Page 132 of Styx

just as quickly as she appeared.

I cannot explain why this thought

had rooted within me for so long.

Perhaps it was because we held

the secret of her birth away from her.

Perhaps it was because

we had never stopped lying to her

about whose sister she really was.

A ghost of a prophecy had wrapped itself

around my mind:

One day she will learn the truth.

And then she will leave us all.

I looked at Crius’s face blankly,

then turned to Asteria’s worried one.

‘We have to go find her.

We have to go now.’

Questions

Pallas and Perses knew better

than to argue with Asteria or me

when we decided on something together.

They knew our bond to each other

meant more to us than any other.

Immediately, they summoned

Astraeus’s clouds, and together,

we left to return to the palace of Coeus.

My heart pounded as I considered

all the places my sister could go.

I came up empty. Metis was secretive

and only close to Leto.

‘Perhaps,’ Asteria said reading my mind,