Fighting Fate

C H A P T E R 3 - Dilara.

There was a part of me that was thankful for what the man had decided to do, for the fact that he had decided to leave matters in my hands, but as I laid on the big bed in Athena’s chambers, I couldn’t help but feel like there was something about it that didn’t feel as great as it should have. And then there was a completely different part of me that didn’t want to have any role in this, the part of me that just wanted everyone else to figure it out.

As if my life hadn’t already been complicated enough, I was now being forced to question everything, my birth, my life, and everything in between. For goodness sake, I was even being forced to question everything before my birth. I had a mother, and a father, and siblings, and now I was being told that none of that could possibly be real?

And my blood was blue. When, the f**k, did my blood turn blue?

It seemed like there were so many things going on, so many things flooding through my mind that I had no choice but to think about them, but to try and make sense out of all of this. I would have wanted nothing more than to just take my time and sleep all of this way—it was why I was laying on the bed in the first place—but it seemed like there was nothing that was going lull me into tiredness. Nothing at all.

I didn’t know how long I had been here, but I was thankful that I had been given this privacy for as long as I had been. I knew that it was only a matter of time before someone came to check up on me, but if I would be able to avoid thinking about that for as long as possible, then I would be able to make more use of the time that I had left.

After the chaos had broken lose in the hall when the announcement of the outcome had been made, it had been no more than seconds before Athena had appeared next to me and I found myself in here. I felt like I was a ball of cotton that everyone was just moving around and throwing around as they pleased—goodness knows that that was exactly what they were doing, but I knew that I would be upsetting a lot of people if I dared to say anything about that.

I let out a sigh, trying to figure out what I was going to do next. I knew that I couldn’t just lay here and pretend that nothing was going on, because that wasn’t going to get me anywhere. That was something that I was so sure of that I was willing to put money on it. As much as I would have liked to do whatever I pleased, it wasn’t possible. I had been given clear instructions on what to do, and now I would need to follow through with them.

I didn’t want to know what would happen to me if I decided not to follow through with any of it. If I had to take a guess, I would say that it wouldn’t be anything good.

I had been so caught up in my thoughts that I had paid little to no attention to what was happening around me—and I should have known that that was something that I couldn’t allow to happen. I was in a foreign place, and just because I felt safe for now, did not mean that I was safe.

Luckily for my sake, the person who appeared at the edge of the bed, the person who startled me, ended up being no one other than Athena herself. At first, I was quite shocked to find her here, but as I thought more clearly about the matter, it dawned on me that she had more reason to be here than I did. After all, this was her home, where she lived. I was the one who didn’t belong here and if it hadn’t been for her hospitality, I wouldn’t even be here.

“I thought that you were asleep.”

“I wasn’t.”

I could tell that there was something that she had wanted to say to me—or perhaps there had been something that she had wanted to do, but the fact that I had been awake, had put a little bit of a roadblock in her plans. I knew that Athena had done nothing but help me during this time—but I couldn’t help being suspicious of everything that was going on. As far as I was concerned, every person now had motive to hurt me.

As if I wasn’t already suspicious enough, Athena was just looking at me, staying silent. I didn’t know what I was supposed to do. Did I call her out on the way that she was making me feel, or did I just look past it and pretend that it was nothing?

I had still been in the midst of making a decision when Athena flopped down onto the bed beside me, falling flat onto her stomach. It was then that I realised that she was as exhausted as I was, but just like me, there was no way for either one of us to achieve any semblance of rest. There was so much happening, and we just couldn’t get away from it all.

“You look like you’ve had a long day.”

“Almost as bad as yours.”

Judging by the fact that she wasn’t elaborating, I felt like it was safe for me to assume that she didn’t exactly want to talk about it just yet. And all that I could do, was to be understanding of that fact. It was one of those things.

There was a part of me that wanted to as her to tell me what it was that was bothering her, and why she seemed to be so drained, but then again, there was an entirely different part of me that wanted to respect her privacy. If she wanted to share that information with me, then I was sure that she would.

“Have you heard anything from Hades, yet?”

I would have been lying if I claimed to say that her question didn’t catch me off guard. I hadn’t been expecting her to say anything to me, let alone to ask me something that would inevitably lead to a conversation. There was a part of me that didn’t want to answer her. In all honesty, I just wanted to lay here and pretend that everything that had happened in the last twenty-four hours. But that wouldn’t be right. I couldn’t run away from the things that were bothering me, just because they were bothering me. That wasn’t the way that things worked.

“I haven’t.”

“I’m not surprised.”

Hearing this statement come from her, I could do no more than to turn and look at her in what I considered to be disbelief. Did she know something that I didn’t? Was there a reason why Hades wasn’t looking for me that I wasn’t aware of? Was he one of those people who were just going to back away now that things had gotten difficult for the two of us?

“Why do you say that?”

It hurt me to ask, because I knew that there was a chance that I wasn’t going to like what I just heard. But even so, there was nothing that I could do. Whatever it was that was going on, I needed to know, I needed to be prepared for all of it.

“Zeus has been giving all of us the time of our lives. The most pleasant of conversations that you could imagine.”

I wasn’t entirely sure who she was talking about, but there were some things that I did know about their history—merely things that I had overheard while I had been growing up, since it had never been something that I had found myself interested in. But now, here we were.

“What are you talking about?”

After I asked her this, she rolled onto her back, and I could tell by the lack of energy that she was portraying that she was far from happy with what was going on. But she still looked like she was exhausted, and maybe, talking about all of this would actually end up helping her more than she realised. But that was something that she would only be able to figure out once she had spoken about it.

“Zeus is calling each one of us in, individually. And I have a feeling that he is going to do the same with you.”

“Who is Zeus?”

“The man who was making all of the decisions.”

Ah.

So, basically what she was telling me, was that I was going to be called in and questioned. As much as I didn’t want to show her that it was something that actually scared me quite a lot, I knew that she would be able to figure it out for herself. After all, she was no fool.

She would know before I even told her.

“I just came here to warn you.”

I was already feeling quite suspicious of everything that was going on, and now, here I was, being warned. And even if Athena had been intending to make things better for me, it didn’t matter, because that wasn’t what was going to happen.

“Why would I need to be warned?”

Athena didn’t miss a beat. It was like she knew that this was coming, like she had learnt to predict how I would react to certain things.

“Zeus has been known to… take advantage. None of us will be able to go in there with you, so you’ll have to make sure that you keep your head on your shoulders. Do not eat anything. Do not drink anything—but even so, do not upset him. He is the one person we actually need on our side to make sure that things work in our favour.”

Something inside of my retracted, and I realised that it was because of what she had said. I didn’t like it. I didn’t like the thought of having to go through all of the trouble to keep myself safe, and to keep someone from getting upset with me. It didn’t seem right or fair to me. I didn’t understand why I would be put subject to all of this.

What could Zeus possibly have to say to me? Because I knew that I had nothing to say to him…