Apollo lay unrecognizable and unconscious on the floor. His face was beaten and broken to the point that I could see bone and tissue.
“What did you do?” Hera screeched
Gavin opened and closed his fist, still staring at Apollo. Rage, unlike anything I’d ever seen, burned in his glowing eyes.
“I became the monster he wanted me to be.”
The tone in his voice made me want to weep. Tears continued down my face as I tried to squirm free, but Persephone and Aphrodite’s grips on me were so tight that I knew they had left bruises on my skin.
Gavin’s gaze met mine. My chest caved. An audible whimper escaped me, and I finally wrenched free of their clutches. The other gods surrounded Apollo in shock as Gavin moved my way.
I threw myself into his arms, my body becoming sticky with blood when he caught me. I didn’t care.
He was okay. Hurt, but okay, and I…
A sob choked in my throat as I pulled back and pressed my palms to his now-scarred cheeks. He held me tight, his body trembling.
“I told you I wasn’t the knight,” he whispered.
His forehead pressed to mine, and as the room descended into chaos around us, all I saw, all I felt, was him.
“Fucking Styx, will someone get him out of here?” Hera sneered.
Artemis’s wails filled the room as she sobbed over her brother, begging Zeus to help him. Hera had grabbed another glass of wine, as had Aphrodite and Hermes. Persephone ran past us and hurdled into Hades’s arms, who was still leaning just as casually against that pillar as he had been before the fight.
I barely noticed.
“Are you okay?” he asked.
“No,” I answered. “Are you? You’re hurt—“
“I’ll heal,” he swore. He wiped my face, eyes glistening as a rough smile flickered on his bleeding lips. “You never have to be afraid again,” he said. “You’re free.”
A tremendous burden had been lifted from both mine and Gavin’s shoulders. I felt like I could truly breathe.
There was something different in Gavin’s gaze. I held his face, memorizing the lines and the way he stared at me. But something else…
I wavered on my feet, blinking profusely as I tried to gather my wits.
“Chloe?” Gavin’s hand tightened on my face, my waist. “Chloe!”
“I just need….” My eyes were heavy. I couldn’t stay upright. My knees weakened—
The last thing I saw was Gavin’s face before I collapsed into darkness.
CHAPTER FIFTY-THREE - CHLOE
I WOKE IN a room that wasn’t at the retreat.
I was in Gavin’s bed, back in California, staring at the silver ceiling fan above my head.
Fucking Styx, did my head hurt.
I wiped my face with my hands, pressing the heels of my palms hard into my eyes. Gods, I was so sore, so stiff… Why was I back home? How long had it been since the retreat?
Suddenly a dizzying feeling washed over me, and I was thrown down the rabbit hole of my past life.
Everything flooded my mind and body. It was such an overwhelming wave of emotion that I jerked upright and launched myself into the bathroom, vomiting all over the floor before I could reach the toilet.
