So here I am. I will do the rehab like I am supposed to. Shit, I will do anything just as long as they don’t send me back. The room flickers in the next second, her office changing in a blink to the darkened cell of Tartarus and then back.
Gods, give me strength. I looked down into her eyes and saw a fire there I hadn’t noticed before. A stray strand of hair had come loose and was hanging in her face. I reached up and tucked it behind her ear, letting my hand gently cup her face for a moment before pulling away. “I don’t want to see you get hurt,” I said quietly.
Quietly, I walked through the graveyard and looked at the old and crumbling headstones. Leave it to the pirates to have the most interesting names. Honestly, I was surprised that there weren’t any Seymore-Butts…oh, wait, nevermind. There it is.
They still saw the illusion, and I had a feeling no matter how many times they walked across the bridge, they’d end up at the beginning. “You have to trust me. I think this is part of a test. We have to trust each other and have enough faith to get through each challenge.”
I silently curse Eros because he knows what he is doing. He is playing with me, like a cat plays with a mouse. He says something to pull more information from another, and back and forth they go. Only I am not a house cat, much less a mouse.
Is Hera alive? Safe? Did my bargaining work? Did Zeus set me free? Am I imagining all of this? Another nightmare? Did I really escape or just trade one prison for another? I have so many questions and no answers.
“Oh, but I am. I am you. The real you. What would your precious family say if they saw the real you? Do you think they would still love you? Would they love the Athena we both know you really are? Take a good look! This is who you really are. Who WE are.”
Kara displayed a certain grace when she was using those weapons. A sense of…” he thought for a moment, “…fluidity, for lack of a better word. It was like she and the weapons were one. To be honest, it was like watching you when you practice. She’s very good.”
As things seem to break apart, I take the opportunity to make my way over to Atë. I lay my hand on my half-sister and best friend’s shoulder, and it’s as if we haven’t been apart for centuries.
I could feel pain radiating from Sayeh, such a bone-deep pain that I felt like I was being crushed under the weight of it. I hoped Artemis wasn’t able to feel this.
We both probably had the same uncomfortable feeling in our gut: that something had happened to Aunt Demeter, and it had nothing to do with a man.
“Ok, fine, I wouldn’t necessarily say I’m up to something, but I also wouldn’t necessarily say I’m not avoiding something, either.”
