The Power
Page 83

Gable seemed to calm down and he was digesting everything. When a lull occurred, broken only by Herc’s snores, I leaned forward. “I know this is overwhelming. I was in your situation not too long ago.”
“Yeah.” He nodded as he scrubbed his fingers through his hair. “It’s . . . God, I don’t even know what to say. You know, my mom never talked about my dad.” He laughed, dropping his hand. “I always thought it was because he was some wild one-night stand or something. I mean, she moved on. Multiple times. Marriage is business for her.”
Seth arched a brow.
“I wasn’t even sure he was alive,” Gable said, slowly shaking his head. “And I’ve got to be honest, a lot of this is hard to believe. I get what you’re saying. I even understand it, but I’m still having trouble processing it.”
“That’s understandable.” Deacon grinned up at him. “We grew up in this world. You didn’t.”
Gable opened his mouth and then closed it. “And you’re a-a pure-blood?”
“Yep. Technically, we’re called the hematoi, but that’s the snob version of pure-blood,” he replied.
“And he’s a half-blood.” Gable nodded at Luke, who gave him a thumb’s up. His gaze moved over to Alex and Aiden. “And they used to be a pure and a half, but . . . now are demigods.” When he got a yes from them, he looked at Solos. “And he’s a half-blood?”
“That’s what I am.”
Gable looked at Seth, brows puckered. “And you’re the Apot-polla?”
I laughed. “Wow. That’s not a version I’ve heard before.”
Seth sighed. “Apollyon.”
His lips moved as he silently pronounced it, and I had a feeling he was still saying it wrong. “So . . . what do we do now?”
“We take you back to the University in South Dakota, where you can be protected and trained until we locate the rest of you guys.” Seth pushed off the door and walked across the room. Gable tensed in his chair. “It’s a lot to swallow and you probably have an awesome life here, but that life is going to change. It has to.”
Seth wasn’t really good at the motivational speeches.
“You’re very important, not just to us but to the entire world,” Aiden said, obviously seeing the alarm swelling in Gable’s gaze again. “You have a higher calling, Gable.”
I shot Seth a look as he turned around and rolled his eyes.
“You will save not only the world, but the Olympians. Not only that, but once your abilities unlock, you’re going to be immortal,” Aiden continued. “So your life you have here, right now, is just a speck. You’ll be able to come back to it, at least for a while, but there . . . there are bigger things waiting for you.”
Immortal.
Something I didn’t really think about as I watched Aiden’s little pep talk smooth over Gable’s ruffled edges. I was immortal. Unless someone cut my head off? No. According to Seth, that wouldn’t even kill me. It would hurt, but I guess my neck would reattach. Only a god or another demigod could kill me.
Or Seth.
Or a Titan.
Oh my God, why was I even thinking about that right now? My train of thought had derailed massively, but I was immortal. Seth wasn’t. If the gods left him alone, he would age, and then once he died, he would be indentured to Hades.
How had I not really thought about that until now? Granted, there were a ton of things going on that had distracted me, more pressing items to think about. So now I needed to figure out how to get him out from under the gods’ thumbs, get his deal undone with Hades without it affecting Aiden, and make sure he was immortal.
It had to be doable.
I mean, Apollo had made Aiden immortal, right along with Alex. So it was possible, and I was his daughter. He did it for them. He had to do it for me. I nodded to myself, because that helped cement my belief that there was no way he would refuse my request.
“What do you think, Josie?”
I blinked and twisted toward Alex. “I’m sorry. I dazed out. What?”
Alex’s lips curved up at the corners. “Instead of staying here tonight, Gable says he has enough room at his place for all of us. Then we’ll start to head back in the morning.”
Glancing back to where Hercules was sprawled across the bed Seth and I were sharing, I cringed. The middle of the already weak bed sagged. “Sounds like a plan to me.”
Waking Hercules up and getting him to his room to gather up his stuff took longer than it ever should’ve, but the guy slept like the dead. For only a handful of minutes, Seth and I were left alone. We quickly packed up our things, shoving them into the oversized travel bags. When we were done, I dropped mine on the bed and started to turn, but Seth walked up behind me, wrapping his arms around my waist. He didn’t say anything, just skated his lips down the side of my neck.
Closing my eyes, I leaned back as I settled my hands on his arms. His warm breath and hot mouth had me yearning for more than a few stolen minutes.
“Do you think this is smart?” I asked. “Heading to Gable’s house?”
Seth hesitated and lifted his head. “I don’t know. Part of me thinks it could be a bad idea. We don’t know this guy, but it can’t be any more open and risky than staying in this place. The shade has spotted him. They’ll be out looking for him. Only good thing is they can’t know where he lives. Or they’d already have gone for him.”