Page 173 of Styx

who he was. I clutched Styx’s hand.

‘H-he is the son of Kronos,’

I whispered, swaying slightly

from the weight of these voices.

Perses moved to my side,

his hand sliding around my waist,

holding me up against his chest.

‘He is the son of Kronos,’

I said more clearly so Pallas

and Leto could hear too.

‘That is impossible,’ Perses said.

‘Kronos eats every single child

born to Rhea. Why would he

let a son live, knowing the prophecy?’

The voices in my head screamed

and then suddenly went silent.

I turned to my consort quietly.

A slow harrowing settling

inside my immortal body.

The truth fell out into the darkness.

‘Kronos does not know.’

Our Unending Curse

Sometimes, I believe we were always cursed. Chaos ensured it when Ouranos usurped Gaia to become our king. I do not think the great creator of us all ever wanted us to have a king or even a queen. The reason Gaia originally ruled was because we turned to her rivers, her forests, her soil for aid. We built our palaces on her gifts. Her abundance flowed through our own veins. Perhaps the darkening of Ouranos’s soul came when he saw how much we depended on Gaia. He saw her position as queen, while we simply saw her as mother. When he forced the Hecatoncheires – those hundred-handed, fifty-headed siblings of the golden Titans – back into Gaia’s womb as he determined them too ugly to exist, he forced her into an isolation due to pain. And in that time, he ruled instead of fathered us. He took instead of gave. In some ways, when Gaia gave Kronos the sickle that cleaved him, it was out of mercy. In other ways, it was vengeance. But when he was overthrown and cleaved, he wrote our prophecy in stone in golden blood: ‘Your son will destroy you, just as you have destroyed me. Your reign, oh Kronos, will not last long.’ In a way, madness was the only answer. In a way, what other choice did Kronos have once he was cursed?

Metis and Zeus

were not paying attention.

If they were, they would have heard

Styx’s gasp, her heavy breathing,

our worried low voices

asking what was wrong.

When I turned back to check