The Mighty Ones' Fall

Epilogue

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A single, giant ball of white light streaked through the torrential sky, weaving in and out of thick black clouds. In a great arc it flew over thousands of miles farmland, cities, and the churning Atlantic Ocean, until it finally started descending over a specific city in a specific country, the names of which did not particularly matter. At least not for the time being.

Now, if people could have actually seen this sphere of nearly transparent light through all of the rain and lightning, they would have seen it take an abrupt plunge through the roof of a sprawling hospital. From there the ghost-like ball dropped through four different floors, but then it suddenly stopped downward movement in order to hover over all of the newborn babies in the nursery wing. Unnoticed by the nurses and spitting out microscopic glowing sparks, the mysterious ball spun around in place for only a moment before it finally broke apart and formed dozens of tiny spheres, each one no bigger than a baby’s fist. As if on some sort of cue, all of these glowing spheres, all of the Greek gods’ souls, started zipping around the room, trying to find new, worthy places to call home. Within two minutes, each one had disappeared inside the chest of a sleeping human baby.

At once, all of the chosen babies awoke with a start, except for one fair-skinned child bundled in a pink blanket. Instead, she kept her steel gray eyes tightly shut and tossed fitfully in her crib. She was still dreaming – or, rather, remembering.

.

In her mind’s eye, she could see a handsome teenage boy with dark, messy hair and piercing blue eyes, and instantly her head felt clouded and her breath felt weaker. She had a vague sense that she loved this unfortunate boy named Alec, who was dressed in full battle armor, but who was also lying face-up in the sand and clutching his side, which was bleeding heavily from a reopened scar, long and curving. He had dropped his blood-covered sword about a foot away, just out of his reach. He was dying and had no use for it anymore.

Around her, standing silently under a sound-proof dome of hot orange flames were fourteen other fit teenagers, all of them with beautiful, glowing faces, unblemished except for tears. Some clung frightfully to each other, while some suffered angrily and alone. She knew without question that these were her best friends, the gods of Olympus. She also sensed they were in trouble, but somehow she knew exactly what to say and do.

In this fifteen-year-old form of her soul, she felt oddly lightheaded, almost weightless, and her mind seemed fogged up but also stretched in a million different directions. Even though she hated this fuzzy feeling and understood it only got worse when she was closer to him, she slowly stepped forward and knelt down beside the dying hero.

“What will happen to my mom?” Alec worriedly asked her in Greek, his voice hoarse and his eyes wide. He barely even had the strength to lift his head off the ground to speak.

Without knowing why, she heard herself answer harshly, “Clara will burn to death, obviously. She will keep burning until her body is nothing but a pile of ash. Just like a monster, because that’s what she is.”

“Will I die like a monster, too?”

She sighed. “I’m not exactly sure. But remember that you are still a hero. That could mean either everything, or nothing.”

Alec only echoed her sigh and rested his head in the sand. He kept his gaze locked lovingly with hers as she reached out to touch his forehead, the tips of her fingers tangled in his hair. “You’re not crying,” she heard herself say, breaking the solemn silence.

“Neither are you,” Alec observed, his brow furrowed.

She thought it was an odd time to smile, but she felt herself smile nevertheless. “Well, this time I know you’re finished. I know we gods can’t hurt you anymore. I know so many things, Alec. I know I should have let you die as soon as I met you, but I’m glad I didn’t. I’m sorry to say I’m glad I made you suffer so. I hate the way you make me feel, but I love you.”

At this moment, Hades the lord of the Underworld walked over and whispered gruffly in her ear, “His time has come.”

She nodded, studying the pale god closely and for the first time thinking of him as an ally. Then Alec cleared his throat and said to him urgently, “Wait. Before you died, were you going to end the war? Please, just be honest.”

Hades pursed his blood red lips in thought. “I don’t know anymore. My response changes every time I think about it,” he admitted, shaking his head in wonder and in shame. Both Alec and the girl understood completely, so they just stayed quiet.

Suddenly, Alec started coughing, and tiny specks of blood stained his chapped lips. Panic had little time to settle in. Looking back to her for comfort and recognizing that this was the end, he moaned softly, “Good luck, Athena. And try not to die so early on in your next life.” Then he gasped for air one last time, closed his dulling eyes, and was still. Blood continued to smear over his chest-plate and pool at his side.

While a few of the other gods started bawling, the young hero’s patron experienced only relief, short and sweet, before she felt herself be lifted into the sky by some nameless outside force. Then everything went black.

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When the baby opened her eyes, the fog in her mind and soul that was love finally cleared. She would never again be able to recall any part of her past life as a Forest God, but all she had wanted was to be reassured of her choice one last time, and that she was.

END OF BOOK 3

---------------THE END. For real this time.--------------

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