My Boyfriend is a Dead Roman Hero | Jason Grace

I Go Horseback Riding

February, 2011

Apollo finds Heartbreaks to be either the best time you've ever had or insufferable whiners.

There is no in between.

What a generalization, Apollo!

Okay, yes, he hears you, Dear Reader, but listen to the facts before you pass judgement.

Their start, for starters. The entire species only exists because Aphrodite can't handle rejection like a grown up. After the overabundance of tragedies she has cursed upon Apollo over the millennia, he feels relatively justified in wondering why she cannot just put her big girl toga on and get over it like everyone else.

And, listen, he understands that the children of Heartbreak themselves don't necessarily control their mother's actions, but since when has that truly mattered when dolling out punishments on Olympus? Sure, for the first thousand years, Aphrodite's little rejects were hardly different from any other monster, but the sheer NUMBER of them! Whew, Apollo thinks she's lucky that Vulcan didn't lose his cool sooner than Rome.

The god of the Forge really gets a bad rap for that, doesn't he? Apollo isn't sure he finds that fair. Gifting Emperor Tiberius with magical restraints to enslave your wife's bastards may be considered extreme in some circles, but that was hardly out of the ordinary as Olympian revenge plots go. It certainly didn't warrant the 500 years Hephaestus slept on the couch afterwards.

But. Apollo digresses. The point is, he thinks cordolia became much more tolerable once there was a leash on them. Gods of Olympus, he remembers the glory days of Rome when shackled wyverns would lead Legions into battle. When every feast had the entertainment of Gifted pixies, and every Emperor rode into the city atop loyal cordolium swans the size of elephants.

The aid of the Weaponesses of Rome expanded the Empire's territory like wildfire. Their servitude brought about a golden time of wealth and prosperity. It seemed quite a good thing that Vulcan had done when he provided the tools to bring purpose to such barbarians. Apollo truly never saw the harm in it.

Until Achillea.

Mortal Heartbreaks had never been a consideration. He'd simply never thought about them. For hundreds of years, they'd blended into the masses of Greece, trying their best to avoid detection lest they face Hephaestus' wrath or be accused of carrying a curse. Apollo had met a few, sure. He'd more than met a few others (if you catch his drift). But, for some reason, thoughts of an emperor Gifting something human...Something thinking. A demigod.

He didn't even consider it until the day that little girl was carted into the throne room.

Apollo has made a few poor choices in his long life. That - not heeding Herophile's warnings until it was too late...That will always be one of his greatest regrets.

That is the reason that he hesitates in his response to Nero's demand. Juliette Aster bears no striking resemblance to the Siren of the South. She's impressively tall while Achillea was petite. Her body is strong and nourished where Achillea's was slight and dainty. Her chin is high and her demeanor uniquely defiant. Her eyes are green rather than brown, and they hold a fire in them that, by her age, had long fizzled out in her predecessor's.

Apollo hesitates, it's true. It never feels good to make the same mistake twice.

But, he is out of options, and she isn't his child.

There is only one choice. Apollo's only consolation is that, from the way Juliette Aster is staring into him right now, he doesn't think she'd let him choose anything different.