Page 99 of Styx

to be tied to for all eternity?

Do you understand

what it would mean to be wed to me?

Split eyes and coldness,

my sisters say my real mother

is a serpent because I could not have

been born from Tethys’s sacred womb!’

He watched me closely.

‘Do you see yourself

as such a great burden?’

I opened my mouth with a retort

then bit my tongue to reconsider.

I took the empty seat Perses had left.

‘I am under no illusion, Pallas.

My sisters are beautiful.

One of them will suit you better.’

It hurt so deeply to say these words.

But I knew. I knew I was not beautiful.

Not like them. I was a nymph

without beauty, my punishment

for being firstborn.

Pallas shook his head.

‘I never saw myself with a consort.

But if I ever had one, I would want

her to be spirited, a companion,

an ally. I want her to challenge me.

Beauty was never my interest.’

I considered his words.

He was so different from the shallow

Gods I had come to know.