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He closed the door with the wave of his hand before speaking "I know you feel strongly for her"

I et that"

"No I do You forget that I ith you when you hunted down Eric I sahat no one else did--how affected you were by what had happened to Alex And I knohat you did to that daimon"

My jaw clenched and I looked away "He deserved it"

"I’ that"

What I had done to Eric wasn’t soht of a word for what I’d done I sed hard "What are you getting at, Apollo?"

He tilted his head to the side "The kind of love you hold for Alex is adht down entire civilizations Need I remind you of Troy?"

"Is this a history lesson?"

His eyes flashed "Okay We won’t talk about the glaring elephant in the room, Aiden"

"Good"

"I haven’t been entirely forthco with inforhed darkly "Why doesn’t that surprise nored that "Since Zeus created the Apollyon thousands of years ago, the First has always been ofhie"

"She is" He hout history, the Apollyon always has been an offspring of e of who Solaris was descended from and I don’t knoho Seth hails fro, he poured hilass "Seth is the First, but he is not one of od is responsible for hiod was responsible for Solaris"

He offeredAlex was meant to be the First and Seth was the fluke?"

Apollo shrugged "I don’t know And none of the gods are clai responsibility for him"

"Well, obviously," I said dryly

A sraced his lips as he placed the wine back in the rack and then took a drink "That’s not the kicker, Aiden Whoever is responsible for Seth is not clai him for their own reason--the same reason that Lucian would know spells to keepwith Lucian--the sae?"

"Most likely," he said, downing the glass of wine "But there’s another reason why that god would not stand up Because he or she would know that there is another way to kill the Apollyon"

A sheet of ice slipped over od linked to their bloodline is able to kill them I can kill Alex"

CHAPTER 4

THE FLOOR SEEMED TO MOVE UNDER MY FEET AND THE walls changed fro It tookaway from Apollo, away from the bomb he’d just dropped

Of course he followed "Aiden, where are you going?"

I was heading for the basement I needed to put myself between Alex and… and whoever came for her

Apollo appeared in front ofmy route I stepped to the side, but he followed "Aiden, listen to "

"This is not a threat, my friend But if she is about to connect with the First, I will put her down I have to--" He caught oing to war"

I stepped toward hiain Pain tore through me Physical? Emotional? I didn’t know "You’d kill her?"

"I wouldn’t want to" The blue of his eyes glowed "And that’s why I’ives us time, Aiden And we need time I need time, because I have six family members ready to rip into the e an escape or for Seth to figure out a way to connect with her"

"No one is asking you to be here, Apollo I have it covered"

He shot ods know they can’t kill her, but that doesn’t ht not be able to kill her, they will harainst the wall, I pressed the heels of o down there, get Alex, and take her far away fro too hed "You need to take a step back from this, Aiden Look at this from the perspective of a Sentinel--how you were trained"