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The air seems to be sucked from my lungs. Like no matter how much I try to breathe, my lungs are frozen. Having fully forgotten their purpose.
“You're asking the wrong question.” Ari replies quietly, “Try asking yourself instead ‘Who are we?’”
A name hangs in my wind. One that’s impossible. One that’s beyond all possibility.
I need her to tell me what’s going on right now.
Pleading with her, I beg, “Please answer me. Give it to me straight. What do you mean? Stop speaking in riddles.”
“Every coin has the side you see.” She gestures to me. Her eyes were tired. Full of strain. Looking like she’s preparing to sleep for three months straight. “And the side hidden away from the world,” Arista points to herself. “I'm you and you're me. We’re two halves of the same spirit. Caught in different times. Glimpses of who we’re and once were. We’re the light in the shadows. We’re Persephone.”
My vision of dad on the mountain top, instructing me to find Persephone. A goddess lost to time.
Just as Zeus was saying earlier.
This is why he was trying to find me after I was thrown through the wall and Apollo was incapacitated.
“Persephone? I'm Persephone?” My wide eyes stare at my friend. Waiting for her to say that she was kidding and that I'm being too gullible. “Like what Zeus was saying? He was right?”
“Yes.” The garden fades around us. Ari’s voice is growing weaker by the second. “Pandy, promise me that you won’t sit on this throne again. Not until you're ready. No matter who pleads. Sitting on the throne will only cause darkness, pain, and destruction.”
“Promise,” I whisper. My eyes flutter shut. Exhaustion filling my every essence.
“To find Dad, you need Hades. He is the only one who can help you find him,” Ari whispers in a raspy voice, “Now, stand up! Take off the crown!”
“Hades?” My throat tightens. I want to listen to my friend, but my body has other ideas.
“Stand!” Commands Arista. “Drop the diadem!”
“I can’t,” I plead to my friend. “Help me.”
“Pandora, look at me,” Artemis shakes my shoulders. “Pandora!”
Her shouts felt distant. My eyes still closed. I was somewhere else. Feeling worlds away from where my body is. Like I'm tethered to where the earth meets my body, but my mind is soaring in the stars of the evening sky.
Opening my eyes, I look right into the gleaming eyes of the Moon Goddess.
But I can’t move.
I can’t speak.
Like I’m bound to this damn throne and crown.
Artemis yanks me from the throne. The diadem clattering on the stone ground.
Apollo stands towering over Zeus. It was obvious that he now had the upper hand. With each strike, his dad’s blocks become shakier.
Attempting to parry the strike, Zeus misses Apollo’s blow. The sword slices down the length of his forearm. Ichor spills out onto the floor of the Throne Room. The striking pale color of bone peeking out from under gold liquid.
Zeus staggers backwards. His eyes are full of venom. Staring between me and Apollo. “This isn’t over!” Zeus shouts.
Artemis recognized what he was doing before I did or maybe anyone else. Notching an arrow, she loosens it. Aiming for her father.
With a flash, a shower of iridescent rainbow flutters over him and with a pop, he is gone. The Goddess of the Moon’s arrow flies across the room. Embedding itself in a stone column.
Artemis, Apollo and Chiron stood. Ready for the next strike of the former King of the Gods. The Sun God hurls insults at the shower of light. He shouts, “Coward!”
Shouting at the empty space, I can feel his disappointment.
