The Battle of Olympus | III

17. I Get Jealous Of Myself

Some of you guys will be reading this chapter and wondering what this does for the plot.

The answer? Absolutely nothing.

This entire chapter was both for me to indulge my inner Apolliana (or whatever other ship name you guys like) and establish a little world building.

Also I hate the chapter title. Ugh. UGH.

Under any other circumstance, I would've enjoyed Los Angeles.

Instead, Apollo and I were forced to weave the streets, avoiding panicked and maddened civilians, trying not to draw any attention to ourselves, though it was surprisingly difficult. After all, we looked like two teenagers without any adult supervision who could've been up to trouble (even though Apollo looked more like the heir to some old wealthy family).

Well, that, and it was how Apollo looked.

Gods always had that inhumane, ethereal beauty to them, but in a crowd of ordinary mortals, the difference was startling, even to me. He didn't seem to notice, but even the most panicked of people half-stopped to stare, or do a double take, when they saw him.

He glanced back, raised an eyebrow, and then I realized I had been staring. I flushed.

"Something on my face?" he asked.

I almost said something embarrassing. Instead, I said something not much better. "People are looking. Wasn't this supposed to be a stealth mission?"

"Well, we both look like teenagers, so..."

"I am a teenager."

"With memories from four lives ago, so I think calling you two hundred years old isn't that far fetched." He didn't let me say anything before he continued, "Besides, aren't we being stealthy? We're just two normal kids trying to run away from the monsters..."

I decided that telling him about his aura was probably a waste of time.

"Why are we here anyway?"

"Los Angeles is closer to the equator than San Francisco."

I frowned. "That was specific."

"It was meant to be. I wanted to go to San Francisco, for you, but Zeus refused." He rolled his eyes. "I wanted to argue but Artemis told me to stop and Athena and Hera tried, but he isn't backing down. He knows this situation is spiraling out of his control and he needs to keep as much of it as he can to make him feel better about himself. We ended up compromising here, so..."

"But there aren't that many monsters."

"No," he agreed. "Then again, monsters have never shown themselves in cities, even back then. Humans have too much order magic in them; it can disorient them if they want to cause chaos. Our job is to keep that chaos at bay. Obviously, we're probably going to have to blow our cover if that happens, so it's a good idea I changed your appearance, right?"

Right before we had gone back to Earth, Apollo had realized that now, with the world once again inhabited by humans, it was probably not the best idea to have my real face on the streets. Thus, he changed my appearance with a clever illusion spell; one moment I was Eden Hills, and the next, I was Natasha Swan. Or, at least that was the name Apollo gave me.

I had told him it was ridiculous to think anyone would've even asked for my name in these times, and so far, I was winning that bet.

"Yeah, sure," I muttered. "Not that it was able to keep any monsters from recognizing me. I had a new face as Eden and they still remembered me from before, remember?"