Page 69 of Heroines of Olympus

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ICARUS

The morning sun streams in through the giant window, onto the cream-colored satin sheets that are entangled around Icarus and her mystery woman lover. They kept the masks on all night, but now it is morning and Icarus is owed answers. There is more going on here. Icarus can feel it, and her heart is telling her it matters.

Icarus takes off her own mask, setting it on the table beside the bed. She turns back, and the woman is awake, sitting up and removing her rose gold mask. Icarus gasps when she sees it is none other than Aphrodite. The shock is short-lived though as her heart pounds in her chest, as if it is trying to leap out and directly reach the goddess across from her. It should be confusing, but it feels right.

“What’s happening?” Icarus asks, “Tell me you’re feeling this, too?”

Aphrodite’s eyes well up with tears and her voice is so soft when she answers that Icarus almost cannot hear it. What she says, though, sends an echoing shockwave through Icarus’s soul.

“It’s been five hundred years since I’ve held you in my arms,” Aphrodite starts, putting a hand up to halt Icarus when she goes to ask a question.

“I’ll start over. Five hundred years ago, I was with the love of my life, Andromeda. She was incredible. Everything about her was sunshine, and it was impossible to be unhappy in her presence.”

Hearing the name Andromeda has Icarus’s head once again screaming at her to see an answer that should be right in front of her.

“My beautiful ray of sunshine had a curse, however. I don’t think even she knew the entire story, but her parents had done something stupid that royally pissed off the Fates, causing them to curse their daughter. They granted her mighty phoenix powers, making her immortal, but there was a catch. She will die in every life she lives, but she will be reincarnated. However, the gap in between death and rebirth was not a set amount of time, meaning we would never know when she came back.”

Icarus takes Aphrodite’s hand, intertwining their fingers.

“I still don’t know what happened, but I lost her. She died in my arms, poisoned by a coward that I still haven’t found to this day. I waited. Everywhere I went, I watched for signs that she had been born again, certain that if I was patient, she would come back to me. I knew when I found her, my soul would recognize hers immediately, even though I knew she wouldn’t recognize me. It was a worthy price to pay to get to have her in my life again.”

Aphrodite’s voice is thick with emotion, and Icarus’s mind reels as she puts together the pieces. Aphrodite’s shocked reaction to her, the pull they feel toward each other, the electrifying lovemaking.

“Am I… am I her? Your Andromeda?”

“Only you can tell me that. Did last night feel different to you than previous encounters? Did it feel more magnified, more intense?” Aphrodite asks.

Icarus does not even have to think. “Yes. I have never felt anything like I felt last night.”

Aphrodite gets out of bed and comes back with a beautiful box covered in thorns. Icarus watches as Aphrodite uses her blood to open it, pulling out a medallion that looks ancient and the sunstone around Icarus’s neck hums.

Icarus holds the sunstone up to the disc, and it clicks into place in the medallion.

Aphrodite throws her arms around her, hugging her. “I’m so sorry. I know the distance isn’t there for you, but for me it’s been so long. Hundreds of years I’ve waited, and waited, convinced the Fates had kept you from me.”

Icarus cries softy as well as she responds, “No, the distance may not be there for me but I feel something here. My soul feels like it’s found something it lost that was very dear. I may not have the memories, but my soul and my heart clearly recognize you.”

Icarus’s mind briefly flits to what she saw in the dungeon. Should she ask about Aphrodite about it? Icarus will definitely keep an eye open, but there is no real benefit to bringing it up now.

Aphrodite explains some of the phoenix powers Icarus will manifest on her twenty-fifth birthday as Icarus lays in bed envisioning the beautiful golden wings she will have.

When Icarus boards the ship to leave the island and return to the War Temple with her regiment, she feels like a completely different person than the one who disembarked from this same ship a couple of days ago.

They will keep things between themselves for now, but with Aphrodite making plans to see Icarus soon. A relationship with a god will get out and complicate things for her amongst the Heroes, but it is worth the risk because Icarus’s heart finally feels like it has found that missing piece. She just never would have imagined it would be in the shape of Aphrodite.

When she boards Ares’s ship, Athena is there waiting for her.

“Hello, Icarus.”

Icarus bows. “Hello, Goddess.”

“That was quite an impression you made at the Trials.”

“Thank you, Goddess.”

“Is it true you have your heart set on the Pegasus Legion?”

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