The Battle of Olympus | III

7. I Discover My Kids

Big oof guys. This chapter is both short and pretty terrible and late, so what a combo, am I right?

Note: You know what's stupid? I had this chapter all boxed up and ready to go but life has been so hectic that I forgot. Oops? It's here now, at long last!

I supposed that, in the long run, after everything the Parisians had seen, two teenagers appearing out of thin air in front of them was hardly important.

The city was in chaos. Law enforcement had completely given up in trying to retain order, or perhaps they were part of the chaos. Who knew? Without thinking, I reached for Apollo, who took my hand without hesitation—given the jostling and bustling of the crowd, I didn't doubt that we would get separated eventually.

"Come on," Apollo said, pulling me across the bridge.

"How are we supposed to find Paris?"

"I have an idea."

"Care to share?"

"Paris is arrogant, and he used to be a prince of Troy, right?" Apollo explained, not slowing down at all as he cut through the crowd. "But though the palace of Versailles sounds like the obvious answer, it isn't in Paris, so he wouldn't be there. So what place in Paris is someplace he would want to be?" At my blank look, he sighed. "Honestly, Eden, did you never learn about the French? He's either chosen Luxembourg Palace or Louvre Palace, which used to be residences of French royalty."

"In my defense, all my history teachers ever taught about the French were that they were terrible fighters."

Apollo gave me an offended look. "That's not even remotely true. France is one of the most successful military powers in history. Napoleon, the Thirty Years War, the Hundred Years War—those were all French victories. They were considered the most powerful European state multiple times. What kind of teachers did you have?"

"Uh..."

"Whatever," Apollo said. "Point is, those two palaces are two of the few royal residences actually in Paris, and also two of the most important ones. Thankfully for us, they're not far from each other if we have to walk, but we're closer to Luxembourg, so let's go there. Also, I think Paris is more likely to be in Luxembourg anyway—there's way less people there and he won't be bothered as much."

France would've been beautiful under any other circumstances.

It was cold, of course—Paris was in the northern region of France and it was winter—but not unbearable, though most of the Parisians who hurried past were bundled in scarves and parkas, a stark contrast from my simple jeans and t-shirt. It was only until later that I realized Apollo must've been keeping me from freezing.

The architecture looked almost a little like Olympus'—old, yet modern at the same time, their marble walls echoing its past. The city seemed so much like San Francisco and nothing like it at the same time—there was something ageless about the city. Not quite modern, but not quite medieval either. I wondered if all of Europe was like that.

"Behold," Apollo announced. "Luxembourg Palace."

As expected, nobody was going in for a tour. After all, after learning about the existence of the Chimera or something, who was going to just go and take a nice vacation?

Yet the palace was beautiful—a lush, carefully-kept garden lay behind the gates, lined with trees trimmed neatly that resembled hedges. With an easy flick of his wrist, Apollo unlocked the gates, motioning for me to enter first. I did.

"They must've renovated the palace," Apollo said, frowning as he entered behind me and the two of us approached the palace. "It looked different before."