, tilting his head to the side. He seemed to be staring at the chain hanging from the ceiling fan. Seconds later, he confirmed this by reaching out and tugging the chain.
Light clicked on.
He tugged the chain again.
Light went off.
Oh for gods’ sake, he had a mean case of ADD sometimes. “Apollo,” I snapped.
Seeming to have forgotten he was even in the room with me, he lowered his hand slowly. “You haven’t asked the correct question, Apollyon.”
I forced myself to take a step back before I tapped into the air element, wrapped the shiny gold chain around his thick neck, and turned him into a sun god pi?ata. “She’s not a half or a pure. She feels like a mortal, but she…” I shook my head, turning away. Moving to the large window, I pulled back the curtain. Dusk had fallen, bringing a haze of fog to the tops of the tree-covered mountains.
“What, Seth?” Apollo asked softly.
I couldn’t believe I was going to say this, but Apollo wasn’t going to feed me information. That wasn’t how he rolled. Slipping my fingers off the curtain, I closed my eyes. “She looked…she reminded me of Alex.”
Alex.
Alexandria Andros.
The girl I once had thought was just an ordinary half-blood, but had turned out to be another Apollyon—the real Apollyon. I was the one who was never supposed to have happened, even though I’d been born first. I’d come into existence because Ares had sought to control Olympus through controlling me. And worse than being a descendant of that asshole, he’d almost succeeded in turning me into the God Killer, the supreme being that was the result of one Apollyon absorbing the abilities of another. It was why having two Apollyons in one generation was forbidden.
And I’d played right into Ares’s games. I’d fucked up—fucked up in a way that had ended with Alex spending a good part of the year—and of every year for eternity—in the underworld. That was something I could never forgive myself for. No matter what amends I’d made or deals I’d offered.
I cleared my throat and continued. “Not completely. Different hair. Different nose and eyes, but she even sounded like her for a second.” I laughed, and it sounded harsh. “If I didn’t know better, I’d think they were somehow related, but that’s not possible. Right?”
There was no answer as Apollo stared at me.
And then I lost my shit.
Glyphs snapped over my flesh. The lamp on the executive-style desk exploded in a shower of sparks and tinkling glass. The smell of burnt ozone filled the air. Wind picked up, blowing the little courtesy notepads off the nightstands. “It’s not possible, Apollo.”
He arched a blond brow. “I’m not surprised that she reminds you of Alexandria.”
For a moment, I couldn’t move or say anything. My lips pulled back into a sneer as I stumbled a step back. I waited for him to say something else, anything else. Apprehension ran its bony fingers over my neck.
“What is she?” I rasped, tensing up. The need to destroy something rippled over me like a shockwave.
Apollo dipped his chin and the seconds ticked away before he spoke. “She is a demigod.”