Page 238 of Styx

to protect your child.’

Asteria stepped back from me.

‘As you have done?’ she asked in pain.

‘By betraying your own?’

My eyes narrowed.

‘I did what I had to so

my children could be safe.’

The colour drained from her face.

‘Perses leads the Titan army,’

she said, grief lacing her words.

‘Does it not occur to you

that perhaps I cannot surrender?

That perhaps we do not have

the luxury of choice?’

I trembled with fury and guilt

at her words. ‘Do you think,’

I hissed at her, ‘that this was easy

for me? That I chose this lightly?’

Asteria glared at me now.

‘You got to choose, Styx.

This is what I mean.’

In my anger, I turned away

from her and said,

‘I did what I had to

for those I love.’

Asteria’s voice, soft and shaking,

was almost a whisper when she said,

‘Once, a long time ago,

you loved me too.’

My heart broke. I turned