Chapter Ten

“RUN!” he shouts, pushing me in the opposite direction from Waverly, her laughter echoing down the path.

I take off running. Her evil laughter following me. “I told you Moon. You would leave him. Leave him to die. The circumstances in which you did so didn’t matter.”

I turn around, my heart pounding. “MUTT!!” I scream, my heart feeling like it’s shattering as I seem him fall to his knees, clutching his chest. Blood coming from his mouth.

And then he disappeared, into nothingness. “NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!” I scream, running back, trying to reach him. But he was already gone.

۝

Nykole

I walk down the halls of Hypnos’s palace.

“M’lady,” a quivering voice of one of his servants stammers. “Lord Ares is here to discuss plans with you.”

“Excellent,” I say, walking away, towards the throne room.

Ares was lounging on Hypnos’s throne, looking comfortable. While Hypnos stood in the center of the room, absolutely annoyed.

“Well?” I ask.

“Your fake kidnapping went as planned,” Ares says, sounding bored. “The demigods are all looking for you.”

“Wonderful,” I say. “They played right into our trap. As expected.”

“Good,” Hypnos mutters. “When they come to your rescue you can kill them all.”

I couldn’t help but smile, the stupid demigods would come running to save me, and they would be falling right into my trap.

I will prove my father wrong, he should never have doubted me. And for that he would pay, along with every other gods and goddesses that chose his side.

I was not weak, and I never will be. I will crush every single demigod that got in the way of our plans, and together, we will all rule Olympus. What can I say? I always chose the winning side, so naturally, when the soon to be king of the gods came to me, I just had to say yes. Besides, Olympus has been slowly falling apart for years now, there was no reason that I couldn’t help speed up the process.

“If I may,” Ares says, standing. “I feel as though not killing them and letting them rescue her would of course be more beneficial to us. Having someone on the inside.”

“We already do,” Hypnos says with a flick of his hand.

“Yes, but there is always something in having backup just in case. Besides, a newly discovered demigod, no one would be suspicious. Not until it’s too late,” Ares says.

“He has a point,” I say. “One would think that you were sleeping with Athena and not Aphrodite.”

Ares turns red, but if it was from anger or embarrassment I couldn’t tell.

Hypnos laughs darkly and claps him on the back, “She got you there didn’t she?”

Ares snarls, “Don’t forget Hellhound, you are an untrained demigod. You are nothing compared to me.”

I meet his glare, trying to hide the fact that his threat cut me deep by bringing up my anger. My hate for my father. For everyone and everything.

Hypnos claps his hands together, “Right you are my old friend. Which is something I fully expect you to remedy soon enough. For now, go, before you are missed.”

Ares gives a curt nod and walks out. His back stiff and body tense. Like he was hiding something.

“What is it?” Hypnos asks. “You look thoughtful. You never look thoughtful.”

Mentally I clench my fists. Before I turn around, “Nothing's wrong. Why would it be? Everything is going exactly how it was planned to go.”

“Yes,” Hypnos says with a small smile. “It is.”

I turn around and walk away, not liking the way his eyes turned evil, just for a second before he had blinked and the monster had been gone.

۝

Moon

I bolted upright, I was laying in the middle of the clearing where I had fell after seeing Mutt disappear. My breath hitches, had it all been a dream? I slowly stand, my clothes were soaked and my hair knotted. The minute I was standing the air around me shimmered and suddenly I was standing in a room.

My breathing was still heavy as I looked around, my eyes wide, I was not used to this. The women, Waverly stood in front of me.

“Tell me Moon,” she says, her voice soft. “What do you wish for?”

“Where’s Mutt?” I demand, my mind processing her question.

“There,” she says, pointing to the far wall. Mutt was slumped against it, blood gushing from a wound under his white T-shirt and his mouth. His eyes were closed, his body still.

“Oh my god,” I cry, rushing forward. “Mutt!” I slam right into an invisible wall, falling on my butt.

Groaning I stand back up, breathing felt foreign. I begin to bang on the wall.

“Mutt!” I call.

Not understanding the sudden need to see if he’s okay. But I did, after all, I was the reason he was here. I had run away from him.

Emotions claw their way up and echo through my pleas that remain unanswered. Guilt. Pain. Horror. Sadness. Anger. But none of those surprised me, those were normal. No, what surprised me was love. I was feeling love. I squash the feeling down, chalking it up under distress and guilt. I did not love Mutt.

I fall to my knees, my knuckles bloody, tears streaming down my face. Mutt hadn’t moved an inch.

“Are you done?” Waverly asks in a bored tone.

I glare at her, “What did you do to him?”

Waverly shrugs, “Nothing too damaging.”

“What do you mean?” I cry out. “He’s dying!”

At this Waverly laughs, “Of course he’s not, love. He’s already dead. Or too close to do anything but die.”

“No!” I shout. “Fix him!”

“I’m afraid I can’t do that,” she says, looking at her nails.

“Why not!” I snap.

“Because you forget, love, I’m the bad guy in this scenario.” Waverly says with a small smirk. Dropping her hand to her side.

“Well stop being that bad guy and FIX HIM!” I shout.

“Afraid not, love, I enjoy being the bad guy. It’s so much fun. Besides, you haven’t answered my question yet,” she sticks out her lower lip, like she was pouting.

“I WISH THAT I WAS NORMAL! I WISH THAT I HAD NEVER MEET QUINN OR MUTT! I WISH THAT I WAS COMPLETELY NORMAL WITHOUT ZEUS AS MY FATHER!” I scream at the top of my lungs.

Though somewhere deep inside I knew that wasn’t really what I wanted. Just as I knew, now that I had said it, I couldn’t take it back.