I opened my mouth to tell them that they should’ve said something, but then I realized what Seth could’ve done that had them freaking out. “He fed off me.”
That got everyone’s attention.
“It was an accident,” I explained, my gaze falling once again to where Solos lay. “Things got out of control and he fed on me, stopping before I even knew what was happening. It was right before you guys came here. I didn’t know until . . . an hour ago.” Had it only been an hour? Felt like days. “It wasn’t on purpose.” I felt the need to reiterate that. “Doesn’t change what he did, but I think . . . I know he’s been struggling.”
“Damn,” Aiden muttered. It looked like he wanted to say more, but changed his mind. “Right now we need to do something with Seth.” Aiden was moving to Seth’s head. “Before he wakes up.”
“I have . . . there’s a panic room in the basement.” Gable had returned with the boys. I hadn’t even heard them. “It’s not a hundred percent ready, but it’s got walls and a reinforced steel door that will lock.”
“That’ll work for now.” Aiden turned to Hercules. “Grab his feet.”
“What about Solos?” Deacon’s red-rimmed eyes flicked over to the blanket-shrouded figure. “We need to bury him.”
“We will.” Luke wrapped an arm around his neck. “But we’ve got to secure Seth first.”
I stepped forward. “Wait. This doesn’t feel right.”
“I get that it doesn’t, especially to you, but we have to do this.” Alex looked me straight in the eye. “We really don’t know what we’re going to be facing when he wakes up, and I hope—no, I pray—that he’s fine, but we can’t take that risk.”
I didn’t like it.
But I did understand it. Pressing my lips together, I nodded curtly. Everything that happened over that next hour was surreal. I felt oddly detached from it all.
Gable led us down to a semi-finished basement. He’d walked to what appeared to be a normal wall, but hit his hand on the center. A section of the wall separated, swinging open, revealing a room . . . with another room inside of it.
“My mom’s husband put a mattress in here to see if it will fit,” Gable explained as Seth was carried over and placed on a thin mattress. “I guess they plan on doing this room up also. Bathroom isn’t finished, though and . . . none of that matters.”
A hand folded around mine, startling me. Luke held my hand. “Come with me.”
I dug my feet in.
“I know it’s hard.” His voice was low. “But we’ve got to leave him here, at least for right now.”
“It doesn’t feel right,” I told him. “I should be here when he wakes up.”
“And if he wakes up not in the right mind, and he does something to accidentally hurt you, what do you think that’ll do to him?” Luke reasoned. “It’ll make everything worse.”
I wasn’t sure how anything could get worse at this point, but Luke was right. I let him lead me out of the panic room and up the stairs. I tried not to hear the door shutting behind them.
And then we all went outside, this time with Aiden and Hercules carrying Solos’s body to a patch of land south of the landscaped pool. The shovels weren’t used. They weren’t even necessary, because Alex tapped into the earth element and a deep . . . a deep grave was formed. I realized that Aiden had sent Gable out of the room on purpose. Probably to clear his head, make him feel useful. Smart move.
Solos was placed in the grave and two coins were placed over his eyes. I’d never seen anything like it.
And I didn’t cry.
Even though I really wanted to.
The messy ball of emotion pinging around my chest might have been relieved that way, but all I could do was stand there as they moved the dirt back onto the grave.
“He will be awarded a warrior’s welcome in Tartarus,” Aiden said solemnly, his silver eyes oddly bright. “He will want for nothing.”
Staying outside wasn’t wise. Neither was going inside, but what other options did we have at this point? Once inside the kitchen, Gable turned off the oven, but there would be no getting rid of that burnt smell. Everyone split before I even realized what was happening, and I was the last to drag myself upstairs. Halfway down the hall, I heard voices—Alex and Aiden.
I should’ve kept going, but that’s not what I did. Creeping to the door, I stopped when I heard them talking in hushed voices.
“I’m going to call Marcus,” I heard Alex say.
“And I can summon Apollo and see if we can get Hephaestus to finish a cage,” Herc said, sounding surprisingly level-headed. He’d been all business since the Titan had showed up. “That will hold him.”
“It held me for a while,” Alex spoke. “But I wasn’t the God Killer at the time. And I think we all need to accept the fact that Seth has somehow become just that.”
I was hung up on the fact they were talking about putting Seth in a cage. An actual legit cage?
“The problem is, will Apollo answer your summons in a timely manner?” Aiden asked. “He pretty much answers when he feels like it, even when it’s majorly urgent.”
“That is a problem.” Herc paused. “I can go back to Olympus and retrieve Apollo. Or even Hephaestus.”
“What?” Alex demanded, and I wondered if Herc would even return. Didn’t sound like he wanted to be anywhere near Seth. “How?”