Chapter Thirty-Nine

“Why?” the girl whispers. “Because I followed in my mother's footsteps?”

Then she turns away, unfortunately that meant towards me. Her eyes widen slightly, and I see a lone tear streak down her cheek. Then she bows her head and shoves past me.

“Derek!” Athena says. “What a wonderful surprise.”

I look at her, then after the girl. And then I turn and run after the girl.

“Hey!” I call, catching up with her. I touch her shoulder. “Listen, I’m. My name is Derek, and I just thought I should apologize. See, Athena is my mother. And she was out of line with what she said.”

“No it’s fine, I should’ve expected it. She’s my mother too. My name is Teralee,” she says.

I stare at her in disbelief. I thought I had met all of my siblings.

“Why aren’t you living in Godville? With all of us?” I ask with a hint of disbelief in my voice. Her forehead cringles in sadness as another tear escapes her eye.

“Well, uh, as it so happens, I’m not a member of Godville,” Teralee says. “I live with some other people. In a different community.”

“Like the Hunters of Artemis?” I ask.

“Not exactly,” she says.

“Why was Athena being so rude to you?” I ask. “What did you want her to hear?”

“Athena?” She repeats. “Why not call her ‘mom’?”

“Godville kind of uh, disowned the gods,” I say.

“Oh right, I heard about that. After what they did to Mutt. Can’t say I’m surprised that it happened,” Teralee says.

“That they sent him there or that everyone ditched the gods?” I ask.

“Both,” she simply states.

“You should really answer my question you know, since you haven’t yet,” I point out. “Just in case you forgot I mean.”

“I’m a child of Athena, I don’t forget anything,” Teralee snaps.

“Well I was giving you the benefit of the doubt, rather than saying that you were ignoring me,” I explain.

“Look,” Teralee says. “The thing is, I am a disgrace to my family, especially my mother, because I decided that I wanted to be something, someone, more than a member of Godville. So I didn’t even go to Godville. Instead I met someone, and I followed in that path instead.”

“But how does that make you a disgrace?” I ask.

“Because in Athena’s mind I betrayed the gods and my ‘real family’ by leaving,” Teralee says, scoffing. “When really, she’s just mad because I did the one thing she didn’t predict me doing. I left. And she wasn’t able to figure out why.”

“I still don’t understand,” I start.

“Put it this way, Athena despises not knowing things. Not being able to predict outcomes of situations. I was unpredictable. She doesn’t like me,” Teralee says.

“ I got that part. What I meant was, how could a mother just do that to their daughter? Hate them over something so stupid?” I ask.

“She’s not a mother,” Teralee says. “She’s a god.”

“But still, she didn’t even try to stop you from leaving?” I ask.

I didn’t know why I was being so pushy. I figured it had something to do with the Athena part of my brain wanting to know it all. But at the same time, I couldn’t help but think that it was also because she was my sister. My half sister anyway. And I wanted to get to know her. But I had a feeling that after today, she was going to be gone. And I might not ever see her again.

“Oh, she did do something to try and stop me from leaving. I can assure you of that,” Teralee says.

“Well?” I press.

“She went out and had another affair with my father, thinking that if I had a full sibling, instead of a bunch of half-siblings, then I’d want to stay. She made sure that it was a boy too,” Teralee says.

“Clearly it didn’t work,” I say. “If you still left.”

“I almost didn’t,” Teralee says. “I wanted to stay, be there for him. Help him understand this crazy world that he had just been put into.”

“But you didn’t,” I say.

“No, I didn’t,” she repeats.

“Why not?” I ask.

Inwardly I cringed at how pushy I was being, but then at the same time, I didn’t care.

“Because she told me that he was dead,” Teralee says. “And like an idiot I believed her.”

“What happened to your brother?” I ask. “Was he really dead?”

“No, he really wasn’t,” Teralee says, shaking her head. “But by the time I found that out, it was already too late.”

“Why?” I ask.

“Because if he knew that I had left then he would feel betrayed and hate me,” Teralee says.

“You don’t know that,” I encourage.

“Yes, I do,” she says.

“Well, maybe if you explained to him what you just did to me he’d understand, right?” I say.

“Doubtful,” she says. “Children of Athena see the reality that they want to see and none other.”

“But you should at least give him a chance,” I defend.

It was like an instinct that rose up inside of me, to defend my half brother, even though I didn’t know him.

“I can’t,” Teralee says. “I can’t face him after what I did. I left him with that monster of a mother.”

“She lied though, said he was dead,” I point out. “You didn’t know.”

“I should’ve,” Teralee mutters. “I should’ve known. I should’ve been smart enough to know. But I wasn’t, not until it was too late anyway.”

“Still,” I say.

“Look, even if I could, I don’t even know his name,” Teralee says.

“Well, you said that he was your full brother, so he should have your last name,” I say. “What is it? Maybe I can look around town and find him.”

“Tera come on! We have to go!” A girl shouts.

“Bye,” Teralee says.

She turns and starts heading towards the girl.

“Wait!” I shout. “What’s your last name?”

“Demos!” she calls back, without turning around.

I freeze in my place, staring after her with wide eyes. I was her brother? Me? At first I was shocked, then all I could feel was anger. I had been standing right in front of her and she didn’t even know me! She didn’t recognize me!

But then I remember, she had never actually seen me. Not even when we were kids. To her I was nothing more than a ghost.  Dead, even though I was very much alive. Even though I knew that, I still hated her. It was the part of me that was a child of wisdom that brought on this hatred. I hated that she didn’t figure it out in time to help me.

And it was with that hate that I understood why she had never came to me after she did find out. Because I had just proved her right. Even though I understood everything she did, and why she did it. I still couldn’t accept it. In the end that knowledge made me hate myself.

“Derek? Are you okay?” someone asks.

“Fine,” I say, without turning to see who it was.

“Let it go man, she’s an Amazon. It’d never work out between you guys,” the person says, slapping me on the back and walking away.

I wrinkle my nose in disgust at his words. My mind still reeling at the things I had just learned. I had a sister. A sister. A full on blood sister.

I immediately had blamed her too. But in truth, my father had never told me about her either. Was it possible that he didn’t even know? Maybe Athena had taken her to town directly after her birth. Maybe he had ditched her when he found out.

No, he knew, I had a feeling that he did. I just knew that he did. I sigh, staring at the spot that Teralee had left, not knowing if I should’ve ran after her or not. I had a feeling that I should’ve.

But I was unable to, my feet were frozen to the ground. Reminding me that I was a coward. That’s when the self-hatred intensified, because now it was my fault that I didn’t have a sister.

۝

Moon

If I had actually been evil, I would’ve been really impressed with Hypnos and his plan. Alas, I wasn’t evil, but thanks to Clato’s perspective I saw the beauty in being evil. I also saw Nikki cringe every single time the poison was brought up. After the meeting Nikki leads me out of the room.

“What do I have to do to prove to you to you that I am Moon?” I whisper.

Nikki stops, and I almost run into her. She turns around and regards me with a blank expression. Finally she grabs something from her pocket.

“Drink this,” she says handing it to me.

I take the vial, stare at it for a second. Then all I do is shrug and pour the contents down my throat. I scrunch up my face at the weird taste. Metallic yet sweet.

“You really are Moon,” Nikki says, her voice full of awe.

“What was that?” I ask.

“Truth potion. Had you been lying your internal organs would’ve came up through you mouth,” she replies with a grin.

“Oh, well… thanks for the heads up,” I say. “And that very lovely description.”

“Welcome. Figured I’d save you the details, you know? So tell me, how did it happen?”

With that I launch into the very long story.

۝

“Wait, so you’re saying that you have access to all of Clato’s memories?” Nikki asks when I finish.

“Yes, but I don’t know how to control them. I just, get them sometimes. Completely random,” I say.

“Sounds like her mind is trying to make you her,” Nikki says.

“Great,” I mutter.

“No no no, this could actually be really good. I mean, think about it. You could be her and pretty much save the world by being an inside agent. Her memories are your instruction book. They’re how you’re going to pull this off,” Nikki says.

“That’s great in all, but if I have her memories, then she has mine. And she’s down there with Mutt right now,” I say.

“I’m sure he'll figure out that she’s not you. I mean, how hard can it be?” Nikki asks.

“He’ll just think that Tartarus is getting to me. You don’t understand what it’s like down there. And neither do I,” I say, whispering the last part.

“What?” Nikki asks.

I look up at her, tears stinging my eyes, “I can’t remember Tartarus. Not as me anyway. Her memories, it’s like they’re deleting mine.”

“Makes sense,” Nikki offers. “Your memories are a parasite. Hers are going to try to get rid of them at all costs.”

“That doesn’t actually make me feel better,” I snap.

“Calm down, we just need you to be Clato until we can figure out how to fix it. I’ll call Derek and get them on it okay?” Nikki asks.

“Yeah, whatever,” I mumble.

Hoping that by the time they find the cure and that I’m not too far gone to be saved.