Aiden smiled then. A real one, showing off those deep dimples. It seemed like it had been so long since I’d seen him smile like that. “It was kind of hot how you popped out of nowhere and owned her.”
“I need a shirt that says, ‘I owned her.’”
“I can do that for you, but I like seeing you in my clothes.”
A flush crept across my cheeks. “I probably should’ve asked.”
“You never need to ask.” He squeezed my hand gently. “Are you hungry?”
I groaned. “No. Gods, no. My stomach feels like it’s going to burst from all you made me eat earlier.”
He didn’t say anything to that and closed his eyes. Thick lashes fanned his cheekbones, and I got a little lost staring at him. A year ago, I never thought we’d be where we were now. A year ago, I never thought I would’ve frozen in the middle of a fight either.
Aiden’s eyes had opened, and he was staring back at me. “What’s going on inside your head?”
Sometimes his ability to read me was frightening. “I hesitated out there.”
“It happens, agapi mou.”
The endearment almost broke me. “Not to Sentinels,” I whispered, staring over his shoulder. “I completely froze, Aiden. I couldn’t move. I didn’t want…”
“What?” he prodded when I didn’t continue.
I wet my lips and said quietly, “I didn’t want to be out there.”
“Who would?”
Pulling my hand free, I shifted my gaze to him. “You don’t understand. I didn’t want to be there. I didn’t want to fight. I wanted to be anywhere but where I was, and when I saw that daimon, I thought I saw—” I cut myself off. I couldn’t admit that I thought I saw Ares. He would think I was insane. “I just locked up. What if I do that again and more people get hurt or killed?”
“Alex, you’re not responsible for those who died today.” He shifted so that his face was right over mine. “Don’t put that kind of crap on yourself. It’s not right.”
But it IS right, whispered that voice. “People expect me to fight and kick ass. You can’t tell me the people out there didn’t expect me to take out those daimons. And if Artemis hadn’t shown—”
“You would’ve snapped out of it. Just like you did,” Aiden said, cupping my cheek and forcing my gaze to his. “You’re being too hard on yourself. What you’ve been through is going to affect you, and you’re not giving yourself any time to deal with what just happened. You’re not okay, Alex, but you’re not broken and you’re not damaged.”
My breath shuddered from me. “Then what am I?”
“You’re someone who is incredibly strong and brave, and who has been through way too much. Too many people expect too much from you. And it’s not because you’re weak. You’re eighteen, Alex. Even if you were twenty-eight, all this crap would be too much.” His fingers trailed down my cheek, the path slightly uneven from the raised scars. “You’re the Apollyon, but you’re only one person. And you’re not alone. You have me. You have Luke, Olivia, and your uncle. You have Solos, and you have my brother, although he’s a little crazy.” A small, quick grin appeared on his lips. “And tomorrow, you’ll have a whole army. You’re not alone in any of this. You’ll never be alone.”
I blinked back the wetness gathering in my eyes. “I think you spend your spare time studying a book full of the right things to say.”
He chuckled softly, and then his lips brushed mine in a quick kiss. “Nah. I just love you, Alex.”
Raising my hands, I placed them on his smooth cheeks. The tiny scratches from the birds had healed over already, leaving behind faint marks. “I think I’d go crazy without you.”
He kissed my cheek and then stretched out beside me, snaking an arm around my waist. In the quiet moments that followed, I didn’t feel numbness or fear. I was content, warm, and I felt a little like my old self. Tomorrow was going to be a big day, and who knew what was waiting for us beyond that. I didn’t want to think about any of that. Not right now.
I rolled onto my side and stretched up, bringing our lips together. The kisses started off slow, nothing like this morning when they’d almost had a fevered pitch to them, but then they deepened and my heart kicked up, thumping in my chest. His hand curled around my hip, tugging my body to his. Pressed together, a shiver danced down my back as his fingers slipped under my shirt, skimming the bare skin of my waist. My hand moved across his chest, and I wished I had some kind of Apollyon power that made clothing disappear. That would’ve been really handy right about now.
He eased me onto my back and slid a leg between mine. His tongue swept in, scattering my thoughts and pulling me in. A delicious tension built in my lower stomach, and when his body shifted against mine, I gasped. My reaction was immediate, rocking against him.
Aiden shuddered as he lifted his head. Those eyes were heated silver. “We need to press pause for a second.”
I knew I couldn’t have heard him correctly, because he moved his leg in a way that had me trembling, then kissed me again, nipping at my lower lip.
“Seriously, we need to talk for a second,” he said, his voice thick.
A small grin pulled at my lips. “Then stop kissing me.”
“That’s an excellent idea.” He pressed his lips to the sensitive spot under my ear. “Yet so incredibly hard.” But then he did sit up, cross-legged beside me. “I want to talk to you about something.”
The way he said that made my stomach dip. And he was rocking the Aiden is being serious” face. “Okay. About what?”
“About what Artemis said to you out there today.”
“About my hair?”
He shot me a bland look. “No. When she said there was something inside you.”
“Oh. That? Weird, right? Apollo’s son—Hippo-whatever—said the same thing when I was in Olympus.” I sighed, trying not to be too freaked out by it. “I have no idea what they’re talking about.”
“You don’t?” Surprise flooded his voice.
“No.” I frowned. “Do you?”
Aiden opened his mouth and closed it. Several seconds passed, and then he thrust his hand through his hair, scratching his head. “Think about it, Alex.”
Crossing my ankles, I gave a lopsided shrug. “Enlighten me, wise one.”
“You’re really going to make me say it?” He swore under his breath as his hand fell to his lap. “Of course you are. Don’t you think there could be a possibility that whatever Artemis felt, or saw or whatever, means you’re…pregnant?”
I stared at him. “What?”
His dark brows lowered. “Pregnant.”
“No.” I coughed out a laugh and rolled my eyes. “No way.”
Aiden looked at me like I was half-stupid.
“What?” I made a face. “There’s no way it could be that, because that just isn’t possible. I would, like, know if that was it, and I would totally be…” Wow. I sounded kind of stupid, because it really could be that. I’d had my shots, but I honestly couldn’t really say when the last one was, and who knew if they were really a hundred percent effective, or if they even worked on Apollyons, and when was my last period? And…
Oh my gods in Olympus…
I sat up, nearly knocking Aiden off the bed. My eyes were wide. “Pregnant? Bun in the oven? A little Alex or Aiden running amuck? Okay. A little you would be so adorable, but preggers? Oh gods, have I told you how much I hate the word ‘preggers?’ Like, is ‘pregnant’ such a long word that you have to shorten it? I feel the same way about ‘hubby.’ Seriously? Hubby and preggers are the stupidest—”
“Alex, whoa.” He chuckled. “Slow down. Take a breath.”
I tried to take a breath, but I couldn’t get it around the word pregnant. It formed a ball of “holy crap” in my throat. “It can’t be that, can it?”