APOLLO

  Themis spared me. Spared me and her. Gave me days of freedom to do as I please. Not in my full strength, but that could have been enough for me to buy more time.

  Time for her to live just a bit-

  Wait, why am I helping her now? She should die in agony, and I would feast on her pain and sorrow. But now, that ending felt meaningless when I was thinking about it, it made me feel guilty.

  ‘’She is making me insane, ’’ I groaned as I walked through the woods, and my eyes found a dozen bright white, clothed priests. They were all well trimmed with well-fed horses, and each one of them was dressed in golden engravings of my ‘Father’. seemed normal, but the spears and swords around their hands.

  They were whispering between their sharp teeth, but just looking at their greedy eyes and wide smiles, I could understand their intentions pretty clearly.

  The sun had already fallen down when I arrived at the temple of Zeus, where Dion was awaiting all dressed up in white chiton and golden jewels. When his eyes found me walking near him with a heavy sack, he was not pleased. But then, he looked at my other hand while I was carrying a jar of wine.

  His interest grew wide.

  ‘’I have information for you’’I said gently, and finally, the stupid priest smiled.

  He was now laughing and drinking from a golden chalice as I was placing the cooked meat, which I had brought inside the sack, on four wide plates.

  ‘’What changed your mind?’’ smiled Dion at me, and I sat right in front of him as he was feasting upon the delicious-looking flesh.

  ‘’Oh, my mind never changed’’I admitted.’’Mere mortals like her deserve justice’’

  He raised his cup.’’And justice she will get.’’He sounded so determined.

  He explained that Perseus sent two guards to watch her to make sure one would not harm her. Seems that the son of ‘Father’ knew very well his people.

  ‘’But two are not enough for what my men will do.’’His pearly white teeth glinted around the meat.’’They will burn the temple, raid it like the wreck it is. The soldiers will be occupied by it’’

  He poured more wine into his chalice and drank it all it once.’’But my men would already take the idiot woman and her supposed followers and bring them here’’

  My brow arched.

  ‘’I want to see their faces of horror when we take their lives. My god will be pleased by taking care of pests like them.’’

  I took a bite from a simple piece of the meat and looked above the statues. My ‘Father’ was many things, but I knew that he would be at least skeptical of that thought.

  ‘’And what if’’I shrugged and showed myself.’’Someone tells it to Perseus?’’

  Dion narrowed and took a big, sharp bite from the meat and began talking with his mouth full.

  ‘’What do you want?’’ He was muffled.

  ‘’What can you give?’’

  ‘’The woman,’’ He answered it so bluntly, and my eyes opened wide from the answer.

  So, I laughed.’’Why should I want someone dead?’’

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  ‘’Oh, death is a punishment for the dogs that follow her.’’His voice turned deeper, and he licked the falling wine from his chin.

  ‘’She is no dog now, isn’t she?’’A squeaky laugh came out of him.

  I forced a smile and watched him eat more off the plates.

  ‘’So, I will get spoils to keep my silence?’’I asked.

  ‘’If you wish, ‘’His eyes looked around, searching for any light of a fire or screams of small children.

  ‘’You know,’’I pressed my lips to a thin line and popped them out. ‘’For moons now’’

  The man took one more bite from the flesh as his attention finally moved to me.

  ‘’I thought that you were a dog, waiting for your master to give you a bone to chew.’’

  The comment attacked his pride perfectly as he looked at me with a furious glare.

  ‘’And what did change?’’

  ‘’The way you talk, the way you act, the way you eat’’I looked down at the plate. ‘’You are more than a little fat swine’’

  A vein popped from his forehead.’’You really think your words will help her? My people might have already taken turns on her as we speak.’’And ate one more piece of the meat. ‘’And when they come with her, I will make sure-’’

  ‘’They already arrived’’I said with a wide smile, and the priest stared at me, confused.

  And then, I looked down at the plates with the chopped meat.’’They are all here.’’

  And his milk skin drenched from any possible color, with his mouth falling to the floor. Eyes ready to pop out as his stomach won the race, throwing his men out.

  His knees were kissing the ground with his screams echoing to the temple. If I were in my full power, it could have been such beautiful music to enjoy.

  ‘’What’s the matter? I thought that you little pigs eat each other.’’

  His slim fingers tried to cover his mouth as his drenched eyes found me taking a bite from his followers.

  ‘’They ended up harder than I expected them to be’’I said, walking right behind Dion, and I held him by the hair.

  ‘’Look’’I let out a laugh, and I forced him to look at his own vomit.’’Look at your men who believed in you, at your ideals.’’

  He shook his head, trembling as his lips muffled. Did he really think that he was better than her? Better than someone who managed to…

  Focus Apollo. Take a deep breath.

  ’’The difference between you and that spawny woman is’’I spat at his ear.’’Is that she knows the true ways of justice.’’

  ‘’You cannot hurt me, I am a priest’’The man shrieked.

  ‘’Do you think that I care?’’I asked, and the priest of Zeus turned his gaze back only to see a form of a God.

  And he backed away, shrinking like an animal down to the floor.

  ‘’I am’’His voice trembled.’’I am sorry, I am sorry, I am sorry’’

  So tiny mortals are on their knees, like ants.

  ‘’You threatened to ruin my priestess.’’ I bent my knees to be at the same height as him, but even then, he looked so short compared to me.

  ‘’For your justice…’’My hand cupped his head as if it were a rotten apple.’’That even my ‘Father’ would despise?’’ I asked, holding my rage. What should I have done to a vermin like her?

  ‘’Please do not kill me’’ Teras wept on his snow face.

  And a wider smile grew on my face.’’I told you from the beginning didn’t I? I have much better plans for you’’

  I did not eat any man. I made sure that the nearest plate to me was filled with ox. The last thing that I wanted was one more punishment. But looking at the priest’s face of terror felt delightful.

  Someone like that, not valuing life, was making me sick. And just those words about that woman, the way he was about to…Just the picture of her and him made me sick.

  ‘’She is making me insane’’ I fell to my knees as I was a few paces out of the temple. I wanted her to see her, I wanted her to keep her all for myself, so she could admire me. Locked up in a little cage, that one will ever find her.

  And I hated it. But there were more thoughts that I wasn’t supposed to imagine. She had a soft smile as I was all down to her knees for her, I was the one admiring her, kissing her feet and begging just for her touch.

  Is this how mortals feel when they fall for the gods?