Cyrus stood at one end of the grand dinner table. Ian and Phoebe sat to his right. Marilyn and Alli still held hands to his left. He wasn’t sure what to think of Marilyn’s obvious affection for her girlfriend, not after their affair. But he knew he would have time to think about it, perhaps to speak of it to her, later. Now his focus and attention must be on his parents.
“Mother and father, do you see these people?” He looked to Ian and the women around him. “This is why I will never be one of you again. I may be born a god, but I’m not one of you. I would rather be a human than something that stands above and alone.
“When I left your home, I thought I was just going on an adventure. But I faced down evil twice now with these people. And what I’ve realized is they are far more noble than we will ever be.”
“Yes,” Persephone said. “You’ve made your feelings for humanity clear.”
“You still can’t see it, can you mother? Melinoe’s betrayal, Hermes’ intervention and the return of Caelus wasn’t just happenstance. You wrought all this. You live forever, but you’re unbelievably short-sighted. Your need to be above everything left you open to this plot. That monster is still out there, ready to rebuild his empire.”
“Caelus will be found and he will be stopped. He will not find the Olympians easy to overcome. His plot is exposed and his power structure fractured. We survived this day and he will not get another like it.”
“We survived today by the acts of my friends from the human world, not by the act of a god.” He pointed to the blue haired woman to the right. “Phoebe may be an immortal, but she’s still no god. She understood who could stand against Caelus. Marilyn, Ian and her were the heroes today. Not you, not me and not the Olympians.”
“What would you have me do, Cyrus? Do you wish me to forgive your trangressions? You may not have murdered Patraeus but you still abandoned your station!”
“You don’t get it still! The act of having a station is everything wrong with all of us! We are no better than the humans. This is their world. The sooner we learn to live in it, the better all of us will be.”
“Your insolence insults every Olympian,” Persephone said. “I do not understand your goal in all this, my son. We just want what is best for you and that is to accept your station. You must understand the importance of your own godhood.”
“There is no importance! Any importance disappeared millennia ago, mother, long before I was born!”
“Child, you will stop your insolence. You will listen or I will—”
Pluto raised a hand between Cyrus and his mother. Persephone stared at her husband as he rose from his seat.
“Perhaps the boy is right,” Pluto said. His voice was quiet but commanding. Cyrus couldn’t remember the last time he heard it, but he was proud to hear his father’s words. “We have let our own hubris blind us. We cannot let it continue. We must find our way in this world. Perhaps that means we must become part of it truly.”
“But husband—”
“No, Cyrus is right. We must honor his wishes. He and his friends are not ours to oversee, not anymore.”
“His life is his own and it’s about time he goes to live it.”
Pluto raised one gloved hand. He swept it across the table.
Cyrus still stood in front of four chairs filled with his friends, but they were atop his apartment’s roof.
“I’m so damn tired of being teleported everywhere!” Alli’s words rang across the roof.
It looked like it was almost morning—again. Cyrus didn’t want to think about how much time they actually lost in Hades. It could have been a few more hours or it could have been weeks.
“Come on inside,” he said. “I don’t know about everyone else, but if we’re starting a new day, I could sure use a cup of coffee.”
Everyone nodded their agreement as he took them to the roof access. Flashes of the minutes before his parent’s arrival raced through Cyrus’s skull.
He tried to focus on anything at all other than Marilyn’s naked form atop him. But it wouldn’t come to him, even as he glanced over to her, still holding Alli’s hand.
The walk down to his apartment seemed easy after the battle with Caelus. It was the familiar ache of everyday life. It felt good. It felt right.
His key was long gone, but a focused use of his powers popped the lock with ease. He stepped inside and immediately heard water running. It took him a second to realize it was the shower.
Someone else was here.
“I didn’t know you had a roommate,” Ian said as they passed the threshold.
“I don’t,” Cyrus said. “Be careful.”
They all started towards the bathroom. The thought of another battle made Cyrus feel even more exhausted, but he wouldn’t back off from anyone that attacked his home.
The shower ceased as they approached. Before anyone could open the door, it opened from inside.
Draped only in a towel, Melinoe stepped out. She gave her brother a wry grin.
“Hey, brother. It looks like we’re roomies now.”
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