Titans Wrath

Artrmis: Chapter 20

What have I done? Why am I so stupid?

Thoughts like these are what have been running through my mind for hours now. Perseus had left for Tartarus 3 hours ago, and I had not left my tent since his departure. Tears threatened to surface by I snapped my fingers and made them disappear. Why did I kiss him?

I could not deny that over the time he had spent as my guardian, I had grown awfully attached to him, but I could not help it. He was so good with the hunters, the younger ones looking up to him as almost a father figure and the older ones treating him as more of a brother. He was so sweet around them and cared so deeply and took his job of being guardian very seriously.

I have watched him grow from a demigod, albeit a powerful one, and a child of the age of 13 to a grown adult, reaching immortality and, I suspected, God hood. He filled in rather nicely, too. On top of all of that, he was a wonderful partner to Annabeth the entire time. Never once had I caught his gaze wandering, nor impurities in his heart or motives, even as a teenager. He was unlike any man I had ever seen before. This brings me to my current torment.

Why did I kiss him?

"Arghhhh!" I yelled and threw a piece of clay pottery across my tent, making it shatter on the center pole. My heart plagues me. If he does nothing and ignores my advance, he will only reinforce my desire for him but if he submits to me despite his relationship with the girl then he will have become the very thing I don't like. I have put him in a very bad situation, and I am by proxy.

"Milady?" A voice called from outside the tent. It was Phoebe. The daughter of Ares had taken up the mantle as luitenent when Thalia had been selected for the Guardian Program. I gathered myself and flicked my wrist, making the pottery reassemble itself as her hunched figure entered the tent.

She made note of the clay piecing itself back together in the corner and raised an eyebrow at me. I gave her an embarrassed glance before shoving my face back into my pillow.

The huntress stood by my side quietly at parade rest, staying diligent. After a few minutes, I sat up and sighed, deciding advice would be better than none, and I refused to go to that wretched love goddess.

"Phoebe, how long have we known each other?" I asked, and she raised an eyebrow.

"Neigh over 1400 years, Milady. Why?" Her response made me feel old, as it always did when I was reminded by how long I've been doing this.

"In all these years, have you ever fallen for a male and brushed it off to stay in the hunt?" I looked her in the eyes as surprise crossed her face.

She hesitated before glancing down, her response coming moments later. "A handful of times over the years, Milady. Once every few centuries. Merely fleeting crushes, though, most of the time." That last part came out as little more than a whisper, but with my divine hearing, I picked it up. We locked eyes, and I looked at her in question before she sighed and sat on my bed.

"In my first 100 years with your hunt... a male managed to snag my heart much the same was Orion did yours." I opened my mouth to protest, my face already red, but she held up a hand for silence. "Do not dispute me, Artemis. I know you were smitten with him. This male, we ran across him on a hunt for a pack of hellhpunds I believe it was. He was a farm boy who lived with his uncle and cousin at the base of a mountain range, then called The Spine. The mountains were shrouded in darkness and mystery to the townsfolk, and none dared brave their depths, the ones who did never come back fully sane. And yet, he did it time and time again to provide for his family. A boy no older than 15. Barely a man in his time. He had exceptional tracking and archery skills. Anyways, he and I met a few times, and I'd considered leaving the hunt for him until one day he disappeared. I just up and vanished with the town storyteller, Brom. Anyway, I was heartbroken after that. I requested Zoë ask you to leave those lands, and once we did, I did my best to forget about young Eragon. Yes, Artemis. I have fallen for a male before." I remembered the lands of which she spoke of long ago. Those were different times. We were in a land with different gods, playing by different rules.

I looked up, and she looked at me with a knowing look. I looked into her eyes, letting her see how lost I felt.

"Perseus..." I breathed, and she nodded.

"I know, Milady." She took my hand, and we sat in silence. I don't remember falling asleep, I don't even remember feeling tired, but the next thing I knew, I was dreaming. It was a warm summer day, mere weeks after the installation of the Guardian Program. Perseus had just begun training the other guardians, and I had just begun training him. I remembered this day.

Perseus was drenched in sweat, his orange camp shirt almost entirely soaked, and he panted for air. He straightened and laughed, that loud booming laughter that seemed to fill the space around him. I couldn't help but smile, even in the dream. "That was brilliant, using your shape-shifting so fluidly, Zhang. I'm proud of you." The bulky demigod flushed and collapsed onto a bench, panting himself.

"I'm brilliant? What even IS your fighting style, man? I've never seen anything like it! You have the sheer aggression and flexibility of a Greek but the iron defense of a Roman. I never would have even thought to use my ability like that if you didn't push me so hard." I stood from the side and watched with a bemused expression. Finally, Perseus caught my eye.

"Alright guys, that's enough for today. Go have fun, fulfill your duties." He dismissed them and walked over to me. He snagged a shirt from a duffle under a bench on his way, stripping himself of the soiled shit and replacing it with the new one. "Artemis, to what do I owe the pleasure?" He smiled at me warmly, giving me a mock bow.

I snorted and flicked him on the forehead so hard he flipped end over end and slammed back first into the dirt.

"Gather yourself and the Guardians you just dismissed. Get presentable. Father is going to present us with the enchantment now." I threw over my shoulder as I walked away. I heard him groan but collect himself none the less.

Some hour later, the Guardians and the Olympians sat in the throne room, making a complete circle now as our charges sat across from us in a mirror council. We'd taken to calling them the Demigod Council.

"Alright." Zeus thundered. "It's time for the charm." Hecate walked fron the shadows of his throne and stood in the middle of the circle. "This charm," he continued, "will bind us together. It will let the others know that if one of us falls in combat, it is a small mark burned into your ankle. It will not be painless, and it is permanent. Everyone has a symbol that will be burned into everyone else's ankle when they fall. You may not know what your symbol is, but trust in me, we will all know once it has happened." We all nodded as he spoke, and Hecate began chanting.

A bright star appeared on everyone's chest and linked like a constellation in the heavens. There was a bright flash, and then it went dark. Why had I been pulled into these memories?

And then it happened, the sick realization filling me the moment the pain started. Even as I bolted awake in my tent, a scream tearing itself from my throat, I knew. The tent was alight in a terrible orange glow. I felt like I was going to be sick. My fir blankets caught fire as my ankle was burned. By the time my hunters made it to my tent, I was a whimpering ball in what remained of my bed, my hands covering my ankle. The first one had fallen. The war had finally started.

They pried my hand from my ankle and stared in horror and awe at the brand on my once smooth skin, a brand every Olympian and surviving Guardian now bore.

Lightening streaked across the sky in a brilliant flash, illuminating the brand for a millisecond before thunder ripped through the air as Fagher called an emergency council meeting. None of that mattered to me right then. Not as the image of the brand was seared into my brain.

The small, unmistakable image.

A pair of large round glasses, a lightning bolt shimmering in the lenses.