I was fucking absolute.
And I was standing here, blowing up trees, and I could do nothing to help Josie.
Lightning cracked overhead and the air sizzled as dark, tumultuous clouds rolled in, blotting out the sun. Turbulent emotions thundered inside me and into the environment around me.
Pacing, I dragged a hand through my hair, clasping the back of my neck. I had to find her. Now. Coming to a halt, I searched the skies. I’d been out here for hours, trying to hone in on Josie’s whereabouts, and when that hadn’t worked, I tried calling out to Apollo and he did not answer me. How could her father not have known?
How could I love her and have not known she’d been captured?
How was I any better than Apollo?
I wasn’t.
That was a damn, sad truth. I’d lied to her. I’d put her in danger. I’d left her. I hadn’t protected her. In a way, I was worse than her father, because at least he never got close to her, he never evoked a second of faith from Josie. She hadn’t been planning to storm into Olympus to reconnect with her father. Josie had been planning to cross oceans to stand beside me, and I had fucking left her. It didn’t matter now that it had been the right thing to do.
Stopping, I turned to the ocean and exhaled raggedly. Fear and anger battled with guilt. A streak of lightning lit up the sky once more.
I sensed Basil’s presence. “You shouldn’t be near me right now.”
Basil, of course, didn’t hightail his ass away from me. “Everyone is concerned. They fear something is wrong.”
“Something is wrong.” I turned around, finding Basil standing on the platform just above the sand, at the bottom of the stairs that led up the face of the cliff. “Hyperion has Josie.”
His eyes widened. “I . . . I don’t know what to say.”
“I can’t find her. I can’t feel her at all.”
Sympathy and concern flashed across his face. “There must be something we can do, Kyrios.”
What I could’ve done was what I should’ve already done. That was the problem.
A priestess appeared at the edge of the cliff, her long blonde hair blowing around her in the increasing winds. It was the one I’d kicked out of my bedroom. She kept her chin and gaze down as she spoke, “A vehicle approaches the northern gate, Kyrios.”
Having a pretty good idea of who was in the vehicle, I willed myself off the shore and outside the impenetrable, titanium gates that blocked the entrance to the house.
A sleek black Mercedes with tinted windows jerked to a sudden halt several feet in front of me. The purr of the engine quieted, and a moment later, the passenger and driver’s doors opened.
Damn.
Alex and Aiden were here.
Josie
Cold water dripped and tiptoed down my brow. Water. Water. Blinking my eyes open, I blindly turned my head. Water glanced off my dry lips. I opened my mouth and then immediately gagged. The water tasted like spoiled eggs, but my throat was burning. I was so thirsty. I took in the tiny drops of disgusting liquid until my stomach churned.
Drawing in a shallow breath, I rolled onto my side. I was back in the cellar, and I had no idea how much time passed since Cronus had fed. I tensed as an aftershock of pain flared through my body, scorching bone and tissue.
I think . . . I think he took too much.
My hands and arms trembled uncontrollably as I stared into the shadowy cellar. Faint light trickled in front the small window. In the corner, near the door, I thought I saw something scurry across the floor.
I felt no fear or distress as I lay there. Before, the mere idea of being in the same room as a mouse had me seconds away from screaming. Now? I just . . . I just couldn’t rally up the energy to be afraid.
I didn’t feel much of anything.
Nothing.
Everything . . . everything had been stripped away. This was it. I understood that now. This was how it was going to end for me, because I really, really didn’t think I’d survive another feeding with Cronus.
Or another one on one with Hyperion.
Hope . . . hope that I would find a way out of this had petered out toward the end of Cronus’s feeding. The will to keep fighting, to keep existing, had plummeted out the window. It was weak—I was weak, but I . . . I couldn’t do this anymore, and I . . . I just wanted to see my mom and my grandparents. That was all I wanted.
Footsteps sounded outside, drawing my weary gaze. A second passed and the door creaked open. It wasn’t Hyperion or Cronus.
It was Perses.
A dull, distant part of me wondered what he was doing here. He’d never come before as far as I knew.
His booted feet stopped a few feet from me. “I’m not going to hurt you.”
I didn’t believe him. Not for one second.
Perses knelt in front of me. His cool fingers pressed under my chin, forcing my head back. “Well, you’re awake. Can you stand?”
A huge part of me wanted to ignore his question, but I drew back a scant couple of inches. Drawing in a shallow, stunted breath, I planted my hands into the packed dirt and pushed myself up.
“Interesting,” Perses said, rising. “I was beginning to wonder if you were dead.”
“Not yet,” I rasped out, getting my legs under me. I stood and I swayed. Wait—did I sway, or did the actual room sway?
I thought I took a step forward, but that’s not what happened. My right knee gave out and then my left leg followed. I hit the ground, but didn’t really feel the impact.
“Hell,” Perses muttered as his gaze roamed over where I’d fallen. His face blurred in and out as I stared up at him. “You’re worse off than expected.”
Part of me wanted to laugh. What had he expected? Honestly? But the laugh never came. Air wheezed in and out of my lungs as black dots filled my vision. I couldn’t get enough oxygen in my lungs. My muscles clenched painfully, and my heartbeat stuttered. Something . . . something was very wrong with my body. Like it was shutting down and there was nothing to stop it.
The last thing I heard before the darkness wrapped around me was Perses sighing and saying, “He’s going to be so pissed off.”
Chapter 14
Seth
“So it’s true?” Aiden stalked around the front of the Benz, coming to stand so he blocked Alex. “You’re a god.”
Any other time I would’ve laughed at his oh-so obvious act of protection, but there wasn’t an ounce of humor residing in me. Only my rage and terror for Josie existed. “How could you let this happen?”
Aiden stiffened as if his spine had been hollowed out and replaced with steel. “How could we let this happen? Where in the hell were you?”
“I tried to stop him.” Alex stepped out from behind Aiden, and I finally got a good look at her. A fading bruise covered the side of her face. Those bruises continued down to her right arm. “So did Aiden. He came out of nowhere, and we weren’t prepared. We all were exhausted and—” She cut herself off. When she spoke again, her voice was hoarse. “We fought him, Seth. We did everything we could to keep him from taking Josie, but we couldn’t stop him.”