THE HEALER| Heroes of Olympus

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I immediately recognized her.

 I recognized her dress – a light green sun dress with brown sandals and a gold necklace with little flower beads. I remembered how she used to hug me and those gold bracelets she was wearing would get stuck in my hair. I remembered her eyes. They were exactly like mine but my similarity to her stopped there. She had dark brown wavy hair with light skin. She had always told me I looked exactly and that if I had his blue eyes I would practically be him. 

"Lainey." She said holding her arms out. "It's me it's mama."

"You're dead..." I stuttered as The Mist disguise faded away. 

"I'm right here." She said softly. "Come embrace me."

"You're- you're not real." 

"Of course she is real" Michael Varus's voice sounded far away. "Did you think Gaia would let such an important spirit languish in the Underworld? She is your mother, Melissa Corbyn, famous writer, sweetheart to the star of Olympus, who let her die. She deserves justice as much as any of us.'

My heart felt wobbly. The suitors crowded around me, watching.

I'm their entertainment, I realized. The ghosts probably found this even more amusing than two beggars fighting to the death.

Piper's voice cut through the buzzing in his head. "Eliana, look at me."

She stood twenty feet away, holding her ceramic amphora. Her smile was gone. Her gaze was fierce and commanding and impossible to ignore. 

"That isn't your mother. Her voice is working some kind of magic on you – like charmspeak, but more dangerous. Can't you sense it?"

"She's right." Jason said. His old man disguise was gone. "Eliana, that's only a remnant of your mother, like an ara, maybe, or –"

"A remnant!" My mother's ghost sobbed. "Yes, look what I have been reduced to. It's Apollo's fault. He abandoned me. He wouldn't help me! I didn't want to leave you! But the gods wouldn't allow us to stay together. Why fight for them now? Join these suitors. Lead them. We can be a family again!"

I felt hundreds of eyes on me.

"You died." I said. "That wasn't Apollo's fault." 

She stepped forward. She looked pained and worried. 

"Honey, I told you didn't I. I would never leave you. Don't you remember?" 

I remembered. Those were her last words to me. 

I'll be fine darling, I will never leave you. I promise. 

She died next to me, moments later. I had sat next to her body crying alone and screaming her name until an ambulance arrived and pulled me away from her. 

I learned a hard truth that day and I had built my life around it since, like the grain of sand at the center of a pearl.

Promises are the sweetest lies. 

That's why I had never sworn on the River Styx. Because if I learned anything that day, it was that promises are false truths to cover up a lie. They are always broken.

Across the table, Antinous raised his goblet. "So pleased to meet you, daughter of Apollo. Listen to your mother. You have many grievances against the gods. Why not join us? I gather the other serving girl is your friend and the Roman boy as well. We will spare them. Do you wish to have your mother remain in the world? We can do that. You wish to be a queen –"

"No," I said. "No, I don't belong with you."

I scanned the palace courtyard. Without the illusory balconies and colonnades, there was nothing but a heap of rubble on a barren hilltop. Only the fountain seemed real, spewing forth sand like a reminder of Gaia's limitless power.