Page 12 of Crown of Olympus
“Cruel, vicious thing,” he accused.
“I’ve been called worse,” I replied, smirking as I slid a card his way.
“And you’ve earned worse,” he quipped, arching a fair brow. His chagrin faded, features sobering in an instant. “You’ll do worse, Nyss. You'llfaceworse, if you go through with these trials.”
“I have to, Char. Or they’ll start asking why Hades himself isn’t competing.”
Charon grimaced. “Right, well… You can’t exactly tell them where he went, now can you?”
“There’s another thing to consider,” I began. “You heard Zeus. The prophecy?—”
“Fuck the prophecy,” Charon snapped, slamming a hand down. “Fuck the Fates, and the gods, and the realms!” His voice shook with fury, cheeks flushed, eyes dark.
I placed my hand gently beside his, waiting — silently imploring him to justlookat me.
“I have to,” I repeated quietly. “You weren’t there when the crownalmostsettled on my head. You didn’t feel the weight of it, how fucking heavy fate felt.” I implored him to listen, to try and understand. “It felt like it screamed at me. Begged me to take it. Toearnit. To set things right.”
He finally looked up, pale blue eyes shuttering.
“You know how dangerous this is, right?” He leaned in, head tilted, brows drawn. “How easy it would be for any one of them to take vengeance for Zeus’ sentencing? How his son might want a poetic justice of his own making?”
I nodded. I knew the danger all too well.
“Any one of them would be glad to send you right back here. Only, instead of my beautiful best friend — alive, safe, and whole — begging me to dance, or pestering me to play Ferryman…I’llbe the one ferrying you across the River as nothing more than a wisp of a soul.”
Charon reached out, his hand hovering over my arm like he was fighting to maintain my invisible boundary. Then, with a sharp motion, his fingers flared and he pulled away, hand roughly raking through his untameable mane instead.
“Lucky I have you by my side then,” I said quietly.
“That’s exactly my point, though!” he yelled, shooting to his feet, and began pacing back and forth in front of the hearth. “Nyss, I can’t protect you in the trials. I can’t save you or help from the sidelines. All I can do is stand idly by, twiddling my fucking thumbs, watching as you suffer.”
His voice broke on the last word and his face crumpled.
I unfurled slowly, approaching him as cautiously as I would a trapped animal.
Tentatively, I reached out and tugged gently on a lock of his wavy blonde hair.
Charon’s devastated face met mine through the curtain of his unruly mop, and we both watched as the strands in my grasp withered to white, their colour and vibrance stolen by my touch. I dropped them quickly. The colour returned, but my heart twisted painfully in my chest.
I was forever withdrawing, forever mourning the lost moments and intimacies I could never have.
“I don’t need your protection, Char. I am my own weapon,” I said sadly. “I just need you in my corner, giving me a soft place to land. Like you always do.”
“Zeus’ murderer is still roaming around up there, too,” he choked out.
“I know.”
He sighed resignedly. “Just promise me you’ll be safe?”
“I promise I’ll try,” I told him, though we both knew it all came down to the whims of fate, regardless of what promises we might make.
He bent and pressed the ghost of a kiss to the top of my head, a silent plea woven into the faintest of touches. Without another word, Charon exited the room, the weight of his worry settling upon my shoulders.
Hermes had givenus a week to prepare for the first trial. One week of studying, training, and fraternising with the enemy. We each had the unique opportunity to study our competition up close: to learn their weaknesses and how to exploit them; to demonstrate our strengths and remind them why they should avoid fucking with us.
For me, that meant nobody wanted to come within twenty feet. Everyone knew I was my father’s daughter. Word had spread years ago about the manifestation of my gifts, how they’d exploded out of me and left literal casualties in their wake.
I was dangerous. They all knew it.
