A beat falls between us.
‘Where do you go at night?’ I ask.
His eyebrow arches. ‘You have been watching me.’
My heart flutters. I do not deny it.
‘I feel at peace walking below the stars. Sometimes, I am still troubled by memories of who I was before.’
I understand and offer him a smile.
He looks down, his lashes beaded. ‘I sense the others do not like me.’
I laugh at his strangeness. ‘We are Titans, the chosen twelve. We are equally loved in the eyes of the Mother, so we equally love one another.’
‘Equally,’ he repeats, tasting the word as though savouring it. Mocking it.
I feel again that stirring deep within my core. I thought at first it might be fear, now I believe it to be something else.
Suddenly, his eyes swell with sadness. ‘Do you ever feel like you’re slipping away?’
‘I do not understand.’
He trails his fingers across the surface of the lagoon. ‘Can I tell you a secret?’
‘Yes,’ I whisper, drawing towards him.
‘I came here with a purpose. I intended to consume the power of the Hesperides apple, then return to my village and cure someone very dear to me. My little sister, Hestia.’
My pulse quickens. I have never heard a Titan speak this way.
‘But I did not go,’ he continues. I cannot tell if his eyes are glistening with fresh water or salt. ‘I remained here and let her die.’
‘It is not your fault. If your sister has passed, it was her time.’ I take his hands in mine. ‘When we are called to serve the Mother, we must forsake our mortal lives. It is the greatest honour anyone can receive, but that does not mean it is easy.’
His fingers twist in mine like roots through the earth.
‘Do you ever wonder what we could achieve if we left this mountain?’
I draw a sharp breath, but my hands stay twined with his. ‘No. It is forbidden.’
I can feel the heat of him, the lagoon swirling between us.
‘What if the Mother changed her mind?’
The hairs prickle on the back of my neck.
‘You don’t listen to it, do you? The worm that feeds on the apple.’ Even now I can hear the voice in my head whispering its lies.
He closes the space between us, air and water pressed away as our skin touches.
‘Never.’
Five seasons after Zeus joined us, I wake suddenly amongst the roots of the Hesperides tree. The sky is still inked with night. I am cold, Zeus’ warmth no longer beside me. I think he has gone for another of his midnight climbs along the ridge, then I hear voices.
I roll over and see him standing between the tree and a man I have never seen before.
‘You are early,’ says Zeus.
