My gaze jumped back and forth from Demetrius to Rhea. "C-Cybele? What? But I thought you said she was gone for good!"

"That's what I thought too," Demetrius said grimly, his hands clenched into fists. "And yet here she is."

Rhea giggled. "Don't act like a fool, Cronus. You know us Titans can't die easily. It's something that you yourself know very, very well."

Wait, what? So that means. . .

Oh no.

No.

That's not possible, right? After all this time?

Raymond nudged at Eloise standing beside him and whispered something to her. Eloise pursed her lips and carefully took a step back, adjusting her grip on Argentum. Alistair, who stood nearest to the burnt mansion, produced a small fire on his hand.

"How do you know each other?" Zeus asked, then looked at me. "And what did you mean, 'she was gone for good'?"

I was about to speak up when Demetrius took a step forward. "So, Rhea, which of them is him?"

Rhea motioned at Poseidon and Zeus with her weird stick. "Be my guest and take a guess."

Demetrius stared between them intently. The two boys exchanged a confused glance. In their minds, the three of them had jumbled thoughts of what was happening right now, but Demetrius's stood out the most.

Both of them looked almost the same. . . But the eyes. . . His gaze stuck on Poseidon. Ocean blue. Calm. Commanding. It's him. . .

I inhaled sharply. My hands trembled beside me as the truth of his thoughts sank in.

Rhea laughed as Demetrius's expression warped from bewilderment to familiarity.

"Do you see now, Cronus?" she sneered. "Do you see our son whom you abandoned for your lover and her daughter?"

Everything and everyone seemed to stop, even though Demetrius wasn't using his power. Raymond and Eloise didn't know what we were talking about but they somehow knew what they meant. Athena and Zeus stared at their mother with stunned faces. Demetrius glared at Rhea, who cackled as Poseidon and I stared at each other, our minds blank save for one thought in mind:

She's my half-sister.

He's my half-brother.

Rhea and Demetrius had a child. Uncle Ben lied, or maybe he didn't know.

I snapped out of my reverie and turned to Demetrius. "Why? W-Why didn't you tell me this before? Why didn't you even show me?"

He bowed his head down, ashamed. "I'm sorry. It's just. . . never thought I'd ever see him again."

"Why in the world would you think that!" Poseidon roared. "I thought I was dreaming when I thought you looked familiar. For years I've been waiting for you to come back but you never did! I looked up to you when I was a child but you let me down!"

Water from the puddles left by the rain suddenly began to rise from the ground. Fists clenching, Poseidon's eyes darkened like the ocean ravaged by a storm. The water clumped onto his hands, creating the same long tentacles from earlier.

The last and only time I saw him mad was when Apollo tried to shoot me dead at Vesuvius. And that didn't even justify how he looked and felt right now.

I slowly approached him. "Sei, I-I know it's difficult to digest—"

"You don't know anything!" he yelled, whipping one of his arms. "You have no idea what it felt like!"

I flinched but tried not to show it. "Of course I did! You had it easy, I didn't have my real parents by my side! I knew what it felt like. The emptiness, the lack. . . I felt it, Poseidon. But it doesn't have to be that way forever."

His mind was utter chaos. Emotion and reason fought inside him in a waging war, none of them winning at all. He was in denial of what his mother said, but wasn't either. He wanted to believe what I told him, but the thought of his father leaving him when he was three clashed.

As I delved deeper into his head, I ignored the headache setting in mine.

"I-It's okay, Poseidon." I took another gentle step until I reached him. "You have the right to be mad, but we'll figure this out together. Okay?"

"I don't think so, dear."

A tentacle shot towards me and wrapped me around like a snake would do to its prey. Struggling from his grasp, Poseidon carried me along in front of his mother.

Rhea smiled at me wickedly. "Well, well. If it isn't my past daughter Hera."

"What did. . . you do to him?" I turned to Poseidon. "Sei, let me go!"

But he didn't budge. His eyes lost their intensity from earlier and he stood so stiffly he almost looked like he wasn't breathing.

"It's thanks to this." She fiddled with the stick she was holding. "Does it look familiar to you?"

What? What the hell did she mean by that?

"Let my daughter go, Cybele!" Demetrius shouted from behind.

Rhea looked at him. "No." She turned to Athena and Zeus, who were still frozen with what's happening. "Will you two be so kind and start attacking him?"

At the word 'attack', Eloise, Raymond and Alistair stood in front of Demetrius, their stances suggesting defense.

"We won't let you hurt him," Eloise said.

Raymond nodded. "I don't know what's up with you all, but you guys did enough."

Zeus blinked, then shook his head. "If. . . If he's who you say he is, Mother, then we won't do it. He's our father."

Rhea stifled a laugh. "Why would you even think you're related to him?"

"What?" Zeus said, confused.

Athena winced beside her brother.

Rhea groaned. "Don't bother. I'll just make you two do it."

She tapped the stick to the ground twice and in the blink of an eye, the stick's appearance changed from old wood to pure gold. At its top emerged a blue peacock with bright green gems embedded into its fanned tail.

My eyes widened.

"Hera's staff," Demetrius gasped. "Where in the world did you get it?"

"You don't have to know, but I've got to thank you for helping me, dear." She pointed the staff to me. "I've been trying to unlock the staff's powers for years, but the Artifact only responds to Hera or her Chosen. When I sensed you and your power, I tried hunting you down, but my husband here made things difficult."

Flashbacks of Demetrius's encounter with her hours after my birth flooded my mind.

"So you've seen that memory." Rhea smacked her lips. "Well, that makes things easier to explain."

"How did you—"

"Know what you were thinking?" she finished my sentence, grinning. "I copied your powers, dear. That's why I am able to use your staff. All it took was a little skin contact."

"Skin contact?" I echoed, then a realization hit me. "Ve. . . Vesuvius."

The hug. . . It was just a trick!

"That wasn't the only time I was able to touch you." Rhea tilted her head. "Where was I? Ah, right." She tapped the staff once. "Athena, Zeus. Attack the others please."

Before they could even react, the two siblings went rigid like their brother, their faces void of emotion. Rhea pointed the staff to something behind me and they charged. Along with battle cries, the cackling of electricity and the sound of flying arrows sounded away from me.

"No!" I squirmed around, trying to see what was happening.

While a battle occurred out of my sight, Rhea took a step forward, twirling the staff around like a toy.

She sighed. "I wish I could control you too, Amelia dear, but the staff doesn't really allow its original owner to be affected by its power. How unfortunate."

"Why are you doing this?" I gritted under my teeth.

"I want all the twelve Olympian Artifacts," she replied. "I want their power to be mine because when I do, I can finally seek revenge from my. . . child-eating husband and complete what should have been done ages ago."

"What are you talking about?"

Rhea scoffed. "I think I've said enough. Poseidon, get rid of her."

The next thing I knew, I was flying in the air, screaming at the top of my lungs. Every part of my body felt weightless, and for a moment, I was at peace as the stars blinked above me.

Then I proceeded to fall down.

My eyes squeezed shut, fearing for the worst to happen. "HELP!"

Two slim arms caught me, stopping my fall. Daring my eyes to open, I peeked at Raymond smiling at me.

"Gotcha," he said. "You okay, Redhead?"

Stunned, I bobbed my head in reply.

"Man, you're kinda heavy," he joked, making me frown. "Let's get you down."

With the winged sandals flapping under his feet, we slowly descended to the mansion's grounds, the iron-wrought gates standing nearby. The soil was still wet from the rain, giving off a moist earthen scent. As much as I wanted it to make me calm my throbbing heart, the mere thought of my near-death haunted my head.

Poseidon almost killed me. My half-brother almost killed me.

No, it was Rhea. It was all Rhea. She made him do it.

From the distance, the Olympian siblings fought against Demetrius and the two Rogues. Eloise was shooting arrows at Athena but they kept bouncing off of her shield Aegis. Water and fire clashed as Alistair and Poseidon warred with the elements on their hands. Meanwhile, Demetrius dodged the rods of lightning coming from Zeus.

Just a few feet behind all of it stood Rhea, watching the battle unfold with a smug look on her face. On her grasp, the bejeweled peacock on Hera's staff glowed.

Mine. Mine. Mine.

Shaking off the strange thought in my head, I turned to Raymond who was preparing to take flight again.

I held his hand, pulling him into a pause. "Wait."

Raymond's gaze darted between me and the fight. "What are you waiting for? We've got to help them."

"I know, I know," I said quickly. "But we. . . we can't just go there without thinking. My friends might overwhelm us."

"Are you kidding?" he said. "There's three of them and five of us. We can beat the hell out of them."

"Yeah, but there's also Cybel— Rhea, um, their mom," I said. "Even if we beat them, she can just wash us away or electrocute us because she possibly has my friends' powers too. Plus, she has the staff. We don't have any idea what it could also do."

"Okay, so what's your plan?"

I took a deep breath. "It's probably the craziest idea I've ever thought of, and it might not work."

"Well, I'm into crazy." He grinned. "I say let's hear it."

His contagious grin made me smile a little. "Alright. Here's what we're gonna do. . ."