APOLLO'S NOSTRILS FLARE. The sun boils my skin. There was a wrong and a right response. I chose the wrong one.
What about your mother? he asks.
My heart stops beating.
"What about her?"
If you don't do as I say, he insists, calmly, though his eyes burn with the fury of the sun, I'll kill her too.
Either I kill three innocents or cause the death of my own mother. Those are my only two choices. Unless...
"Give me a month."
A month? Apollo scoffs. I'm giving you right now.
"No. You're going to give me a month," I demand. "You want me to be your little half-god pawn? Fine. I'll do it. But you're going to give me a month to figure out which of them is your kid. And then—and then I'll kill them." I hear myself say those three little words from somewhere outside my own body. "That way you get what you want and the least amount of people will die."
And if you haven't brought me their head by this exact time next month, I'll kill your mother. One month, he reminds me. Whatever it takes.
Then he phases out of existence. The rest of the world returns to normality.
My sword, still covered in the golden blood of a god, clatters to the floor.
YOU ARE READING
A Shrine to an Unknown God
FantasyAntigone Katsaros was born and raised in a cult. Now, at eighteen, she doesn't know what wifi is, but she's well-versed in the old gods. [A Wattpad featured story.]
