Phtonus’s words scared Cat to her core. Although Phtonus was the god of jealousy, he was not one to speak without good reason, and his words held a lot of power amongst the gods, so what did he mean that this boy would kill her? She looked back down at Justin as he rested peacefully and couldn’t help but notice the fact that, even for a human, he looked quite handsome. He wasn’t an overpowering presence like that of Zeus or Apollo, but when his presence was felt, it made everything around him feel more warm. So why? Why would Justin kill her? The more that Cat thought about this, the more she started to worry about it, soon enough her hand was slowly drifting towards the knife separating the two. The sudden cold touch of her fingers touching the steel blade sent a shiver down her spine as she realized that she was truly thinking about killing him. Her fingers closed around the hilt as she scooted closer to the still body of Justin, watching his movement carefully. Her eyes drifted from his peaceful face down his left arm, stopping at the sign of Gaia, which had retreated back down his arm after finishing the healing process. She knew from watching that she would never get another chance to kill him like this, so if she truly wanted to protect herself, now was the chance. She had used a blade before during hunting, she had even gutted quite a few animals in her time, so this would be no different. So why were her hands shaking? She looked down and saw that she could barely keep the blade straight, she didn’t want to kill him. He had been kind to her when no one was on his side. When the gods themselves were ready to smite him down, he still showed no signs of hatred. He even protected her…….The thought hit her hard as she remembered the fight minutes ago. Even while his life was being threatened, he had refused to ask for her help and he had even tried to protect her. She threw the knife away from her quickly, knowing she could no longer bring herself to kill him, he had hit her in a place she’d never felt pain before, and she had to keep him alive to one day repay the favor.

The sounds of the steel blade connecting with the concrete floor before sliding into the wall made a scratching sound louder than Cat had anticipated. The sharp sounds succeeded in bringing me out of my coma-like state enough to open my eyes. My eyesight was still blurry and I had a massive headache but, to my surprise, my body otherwise felt normal. I felt nothing like when I fell asleep, but what happened? Why do I feel so fine when I should be dead. I felt like I was going to die when I passed out, yet I am starting to sit up in the same cell I passed out in. As my eyes finally started to adjust, I panned across the room before settling my sights on to Cat, who sat mere feet away from me with a slight blush coming across her face as she turned away from me. I didn’t quite understand why that happened, but I shrugged it off to focus on a more important question.

“Why do I feel fine? Cat, what happened to me?” I hoped that Cat, as a god would know something about what happened, but instead she simply shook her head and pointed at the sign on my hand.

“It healed you, I don’t know how, and I don’t know why, but it healed you faster than I have ever seen, faster than Zeus himself could heal. All I know is that if it has that kind of power, its dangerous.” She got very serious for a moment, turning to face me again. “Before we get out of here, you have to promise you won’t rely on that things powers. Nothing that strong works without a risk Justin, so please be careful.” This was the first time Cat had ever spoken to me like this, which only seemed to give her words even greater meaning. Believer or not, a warning from a god was not to be ignored, so I nodded my head reassuringly before standing. As I stood and stretched, I noticed that I didn’t just feel normal, I felt better than normal. I felt stronger somehow, and I knew it had to be this marking. Cat stood as well and moved over to the cell door before taking off her leather boot and pulling out a small dagger from the heel. “We need to wedge the blade between the bolt and the hinge on both pieces to pull the door off, but its going to be heavy so be prepared to help me.” Upon finishing speaking, Cat quickly jammed the knife underneath the head of the bolt before quickly striking down on it with her boot, effectively knocking the bolt up off the hinge. She repeated this process with the second one, but before she had time to move over and help grab the door, I suddenly pushed forward with a minimal amount of effort and slammed the door into the opposite side of the cage. The door felt so light in my hands, yet she had warned me that it would be heavy. Feeling my own confusion as I looked at my hands, I turned and looked over at Cat to only find the same confusion there as well. I knew that trying to understand what was happening was beyond my capabilities at this point, so I decided to shrug it off and moved quickly over to the desk to retrieve our bags and daggers, before quickly exiting the room with Cat leading the way.

We moved down the hallway quickly, but as we neared the crack in the wall again, the commotion I expected to come from it was never heard. We crept past the crack in silence as the moon’s light pressed through the crack. The guard had said there was a problem, yet there is no commotion going on outside. Something was up and I knew we had overstayed our welcome here.

“We can’t get supplies here Cat, we will just have to hunt for food, and make do with what we have, now lets just get the hell out of this city.” A quick nod of her head let me know we were on the same page as we exited out of the hallway and out in open night air, outside of the walls once again. We quickly made our way back to Lukos before mounting and making pace towards Mt. Crone. As we reached the base of the mountain, we decided to make camp and start the investigation tomorrow. As we sat beside a small fire inside a small, hidden cave in the side of the mountain, a thought occurred to me. “Why haven’t we seen any pandemonium?” My question caught Cat off guard as she pondered it for a moment.

“What do you mean pandemonium? Over us escaping? I don’t think they intended to make our illegal capture public in the first place, so I doubt they would bring up us escaping them.” She replied still wondering what I was thinking.

“No Cat, bigger. Hermes said that Cronus had been freed. Where was Cronus held?” Cat’s eyes widened as she started to realize what I had brought up.

“Mt Crone…..” Both our eyes moved to the mouth of the cave as we thought about the meaning of this. “If he was released from here, then the entire city would be in a panic. This mountain itself wouldn’t be here if Cronus was freed, so why is it still standing?”

“I don’t know, but I’m worried that we will find out tomorrow.” A gust of wind pushed through the entrance, sending shivers up our spines, but before laying down to sleep, I quickly pulled out my old long sleeve shirt that I kept for morning jobs and handed it over to Cat. “This should keep you warm tonight so that you can sleep better.” As she moved out of the cave to change, I moved her pelt blanket closer to the fire so that she wouldn’t freeze as I knew nights out here could get cold. I laid down close to the back wall of the cave to not only give Cat some space, but to also keep an eye on the cave, for I had no intention of sleeping tonight. Cat returned a few moment later, dawning the long sleeve shirt I had given her, but in her hands lay the leggings and boots she had worn the entire time I had known her. The shirt was large enough to cover my upper body and worked perfectly to go down to just below the curve of her ample backside. I almost felt ashamed seeing her walk quickly over to her blanket before wrapping her it around her slender legs. As she got comfortable again, she turned back to look at my set up for tonight and almost felt bad for accepting my shirt. She saw that I wore the same outfit as during the day, aside from taking off my shirt to get cold outside for tomorrow, leaving me in just a tanktop. I laid a top an old, ragged sheet that only succeeded in keeping my body from touching the various insects that crawled across the cave floor throughout the night. Seeing this made her heart sink as she pulled the blanket closer to her body, almost feeling how cold I will be tonight.

“Justin……you should get closer to the fire or you’ll freeze. Come on there is plenty of room up here.” Cat said with a soft smile motioning for the other side of the fire, but that spot didn’t give me a good vantage point on the mouth of the cave, so I couldn’t do it.

“I’ll be alright Cat, don’t worry about me. I just want to make sure you are alright.” I replied with a smile, hoping to fend off anymore help from her so that she will go to sleep. This night scared me for no other reason then worry. Greece was too silent for everything to be alright and I had a really bad feeling about being this vulnerable. Cat laid back down, feeling slightly confused. On the one hand, she felt warm inside because all that mattered to me seemed to be her, but on the other she felt like she was hurting me more than helping. I was constantly worrying about her and she almost felt like a child with a parent ever since leaving Mt. Olympus, she wanted to be helpful as well and the only way she could help right now is keeping me warm tonight. After tossing and turning for a few moments, Cat decided to act on her thoughts. Without sitting back up or turning around, she started to speak to me again.

“Justin? Justin………I’m cold still, do you think you could maybe come closer and keep me warm tonight?” I never expected to hear those words come out of her mouth and sat still for a moment or two, not sure how to react. It takes Cat shivering for effect to break my spell and get my attention again. I slowly move closer to Cat, expecting her to ball up in the blanket, but instead she opened it up making room for me. I was struggling to keep my breathing calm as my heart raced at the sight before me. I had never dated a woman as beautiful as Cat before, let alone had the pleasure of falling asleep with one and here she was offering it to me. I lay down on my side behind her and softly bring my hand to her waist to let her know I’m here. The warmth of my hand makes her feel more comfortable as she pulls the blanket it over us both before placing her hand over my own. As the flame slowly reduces to embers, all that can be heard now was the beating of my heart. This god, this woman had a way of making every aspect of me go rampant and I didn’t know how to deal with it except bottle it in. Cat sighed in contentment as she hadn’t felt this warmth and safe in a very long time. As the last of the embers went out only one word could be heard carried over the wind.

“Love.”

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