Lore

by Alexandra Bracken

Castor reached out, trying to catch her before she plunged down into the pond, but Artemis pulled back, repulsed. And fell.

this is so good

And, Lore realized, Athena was the last of the original nine.

oh that made me emo

Evander, one of Castor’s distant cousins,

wait,,, and he had a crush on him?

“I know my fate,” she whispered to him. And I will change yours.

stop this is so precious

“Any god would know such things,” Athena said. “They would ingratiate themselves into your life, subtly guiding you onto a path of their choosing, all with you none the wiser. As I said, we appear to you as what you need or desire.”

like her rn

Even with the aegis, Lore would wither beneath Wrath’s power. But if it was in the hands of someone stronger . . . someone who knew how to wield it, and at its full potential . . . “You really think you can’t handle him?” Lore asked slowly. It would be a terrifying thing to behold—Athena reunited with the aegis, roaring into battle.

me when i let myself be manipulated<3

Lore slowly closed the window, but left it open, just a crack, for when she returned.

:(

“Do you see it now?” Athena asked, speaking in the ancient tongue. Any warmth, any sign of humanity had gone out like a doused flame. “The steady hand guiding the loom?”

YEAHHHH

She killed them. Not Wrath. Not the Kadmides. It had always been Athena.

OH FUCJ

As if she had called them to her, shadows appeared along the walls of the tunnel. The silhouettes of a man and woman, of two small girls, glided beside her, keeping her tortured pace. Faces she knew. Faces she loved.

pls im crying

His face was a book that had been written only for her. Its story unfolded while he watched her watch him.

omg pls

drew herself up toward Castor and the fiery sunset that crowned him.

<3

Each suggestion was designed to separate her from the others, who might have been able to recognize what was happening, and deepen Lore’s belief in her and her alone.

:(

A person alone could be controlled, but a person loved by others would always be under their protection.

“I was born knowing how to do three things—how to breathe, how to dream, and how to love you.”

STFU LMAO

Yet the moment he’d said it, Lore had recognized that sense of inevitability that had woven through all their moments together, old and new. How she’d been stumbling toward him, even as she pulled back against the tether between them.

omg

You were a safe place to hide my hopes.”

omfg

Stop, she thought. I don’t want him to ever be afraid. Yes, a voice seemed to whisper back. He is not our enemy.

da fuq

These, she thought, are our enemies. Yesss, the voice hissed in agreement.

i laughed this was a choice

Wrath said, preening at her words. Believing every one of them, the way only a man who saw no faults in himself could.

get his ass

A fate worse than death.

“Just as I am sure that I did not give you my consent to kill this mortal.”

OK ATHENA REDEMPTION ARC kinda

It was a warrior’s kill. A god’s final reckoning.

but it was offered ! a sacrifice

Not free. The thought pierced her. Never free. But the others would be.

damn im gonna cry

Alone. She was alone. . . . “Stay with me.” Lore let out a choked cry, sobbing for breath and relief at the crush of it all. Don’t leave me. . . . They didn’t. She felt her family around her—the soothing touch of them, brushing her cheeks, wrapping around her center. And beyond them, the presence of unseen eyes.

no im crying

“No—stay,” he begged. “Stay here!” Her power left brands on his skin. It stirred a thought in her, pulling her out from the fathomless light she was dissolving into. Hurting him. Castor kissed her—kissed her until that blazing power lost its grip on her mind and body. The feel of him became a tether to the world, and she held it with everything she had in her. The blazing power extinguished around them. Nothing felt real but him. “Stay,” Castor said again, as he pulled his lips away from hers. “Don’t go without me. . . .”

WHY AM I CRYINGGGGG