Chapter Forty-Nine

Zeus

“YOU BETRAYED US?” I shout, when the pain subsided to a dull throb.

“That’s not actually the issue here anymore,” Ares replies. “Considering we’re all dying out.”

“My daughter!” Athena wails. “Oh my poor daughter! What did they do to her! How could this have been done!”

“It’s not what they did to her,” Apollo points out. “It’s what we did to her. To them.”

“Oh, how our kids must really hate us,” Poseidon says gravely. “To bring such a fate upon us.”

“We were the ones who brought this fate upon us,” Aphrodite says. “They just dealt us the hand in which we were entitled.”

“Really?!” I snarl, glaring at all of them. “You are just going to lay down and die?!”

“Not at all,” Athena replies. “We’re going to lay down and become mortal. Since we appear to have no real way around this.”

“Of course we do!” I cry out. “We have Godville! They shall help us!”

“Help you?”

I turn to see Quinn leaning on the doorframe.

“Of course,” I say. “You shall help us because we are your gods!”

“No,” Quinn says. “You are not gods. Not anymore. You have no power of us or anyone else for that matter. Soon, you are going to be nothing.”

“Why are you here?” Ares growls. “If not to help?”

“I was tracking Lenzie,” Quinn says. “I had no idea why she would dare come here, but alas, my answer came to me quite suddenly.”

“You came to watch the show?” Poseidon demands, in absolute disgust.

“No,” Quinn replies. “I came to see if you were worth saving. And then I realized that you haven’t been worth anything for a very long time. Wouldn’t you agree? Father?”

“We have done terrible things,” Aphrodite cries. “But do we deserve to die?!”

“You are not dying, as Athena pointed out,” Quinn says. “You are simply becoming mortal.”

“Taking power away from a god or goddess is the same as killing them!” I snap. “We will be nothing! We will have nothing! You wouldn’t dare sentence us to that horrific fate!”

“You brought that fate upon yourselves,” Quinn says, rolling her eyes. “And I have no reason as to save any of you. Godville feels the same. We will not stand beside you. Not in this war. Or the next. Or any war. Ever.”

“There will be no more war now,” Artemis whispers. “As it should’ve been from the beginning.”

“That’s right,” Quinn answers. “Artemis, your hunters. They would wish to see you, before the end.”

Artemis stands up, her eyes alight once more at the thought of her hunters.

“I will go,” Artemis says with a grin. “I will fight out my final days among my hunters. Doing as they do, as I have done, for so long.”

And with that she was gone.

“You would really leave us here?” I ask Quinn.”To die? To become nothing?”

“To me, you’ve been that way for a long time,” she says, walking away.

“THE CURSE WILL NOT LEAVE YOU OR YOUR BROTHER! NOT EVEN WITH ME GONE! IT IS ETERNAL! FOR AS LONG AS THE FLAME IS LIT! AND THE FIRE BURNS! THE CURSE SHALL LIVE!” I scream. “ONLY I CAN TAKE IT AWAY!”

Quinn stops, and for a second I feel as though I have her. Until she speaks.

“Remember those words when you think upon my curse, Lord Zeus,” she says. “For it is similar. And you will never have peace. Whether you be god. Mortal. Dead. Be careful, I hear that it is the gods and goddesses with the most power that end up dying first.”

And then she does something that no demigod has ever done before. She walks off of Olympus, letting the gods crumble behind her.

“This cannot be!” I cry. “We must call the council! Tell them to find a cure!”

“There is no cure!” Ares growls. “Trust me.”

“Trust you? You are nothing but a filthy traitor!” Hephaestus answers.

“Oh dear!” Athena whines. “She warned me of this! My daughter! She warned me that this would happen! And I refused to listen! Oh why did I refuse to listen? What kind of terrible mother am I? I didn’t listen!”

“None of us did,” Hermes whispers, bowing his head.

And it was the truth. When our children called, we hid away. Until we needed them. But we were never there when they needed us. Maybe this punishment was fair. Maybe we did deserve this fate. It would make sense. We were a terrible, terrible race of creatures. Not even able to save ourselves, much less our children. Instead, they had always been saving us. And now. Now we paid the price for that.

۝

Derek

“Wait a second,” I say, leaning against a tree. “Just hold on, I want to see if I have this right. Now that you need help you want to help us?”

“Yes,” Athena says.

“No thanks,” I say, turning away and hoping back over the log that was laying on the ground and walking away. “I think we’ll do good enough without your help.”

“And how do you figure that to be possible?” Athena demands.

“Well,” I grin. “Since you’re the one dying and I’m not, well. I think that we’re in pretty good shape right about now don’t you?”

Athena glares at me, “You’re my son! How can you not consider doing this?”

“AND SHE WAS YOUR DAUGHTER!” I shout. “YOUR DAUGHTER! MY SISTER! MY REAL SISTER!”

Athena scoffs. “I should’ve know that’s what this was really about.” She rolls her eyes. “You can’t actually be upset about not knowing someone you didn’t know.”

“Upset?” I demand. “I’m not upset!”

“Yeah, I can tell,” Athena says.

“When I’m upset you’ll know it!” I growl.

“Well I appreciate your restraint,” she replies.

“You don’t really deserve it, I mean, if you know what I mean,” I answer.

“Despite your extreme use of subtleness I think I got it,” she says, rolling her eyes yet again.

“Are you only even here because I’m acting leader of G.V.?” I ask.

“G.V.? Is that some kind of slang the kids are using these days?” Athena asks.

“G.V.,” I say in a duh voice. “As in, Godville. You sure that you’re the goddess of wisdom? Cause you should read a dictionary. Last time I checked wisdom meant smart.”

“YOU DARE SPEAK TO ME THAT WAY? I AM THE GREAT GODDESS ATHENA!” She roars.

“You were the great goddess Athena,” I correct her. “You gotta get with it, jeesh. It’s a scary world out there. Even more so for a mortal ex-goddess. I’m sure that soo many people would love to get their hands on you. When you’re vulnerable and weak. So many people you’ve hurt, and disappointed. Lied to. Broke.”

“They wouldn’t dare,” Athena snarls.

“You’re right,” I say.

She grins, thinking that she had won. But she hadn’t. Not this time. Not ever again.

“Not because you don’t deserve it. And not because it wouldn’t be too easy. It would be so simple to do so, when you’re a mortal. And when you’re weak. But they won’t. Because they’re better than you’ll ever be!” I shout.

Then, for the sake of dramatic exits, I flourished my cape as I spun around, disappearing into the night right in front of her eyes. Naturally I grinned a little bit as I teleported back into Godville. It was only fair.

۝

“Oh gods, not again,” I groan as my alert bell went off.

Which was a bell that went off every time someone requested entrance into Godville. Help from Godville. Wanted to speak to me. Or when there was an accident. Basically, it went off every five minutes.

I was beginning to respect Quinn and Lenzie a lot more. Mostly because they never lost their poop and freaked out because of how irritating this was. It was like, every time I fixed one problem and finally got to sit down, another one needed me.

I had just sat through an argument about who “accidentally” spilled lava onto the garden.

It. Was. Torture.

“What is it this time?” I groan.

“Ah, sir,” my assistant says, holding a clipboard.

I think his name was Steve, but I wasn’t really sure anymore.

“What?” I ask.

“You are needed-” Steve starts.

“I’m well aware of that I was just wondering what it was that I was needed for,” I say, seconds away from throwing myself to the ground and having a fit.

“Well, you see sir, there’s a problem-” Steve says.

“STEVE STOP TELLING ME THINGS I KNOW! GIVE ME SOMETHING I DON’T KNOW!” I scream.

“We- Uh. Well, um. My name’s Eddie, sir,” Eddie says.

“Oh,” I say, blinking. “Well, good on you, mate. That’s something I didn’t know.”

“If you’ll excuse me asking,” Eddie says. “Are you sure you’re mentally fit to be a… Well, a leader?”

“Who? Me?” I ask sarcastically. “Of course not my dear sir! Why would you think that? Did you grow spaghetti instead of brains? Thinking I was mentally able to do this, nonsense! Absolute nonsense I tell you! Now you just get those silly notions out of your head right this second, you hear me?”

“Ye-Yes sir,” Eddie says.

“Good on you,” I say, nodding once. “You have done this town a great service.”

“I-I have sir?” He asks.

“Why of course you have!” I exclaim. “I just don’t know what it is yet, but I assure you, it was great.”

“Oh. Th. Thank you sir,” he says.

“Now, come along them,” I say. “After all, duty calls! And dusk waits for no man! Except me that is! But as it is almost dawn I say we must hurry.”

I throw my walking stick up a ways and point in onwards, and then marching away. Eddie hurrying to catch up with me. I liked being in charge.

۝

Moon

“Mutt! What is this?!” I ask, eyes wide.

Our time in Hawaii was going to be short, I knew that. But while we were here Mutt rented out a cabin by the ocean, with what money I had no idea. We had just been out all day, Mutt insisting on me learning how to surf and me being scared of the water.

Which had never happened before I learned I was a demigod, so I figured it was because I now knew that Zeus was my father. Mutt explained that the phobia was inside my head. My shark phobia however, that was very much real and enough for me not to get into the water.

So finally Mutt had grabbed my hand and dragged me back to the cabin. Where there was a table set in the middle of the lawn. With multi-colored lights hung around in the air. With three candles in the middle of the table.

“Well, we’re going to get married and we’ve never been on an actual date yet,” Mutt explains. “Because Tartarus doesn’t count. And we’re not going there for our honeymoon, that’s for sure.”

“Not gonna argue with that,” I whisper, still in awe.

“Come on,” He says, tugging at my hand.

Laughing lightly I let him pull me towards the table.

۝