Deity (Covenant #3)(7)

I struggled to pull myself together. There were important things to deal with. My father, the Council, Telly, the furies, a dozen or so pissed off gods, and Seth. But my brain felt like mush. “What?”

Aiden glanced at the door, as if he was afraid to say it out loud. “Your father wasn’t a mortal. He’s a half-blood.”

Chapter 3

I DIDN’T GO BACK TO MY CLASSES. INSTEAD, I WENT TO my dorm room and sat on my bed, the letter resting in front of me like a snake ready to spread its venom. I was reeling from learning that my dad was still alive and…. I felt so stupid for not figuring it out right away. Laadan’s letter didn’t come out and say it. Obviously, I understood why she skirted the true bomb she was dropping in the brief letter. How else would the Council have been able to get my father under control? And I’d seen him fight. He was like a ninja with those candleholders.

My father was a freaking half-blood—a trained half-blood. Hell, he’d probably been a damn Sentinel, which totally explained how my mom had known him before she met Lucian.

A half-blood.

So what in the holy Hades did that make me?

The answer seemed too simple. I flopped on my back, staring blindly at the ceiling. Gods, I wanted Caleb to talk this through with, because this couldn’t be what it was.


A pure-blood who had children with other pures made happy, little pure babies. A pure-blood who got it on with a mortal created the ever-useful half-blood. But a pure-blood and a half-blood getting together—which was so forbidden, so taboo that I couldn’t think of one situation where a child was actually produced—made… what?

I jerked straight up, heart thundering. The first time Aiden had been in my dorm room and I’d looked at him—well, I’d been ogling him, but whatever—and wondered why relationships between halfs and pures had been forbidden for eons. It wasn’t the fear of a one-eyed Cyclops, but it kind of was.

A pure-blood and a half-blood made an Apollyon.

“Shit,” I said, staring at the letter.

But it had to be more than just that. There was typically only one Apollyon born every generation, with the exception of Solaris and the First, and Seth and I. Which would mean a half and a pure only produced a child a handful of times since the time the gods had walked this earth. There had to be more times when it happened. Or were those babies killed? I wouldn’t put it past the pures or the gods to do such a thing if they knew what could come from the joining of a pure and a half. But why had Seth and I been spared? Obviously they knew what my father was since they’ve kept him around for whatever reason. My heart clenched, as did my fists. I pushed the anger down to revisit later. I’d promised Aiden I wouldn’t do anything reckless, and my anger always led to something idiotic.

A shiver inched its way down my spine. A sound came from my door, much like a lock being turned. I glanced at the letter, chewing my bottom lip. Then I looked at the clock beside the bed. I was way late for training with Seth.

The door opened and shut. I grabbed the letter, quickly folding it. I knew the moment he stood in the doorway without looking up. A level of awareness danced over my skin and the air filled with electricity.

“What happened today?” he asked simply.

There was very little I could hide from Seth. He would’ve sensed my emotions from the moment I read the letter and everything that I had been feeling while I’d been with Aiden. He wouldn’t know exactly what was causing my feelings to be all over the place—thank the gods—but Seth wasn’t stupid. I was a little surprised that he’d waited this long to come find me.

I lifted my gaze. He looked like one of those marble statues that adorned the front of every building here, except his skin was a unique golden color—otherworldly perfection. Sometimes he looked cold, impassive. Especially when his shoulder-length blond hair was pulled back, but it hung loose now, softening the lines of his face. His full lips were usually curved in a smug smile, but now they were pressed together in a hard, tight line.

Aiden had suggested that I keep the letter and its contents to myself. Laadan had broken gods know how many rules by telling me about my father, but I trusted Seth. We were, after all, fated to be together. A couple of months ago I would’ve laughed if someone had said that we would be doing whatever it was that we were doing. It’d been a case of mutual dislike when we first met, and we still had some epic moments. It wasn’t too long ago that I’d threatened to stab him in the eye. And I’d seriously meant it.

Silently, I held out the letter.

Seth took it, quickly unfolding it with long, agile fingers. I tucked my legs underneath me, watching him. There was nothing in his expression that gave away what he was thinking. After what seemed like forever, he glanced up. “Oh, gods.”

Not exactly the response I was shooting for.

“You’re going to do something incredibly stupid in response to this.”

I threw up my hands. “Jeez, does everyone think I’m going to Sparta-charge the Catskills?”

Seth’s brows rose.

“Whatever,” I grumbled. “I’m not going to attack the Covenant. I have to do something, but it won’t be… reckless. Happy? Anyway, do you remember the half-blood we passed when we were watching the Council the first day there?”

“Yes. You were staring at him.”

“That’s him. I know it. That’s why he looked so familiar to me. His eyes.” I bit my lip, looking away. “My mom always talked about his eyes.”