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May 9, 9548 BC

"Kill that baby!"

Archon&039;s angry decree rang in Apollyh thedown the hallway, plastering her black gown against her pregnant body and whipping her white blond hair out in spiraling tendrils Four of her deods ere er to carry out Archon&039;s orders She and her Charonte demons had already blasted half of her pantheon back And she was ready to kill the rest

They would not take her child!

Betrayal burned deep inside her heart Since the moment of their union, she&039;d been true to her husband Even when she&039;d learned Archon had been faithless to her, she&039;d still loved him and welcomed his bastards into her home

Noanted the life of her unborn child

How could he do this? For centuries she&039;d been trying to conceive Archon&039;s son-it was all she&039;d ever wanted

A babe of her own

Now due to the prophecy of three sirls-Archon&039;s jealous bastards, her child was to be sacrificed and killed Because of what? Words those little brats had whispered?

Never

This was her baby Hers! And she would kill every Atlantean god in existence to keep him

"Basi!" She shouted for her niece

Basi flashed into the hallway before her and staggered until she braced herself against the wall As the goddess of excess, she was seldom sober-which fit Apollyled "Did you need me, Auntie? By the hy is everyone so upset? Did I rabbed her by the wrist and then teleported theods made their home down to the hell realm of Kalosis where her brother ruled

She&039;d been born here in this dank, forbidden place This was the only realm that truly scared Archon Even with all his power, he knew the dark here Apollyned supreme Here, with her powers fortified, she could destroy hioddess of death, destruction and war, Apollymi kept a room in her brother&039;s opulent ebony palace to remind her of her station

That here she took Basi now

Apollymi locked the doors and s to her room before she summoned her two most trustworthy demon protectors "Xiamara, Xedrix, I need you"

The demons who resided on her as tattooed marks pulled themselves off her body and manifested before her

In her current incarnation, Xia skin tone was red,black hair fraloith concern Xiamara&039;s son Xedrix shared her features, but his skin wasit often did when he was nervous "What do you need, akra?" Xia her with the Atlantean term for lady andher akra when they were more like sisters than master and servant "Guard this room from everyone I don&039;t care if Archon himself demands entry, you kill him Do you understand?"

"Your will is ours, akra No one will disturb you"

"Do their horns have to s?" Basi asked as she spun around the bedpost while eyeing the demons "I mean really You&039;d think to be so colorful, they&039;d have more variety I think Xedrix would look better if his were orange"

Apollynored her She didn&039;t have time for Basi&039;s stupidity Not if she were to save her son&039;s life

She wanted this child and she illing to do anything for hi, she pulled her Atlantean dagger froold hilt was cold against her skin Black roses and bones were entwined and engraved down the steel blade that glowed in the di life

Today it would be used to give it

She winced at the thought of as to co her eyes and gripping the cold dagger, she tried not to weep, but one tear slid froh! She roared at herself as she angrily wiped it away This was a time for action, not e from fury and fear, she went to the bed and lay down She pulled her gown up, exposing her belly She ran her hand over her distended stoer Never again would she be this close to hiain would she feel him kick and turn in restlessness as she smiled in tender patience She was about to separate theh it wasn&039;t time yet for Apostolos to be born

But she had no choice

"Be strong for me, my son," she whispered before she sliced open her sto!" Basi whined "I&039;m-"

"Don&039;t you move!" Apollymi roared "You leave this room and I&039;ll rip out your heart"

Eyes wide, Basi froze

As if knohat had happened, Xiamara appeared by her side The red-and-white-skinned demon was the most beautiful and loyal of all of Apolly, Xiamara lifted the baby out of her and helped Apollymi seal herself shut

The demon removed the blood red scarf from around her neck and wrapped Apostolos in it before she held him out to Apollymi and bowed low

Apollymi pushed the physical pain aside as she took her son into her arh her as she realized he hole and alive He was so tiny, so frail Perfect and beautiful

Most of all, he was hers and she loved him with every part of herself

"Live forThey fell like ice down her cold cheeks, glittering in the darkness "When the tihtful place as king of the gods I&039;ll make sure of it" She placed her lips to his blue forehead

He opened his eyes then to look at her Mercurial and silver, just like hers, they swirled And they held within them a wisdom far beyond even hers It would be by those eyes that ly He brushed her cheek with one tiny fist as if he understood as meant for him

She sobbed at the contact Gods, it wasn&039;t fair! He was her baby She&039;d waited a lifetime for this and now

"Daive you for this"

She held her son close and never wanted to let hio

But she ing around the bedpost

"Mnant queen Do you understand?"

She let go and righted herself "Ue Apostolos&039;s life force with that of the queen&039;s child Let her know by oracle that if my child dies, so does hers" That would protect hi to be done Apollymi jerked the white sfora from her neck and held it to Apostolos&039;s chest If anyone suspected he was her son or any god detected his presence in the human realm, they would kill him instantly

His poould have to be bound and locked away until he was old enough and strong enough to fight back She placed the orb to his chest and watched as his godhood slid from him to the sfora His tiny body turned from blue to the pale skin of huods would knohat she&039;d done

Clutching the sfora tight in her hand, she kissed his brow one more time before she held him out to her niece "Take him And don&039;t betray me, Basi If you do, Archon will be the least of your fears So help me, I won&039;t rest until I bathe in your entrails"

Basi&039;s brown eyes widened "Baby in belly Human realm Don&039;t tell anyone and don&039;t mess up Got it" She vanished, instantly

Apolly at the spot where they&039;d been Her heart screa her baby returned

If only

"Xiamara, follow her and make sure she does as she was ordered"

The demon bowed before she vanished

Her heart broken, Apollymi remained in her bloodied bed She wanted to weep and to screaood Her tears and pleas wouldn&039;t prevent Archon fro her child His brats had him convinced that Apostolos would destroy their pantheon and replace Archon as the king of the gods

So be it

Her body aching, she pushed herself from the bed "Xedrix?"

Xiamara&039;s son appeared before her "Yes, akra?"

"Fetch me a stone from the sea, please"

He appeared confused by her order, but he quickly co Weak froer and fear, she leaned against Xedrix and held his arm "Take me to Archon"

"Are you sure, akra?"

She nodded

The demon helped her back to Katoteros They appeared in the center of the hall where Archon stood with his daughters Chara and Agapa-ironically the goddesses of joy and love The two of theenically the first tioddesses had sprang out of his chest His love for Apolly for the one thing she&039;d never give him

The life of her son

Archon&039;s features were perfectly for in the diods Too bad that beauty was only superficial

His blue eyes narrowed at the bundle in her arms

"It&039;s about time you came to your senses Give me that child"

She moved away from Xedrix and placed the stone baby in her husband&039;s arlowered at her "What is this?"

"That is what you deserve, you bastard, and it is all you&039;ll ever get froht in his eyes, she kneanted to strike her He didn&039;t dare They both kneho the stronger god was and it wasn&039;t hiainst her would be the last od was forbidden fro their wrath down on the foolish god who&039;d angered them The punishment for such actions ift, brutal and irreversible

Right now, Apollyht over her turbulent ein For Archon to strike her would push her over the edge and he knew it It would et to be afraid of the Chthonians and then she&039;d unleash the whole of her fury against hier care as punished and who diednot even herself

Patience to the spiderShe re

She would bide her tirew into his own Then he would rule in Archon&039;s place and show the king of the gods what it meant to be all powerful

For her son&039;s sake, she wouldn&039;t upset the capricious Chthonians who ht very well side with Archon and kill her child They alone could permanently strip her powers and destroy Apostolos After all, Archon and his lover Theiven the power of fate over everyone and everything And out of their stupidity and fear, the Greek Fates had accidentally cursed her son

That alone was enough to make her want to kill her husband who stared at her with a confused frown

"You would damn us all for one child?" Archon asked

"You would damn my baby for three half-Greek bastards?"

His nostrils flared "For once be reasonable The girls didn&039;t realize they were conde their powers They were afraid that he&039;d supplant the hands when they spoke their fears And because of that, their word is law and it can&039;t be undone If he lives, we die"

"Then we die, because he will live I&039;ve made sure of it"

Archon bellowed before he threw the swaddled stone through the wall He reached for Agapa and Chara and began chanting

Apolly It was an imprisonment spell

For her

And because they united their powers, they would be able to bring her to heel

Even so, she laughed But od who joined in to help her husband bind her "You will all regret what you&039;ve done here this day When Apostolos returns, you will all pay dearly"

Xedrix put himself between her and the others Apolly "They&039;re not going to hurt us, Xedrix They can&039;t"

"No," Archon said bitterly, "but you will remain locked in Kalosis until either you reveal Apostolos&039;s location or he dies Only then will you be returned to Katoteros"

Apollyhed "My son, at his maturity, will have the power to come to me When he releases me, the world as you knoill die And I will take you all down All of you"

Archon shook his head "We will find him We will kill hirave"

The Diary of Ryssa, Princess of Didy on her gilded bed, her body covered in sweat, her face ashen as an attendant brushed her dah the pain, I&039;d never known my mother to appear more joy-filled than she did that day and I wondered if she&039;d been this happy at my own birth

The roo, stood to the side of the bed with his Head of State The long, glass ere open, letting the fresh sea air offer relief to the heat of the summer day

"It is another beautiful boy," thethe newborn infant in a blanket

"By sweet Artemis&039;s hand, Aara, you&039;ve done h the room&039;s occupants "Twin boys to rule over our twin isles!"

At only seven years of age, I ju last, and after es and stillbirths, I had not one brother, but two

Laughing, my mother cuddled the second-born infant to her pale breast while an additional h the crowd to watch the firstborn baby with the led to breathe through his newborn lungs He had finally taken a deep, clear breath when I heard the cry of alarm from the woman who held him

"Zeus have mercy, the eldest is malformed, majesties!"

My mother looked up, her brow creased by worry "How so?"

The midwife carried hi The babe looked fine to me

I waited while the baby reached for the brother who had shared the ith hiht comfort from his twin

Instead, ht and reach "It cannot be," my mother sobbed "He is blind"

"Not blind, majesty," the eldest oh the crowd Her white robes were heavily eold crown over her faded gray hair "He was sent to you by the gods"

My father, the king, narrowed his eyes angrily at my mother "You were unfaithful?" he accused her

"Nay, never"

"Then how is it he came from your loins? All of us here witnessed it"

The room as a whole looked to the oman who stared blankly at the tiny, helpless baby who cried out for someone to hold him and offer him solace Warmth