“Bob?” Seth repeated.
The man I was staring at—the man Seth had called Apollo, my father—was familiar to me. I knew him. I’d known him as a little girl.
“Wait a minute,” Seth said, stepping forward. “You’re calling yourself Bob now? Really?”
He glanced at Seth. “Why are you still here?”
Seth folded his arms. “I’m not going anywhere.” Pausing, he glanced at me. “Unless you want me to go.”
“No.” I shuffled closer to him as I stared up at the tall man. “I want you to stay.”
“Great,” muttered the man I knew as Bob.
I shook my head slowly, trying to get my brain cells to function. The dizzy, pleasant rush of sensations from Seth’s kisses and from the weight of his body on mine, pressing into the best possible places, had quickly faded, but I felt like I was in a dream.
“You…you used to visit me when I was little,” I said, and it sounded crazy. “By the lake. You brought me candy and dolls.”
“That doesn’t sound creepy at all,” Seth muttered under his breath.
I ignored him. “I don’t understand.” Maybe I did and just didn’t want to comprehend it. “You’re my…”
“I am your father.” He glanced at Seth and smirked. “That’s the second Star Wars nod. Keeping track?”
Seth rolled his eyes.
“What the hell?” I whispered.
The air shimmered around the man I knew as Bob, and then he…he wasn’t Bob at all. In his place was a man who shared some of the same features, but was taller and broader, with a head full of blond waves and eyes that still matched mine.
“Holy crap.” Heart pounding, I stumbled back, and then looked at the painting that was facing the wall. “Holy crappers.”
Seth reached out, but I shook my head. “I’m okay. I’ve just never seen someone do a live Photoshop on himself.”
The man—who was so obviously Apollo—smiled again, and it made my stomach tumble. “I was never supposed to know you. Not unless we needed you. That was the deal we made when we created the twelve demigods,” he explained. “But…you were my child. I wanted to know you.”
I had no idea what to say, so I just stared at him as my heart raced.
“We didn’t get to spend a lot of time together, and I understand if you feel like I abandoned you, but I’ve always kept an eye on you, one way or another.”
I still had no idea what to say.
Apollo tipped his chin up, and a long and awkward moment passed. “I am sorry about your grandparents. They’re at peace now, in paradise. I hope that’s a comfort to you.”
Air caught in my throat as I took a step to the side and sat down on the edge of the bed without falling off it this time. Was that a comfort to me? Yes. No. “My mom?”
“She’s safe. I cannot tell you where she is, but she will remain safe until the threat is over,” he replied as his gaze moved over my face. “I am proud of you.”
My mouth opened, but no words formed. My breath hitched again, and I felt that damn knot in my throat expand.
“You’ve shown remarkable strength, and you have held it together in an incredible situation,” he continued, doing something akin to putting my heart in a juice squeezer. “Instead of doing nothing, you’ve opted to train, to defend yourself. I’m proud.” There was a beat of silence as he glanced at Seth. “However, your choice in males concerns me.”
“I think my choice in males is quite good, thank you,” I snapped back before I could stop myself.
Seth’s head swung toward me, as if he was surprised that I would defend him, which would make him an idiot, considering I’d just had my mouth on his.
Apollo’s smile reappeared and spread, softening the cold, eerie beauty of his face. “Well, then…” His gaze shifted to Seth. “I guess she told me.”
For once, Seth had nothing to say, and when I looked at him, he was still staring at me, his golden eyes wide and his face a shade paler.
“I cannot stay long. Being in your presence… Well, it drains me, but I…” His brows furrowed and he shifted from one foot to the next. “But I felt your pain earlier. I had to see you.”
There. That juice squeezer was working overtime in my chest. “I don’t know what to say.”
“You do not need to say anything.”
“No…I do. This…this is a lot. All of this is a lot. You don’t even look old enough to be my dad.” I laughed, and it sounded a little crazy. “And I knew you at one point. Your were my friend— my only friend, and you…you just walked in on me making out with a guy, so I feel like we just covered the teen years I never had with you.”
Seth choked on what sounded like a laugh.
“Let me put on record, that was not an enjoyable experience,” Apollo commented dryly.
“But you’re here and you’ve…you’ve been here in one way or another,” I said, smoothing a shaky hand through my hair. “And that has to mean something,” I whispered, my voice raspy.
His smile faded a little. “But right now, I know it’s not enough.”
I squeezed my eyes shut against the sudden, uncontrollable burn, and in a heartbeat, I felt that he was closer the second before he touched the side of my face. My eyes flew open, and he—a god, the sun god—was kneeling in front of me. A surge of energy shot through me, like being shocked by electricity.
“You must continue to be brave, to paidímou, i zoíímou. You must continue to be strong. Nothing you face will be easy, but I will always be watching over you.” He lowered his hand as he stood, addressing Seth. “And you…you are so very lucky.”
And then he was gone.
Just like that, there one second, and then gone the next.
“Well, that wasn’t as awkward…or as violent as I thought it would be,” Seth announced, obviously accustomed to Apollo popping in and out.
“What…what did he say?” My gaze shifted from the spot Apollo had stood to where Seth was. “In the other language? Do you know?”
He nodded as his face softened. “He said, ‘my child, my life.’”
My heart squeezed.
“I never thought he had it in him.”
“What?”
Seth scrubbed his fingers through his hair and then dropped his hand. “I never thought Apollo really cared about anyone other than himself. Not like I think—like I know he cares about you. He has compassion. I’ve just never seen him that way before.”
I don’t know what it was about that, but the tenuous hold I had on my emotions shattered. I broke wide open. My face crumpled as a sob ripped out of me, shaking my body. I smacked my hands on my face, but it did nothing to stop the tears. They wet my palms, streaked down my cheeks and shook my shoulders.
The bed dipped, and strong, warm arms circled my waist, and knowing that Seth had stayed here, that he hadn’t left, made it all that much harder to pull it back together, to stitch the rawness closed.
Seth made a deep sound in the back of his throat as he pulled me onto his lap, folding one arm around me. His hand curved around the back of my head, and without saying a word, he guided me closer, and I went. Having no experience with these kinds of tears, I burrowed in as close as I could, wrapping my arms around him, and I held on.
And he held onto me.