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Apollo

“Is that the way you thought things would go?” Hyacinthus asked as he leaned back on the luxurious lounge in the media room, carefully placing a grape between his plush lips. The emerald-green vest over his cream undershirt played with the highlights in his hazel eyes, depending on where the light was coming from.

“It’s not over yet.” Sitting on the edge of the lounge next to him, I ran my fingers through my golden hair before I rested my elbows on my knees. “The players are all in place, but their choices are their own.”

He hummed in thought. “Doesn’t stop us from stacking the decks, though.”

“True enough.”

“You still think this is all a result of his influence?”

Shrugging, I stood up and paced over to the life-size television in front of us, the image of Joey and Callum curled around each other in bed lingering on the screen. My hand rose, passing through the screen to drift over the pair slowly as they slept, blessing their future in my own way. I was glad that they had gotten through their rocky start.

Four years they’d yearned for each other. A blink of the eye for Hyacinthus and myself, but what would have felt like forever for those two, considering how young they both were.

I almost felt bad that I’d helped trigger Callum’s first vision when I had.

Almost.

They just needed that tiny little push to get them both headed in the right direction.

The near future was going to test them more, but with the foundation they’d set, they’d make it.

I’d make sure of it.

I might need to adjust things a little with other people first, though. Especially if he was meddling where he shouldn’t.

These were my people. Not his.

Hyacinthus slowly wrapped his arms around me from behind, his forehead resting on my back. “Do you think we’ll get to travel down there again? I mean, other than seeing Callum and Joey again on their honeymoon. It was fun messing with that Leland person.”

I chuckled and rested my hands on his wrists, holding him close. “I’d say it’s more than likely, my love.”

He sighed happily. “I’m glad.”

“My little troublemaker.” Smiling, I lifted his hands to my lips, kissing his knuckles, then the inside of his wrists before turning around to face him. He peered up at me with a broad smile, such love in his eyes even after all these eons. It amazed me how much love we still felt for each other after everything that had happened. My thumbs glided over his high cheekbones as I leaned down to press my lips to his.

“Marco!”

Even as I groaned at the interruption, Hyacinthus pulled away from me with a heady laugh and sparkling eyes. “Polo!”

The media room glowed with rainbow light for a mere second before Iris sauntered in, her long mahogany brown hair flowing in teased open ringlets down her back. The story Callum had told Joey hadn’t been entirely accurate, nor was it the full story. Time, alongside the addition of each storyteller’s own embellishments when they repeated her story around their campfires, had corrupted Iris’s true history until only the basics remained.

The young woman who stood before me was a prime example of those alterations. Callum had told Joey about a young girl-child of seven when she had burned. Apparently, the story had much more impact if the victim was still a child, rather than the twenty-year-old woman Iris actually had been when her mind had burned.

Callum didn’t need to know just how close he had come to following in her footsteps.

Not in this lifetime, at least.

“Is it done?” Iris asked, her eyes lighting up at what was still on the screen. “Has your experiment succeeded this time?”

Iris knew that she had been my first experiment at merging the family lines. Unfortunately, her family and the others in her clan had immediately become too greedy, thinking only of themselves and how they could profit off her powers. If my sister and I hadn’t intervened when we had, she would have spent the rest of her life in a cage being bred like cattle, with each child she bore married off before they’d completed a single trip around the sun.

Sadly, it had been a mercy to have her burn.

It had taken thousands of years for the stars to align again to allow me to attempt the experiment a second time. This time around, Callum had the benefit of knowing what had come in the past with Iris, and he had people looking out for him to make sure he kept a low profile in relation to his seer abilities.

It also helped that he was determined to end his line by not bearing any children of his own.

Although…

I let my eyes shift so they could flicker through his many potential futures. There was one thread… yes, there… that could convince him…

But that was a thought for a later date.

Bringing my focus back to the present, I grinned at Iris. “It is done, and he still lives.”

Shouting in glee, she clapped her hands together and bounced on her toes several times. “I’m so glad! Humans have come a long way since my time.”

“That they have,” I said, popping a grape into my mouth before offering the platter to her. “They still have a long way to go, though.”

“True, but don’t we all?” she asked as she bounded over and nabbed several grapes before she flopped down on the lounge, her robe billowing out behind her as she stole my spot with an impish wiggle of her eyebrows. Even after thousands of years, she remained the cheeky young woman that Artemis and I had liberated from a desperate situation.

Pinching several of his own grapes from their stems, Hyacinthus collapsed next to her and leaned into her side, his head resting on her shoulder as he eyed me playfully. They were the best of friends and would take every opportunity to make mischief. “Polo tells me he and I will be heading down there in the near future. Want to join us?”

Frowning at my lover, I shook my head. “I don’t think—”

“Don’t fret, Polo,” Iris said, laughing. “Arty has me working on other things. I doubt I have the time to spare to join you two lovebirds.”

Cocking an eyebrow, I popped another grape into my mouth, chewing thoughtfully before I swallowed. “What is my dear sister up to now?”

Excitedly, she wriggled in her seat, her wide elfin eyes glinting with humor. “Oh, you know. A bit of this, a bit of that.”

“Hmm…” I narrowed my eyes at her, tossing up whether it was worth my time to pursue this line of questioning. Knowing Artemis, it could be anything.

“Oh! Before I forget,” Iris sat up, waving her hands in the air as she dislodged Hyacinthus from her side. “Hermes said he’d grant you that favor you wanted, but you would owe him for it.”

Expecting this response, I nodded. None of my siblings would ever give away favors for no return. It galled me to know that I now owed Hermes a favor to call on whenever he wished but needs must. “Thank you, Iris.”

“You’re welcome, Polo.” She relaxed again, Hyacinthus snuggling into her side once more. “Is it time to start the second season yet? Cinthy has been teasing me about what to expect, and I find myself curious.”

Smiling, I sat down on the other side of Hyacinthus, shifting him until he was seated firmly on my lap but still leaning against Iris. With a flick of my wrist, the image of Callum and Joey asleep on the large screen in front of us dissolved before a new picture emerged, one of a frowning young Asian man with messy black hair driving towards the airport, vehicles surrounding him on all sides. “You’re in luck, Iris. The second season has already begun…”

The Agency will return soon.