The circular chamber was made of sandstone and lined with marble pillars. Strange glyphs covered the walls, runes that matched the ones gliding over my skin. There was nothing in the room—no couch or bookshelves or Lea—but I wasn’t alone.

“What the hell?” I demanded.

Standing before me was a god, one who looked like he wasn’t much older than me. The winged cap he wore hid most of his hair, but light brown wisps poked out from underneath. He wore a white chlamys cloak.

The god gave a little smile. “Don’t kill the messenger.”

And then he blinked out.

“What the fu—”

Then I saw him. He leaned against one of the pillars, his back to me. The familiar black garb, the wave of blond hair—now slightly longer… Recognition sent a terrible, icy Shockwave of disbelief through me.

“Seth?” I whispered.

A heartbeat passed and he turned his head to the side. “I am not very happy with you, Alex.”

Horror rose quickly and I took an involuntarily step back. Before, I never would’ve feared him—would’ve laughed at the thought. But now I was terrified—not of him, but what he could do.

Seth turned to me and his face was as I remembered—strong jaw and expressive lips, eyes like liquid amber and a beauty that was too perfect. It always reminded me of sculptures done in the images of the gods.

He arched a mocking brow. “What? Are you struck speechless? That would be a first.”

“How?” I croaked, heart racing painfully.

“We’re still connected, and I’ve been waiting for the right moment to… how should I say this? ‘Make a long-distance call via our bond’?” He smiled that smug half-grin. “Shield or not, I can still reach you… with a little help from friends in high places.”

The god…“Hermes?”

Seth nodded. “He’s always been a fav of mine. Bringing you to me will surely piss off some of the other gods, which was all it took to convince Hermes to do it. And before you jump to the wrong conclusion, Hermes is not the god responsible for me.”

The fact that Seth had gotten Hermes to swoop in ticked me off, but it didn’t make sense. How had Hermes found me? Confusion swamped me, but there was something that tasted like blood behind it. “I don’t understand. Where am I?”

“You’re where I want you to be.” He took a calculated step forward.

I inched backward. “That’s not much of an answer.”

Seth cocked his head to the side, eyes narrowing as he kept coming forward. “Do you think you deserve an answer?”

Now I knew what tasted like metal in the back of my throat. Anger. “Am I dreaming, Seth?”

He laughed; while we’d been connected, he had laughed a lot, but now I realized there was a difference between real Seth and the ghost version of him. His presence was potent; his voice held a husky, musical quality to it with the slightest accent. And his laugh… his laugh was deep and smug.

“You’re not dreaming, Alex. Like I said, I used our connection, and Hermes helped. This…” He spread his arms out, and the golden skin was covered in moving symbols. “This is in here.” He tapped a finger off his skull. “It’s like Skyping.”

My hand itched to knock that smile off his face. “So this isn’t real?”

“Oh, it’s real to a certain extent.”

I found that I’d kept backing up and now my back was against the warm sandstone wall. “This can’t be real.”

Seth stopped in front of me and leaned in, coming so close that I turned my head, my fingers curling helplessly at my sides. His breath danced over my cheek. “If you’re worried that I can transfer your power in this state, I can’t. Neither can I really get anything out of our bond. Your shields—” he rolled his eyes “—are still intact. I probably shouldn’t have taught you how to do that, but anyway, you’re not really here. Hermes rode our connection to your subconscious and pulled you into mine.”

Gods, that sounded so entirely messed up.

“I missed you. So relax.”

Relax? I was supposed to relax when I was here, wherever here was, with crazy-pants Seth? My head jerked toward him. Our faces were mere inches apart. “You missed me?”

“I miss the Alex who lived to make me happy.” He laughed at what I was sure was a I’m going to murder youlook that crossed my face. “Okay. I wanted to see if this would work and it did.”

“So if I touch you, then nothing will happen?”

“Correct.” His amber eyes flared. “Wait. You want to touch me? I like where this is going.”

I smiled, and then a second later I planted my fist in his stomach with everything I had in me. Doubling over, Seth grunted and let out a low curse. Moving forward, I brought my knee up, slamming into the same spot my fist had connected with seconds before.

“Dammit, Alex, I can feelthat.” Seth straightened, rubbing his stomach.

Sweet satisfaction tasted like sugar on my tongue. “Good! Because there’s more where that came from, you psychotic douchebag!” I swung again.

Seth reacted quickly, capturing my hand in his. He pushed back, snatching my other wrist, which was heading for his face. Less than a second later, he had both my wrists pinned above my head.

Smiling like I hadn’t just kicked the air out of his stomach, which totally ticked me off, he pressed in. “How many times have I told you, Alex? Hitting isn’t nice.”

I pushed off the wall, but all that succeeded in doing was bringing our bodies flush. Anger deepened the hue of his eyes, as did something else—interest and lust. And even though that made my skin crawl, I realized something important. The cord wasn’t snapping alive like it usually did when I was around him, especially when he was practically on top of me. It rested dormant in the pit of my stomach.

This was real… but it wasn’t real. Still, I wasn’t thrilled with what was happening.

“You’re in my personal space.” My jaw ached from how hard I was grinding my molars. “Let go.”

“No.” His eyes widened. “You might hit me again.”

“You can count on it!” Rage boiled inside me, swallowing the confusion and terror that had held such a tight grip on me. “How could you do that to me?” I kicked off the wall, but Seth pushed back. “You promised you wouldn’t use our bond against me, and you did! You turned me into the president of the Seth Fan Club.”

His lips twitched. “I see nothing wrong with that.”

I seethed. “I referred to you as mySeth!”

“Again, I see nothing wrong with that.”

Hands curling into fists, I glared at him. “It was wrong, Seth! What you’re doing is wrong! Don’t you understand that? Dammit!” Throwing my hand back, it cracked against the wall. Very real pain exploded up my arm. “Shit!”

“Now, calm down. You’re just going to hurt yourself.” Mischief sparkled in his golden eyes, and for an instant, I was reminded of Seth—Seth before he went crazy on aether power, who ticked me off just as much as he made me laugh—the boy who had stolen a piece of my heart.

I stared into his eyes, feeling some of the rage seep away. “What happened to you?”

He blinked. “What?”

Slumping against the wall, I lowered my gaze. “You’ve always been arrogant as hell and crazy, but…”

“Thanks,” he said dryly, but the grip around my wrists loosened.

“But you never would’ve done this to me—used the bond against me.” I lifted my gaze. “You never would’ve attacked the Council or sided with Lucian. Whathappened to you?”

A muscle popped out in Seth’s jaw. “I got smart, Alex. What happened to youis the better question. The girl I met would’ve gone against the Council without a second thought. She would’ve still hated Lucian, but she would’ve seen that what he was trying to do was the right thing.”

“No.” I turned my head, swallowing hard.

Yes!” Moving my wrists to one hand, he caught my chin in his other, forcing me to look at him, and I hated the near-feverish gleam to his eyes. “He wants to change the world.”