Dinner was awkward.
Artemis had clammed up after her confession when Luke came out of the bathroom, curling into a miserable ball of fluff with a huge lion tongue cowlick.
Luke didn’t say anything either.
Back at Camp, I was used to hearing how the son of Hermes was a good looking guy from just about everyone from Aphrodite Cabin ( Don’t let Silena get started. You will never hear the end of it). A lot from Apollo Cabin too, some from Hephaestus and anyone with eyes could see Annabeth of Athena was in denial. But right now, his brow was etching wrinkles into his forehead as he frowned, like he was forty eight instead of eighteen. He looked worn out, exhausted and angry and still too pale. The scar on his face was a deep groove as he thought hard about something painful with reddened eyes that were still a little puffy.
Luke didn’t look like the college aged kid with a bright future in front of him right now. He looked like he had just crawled out of a bombed refugee camp and realized the war would never end.
I pretended not to notice.
A tiny plate with a brownie slid across the table Rhea had dragged from the kitchen into our room to bump my arm. I looked up at Rhea. She raised an eyebrow with a silent question and jerked her head towards Luke, who was mechanically shoving the stuffed grape leaves into his mouth. I don’t think he was even tasting the dolmades.
We made an odd picture. Two boys in chitons and bare feet like we were LARPing the Trojan War sitting at Rhea’s rickety, chewed on table with a stack of travel postcards from all over Europe in the center weighed down by a porcelain ballerina. The radio was playing some boring song from the 50s over the smell of steamed grape leaves stuffed with minced lamb and chocolate brownies. Rhea herself was wearing some kind of college hoodie with a flattened red C shape and the letters ST in the middle and jean capris. It reminded me of Corey, because he had a similar hoodie and it reminded of Khione too. The only goddess I knew with a college degree.
I shrugged at my cousin. “My sisters are cunts.”
I was trying to be nonchalant about it, because I didn’t know what else to do. It wasn’t like I could walk outside, Challenge the Fates on Luke’s behalf and then beat them up. I’d get destroyed.
Mom wouldn’t lift a finger if I did something that stupid.
There were a lot of things Mom wouldn’t do anything about.
Sulfur was still burning in the back of my throat. The first day of our Quest, in the backseat of Argus’ van, I said those exact words to Luke and Artemis. ‘The Fates are cunts.’ The moon rabbit had been alarmed, shuffling away from me like she was trying to get out of the blast radius.
Luke had laughed.
A lot can change in just a few days.
“Ah,” Rhea said, frowning. She looked like she wanted to say something, but thought better of it.
I took a bite of my brownie.
“Umph!” Holy shit, it was good. “Wow.”
Rhea perked up. “You like?”
“Yeah.” I took a bigger bite. There were nuts and this gentle honey taste against the chocolate alongside some raisins and the white frosting. “You should definitely give Mom the recipe.”
“Ha!” Rhea barked. “Yeah, I - “ Her face went blank, almost the exact same way Mom’s did when she was surprised. Like the guiding intelligence had just checked out for a second. Luke was staring at me too with his best chipmunk impression, cheeks full of food.
“Sorry,” Rhea huffed. “Say what?”
I swallowed my brownie bite. “You should give my mother the recipe?”
“Yeah,” Rhea sighed, then quietly grumbled. “That’s what I thought you said.” She sighed again, resigned to her own curiosity. “Your mother bakes? ”
“It’s a recent thing,” I reassured them both. “It started in honor of Martha Stewart’s prison sentence for tax evasion. I know,” I said to Luke’s constipated expression. “It was Dad’s idea, he talked her into it.”
You heard right. Dad talked Mom into putting on an apron and everything. She’s gotten pretty good at it too. He gets her sense of humor, even when it bothers him. And he always seems to know what to say to get her to do things she wouldn’t otherwise even think of doing. He’s already a lawyer, so he tries not to use his superpowers for evil.
His words, not mine.
If you’re wondering, my father is some kind of idiot savant.
Or just an idiot.
If he had been there in that clearing, I like to think Mom would have never left.
Rhea’s mouth opened, then closed. Her eyes turned purple as she looked at me like this was the first time we’ve met. “Your mother actually raised you?”
It was my turn to eye her.
Kronos said the same thing.
“Yeah,” I muttered. “She still is.”
“Huh.” She looked like her worldview had shifted a few degrees to the south. “With what Name?”
I thought about not answering.
There had to be a reason the Greek pantheon didn’t know about The Mórrígan. I could say something vague and I knew Rhea would still get it. She might even be expecting me to after she realized how far behind on his education Apollo was, but honestly? I wasn’t interested in keeping Luke in the dark about anything anymore. Between Olympus’ revisionist history and neglect and my own family, he’s had enough of that.
And maybe I didn’t care as much about Mom’s reasons.
I shrugged and picked at the dolmades still on my dinner plate. “Celtic.”
“Celtic?” Rhea repeated incredulously. I watched Luke’s blue eyes widen, and then narrow as he figured it out. “Isn’t that the one with The Hunter - why would she even - never mind,” Rhea said abruptly. She made this strange pained expression that looked a lot like Mom’s Quantum Stupid face. Even with the bug eyes, you could really see the family resemblance. “Answered my own question,” Rhea groaned down at the kitchen table, hands pressed against her temples. “She’s incapable of not being a shit.”
“The Hunter?” I asked. They must be a pretty big deal if Rhea thought their presence in a pantheon was a deal breaker, but Mom never mentioned anyone like that.
Rhea didn’t answer immediately. Her eyes shifted to a deep sapphire color as she picked up our dinner plates.
“The Hunter?” I pressed.
“Someone who really doesn’t like your mother and strong enough to actually do something about it,” she admitted and I reeled a little. Strong enough to do something about it is pretty damn strong. What kind of Hunter can stand up to Fate? “If she hasn’t told you, then I guess there’s safety in ignorance?”
“I guess,” I muttered. I was used to that. Safety in ignorance. I only knew two of Mom’s Names for my own safety, even if I knew of a third now. Her Egyptian one. The Black Pharaoh. “Did she do something to them? Are they feuding then?”
Mom was of the opinion that only cowards and the weak took their anger out on their enemies’ children instead, but not everyone would agree with her. If a god gave a shit about their family at all, attacking their weaker consort or kids might look like a good idea. And if Mom was speaking from personal experience?
That was.
Not great.
“Fuck if I know,” Rhea said unhelpfully. “Ask her?”
She disappeared back into the kitchen.
I nibbled on my brownie.
“You don’t have two mothers,” Luke said over the radio commercial and I cringed at the odd tone in his voice. “You have one.”
“Yeah,” I said quietly. I felt weirdly ashamed. “I have one.”
‘Luke seems okay with you,’ I remembered Castor telling me way back when at Camp Half-Blood, right before he and his brother told me that the ‘summer camp’ for Greek half-bloods was an orphanage. That no one really had both of their parents. ‘But he remembers his Pa walking out.’
Luke’s lips curled into a faint sneer as he shoved his own brownie plate around a little. “So it was all sunshine and roses for you, then.”
“She left once because I wasn’t good enough. For a year.” Well, I’m pathetic. Luke’s Dad never came back and he just learned why and I’m whining about a single year? Why did I even say that?
“But, yeah,” I finished lamely.
Even when she was gone, I still had Apollo that year. Being my big brother 24/7.
But his mortal alias Fred was only at Camp Half-Blood a few times a week for his own children.
Sunshine and roses.
Luke’s pale blue eyes flickered over me. “She’s the one who trained you, then?” When I nodded, he frowned harder. “I knew something was off. Too defensive for self-taught, better at dealing with opponents with more reach and strength than you.”
“Her Celtic Name is a War goddess,” I offered tentatively. “She uses a spear and magic.”
“And too high of a pain tolerance,” he finished. “You broke your arm the first time you broke the Climbing Wall.”
I blinked.
“Uh, yeah?”
“You didn’t notice until later.”
I shrugged. “Heal fast.”
Back home, if I really needed it, I could count on either Mom or Apollo to do something about my boo boos. Preferably before Dad freaked out and called 9-1-1.
Luke made a half-snorting sound that was more like a harsh exhale through his nose. “And did your mother train that into you too?”
I wasn’t going to complain about it. If Mom hadn’t taught me how to not freeze in a fight just because I got hurt, I would be dead at least four times over by now. She never went further than breaking my leg because I was too slow, but that was the last lesson on pain tolerance and she never did it again.
I shook my head, frowning. “Only when she had to.”
A muscle jumped in his jaw.
“Only when she had to,” he repeated softly. “You know, a lot of things about you make more sense now, but a lot still doesn’t. If you are being raised by your mother, why is she making you learn how to fight monsters?”
I opened my mouth, but had to close it.
My first instinct was to say that I was a demigod. Killing monsters was what we do, so she made sure I was good at it.
But why?
It wasn’t like Mom needed me to protect her.
‘What need does She Who Stalks Stars have of this dirt?’ Kronos had asked me.
I don’t know.
I punched Grover my first day at Camp. We’re cool now, but at the time, I was angry at being confiscated by Hermes like some kind of Olympus Child Protection Services case. I didn’t need protection, I thought then. I had my mother.
But she did make me fight monsters.
And this one undead Egyptian sorcerer jerk ass.
Long story.
It’s how I met Cliff.
Luke poked at his dinner. “Demigods are always hunted by monsters and your mother - ”
“Only Olympic demigods!” I blurted out.
His eyes snapped up to me.
The Curse of Lamia, the nasty piece of work cast by a monster child of Hecate, the Titaness of Magic is what lets nature spirits and monsters sniff Greek half-bloods out from the middle of a crowd. It was Hera’s version of mercy. She washes her hands of Olympic demigods forever. The mortal relatives were off limits. No more divine revenge on the affront to her Domain, but if the half-blood was not strong enough, fast enough, lucky enough…
They’ll die anyway.
Olympic demigods.
Time. The Night. The Pit.
Fate.
They are above Olympus.
The Curse should have meant nothing to me, but I’ve been chased by way too many Hellhounds, Cyclops and demon birds for that to be true. And even if there was something funky going on with the Curse, it should have been trivial for Mom to get rid of it. Through magic of her own or just brute force.
Mom plans ahead, but that doesn’t mean I know what those plans are.
“Only Olympic demigods,” Luke said slowly in a very, very quiet tone of voice. “...only us.”
I sat in my chair stiffly, mangling my napkin. I couldn’t think of anything to say that would help.
“Maybe some of them… care,” Luke drawled finally. “But that doesn’t mean it’s for the right reasons, or that they care like they should. My father - ” His voice broke for a split second. “I had to blackmail him into helping the rest of his children in our Cabin while I was gone - “ He was almost panting as his face flooded with hurt. “I had - I had to - “ He savagely bit into a dolmades and mumbled. “He’s still a piece of shit.”
“Are we talking about my children?” Rhea asked as she came back from the kitchen, balancing a tray of drinks. “Because my bad.”
“Grandchildren,” Luke corrected her sullenly.
“I take it back.” Rhea said immediately and refilled his dinner plate. “Not my fault, innocent until proven guilty.”
“You’re a little guilty,” I said, just to be a little shit.
I really wasn’t looking forward to having to travel the whole United States looking for a fucking god weapon during the Night with one demigod and a rabbit.
Yeah, Rhea was helping , but…
That wrapped donut still stung.
My cousin gave me the stink eye. “My children had no choice in how they were raised, but they should know better in how they treat their children. I made sure they knew.” She passed me the drink, some kind of punch, but I could tell Luke’s had nectar mixed in. “Especially Hera.”
Rhea didn’t sound angry, just disappointed.
“You tried?” Luke sounded surprised.
“I fucking tried!” Zeus’ mother threw up her hands. The drink tray went flying and disappeared before it hit the wall. “Advice, warnings, fostering, throwing problem grandchildren at other people when I couldn’t figure out their shit, everything . Didn’t I?” Rhea turned her head and her voice had a sudden deep hum running underneath it that rattled my bones and made my stomach clench painfully. “ Artemis.”
The moon rabbit on the floor flinched, before slowly uncurling from her ball.
“You did,” the rabbit croaked.
“And now Selene’s dead,” Rhea said tersely and Artemis flinched again. That made me wonder if Artemis’ inheritance was a sore spot for the Titan Queen. Rhea didn’t say she couldn’t do anything for Artemis and she’d used Selene against the rabbit before. “Maybe. Probably.”
“Maybe?” I repeated incredulously.
Artemis had the chariot and the new duty as a mirror of our sun, but the previous Titaness of Radiance, Insanity and the Moon Selene’s calcified corpse still hung around in our night sky. Most of her really was a crater-scarred orb of rock and bone dust. The Mist didn’t need to do much, but on a full moon, sometimes I looked up and could see right into her open eye.
I didn’t do that often.
“Nobody knows,” Rhea answered, sounding tired. Luke was looking back and forth between us. As the saying goes, there was a story there. I knew of it, but didn’t really know it.
Apollo didn’t like talking about how they got their chariots. He would always blame the Romans, but we both know that wasn’t true.
“What happened, happened, but even as - “ Rhea made a vague waving motion around her head with a hand. “Gone, she still did right by a Young goddess of the Hunt in the end.” Rhea’s voice was tight and sad, her eyes turning a poisonous yellow color. “Just because I asked her to.”
“...I’m sorry,” Artemis whispered.
Luke choked on his drink as Rhea’s eyebrows flew up into her dark hairline.
“... what?”
“I’m sorry,” Artemis said, louder, but not stronger. The former goddess’ voice was so brittle, like she was about to cry and her small form was trembling. “I - I am sorry. You tried, you warned me about my Domain and I didn’t listen and I don’t - I don’t - “ Big, fat tears welled up in the rabbit’s eyes. “ I don’t want to die.”
Artemis sniffled.
“I - I don’t want - I’m so sorry! I tried to be better!” Artemis cried as Rhea looked more and more disappointed. “I was getting better! I don’t want to die! I’m not - I’m not ready. I tried. Why - why doesn’t it matter?”
“Oh,” her grandmother finally breathed out, softly walking over to scoop the rabbit up in her arms. “You poor, naïve child …”
“I don’t want to go - “ The rabbit’s paws gripped the hoodie desperately. “Please, I don’t want to go, I tried, I’m not ready! Μάμμη!” She cried out, slipping completely into Ancient Greek. Grandma. “I don’t want to go! I’m not ready for it to end!”
Everything ends, I thought.
Rhea left the room, whispering gently as Artemis openly sobbed into her college hoodie.
I don’t want to go!
Luke let out a shaky snort. “No wonder she usually looks like she’s twelve.”
“I resemble that remark,” I said.
“Mhm.”
“Oy.”
I threw my crumpled napkin at him.
I don’t want to go!
Luke slowly started on his plate of seconds, taking sips of his drink between bites. I guess he had been starving, being unconscious for over a day. He needed the resources. I felt something nudge my arm from the opposite side and when I looked down, Atalanta was at my elbow. The lion’s sorrowful golden eyes looked at me for a long moment.
I don’t know what she was trying to tell me and I don’t know what I wanted her to say either. The moment passed and she slowly herded her stubborn cubs from the room.
I don’t want to go!
I pushed my brownie plate away. I didn’t feel like finishing it.
Luke had finished eating and drained his cup by the time Rhea came back sans bunny.
“Sleeping,” she said shortly with a complicated expression on her face. “How’s your arm doing?” She asked Luke. “Range of motion?”
He windmilled his arm for her, wincing when he tried to lift his arm over his shoulder. After the nectar, the ugly scar had healed a bit so it was more of an angry dark pink ropy scar instead of a blood red line of scabbing and ripped skin.
Rhea made a clicking sound as she knelt by him. The writing on the walls lit up as that smokeless fire flickered at the ends of her fingers. My stomach felt like someone had dropped a rock into it. I held my breath on reflex, but I wasn’t going to throw up. Hopefully, that meant I was getting over my god flu.
“ - and when you meet him again,” Rhea was telling Luke quietly as she reopened a part of his shoulder wound. “You can report that my debt has been paid. One intervention, as agreed.”
“I can still - “
“I am not my father, taking advantage of desperation.” She cut off his whispered protest. “A vow like that isn’t until the end of your life.”
I wondered what they were talking about. I almost asked, but my Nana went through a lot of effort making sure I had a basic sometimes-working filter on my ADHD mouth.
Unlike my mother.
If it wasn’t any of my business, then it wasn’t any of my business. I was guessing it had something to do with how he was able to get Rhea to help. I was family, but Luke had to get her attention. I was still curious, but watching him look away from her, clenching his fists, I didn't want to push him.
“Ah ha,” Rhea exclaimed and pulled something from his shoulder. At first, I thought that maybe she extracted a bone fragment that was giving him trouble, but what she pulled out was long, thin, black as midnight. Pinched between her fingers, it looked like it was breathing. I think it even wriggled.
“What is that?” Luke looked spooked. I didn’t blame him. It looked nasty and it had been in his shoulder.
“Hm?” Rhea said absently as she stood up, inspecting the black splinter. “Hair off the dog that bit you, pretty sure,” she said, looking a bit disgusted. “Desecrated as they are, the Hunters still remember how to hunt.”
Ice ran down my spine.
“It’s Night, ” I said immediately and alarm flashed over Luke’s face. “It - she can’t just use the darkness to get here, can she?”
Because if Mom throwing a tantrum at Night meant that our safety net actually meant nothing …
I was going to be furious.
Rhea’s lips pursed.
“Only those of my sister have that ability, so I’m gonna say no.” She waved a hand and our clothes, clean and folded, fell onto the table in front of us. “But you should leave, sooner rather than later. I will keep this here, but I don’t expect it to fool her for long.”
“Thank you,” Luke said sincerely, reaching out for his red vest and jeans. “For everything, Lady Rhea.”
“Yeah, well.” The Titan Queen shrugged “It’s the least I can do. And - “ She gave us a sad, resigned smile. “I would appreciate it, if you can give my granddaughter an hour to…recover.”
“We can do that,” I said quickly, ahead of Luke.
I thought he was going to refuse. I think he wanted to, but pressed his lips together before letting out an exasperated sigh, “Yeah, sure. We can sleep after the sun comes up, or something.”
Oh, I thought.
Rhea raised an eyebrow at me and jerked her head towards Luke as a silent question.
Shit.
“Right…” I began slowly. Luke had absolutely no idea. “About that.”
I floundered.
I had an hour to cram all the relevant information I learned over twelve years into Luke’s head before we walked out that door and got ourselves killed.
My cousin snorted and abandoned me, leaving the room with a mocking wiggle of her fingers as Luke looked at me expectantly.
“About what? The sun?”
“I - okay.” Don’t panic. First rule. Don’t panic . I dragged a hand down my face. Where do I even begin? “My mother and my - “ Sister-in-law, cousin, aunt? Aunt. Aunty Nyx.
…would Tartarus let me call him Uncle?
Focus.
Important shit first:
It’s not my fault.
“My mother and Aunt Night are mad at each other so Night’s more active. Paying attention. That’s making her realm bleed through so the sun - “ I rushed through the rest. “The sun isn’t going to rise until she…stops that?”
Luke stared at me blankly. Then he glanced behind me towards the window. “So when you say Night…”
“The protogenoi.” The Primordial Night. “It means - it means a lot more monsters and I’m not talking about Night’s Hellhound pups.” I licked my lips. Fuck , Mom. You couldn’t just let it go? I’m fine.
Why couldn’t you let it go?
“Ancient monsters. From the Pit and beyond slipping through the cracks. It’s affecting the mortals too.” I pointed at his wrist where the lion charm dangled. “Rhea gave you that so you could talk - remember when Mom Claimed me and the sound kind of died?”
He nodded jerkily.
“Yeah, but for everyone. And we’re going to have to be real careful with sleeping, because Hypnos is grounded so if you wander too far, something will eat you and if you ever feel yourself falling down while sleeping - “
“I better wake up,” Luke said shakily. His blue eyes were starting to widen with fear. “I know. The Pit - “ He swallowed thickly. “I know.”
“Okay.” I tried to swallow my heart back down. “Okay.” Most people just jerk awake by instinct. If Luke knows without being told that falling down in your sleep meant you reached the Pit… “How good are you at Dreaming?”
“I can control it.” Some emotion flashed over his face. Then he slowly continued. “Travel a bit. Change shape. Evade the Dream spirits.”
Hermes Oneiropompus, Conductor of Dreams. Luke was up to five Names inherited from his father, but at least now I knew why. Hermes wanted Luke.
He just wasn’t allowed to keep him.
“So if I say ‘stay close to me’ while you’re Dreaming, you can?”
“I can,” he said quietly.
“Good.” I found myself rubbing the back of my neck.
Some of the things I learned, like Wards and Signs, weren’t something I needed to use just to get rid of some man-eating sheep. Most monsters were far too stupid and weak to do more than hit you really hard with something. Or bite you. A rare few, like sirens or Artemis’ former Hunter, could do more, but the average monster wasn’t something you needed to Ward your soul from.
You just needed to worry about them killing you.
Big difference.
And Signs?
Signs only worked on those that weren’t native to this reality.
In Dungeons and Dragons terms, they were variations of the Dismissal spell on Outsiders. Force one extraplanar creature right the fuck back home with a Will saving throw.
Or at least make it wish it was back home.
I was going to need them now. I found myself wondering what Mom foresaw me needing them for, but if I started going down that rabbit hole (did Mom know she wouldn’t know what Night did and anticipated losing her temper by being surprised? How?) I don’t think I’d come up for air anytime soon.
Here’s to hoping Mom didn’t pass me with a D- on those like she did my Sensitivity.
Because that would suck.
A lot.
“What kind of monsters can we expect?”
“I… can’t answer that,” I admitted painfully. “We can come across anything from the Pit and with the Stirring going on - “
“What?” Luke asked sharply.
I blinked.
Holy shit, they weren’t even taught about that?
But fighting monsters is what demigods do.
“The Stirring. Great Stirring, whatever.” I flapped my hand. “The Pit kind of…turns over in his sleep or something every ten or so thousand years. Monsters that haven’t even been seen in eight or twelve thousand years start reforming and can find ways out to the surface.”
Luke had an unreadable look on his face as he stared at me.
“...and that’s happening now?”
“It’ll reach a peak in…” I tried to remember my mother’s timeline for my Uncle Pit. Shit. I can’t. Soon. “Maybe five years? Some monsters start reforming early. I don’t know how early, but just - be prepared for it?” Luke’s face was pinched and he was clutching his clothes to him with white knuckles. “And not all monsters come from the Pit either,” I finished quietly. “There are other pantheons, remember?”
A muscle jumped in his jaw. He remembered.
Greek monsters hunted Olympic demigods thanks to the Curse. That didn’t mean the demigods of other pantheons were safe from the horrors of their own mythology. Or that we were safe from them.
“I can’t tell you what to expect.”
For a long while, we just stared at each other.
“Ok-ay.” Luke’s voice cracked. His blank mask crumbled as he bent over the table, a death grip on his red vest and yellow fanny pack, until he was just an overwhelmed demigod realizing how far in over his head he really was. “I - just - just give me a few minutes. Please.”
I jumped up from the table like my seat was on fire.
“Sure, I’ll just be - uh, over there.”
I escaped to the other side of the room. Turning on the TV or playing my Gameboy did not appeal to me right now. My throat was still burning. My stomach didn’t feel great. It felt like it was trying to open, but it had been stitched shut. I found myself looking out the window instead. Maybe I was hoping that Night had proved herself more responsible than my mother in the past half hour and I wouldn’t have a bunch of bullshit ahead of me.
Wishful thinking.
The night sky was still a void. The lights from the house only extended just enough to show impossibly dark shadows of Rhea’s crap still in her front yard and driveway.
Fuck.
I had a bunch of bullshit ahead of me.
When we returned to Olympus with the Master Bolt, I was absolutely going to make Zeus bleed for it.
When.
Think positive.
I let the curtains fall back into place -
Wait.
I opened the curtain again. I thought I saw movement. I expected some kind of monster to be probing the edges of Rhea’s barrier wards. I half-expected to see Aura’s ugly, pissed off mug out there, because that was my luck.
Instead, a small black bird fluttered into the square of light spilling weakly from the window.
A raven.
Its black beak clacked noiselessly and I watched a third eye open up on its forehead.
“Mom?” I whispered.
It stretched its wings triumphantly and bobbed its head. Then it hopped out of sight.
I scrambled back from the window.
Mom.
I ran out of the room in a mad dash for the front door. I passed Rhea who had something in her hands and maybe she tried to say something, but I wasn’t paying attention. I yanked the door open and maybe it had been locked because I heard something break before my bare feet hit the concrete front step.
“Lil cuz, what’s - “ Rhea gasped as the black haired woman stepped into the light. The Titan Queen immediately threw herself to the ground. Hands outstretched as if begging for mercy, face down.
“Great One,” she breathed.
Mom looked the same way she always did. Pale with freckles across the bridge of her nose, long dark feathered hair that went down to her back. The Morrigan was just in a white blouse and slim jeans with dress shoes. A silver pendant hung from her neck.
But something was still wrong.
It was her eyes, I realized after a second of staring. Where I once saw a fractal gaze of violent death, there was nothing. As if her eye sockets were empty. There were stars in them.
The Names of an Elder God were avatars. They were always there.
“Mom?” I ventured, taking a step forward.
She recoiled.
“...who interfered this time,” she said distantly, an unreadable expression on her face.
I was suddenly terrified for my half-brother, Erebus.
“Mom - Mom don’t be mad, he helped - “
“He.” She looked at me like she was seeing right through me. “ He?” She hissed. “ You will tell me who - “
I risked talking over her. “He helped, I would have died if he didn’t - “
“I take my eyes off you for a second - “
“It’s been two days!” I yelled at her and Mom stopped mid tirade. “It’s been - Rhea,” I turned to my cousin and a sick feeling coiled in my stomach when she flinched away from me. “How long has it - “ Why was she still on the ground? “You can stand up,” I said quickly. “Please stand up.”
It reminded me of that first night at Camp Half-Blood, with all the Campers and Dionysus, god of Olympus being made to bow.
Mom was looking at me like she didn’t know who I was.
My throat was tight.
“Rhea’s my cousin,” I pointed out weakly. “My first cousin. She can stand.”
My words hung in the air between us like a dead cat. I watched my mother’s brow wrinkle slightly as the stars in her eyes flared, and then dulled. A few winked out.
Mom tilted her head towards the Matriarch of Swarms.
“You can stand,” she told her softly. At first Rhea’s hands pulled back. She froze, or maybe she was waiting for a reaction and when nothing happened, she sat up. I didn’t like the bewildered, fearful look she was giving me.
“I have a very…” Mom’s lips turned up in a strange smile. “... compassionate son.”
“You must have broken a few laws of nature birthing him.” Rhea quipped. She immediately flinched, looking like she was a second from throwing herself back onto the ground.
The Mórrígan smiled wider. “You have… no idea.”
“Um,” I said.
“Of course,” Mom nodded at me like I said something profound. “I will inform your father of your change in status. He’ll be overjoyed.”
Rhea flushed red and then went white as all the blood drained from her face.
I’m guessing that’s a bad thing.
“Wait, Mom - “
“Do you still want it?” It was her turn to talk over me. Her voice was like silk as she took a step closer. I fought the urge to go right back into the house and she wasn’t even looking at me. “You have distinguished yourself in that mess a while back, haven’t you? You have helped my son and that deserves…something, doesn’t it? You already have my patronage. Your father’s. And you know your place.”
“Mom!” My sharp tone cut through the strange tension. My mother blinked slowly and then stepped back.
“If I may?” Rhea wasted no time in asking.
“Go.”
I was left alone on the front step.
My heart was jack hammering. I was a strange kind of numb. I was feeling a lot of things, but they only registered as flashes of emotion breaking out of this high strung fight or flight adrenaline rush and I hadn’t chosen one yet. I didn’t want to run. This was my mother.
“It’s been two days.”
And I’ve had enough of her shit.
“You nearly threw me into the Beyond when you got mad and abandoned me for two days. I prayed to you and you didn’t answer. For two days.”
Mom’s face fell.
“I…I didn’t - “
“Mean to, I know.” I said. “But you still did it.” An ugly suspicion rose in my mind. “I bet you didn’t even check on Dad either.”
Her head jerked in a strange way, like she forgot her body had a spine for a second. The thumb on her right hand started twisting her wedding ring. “He’s…he should be - “
“It’s okay. He was home. I’m sure Apollo picked up the slack.”
She eyed me warily.
“You are…angry with me.”
“Fucking furious,” I bit out. “You know about Luke, don’t you?”
“Yes,” Mom said easily. She didn’t need to ask what I was talking about and that just made me angrier. “It would be impossible not to.” Mom almost smiled. “Sloppy work. Your sisters cut some corners. Overreached.”
‘I suppose it had to happen eventually,’ Rhea had said when she heard the Great Prophecy. ‘An overreach.’
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
“You say that,” Mom said slowly. “As if you expected me to care about dust.”
It was different with Mom. The expectation for gods like Artemis or Apollo to be human just wasn’t there. Most of the time, she followed Dad’s moral compass. But sometimes, I got the feeling that she was like a sentient black hole aping right from wrong.
She knows I noticed.
“Your sisters’ machinations only concern me when they involve you.”
I was almost too angry to be confused. “But - I drew a Prophecy. Hermes, God of Thieves card.” Mom didn’t say anything. She just watched me and I felt my confidence wither a little. “You gave me a Quest.”
A very small frown formed on her face.
“You needed a thief. Their plans for the demigod of Hermes are irrelevant,” she said softly and I felt my stomach drop. “You could have argued for his father. He has immortal children that could have taken his place. Prophecies mean what you think they mean. ” Her star-filled gaze pierced right through me. “It would have made no difference to me.”
“I gave him my boon,” I said like I was swinging a sword at her head. “By the way.”
Her eyes narrowed immediately. “When?”
I only got a few words into the explanation of ‘after getting off Nemesis’ crazy train and the monster attack’ before Mom let out a frustrated half-scream, stalking first in one direction and then back in angry pacing.
“That is - that is fine, ” she gritted out with clenched teeth. “I should have expected it after you changed things when you turned seven. It’s fine. That’s… minor , really. I can adjust. We have time! I can - “
“Mom,” I stopped her. “I have no idea what you’re talking about.”
She opened her mouth, but I held up a hand and stepped off the concrete front step.
“You’ve got - I know you’ve got some kind of plan,” I continued. “Some kind of roadmap or goal and I have no idea what it is. You need me to do something, but I’m left in the dark and you just - you flipped your shit over the Night - “
The stars in her eyes flared. “She interfered - “
“Why does that matter - “
“She ruined everything! ” Mom spun on her heel, flinging her hands out like she was going to wring Night’s neck all over again. “She altered the very composition of your soul, curbed your appetite! And I needed - “
Sudden silence.
I felt like there was supposed to be a cartoon record scratch right now, but I wasn’t laughing.
“Needed?”
A shudder ran up and down Mom’s back.
“Yes,” she whispered. Her shoulders shook. “...walk with me.” She started walking.
I followed, uneasy.
Needed.
She led us down the overgrown gravel road leading from Rhea’s house down to the cold Mississippi beach. Without the sun, there was a cold wind blowing, making me break out in goosebumps. It didn’t feel like it was the middle of June. I could only see by the soft light coming off my mother’s silver pendant. Before everything, it wouldn’t have mattered that it was Night and we were in a strange place and I was (weirdly) sick, because I knew Mom would keep me safe.
My chest hurt, like something deep inside was breaking apart.
We stopped at the shore.
“Mom?” I asked as she picked up a pebble and flung it out onto the cold, dark waves.
“When you were born,” she began. “You exceeded my wildest hopes. You could never disappoint me, not even in failure.”
It wasn’t as comforting as the first time I heard her say that. I frowned, wondering where she was going with this. “Because I took after granddad.”
“I could not be more pleased with you,” she whispered, still looking out at the water. “Adrasteia was my first child. She was made for a purpose and without me she will cease to exist.”
“She’s - “ I started, surprised.
“Yes.”
I swallowed, hard. Mom kept my eldest sibling alive like a cat keeps a tick alive. I heard from Erebus and Aether. The Fates tried to have me killed, twice. My eldest sibling had always been a mystery. She Named Athena and I had never even questioned it when Mom called it her own decision. Just like I didn't blink when Rhea said she gave Zeus to my mother to raise through Adrasteia. In the divine world, I don’t think she even counted as a separate sentient being. More like a semi-independent Name. It was where the term ‘star-spawn’ came from. A planet-bound Elder God, too weak to be of any relevance.
A spawn was not a person.
I’m not a spawn.
But Adrasteia is.
“She inherited all the wrong things, or perhaps, it was not possible for her to inherit the right things. She failed me.” Mom threw another stone. “I tried again. True children, split into three to limit their strength.” She sighed, shoulders slumping. “And it turns out, I needn’t have bothered with that.”
“Mom - “
She shushed me.
“I turned to Time, so that wouldn’t happen again, and it didn’t. Erebus was a disappointment in other ways, an even split between the two of us in inheritance. Useless,” she snarled. “A sweet child. Also an utter waste - but Aether.” Her voice picked up as she found another rock and rolled it around in her hands. “Aether took after your grandfather too. Brilliantly. Strong and free.”
Her face twisted.
“And impatient.” She glanced at me, uncomfortable. “Put me off birthing any more children for a very long time.”
I was so amazed by Mom actually bothering to filter that I had to ask.
“What did he do?”
“Ate his way out.”
“Oh.”
I regret asking.
“Yes…” Her eyes turned away. “And then there is you, my perfect little boy.”
I clenched my jaw.
I wasn’t stupid.
She didn’t mean ‘perfect’ as a form of endearment this time.
Maybe she never did.
She had my siblings for a reason. She wanted them to be a certain way. She still cared for them. I was there when we were picking out manga for Aether or watercolor sets for Erebus and honestly, who gave a shit about the Triplets. The reason she had them wasn’t everything.
But she had me for a reason.
“Why did you have me?” I asked quietly.
Mom let out a long, weary sounding sigh. The waves rolled in soundlessly and drained back out.
“What am I, Perseus?” she asked, just as quietly.
“Fate.”
“Hm.” It was almost a soft snort. “A half-blood child of the eldest gods,” she quoted. “And Prophecies always come true.”
I felt like my heart had a wooden splinter shoved right through it.
“You had to have me?”
“Oh, Percy,” she said quickly, kneeling down in front of me and gripping me around the shoulders. “I chose you. You would have always been mine, but I. Chose. I did not have to raise you, I wanted to. I chose Dorian for you.”
A piece of my stomach unclenched. I could have been like the orphans at Camp Half-Blood, but she decided against it. She wanted Dorian Stele to be my father.
I was still reeling.
I always thought I was born because Mom wanted a family with Dad. Maybe she still did, she just didn't have a choice about wanting it. It felt like I'd been told I was a rape baby. Mom always said I was more important to her, but I didn't know what to think.
“You - you don’t love him?”
I still don’t know how Dorian Stele met Ananke.
A weak smile curled her lips. “He makes it easier to be who I need to be for you.” She glanced at her right hand and the platinum wedding ring with a Celtic knot holding the pink diamond. “So very, very easy…Too easy.” She slumped further. “But how can I?” She whispered, heartbroken. “I have witnessed trillions of mortal lives end, Percy. Humanity has degraded to the point that not even their souls last forever. ”
“Can you just fix it?” I tried. “For him, at least?”
She shook her head. “I’ve never done it before. If I tried and got it wrong, his soul might still not be able to take it, but he won’t be able to die .”
She made a face.
“Best case scenario: he goes irrevocably mad eventually.”
Swallowing hurt. Breathing hurt.
Dad loved Mom. She couldn’t quite bring herself to truly love him back.
Because she would lose him.
“I’m sorry,” she whispered. “You were under the impression that I am all powerful and could never be wrong.” She dragged her eyes back up to mine and raised that hand to the side of my face. “I wish that were true.”
She took my sunglasses off and I met my mother’s star filled gaze with my own.
She didn’t have a ghost.
She had chains.
Shackles made out of molten stardust, moonlight and the bent, warped edges of reality dug into her painfully, weighing her down.
Prophecies always come true.
“You don’t have free will,” I whispered, horrified.
“I chose you,” Mom said hotly, offended, but her gaze slid away, ashamed.
My head spun.
Mom couldn’t free herself.
Aether took after our grandfather. Strong and free.
Adrasteia. Clotho. Lachesis. Atropos. Erebus. They were all here on Earth, but Aether was out traveling the stars.
I took after our grandfather.
And she always told me I chose my own destiny.
“You need me to free - “
She rushed to cover my mouth with her hand. “Don’t say it.”
“Who did this to you?” I mumbled into her palm. I tried to think. Nyx said they had enemies. “Was it - was it The Hunter?”
“It doesn’t matter.” She sighed, and rested her forehead on my left shoulder. “I planned for you to grow as strong as you could as fast as possible. Demigods are flexible, to a point. Your other inherited talents are nothing compared to what you inherited from Father. If you were forced to rely on your hunger to overcome greater and greater challenges then, perhaps…”
She trailed off.
“I had it all planned out,” she said bitterly. “But I’ve made a real mess of things, haven’t I? I failed you.”
All this time. I thought I was a failure because I wasn't able to figure out my abilities, but the reason why she was never disappointed in me was because I wasn't supposed to figure them out. She directed Apollo to us for a reason. All the training was because she planned on putting me through the dangerous life of a normal demigod, not because it was truly necessary. All of the tests were to prepare me for a role.
But at the same time...
She knew I would be found by Olympus and made sure we had our Third Fridays just so I could have a happy last day and be able to be there for Dad. Apollo trained me, but he also learned how to be a better person. He still wasn't stellar, but he was visiting his kids. Had been for years. He was more responsible with his Prophecy Domain, reconciling with some of his Oracles. His twin sister had even noticed. My being at Camp let all the half-bloods know that they were being lied to, and even some of the younger Young Gods were learning. My upbringing meant I could not only change Camp, but that I wanted to. If I didn't go through all her stupid tests, I wouldn't have met my friends.
If Mom was a control freak, manipulating everything, I couldn't just blame her for all the bad things in my life. She chose me.
“I wish you told me sooner,” I admitted, still a little hurt.
“I do too,” she huffed. “I am proud of you. Always will be, no matter what you choose to do.”
"If I just want to fix Camp?"
"Then you will just fix Camp. We can figure out how to manipulate your Great Prophecy to make sure you're safe," she reassured me. "What's another thousand years?"
I bit my lip.
Mom didn’t have a ghost.
She had chains.
If Mom didn’t have free will, how much of anything was truly her fault?
“What do I need to do?”
“You can choose your own destiny,” Mom said quietly. “But Prophecies. Always. Come true.”
The contradiction jumped out at me instantly.
My blood froze.
“No.”
I could feel her shake her head against my collarbone.
“No. I can’t fight you - Mom. I can’t.”
“You can’t,” she agreed, pulling me into a full hug. “But you might survive. I want you to survive.”
I hugged her back like she was going to disappear.
Part of me felt like she already had.
The mother I thought I had, wasn’t real. The mother I actually had was even more flawed than I could have ever imagined.
She had chains.
A thousand thoughts were crashing together in my head. It was weird. The existential dread that you’d think I’d be living with since Apollo told me I might die when I turned sixteen never turned up. But the thought of going against my mother felt like I had just put on a pair of cement shoes at the edge of the harbor.
When she pulled back, her eyes fell down to my gut. “I should remove what Night did to you,” she said thoughtfully. “Someone has already altered it.” A small, but proud smile brightened her face. “But you are doing so well. You’ve already outgrown my ability to predict you.”
She couldn’t see the gossamer thread of stardust light up as she spoke, strangling her. Was it forcing her to think a certain way, right now? I almost said something, but stopped myself at the last moment. Mom didn't have free will. If I spoke up, it wouldn't matter, because she couldn't choose differently. It made me sick. I wanted to reach for her chains.
To rip it off her even if I had to use my fucking teeth.
“You can do this,” Mom said very quietly. “You will never disappoint me. But say the word, and I will take you home.”
It’s everything and everyone else that would go to shit.
I shook my head.
If there was some way to save Luke. To take Zeus to the cleaners and make things better for the Camp. To free my mother.
I had to try.
I chose my own destiny.
Mom smiled, a triumphant light in her starry eyes.
“I do love you, Percy.” My heart felt like it would burst. It was the first time she has ever said it out loud in my entire life. And Mom can’t lie. “I will…apologize to Night.” She smiled ruefully. “I will hate every millisecond, but I will. With any luck, it will help.”
“And you won’t leave me again?”
“I will not abandon you,” Mom said gently. “If you need help, I will hear you. I promise."
"Okay," I murmured, relaxing.
She always kept her promises.
I felt settled in a way I haven’t since I met Kronos, but also a little wary too. I haven't forgotten that the Egyptians were not her biggest fans and there had to be a reason. I knew what this was all for and I wanted to believe her. My mother loved me. She can't lie.
But I've learned enough these past few days to know that didn't mean she always told the truth either.
"And in the end, when all is said and done," Mom continued softly. "We will be just like Father and I. Everything I have will be yours. We’ll travel the cosmos together." She planted a kiss in my hair and placed my glasses back on my nose. “Absolutely inseparable. We will witness it all until the end of time itself.” Then she smiled with that curl at the corner of her mouth and her voice picked up that Irish lilt that told me she was quoting something or someone. "And with strange eons even death may die."
"Where's that from?" I asked.
"An amusing man I met once. Selene's legacy is one that keeps on giving. It’s in the blood, you see." She let out a thoughtful hum. "I believe he wrote a few books."
And in a flutter of black feathers, she was gone. A raven clawed for the sky as it soared over the dark ocean, cackling.
“Flashlights.” Rhea said.
“Check.”
I clipped the small flashlight to one of the belt hooks on my jeans for easy grabbing and chucked the other one into the front pocket of my backpack.
“Batteries.”
“Tons.”
Luke was staring at the Duracell D battery packs in his hands like they were going to explode. He volunteered to be in charge of Rhea’s swivel electronic torchlight, so it was too late to complain now.
“Brownies.”
“Delicious.”
Artemis was quietly munching on one in her red sweater with the hood pulled up. Her ears were sticking out of the holes and a lion charm dangled off her cat collar.
“Clean underwear.”
“Freshly laundered.”
Rhea snorted at me as I smirked cheekily at her. “You are a little shit, cuz.”
“Percy,” I said.
I had never introduced myself, because I was a brat who thought labels mattered. My eldest sibling was a spawn. Rhea was my first cousin.
“Percy Stele.”
Her smile was soft enough to make me feel bad for waiting so long. “I’d introduce myself properly, but eh - “
“Mortal.”
“Right. Your head might explode.” We grinned at each other. “Compass?”
“Know how it works.” I held up the analog watch with the clock face and compass encased in titanium on a tough cord on a carabiner. It looked like something you’d expect a sailor to have. And without a sunrise or set, it would definitely help if we couldn’t hitchhike.
“That’s it then,” she said softly. She glanced down at the rabbit and drifted over Luke before meeting my eyes again. She looked like she wanted to say something, but thought better of it at the last second, leaving her to lamely wish us, “Good luck.”
“Thanks.”
We were off. It felt a lot different from our first few steps out of Camp Half-Blood and it wasn’t just because the sky was pitch black.
“Nine days,” Luke said, turning on his flashlight. Artemis was stuffed in his vest, hiding from the world.
“Yeah,” I muttered. “Guess we better hope Khione was right - “
A cold wind blew past us.
Luke and I stopped walking.
“You don’t think - ?” He stopped and we could both hear what sounded a lot like horses milling around. “No way.”
I ran ahead of him.
There at the end of the overgrown gravel road, two huge white horses nibbled on the grass poking up through the pebbles and sand with golden saddles on their back with ice blue reigns. I could see white and blue envelopes tied with blue ribbon to each of their manes.
“Thracians,” I breathed. I used my considerable talent at pacifying bitchy horse-pigeons at Camp to approach one without getting mule kicked and untied the letter.
Mine was a simple message written in Greek:
‘Anywhere a cold wind can go, so can I.’ - Khione
Luke’s must have been longer, because he was still reading when I looked up. He lifted his head suddenly and then pulled out his Dad’s lighter. I watched him burn the letter.
“What was that?”
“An apology,” he said shortly. He let the ashes drop as he upended the envelope and shook a silver ring out into his hand.
“Woah.” It wasn’t all silver, but alternating bands of silver and what looked like carved ice. I could feel Khione’s signature cold energy drifting off it. “That’s some apology.”
Young gods were notoriously stingy with divine gifts, because even though it was a tiny amount, it was still a permanent investment. Once it was gone, it was gone.
“Should I wear it?” Luke asked me.
“It doesn’t feel cursed,” I said.
“It’s not,” he agreed. “I’d be able to tell.”
Jesus.
What Name was that one from?
“Well, we kind of need all the help we could get?”
His expression shuttered.
“Yeah.” He fit it on his middle finger and his eyes immediately tried to pop out of his head.
“What - what does it do?”
“Wind currents. Air flow.” Luke said, sounding awed. He was looking around slowly like he was wearing night vision goggles. “I can see the wind.”
I usually don’t pray to other gods.
Khione Thrêikion.
But she deserved this one.
Thanks.
A chilly breeze ruffled my hair.
“You know this means I’m right,” I said as I put my foot in the stirrup. Damn, this boy is huge. He’s got to be over six feet tall from the ground to his shoulders. My balls were not going to thank me for this later.
“What?” Luke’s head swiveled towards me, bewildered.
“This is why I don’t hold murder attempts against people.”
Luke paused in mounting his own horse. “No.”
“If I held a little attempted murder against everybody - “
“That still doesn’t make it normal!”
“I’m just saying!”
Thracian horses straight from Boreas’ stables were capable of going 0 to 75mph in about three seconds.
Next stop: Compton, California.
And after we found the Master Bolt, I was going to break a Prophecy.
Here’s to hoping that's not going to bite me in the ass.
‘A half-blood child of the eldest gods, shall reach sixteen against all odds
And see the world in endless sleep, the hero's soul, cursed blade shall reap
A single choice shall end his days, Olympus to preserve or raze’
- The Oracle of Delphi. The Great Prophecy to Olympus, Sept 13th 1945
