Page 158 of Styx

Frozen, none of us spoke.

Hyperion, our jovial uncle,

finally cleared his throat.

‘Well?’ he asked, looking at Notus,

who just shrugged impudently,

then disappeared into a storm cloud.

Wise child, I thought wryly.

Why bother to stay in such

precarious situations if you could escape?

I looked to Hyperion, not daring

to gaze upon Nyx. ‘We are looking

for a Titan, one like us.

Atlas told us she came to see you.’

Nyx’s booming voice resounded.

‘YOU ARE SEARCHING FOR YOUR SISTER.’

I turned slowly to face her.

Of course she would know.

She was the first of Chaos’s children,

the oldest of all. She knew

that Metis was Oceanus’s daughter.

Her eyes glittered as she looked at me.

‘SHE WAS HERE.’

From the corner of my eye,

I saw Hyperion shift uncomfortably.

Then he said to Nyx quietly,

‘I told you that no good would come

of giving that child the apple.’

Hyperion was the only God capable

of looking Nyx in the eye.

Not because he was as powerful as her,