The Struggle(2)

A secretive smile curved the corners of his lips. “There is so much you do not know.”

Why I hadn’t blasted the glittery fuck-face out the window yet was anyone’s guess.

“She loves you,” he said quietly. “Do you even realize what that means?”

My throat closed off. Within a traitorous heartbeat, I could see Josie in my mind’s eye—her stricken face when I’d admitted to feeding on her. I saw her after I’d taken out Atlas and was about to turn Aiden into a Slurpee. Her and all that hair, all that blonde and brown hair flowing around her beautiful face as she’d nicked me with the blade tainted with the blood of a Pegasus.

I saw her staring at me like she had no idea what I was.

And then I saw what a dark part of me knew I was capable of doing to her. Closing my eyes, I swore under my breath. I didn’t want to see her.

“No,” he murmured. “No, you do not.” There was a pause. “But you will.”

Scrubbing my hand across my jaw, I opened my eyes and stared out at the ocean as cars raced past us on the highway. “I’m only going to ask you one more time. What do you want?”

“Do you understand what it means to be a God Killer?”

“That I can pretty much kill anything?”

“That was an unintelligent response. And I mean that as no insult. The knowledge of what you are capable of exists deep inside of you. It is what led you to force the awakening.”

It was that thing inside me.

“You have made your choice,” he stated again.

“Yes,” I answered. “I can’t . . . I can’t be around any of them.”

The leather seats crackled as the nymph leaned toward me. I didn’t need to look at him to know he was way too close. “And you know where you want to go?” When I didn’t answer, he asked, “Why would you need to drive there?”

Looking over at him, I raised my brows. “Because I figured I’d drive and then I’d have to fly there.”

The nymph’s ultra-bright red lips curved into a smile. “You are the God Killer. You merely need to picture where you want to go and go there.”

I stared at him. “You’re shitting me.”

“Try it.” He sat back, his eyes like jewels. “And you will learn you are not just capable of death. You are capable of so much more.”

My first inclination was to simply throat-punch him right through the car door, but I decided to humor him. “Like what?”

“Like creating life.”

A harsh laugh burst out of me. “Yeah, you’re about a second away from ceasing to exist.”

“Try it,” he cajoled, completely unafraid. “Picture where you want to go. Try it just once.”

Glaring at him, I shook my head, but I did it. I don’t even know why, but I did. I pictured the rocky coasts and blue-green seas, and I could almost feel the golden sun on my skin, but it was more than that. There was another voice that sounded like mine, but wasn’t. It told me where I needed to go.

Andros.

Warmth soaked into my skin, and my eyes flew open. “Holy . . .”

Shock nearly bowled me over. I was no longer sitting inside the SUV. Stumbling back a step, I realized I was staring at the frothy sea—the sea I hadn’t seen in years. My jaw unhinged. Impossible. I had to be hallucinating.

“See,” the nymph said, and I jerked to the side. He was also beside me. “You are capable of a lot, God Killer.”

I shook my head. “I don’t . . . How is this possible?”

The nymph turned to the ocean and then his lifted his hands, spreading his arms out. “Everything is possible.”

This couldn’t be real, but as I turned around, I knew . . . Dear gods, it was real, and I was half the world away from Josie in less than a second. I could barely process it.

We stood on the thin strip of white sand and rock of Andros, the northernmost island in the Cyclades. Mountainous and full of water-fed valleys that bore the fruit I used to sneak as a child, it was barely tame.

The weirdest damn sensation itched under my skin as I took in the path leading to the stairs climbing the steep hill. Taking a deep breath, I lifted my gaze to the sprawling sandstone home that was perched atop the highest peak. It was a monstrous building, three stories with several wings that, if it were the same, contained nothing more than marble statues and oil paintings depicting the gods. Balconies surrounded the upper two levels, with many nooks and crannies to hide in.

The veranda wasn’t empty.

“What the . . . ?” I trailed off.

There were people out on it, scores of them staring down at where we stood, and I could sense the aether in the pures and the fainter traces in the halfs.