The Pink Sky

Nine.

Seph groaned and threw herself on to the bedroom floor in frustration.

She'd spent almost four hours tearing through her room, searching for something, anything, that proved Des didn't force her to go with him.

No matter where she looked she just kept coming back to the stupid blank journal.

She lay defeated on the pastel pink rug with the book hanging over her face dauntingly.

"True name." She muttered to herself.

For the life of her, she could not think what it was, she'd never particularly liked Hades when she read about him- the way she saw it, he kidnapped her favourite goddess- screw him.

As far as she was aware, only her voice could unlock the words which she supposed was a security measure to protect her thoughts from Demeter.

Des gave her it, surely that was enough proof that he wasn't some cut-throat villain, but he wanted something solid or at least for Seph to remember that she went willingly.

The door burst open suddenly, revealing two sets of legs that looked awfully familiar.

"Did you break in?" Seph moaned from the floor.

"Apparently your mother likes us," Lena said in disbelief, "which is not something I thought she knew how to do."

Seph let out a fake laugh and stayed where she was.

"She said she had to nip out but she'll be back soon." Lena explained and the pair walked towards her.

"Have you been shot?" Ar tilted her head as she looked down at her. "Are you injured?"

"I'm in turmoil."

"You're just hungry." Lena nodded and grabbed her left arm. "We have jelly beans and face masks."

Seph paused for a moment, weighing the pros and cons of getting up.

"Fine." She sighed and scrambled to her feet. "I want the strawberry one."

The three of them ended up strewn across the room with their respective face masks and bowls of food.

"So she is Alectrona." Ar's voice was full of hope.

"Yes, we'll check out the library as soon as we can, but we've got your girl Ari." Seph smiled happily.

Ar gleamed at her and shoved a handful of crisps into her mouth.

"Gorgeous, she's a lucky girl." Lena joked.

"Shut up, we don't even know if she'd like me or not." Ar whined.

"According to Hera, we were close," Seph said through a mouthful of popcorn, "she was the only one left behind when this all happened."

"That's awful," Lena added, "we have to get to this girl, imaging losing all your closest friends at the same time."

Ar seemed deep in thought, wondering what would happen if they did find her.

"What do you make of Haz and Ryan?" Seph tried to change the subject quickly. "They're getting close."

"Meeting the parents went well." Lena grinned. "Ryan phoned me absolutely elated."

"I'm so glad," Seph beamed, "Ryan was so nervous, he asked me to tell him about their stories."

"Oh, Harry was shitting himself," Ar cackled, "seriously, 'I've never liked a bloke before, Lo, I don't want to ruin this', he was like lovesick puppy."

"I'm sure Lo knew exactly what to say to that." Seph snorted.

"Definitely," she mocked, "I don't think the boy got a full word out never mind some good advice."