Page 40 of Arrogance
I shook my head. “I suppose there is not. I’ll miss you, Adonis.”
“I’ll miss you too, Apollo.” He turned around and began striding away from me not daring to look back.
But I couldn’t contain myself. He was an addiction. My obsession. I sprinted after him, trudging through the sand. “No! Wait, Adonis!” I grabbed him and spun him around, throwing him down into the sand and colliding on top of him. I made love to him once more and the same process repeated again and again. For every attempt he made to escape, I could not possess myself to let him go. And eventually the time came where I found myself standing still, my feet dug deep into the stand, knowing I was postponing the inevitable. And when he walked away this time, he never looked back, and I never chased after him.
That night, I could not manage to leave the beach. I sat in the sand, just staring out into the deep, vast ocean. Thekatasterismoiand full moon served as the only source of light. This is what happens when I allow the sun to retreat to give Artemis the opportunity to shine at night. I feel weaker and even slightly depressed. But on a night like tonight, my emotions were running wild at an all-time high. I had lost Adonis, all because I let the two of us make a foolish mistake.
But I was not only mad at myself. I was irate with Artemis as well. How could she give me such an ultimatum? If the roles were reversed, I don’t think I would ever give her such a threat. I could never force her to give up the love of her life. I hated her in that moment. She was an arrogant and despicable goddess. I wish she could see the error in her ways. I beat my fist into the ground, disappointed by all that she had done to me.
“I’ve seen the wrath of many gods, but not yours, surprisingly. You should find a target to release all that anger out on,” a voice called from behind me.
I abruptly rose to my feet and spun around, shocked to see that it was Aphrodite stepping towards me. “Aphrodite!? What are you doing here?” I obviously knew the answer to my own question, but needed her to say it, to believe it.
“Why do you think I am here, Apollo? If you think I don’t know about yours and Adonis’s little affair, then you’re sadly mistaken. I’ve known about it for over a year now. Just what sort of fool do you take me for?”
She seemed calm, but I could still sense that she was seething on the inside. Aphrodite would never approach me just for a casual conversation. She was a strategic and calculated goddess. So, I knew she must have had a strong enough reason for visiting me here. But the fact that she knew about me and Adonis for this long without saying a single word was shocking, to say the least.
“But if you knew about us the entire time, why didn’t you…”
Before I could finish my thought, she was already interrupting me. “You should know better than anyone else, Apollo. Telling Adonis he is forbidden from seeing you would only drive him further away from me and into your arms. You know how we operate. Us gods and goddesses always want what we can’t have. Mortals are the same way. If I put a stop to you and Adonis, he would only become resentful of me, and his love for you would grow stronger,” she explained.
“Your goal was what, then? To bide time to find a way to make Adonis fall back in love with you over me?” I asked.
“Precisely. And sure enough, I made the right call, as I always do,” she iterated with such confidence. “And to think you’re the prophetic one?”
She let out a laugh of mockery before continuing. “Because Adonis can no longer continue to make love to you, he will surely come crawling back into my arms. I will be the one there to console him, to mend the pieces of his broken heart.”
Aphrodite spoke on Adonis as if he was her servant. As if she controlled and manipulated him to no end. I was growing more resentful of her the more she spoke. “And you would try to persuade him otherwise, to love you once again, knowing deep down he loves me far more than he could ever love you?” Yes, I tested her, but these were words she needed to hear. Thetruth.
“Oh Apollo! You imbecile! What a poor excuse for a god you are. Just listen to yourself. You act as ifloveis a permanent and consistent feeling. There will be days when Adonis loves me more and some where he loves you more. Even when he is in the Underworld, I’m sure there are times when he thinks he loves even that wretched Persephone more than us. Love is a fleeting feeling. It comes and goes with the wind. And this is coming from the Goddess of love, mind you.”
Aphrodite spoke with such crassness about her own beliefs. It was unheard of. She had to have known Adonis loved me more than her. This was her defense mechanism. Denying what she knew to be true to protect her own pride and ego. “I would watch your tongue, Aphrodite. You have no idea who you are dealing…”
But before I could even finish that statement, she was holding her stomach, laughing hysterically. Her loud cackling overriding my voice. “Oh, I know exactly who I’m dealing with, Apollo. But the real question is, do the other gods know whotheyare dealing with? What if a dangerous slip of my tongue would reveal to them about you and Adonis making love on the Shrine of Delphi? Hmmm? What have you to say to that?”
I took a step back when she confirmed her knowledge of my transgression. I was bewildered. How could she possibly have known about that night? Did Adonis confide in her? No. There was absolutely no possible way it could have been Adonis. So that must mean that it was…Artemis!?
“You would never do that! That would only implicate Adonis and you would never want him to suffer from the wrath of Zeus,” I called her out on.
“Like I said earlier, love is fleeting, even for me. Adonis is a mortal. His life will end and ours will go on for an eternity. Whether his life ends today or even years from now, it will be a minor occurrence on our time scale.” Aphrodite was more vicious than I ever gave her credit for.
“How can you say such a thing if youtrulylove him?” I inquired.
“Enough about Adonis. You are starting to bore me,” she nonchalantly stated. “That’s not the reason I’m here at all.”
“It’s not?” I raised my brow at her.
“Of course, it’s not. Let me make my position here very clear to you, Apollo. I have information that will ruin you and your Godship. I could easily run to Zeus and confess to him all that you and Adonis did at the Shrine of Delphi. But I don’t necessarily have to do that.” She paused. A wicked grin emerged on her face as she stated this.
“This is a power move, then? You want something from me? So, what is it!?” I shouted heatedly, now impatient and irate with her for putting me in this situation.
“Now, now, Apollo. No need to become so indignant with me. After all, none of this would have even happened if you and Adonis had not been so careless. But even beyond your culpability in this, there is another who should receive further blame, is there not?”
She was referring to Artemis, my twin sister, who has completely betrayed me by disclosing this secret to Aphrodite. I could not believe Artemis would do such a thing. Did she really want me to suffer in such a manner? Did her arrogance as a goddess know no bounds? “Yes, I can admit Artemis is also heavily involved in all of this. Do not think that I will let her get away with this,” I clarified.
“Oh. I’m quite aware of that. I know for a fact that youwon’tlet her get away with this. Which is exactly the reason for my being here. Artemis has not only wronged you and Adonis, but she has also violated my trust and poses a major threat to me as well,” Aphrodite mentioned.
“And what do you expect me to do about that?” I questioned her.
