Chapter Thirty
Draco
Dorian stepped into my peripheral view to my right.
He was staring at the city, his hands in the pockets of his dark denim jeans, looking casual in the winter air.
We were silent for a brief moment before I turned to face him fully.
“How?”
He knew what my question meant and kept staring off at the city.
“I drank a tonic that made me seem dead. When I woke, they were all gone. I’d served in battle as a healer, and witnessed the gods’ end with you,brother.” He looked at me and sneered at the word brother.
I’d been given a small amount of their blood, to seal the deal, a secret I’d kept even from the others. But Dorian and I shared blood—we were family, to some degree.
“Apollo?” I guessed. Light was Apollo’s thing, plus the medicinal gifts. Dorian nodded.
“I wasn’t a part of the demigods’ demise,” I told him, hoping he knew that I hadn’t been there for that. At least to strike one thing on his list off.
“I know. You were the chosen one, while they killed their own children.” His voice was calm, but his words told another story.
“I didn’t want this—to live this long, to watch everyone I cared about die. Immortality isn’t all it’s cracked up to be, as you know.” I glanced off toward the city, missing Rose. I hadn’t checked on her before I left, knowing it would have conflicted her more with me there. She needed her own time right now, but I would see her soon enough.
“I won’t stop,” he told me, and I knew that would be his answer, but I had to try. Rage had been replaced with resolve, and all I wanted was to make things right.
“I’m sorry about Esme.”
I gambled bringing her up, and by the way his body tensed, I had gambled wrong.
“She was nothing to me, and now she’s dead. That boy bet on the wrong future,” he hissed, and a shimmer of light started to appear around his body. He was going to leave.
“I know hurt; I know pain. If you don’t face the truth, Dorian, agony will consume you like your hatred already has. We don’t have to do this, brother. There’s still time to right our wrongs.” It was a Hail Mary attempt. I sent out a prayer to whoever in the universe was listening that Dorian would see reason and choose the right path, not the easiest.
His eyes leveled me with a glare of torment and pure rage.
“You know nothing of the pain I’ve felt, but you will soon.”
Light started to encase him, and I knew there was only seconds left before he vanished.
“You didn’t deserve her. You didn’t deserve her love.”
He was gone moments after the words left my mouth. I knew it would sting him, but we both knew they were true. She believed there was something more in him, and he was proving her wrong by continuing on this path.
Hell, her sacrifice fueled him more.
The world had barely survived demigods the first time, and now we had one that had thousands of years of anger built up, ready to be unleashed upon mankind. There was nothing stopping him now, not anymore.
But we would still fight.
I hopped back in the truck and drove to headquarters.
Rose was asleep when I climbed into bed at the apartment I was staying at above the restaurant. She was sleeping in my bed instead of at her apartment, just to be close in case anything happened.
She groaned and turned into my torso, moving her hands against my bare chest.
“I feel awful for hitting him,” she confessed, as I knew she would. Rose was kind, but had that warrior’s spirit in her. She lashed out in hurt and anger. Phillip knew it, but that crack of her palm against his cheek would echo in the room for days to come.
