HEART OF GOLD | CORIOLANUS SNOW

𝘾𝙃𝘼𝙋𝙏𝙀𝙍 79

Olympia seemed to do everything just fine. She ate. She drank. She studied for her exams. She took her exams. She worked in the lab. She prepared her poster and her speech. The only thing she didn't do was go home.

The last night she had been there was the night her mother passed, when Lilith and Athena weren't strong enough, and her brothers had to be the ones restraining her as she screamed and thrashed, trying to stop the men from the funeral parlour from retrieving Andromeda's body. Once they were gone, Olympia crumpled to the floor, and they couldn't get her off.

When Zephyr and Ares attempted carrying her, she bit them. They left, cursing and swearing and in their own tears, wives shuffling quickly after them. Olympia knelt by the empty bed until sunlight was everywhere and Athena whispered to her that it was time to go to the wake—to see her mother again. Over the next two days, she was perpetually on her knees and never more than three feet from the coffin except to relieve herself.

Since the cremation, she had been staying at Lilith's. All three of them were. But while Athena went back to her apartment every other day to get a fresh change of clothes and have dinner with her parents, Olympia's laundry was done here, her array of cosmetics slowly occupying Lilith's dresser.

Seven days later, there was still no word from Perseus Heavensbee. Olympia's brothers had texted to check in, though, and Criseida had slipped Lilith information that General Gramps had called the house and Lilith's father had spoken with him. On Wednesday.

On the week's anniversary of the funeral, the trio was huddled on Lilith's chaise, each with a pint of ice cream—Lilith, salted caramel; Athena, cookie dough; Olympia, double fudge brownie—for brunch. The television had been loaded with all their favourite girlhood films, and the plan was to have a marathon to while the day away.

Sunday. The second one of May.

Mother's Day.

But midway through Eros and Psyche, a knock interrupted them. It was her father—and General Gramps. The room was given up to the Heavensbees, and within twenty minutes, Olympia, her double fudge brownie, and all her makeup were whisked away to her grandfather's. Athena unpaused the picture and they finished it as a pair. The young princess turned queen discovered her king, who never saw her except under the cover of darkness, wasn't beastly and sinister as her sisters had surmised but a god with a physiognomy even more beautiful than hers. Eros was furious that his wife had not trusted him, and Lilith struggled not to feel as betrayed as he had.

While they had waited, her father assured her that it wasn't his idea, that he had no intention of chasing Olympia out, but he had no control over the old veteran, who was surely only looking out for his granddaughter. Still, Lilith did not feel good about letting Olympia leave, about her father doing nothing about it. She remembered only all too clearly how it had been when her own mother had died—how alone she'd felt without any friends. She couldn't bear to for Olympia to have to go through that. Olympia, who no longer slept through the night but woke every few hours in cold sweat and shivers, just a girl in search of her mother.

After The Ballet's Spectre, Lilith made Athena go and celebrate with Dr. Click, then clocked a run twice her usual distance. When Monday and Tuesday brought no discernible change to Olympia—at least nothing worsened—Lilith's evening runs still did not shorten. Wednesday afternoon, military science seniors who weren't on the honours program took their places in front of their designated boards in the University Science Center's atrium while faculty made their rounds. Off from the Games, Lilith wove through the crowd, providing moral support to her classmates as she pushed away the thought that it would soon be her turn.

Friday morning at eleven, in front of a panel of three examiners and a roomful of friends, peers, juniors, and muttations researchers, she gave the presentation she had rehearsed at least ten times since breakfast. All those hours she had spent crafting and memorizing her script, all those hours with her thesis adviser and her mentor had paid off—they had predicted enough of the questions, and Lilith had studied for the rest. Professors Axel, Binns, and Crane smiled and congratulated her once it was all over.