Frankly, I didn’t give a shit about the rest of them, but her?

I sat up, barely aware of the thin mattress that was under me, and swung my legs over the side. Standing, my heart pounded in my chest as I took a step forward. Lifting my gaze, I found a steel-reinforced door. Where in the hell was I? Didn’t matter. That door wasn’t going to hold me. They had to know that, so either they were incredibly stupid or they had summoned Heph to fashion the same kind of cage that had kept Alex in one place.

But a cage wasn’t going to keep me. Not now.

Even if it could, I couldn’t let that happen. Because even if I was locked up with no immediate way out, Josie was here.

She would free me.

I knew she would.

And I would destroy her.

Gutted, I knew what I had to do. There was no more fucking around, no more bullshitting myself or Josie, especially not her. I should’ve done this the day I’d fed off her.

I knew I was on the wrong path, had been on the wrong path since the moment I saw Josie in the stairwell at Radford, but I hadn’t done anything about it. Now I would. I would do something about it, even if it pissed off Apollo and the other gods. I’d do it to keep her safe.

Safe from me.

I walked to the door and grasped the knob. Summoning the element of fire, I melted the internal gears. Metal gave way, rendered useless. The steel would’ve been good if someone was trying to knock the door in, say a mortal, but it didn’t stop me. They would’ve known that, so I knew on the other side there’d have to be a guard.

A distant part of me hoped it was Aiden standing guard, because I would have loved to knock his ass out for shits and giggles, but as I threw the door open, it wasn’t him.

Across from the room, Luke pushed off the wall, reaching for the thin icicle-shaped blade. “Shit.”

I sprang forward, faster than even he, an extremely well-trained Sentinel, could move. The power coursing through me had me feeling off the hook. Spinning, I swiped his legs out from under him. Luke stumbled, letting out another curse as I shot behind him. Whipping around, I folded my arm around his neck from behind. I put pressure, the right amount, on his throat. His hands flew up, fingers digging into my bicep.

“I’m sorry, man.” My voice was low, rough. “This isn’t personal.”

Luke slammed his fist into my arm, but I reached down with my free hand and grabbed the thin blade I knew was dipped in the blood of a Pegasus. Moving lightning quick, I dragged the sharp edge across his forearm.

The result was immediate.