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Faint sunlight touched her cheeks "It was easier just not to think about it After all, I had a lot going on Probably wasn’t the s, but I learned later that my mom wasn’t dead She’d been turned into a daithat?"

She pressed her lips together "She knehat I was She retained all that knowledge after she was turned into a daiht if she turned me, she could control the Apollyon" Alex drew in a stuttered breath "Once I knew she’d been turned, it became my duty to kill her"

I shook my head "And you did?"

She nodded as she looked over at me "She never would’ve wanted to become what she had, and I couldn’t let her be that way I found her andand it was the hardest thing I’d ever done"

I couldn’t even wrap ," she said quietly "I’ve felt it twice The anger The pain"

My lower lip tre else we have in cos in corin on her lips "I know there is nothing I can tell you that’s really going to make you feel better except that I know your ed through me "How do you know that?"

"Because I’ve been there" Her eyes otten that Alex had died a mortal death "I’m there six months out of the year," she continued "I one hundred percent agree hatever violent thoughts you have when it comes to Apollo, but no matter what, he would’veshe wants, she will have access to, and she is not alone She’s ht now"

If what Alex said was true, and I guessed it had to be true, I didn’t have to think of her as justjust ceasing to exist or being alone Mom hated to be alone Hope sparked alive If Mom was in the Underworld, couldn’t I visit her? "Can I see her?"

A sad set into Elysian Fields when you do not belong there is not easy"

"But I’od"

"That doesn’t matter You’d need Hades to cross you over or you’d have to enter through one of the gateways, and that isn’t siet to Elysiuod, there are things down there that would sense you right away" She paused "Maybe one day, once everything settles down, Hades would allow you to visit her, but it is not so often allowed Your mom is safe anddo not visit the dead"

Hope fizzled out I bit down on my lip as I turned reed

Technically I’d died a mortal death when my powers had been unlocked, but it hadn’t been the saod the next I wasn’t sent to the Underworld I wasn’t sure I was even technically considered dead during any of it "Do you visit yourwe didn’t have in co if what Apollo had said about Erin was true For all I kne, she could also be dead

My chest hollowed out

"It gets easier," she stated "It really does"

I was going to have to take her word for that

Dawn arrived as we sat side by side, and the sky turned a calm shade of blue, cloudless and endless "Apollo is a shit father," Alex said so suddenly that a harsh laugh escaped rin appeared on her face "No Seriously He is"

"Yeah," I forced out, closing my eyes briefly

"I think he tries Like, he really probably thought he was doing the right thing by not telling you about your s" Alex straightened out her legs "Nothing we do will ever change that"