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Without a word, Apollymi held her son in her arms and walked with a calmness she didn&039;t feel toward the dais where her black throne sat beside her husband&039;s gold one Archon stood up at her approach and nored him as she placed Apostolos on Archon&039;s throne, where he belonged Her hands shaking, she sat him up and carefully placed each of his hands on the arms She lifted his head and brushed the blond hair back from his bluish face until he looked as if he would blink and ain

He was dead

And so were they

Apollymi&039;s heart beat with fury as her powersher hair up as her eyes glowed red She turned on the gods then and leveled a lare at each of them as they held a united breath in expectation of her wrath

Until she came to Archon

Only then did she speak in a voice that was laced with her hatred "Look at my son"

He refused

"Look, damn you!" she snarled "I want you to see what you&039;ve done"

Archon winced before he complied and the relief in his eyes notched her wrath to an even higher level How could she have ever allowed so so callous and putrid into her bed?

Into her body?

Apollyhters deprived my son of his life Those little whores damned him And you," she sneered the word, "dared to protect them instead of my child!"

"Apollyain" She sealed his ht to be afraid But your bastard bitches rong It won&039;t be my son who destroys this pantheon It is I Apollyola Pantokrataria Thanatia Atlantia deia oly!"

Apollyods of Atlantis

It was then they scrambled for the doors or to teleport out, but Apolly from the darkest part of her soul, she sealed the hall closed No one was going to leave here until she was appeased

No one

If the Chthonians killed her for this, so be it She felt dead inside anyway She didn&039;t care about anything except

Archon fell to his knees, trying to plead for herleft inside her except a hatred so potent and bitter that she could actually taste it

She kicked hi od

Basi screamed out as Apollymi turned toward her "I helped you I did! I put him where you told me to"

"You didn&039;t do shit, except whine and piss me off" Apollyods she&039;d once considered family and turned them into stone as her relentless fury demanded appeasement They tried in vain to subdue her, but once her wrath was unleashed, there was no power in the universe to stop her

Except for the child they&039;d stupidly killed Only Apostolos could have saved therandson, Dikastis-the god of justice Unlike the others, he didn&039;t cower or beg Nor did he fight her He stood with one hand braced on the back of a chair, calaze as an equal

But then he understood justice He understood her wrath

Inclining his head respectfully, he didn&039;t move as she blasted hioddess of wealth and desire She was the bitch Apollymi had so foolishly trusted more than the others

With tears of crystal ice in her eyes, Apollymi confronted her "How could you?"

Tiny and frail in her angelic appearance, Epithymia stared up at her from where she cowered on the floor "I did what you asked I delivered him into the world of man and made sure he was born into a royal family I even tried to hand him to the queen to suckle him Why would you destroy me?"

Apollymi wanted to claw her eyes out for what she&039;d done "You touched him, you slut! You knehat that would do to hiod powers to countermand itYou made it so that every human who saw him was driven mad with their lust to have him How could you be so careless?"

It was then she saw the truth in her sister&039;s eyes

"You did it on purpose!"

Epithymia sed "What was I supposed to do? You heard the Fates when they spoke They proclaimed him to be the death of us all He would have destroyed us"

"You thought the humans would kill him in their efforts to possess him?"

A tear slid down Epithy to protect us"

"He was your nephew," Apollymi spat

"I know and I&039; to be

Apollymi curled her lip "So a you knew I loved above all others You ungrateful bitch I hope your actions haunt you into eternity" Apollymi blasted her sister

And yet she was unappeased Even with all of theone

The hole inside her was still there and it hurt so much that all she could do was screa her ar left but rubble Nothing left but her memories of her hope for a son now dead

Still it hurt

Apolly at what she&039;d done There was no satisfaction to be felt

There was only justice to be done

"One down"

She turned then and headed to the island kingdom Archon had created for her

Atlantis

Those poor fools had thought to strike out at Apollo by killing his son anddiscovered by him and punished for their actions But it wasn&039;t the Greek god anted them dead

It was she Their patroness

It would be by her hand and for the acts they&039;d coainst her son that they would suffer and die

No iven Apostolos and it hat she&039;d return to them

With one swipe of her arm, she sank the entire island into the sea and listened to the beauty of their terrified screams and pleas for clemency and deliverance as the elements struck and ended their putrid lives It was the sweetest

If only Apostolos and Xiarief aside as she struck out on their behalf

The last of the island kingdo Apollymi turned then and looked to the land of Greece

They were the last to suffer Not just the huods who thought they were so shters would pay They thought themselves safe on Olympus under the care of theirin cohter of Chaos

To thescreams would be the ones she&039;d relish most

June 25, 9527 BC

Mount Olympus

Small and thin in stature with dark hair and eyes, Herh the hall of Zeus until he stood before his father who only looked a few years older than he Herods were gathered here and lounging about

They ignored Her, don&039;t kill the ht, really, really close to your hearts"

Zeus scowled at hi chess with Poseidon Dressed in a flohite robe, Zeus had short blond hair and vividly blue eyes "What&039;s going on?"

Herestured toward the wall of s that looked down onto the human realm "Have any of you taken a look out at Greece in the last, say, hour or so?"

Arteh her while she sat at a banquet table across from Aphrodite, Athena and Apollo

Apollo rolled his eyes and waved his hand in arrogant dis to the fact I cursed the Apollites?"

Heresture of sarcastic denial "I don&039;t think that bothers them nearly as one and the Atlantean goddess Apolly waste to everyone and everything she co look "And in case you&039;re curious, she&039;s headed straight for us I could be really wrong here, but I&039; the woman&039;s extremely pissed"

Artemis shrank back at those words

Zeus turned on Apollo "What have you done?"

All arrogance now gone, Apollo blanched as fear tinted his eyes "I cursedto the Atlanteans, Papa Unless their blood was mixed with my Apollites, they were unhar tight, Artemis covered her ed to Terrified of what she and Apollo had set in ods prepared for war and went to her tery shouts in her ears

"What can I do?"

She was just about to summon her koris to her when the three Fates appeared in her rooht of youthful beauty, their faces perfect duplicates of each other But that was the only thing that united them The eldest, Atropos, had red hair while Clotho was blond, and the youngest, Lachesis, had dark hair They were the daughters of the goddess of justice No one was sure who their father was, but od on Olyirls were the most powerful of the entire pantheon Even Zeus didn&039;t try to circuo, everyone had given them a wide berth When the three of them held hands and made a statement, it became the law of the universe and no one was iine why they&039;d be here in her teht now"

Lachesis grabbed her ar terrible"

That hy the gods lived in fear of the terrible to someone "Whatever it is, it&039;ll wait"

"No," Atropos said gri here to kill us"

Stunned by that proclamation, Artemis scowled at them "What?"

Atropos sed "You must never tell anyone e&039;re about to tell you Do you understand? Our mother made us swear to keep it at secret"

"Keep what secret?"

"Swear to us, Arteoing on" And most important, why it involved her

Atropos spoke in a whisper as if afraid soht hear her "Our father is Archon-the king of the Atlantean gods He had an affair with our mother, Themis, and ere born of it Our mother sent us to Atlantis to live and our father took us in Apollyly cursed our half-brother e learned of his co birth"

"It was an accident," Clotho blurted out "We didn&039;t mean to curse him"

Lachesis nodded "We were just children and didn&039;t understand our powers yet We never meant to curse our brother We didn&039;t, ear!"

Artemis went cold inside "Acheron? Acheron is your brother?"

Clotho nodded "Apollymi barely tolerated us while we lived with them We were a reminder of our father&039;s infidelity and she hated us for it"

That didn&039;t make sense, any h what they were telling her "But everyone knows that Archon has never been unfaithful to his wife"

Lachesis snorted "That&039;s a lie the Atlantean gods keep so that Apollymi won&039;t harm them You don&039;t understand just hoerful she is She can kill us without even blinking All the gods fear her power Even Archon He&039;s as faithless as most men and so here we are"

"She wants us dead," Clotho interjected

Still Arteether "How exactly did you curse Acheron?"

"We were so stupid," Atropos said "When Apollyave Apostolos the power of final fate We said he&039;d be the death of us all and it seems today we are about to see our demise met"

Artemis was even more confused "But it&039;s not him who threatens us It&039;s his mother"

Clotho nodded "And she will kill all of us for our part in his curse Including you"

"I did nothing!"

Atropos scoffed at her as the young women encircled her "We knohat you&039;ve done, Artemis We see all You hurt him even utted hih her If what they said was correct, there would be no mercy from Apollymi Truthfully, she didn&039;t deserve any, but on the other hand, Artemis really didn&039;t want to die "What can we do? Hoe defeat her?"

Atropos sighed heavily "You can&039;t She&039;s all-powerful The only one who can check her powers is her son"

In that case, they were in serious trouble since Acheron was now dead Couldn&039;t someone have told her this before she&039;d left hi and would have been much more beneficial earlier in the day

"We&039;re dead," Arteutted by Acheron&039;s h her head

"No," Clotho said fir him back"

Arte him back from the dead"

"Yes, you can You&039;re the only one who has the power"

"No, I don&039;t"

Atropos growled at her "You drank of his blood, Artemis You absorbed some of his powers"

Clotho nodded "He&039;s the final fate He can resurrect the dead, which means you can too"

Artemis sed "Are you sure?"

They nodded in unison

Still, Artemis was uncertain Granted she&039;d tasted Acheron&039;s powers, but that particular one was reserved for only a very select group of gods and if they failed to bring hiet worse

Atropos took her by the arods used their co as Apostolos is alive in the human realm, she&039;s locked in Kalosis"

Lachesis took her other arain"

"We&039;ll be safe," Clotho offered "All of us"