The Stars Are Burning [PAUSED]

6. The Kingdom in the Sky

WHILE FLETCHER WAS struggling with school, Cassian was dealing with worse troubles. The missing Sins were nowhere to be found, and he nor Athena could find out which sin died. He was told to attend a meeting held in the palace of Zeus, run and led by the king of the gods himself.

The true Olympus was only accessible by a hike to the top of Mount Olympus. Alexiares and Anicetus, the twin sons of Hercules and gatekeepers of Olympus, would teleport the visitors or residents directly to the kingdom hidden in the clouds. After an incident involving a drunk Dionysus and a horde of his Maenads storming the kingdom one drunken night, only the twelve gods of the pantheon were allowed to teleport to and from Olympus directly.

Cassian teleported to Mount Olympus's peak on Tuesday night, right next to the stupid Nike basketball hoop Hera wanted Zeus to get rid of. Zeus had told her to do it herself, but she'd refused to ask Hercules to do it for her because she hated his guts. The gods were complicated like that, and Cassian had no interest in being part of the family drama that was more confusing (and deadlier) than Keeping Up With the Kardashians.

One of the two twins was shooting hoops when Sloth waved at him. He was a golden blond man with a boxer's physique or someone who basically lived in the gym. Muscles peeked from beneath his sweat-stained hoodie as he caught the basketball and stopped.

"Hey, Cassian," The minor god said. He pulled his phone out and glanced around to see if there were people around him.

"I'm here for the emergency planning meeting." Cassian zipped up his puffer jacket as he tried not to shiver.

"The one tomorrow?" Either Alexiares or Anicetus asked. If he had to guess, Cassian would've said that he was Alexiares. It'd been centuries, but he still couldn't really tell the two gods apart.

"Yeah, there's only one, right?" Cassian stepped closer to the gatekeeper. He looked up to the starlit sky, hugging his body to keep warm.

The guard didn't reply.

"Do we have Cassian Argyris on our guestlist?" The gatekeeper asked into the earpiece he was wearing.

A second later, Cassian was ushered to a small pearly white rock a few steps near the mountain's edge.

"You know what to do," The gatekeeper crouched to touch the top of the stone, Cassian copying his actions. The world went dark, and a second later, they were touching a replica of the stone at the gates of Olympus.

The Kingdom of Olympus was lit up with gas streetlights that gave the city a distinct yellow glow in the dark. They'd never made the switch to sodium lamps like most modern cities, as well as the Indian and Chinese pantheon, used. Houses older than the Temple of Apollo dotted the mountainous city, shadowed by more modern buildings.

On the peak of the impossibly high mountain was the Zeus' palace, a colossal structure made of marble. It was lit up by spotlights on the ground that shone on the lined columns that made up the front of the building. An infinity pool was on the floor above the entrance just so Zeus could flaunt his wealth to all of his visitors.

The other twin gatekeeper stood beneath the golden gates leading into Olympus, who said something into his earpiece to open the gates.

"Have a great time, Cassian." The other twin said as the sin breezed past him, shrugging out of his jacket.

"Thanks," he replied before teleporting straight to Athena's doorstep. Most gods had anti-teleportation wards in their residences. Athena, being Athena, had not one, but three wards set in place.

Athena's house was made of marble and dyed bluish-grey concrete. A carved mural of her owl symbol covered the wooden double doors that had a keypad next to it. Cassian punched in the passcode, half-guessing, and the doors clicked unlocked.

He made his way through the minimalist living and dining rooms. He ignored the map and pictures of all of the missing sins sprawled across her black glass dining table, a half-eaten grilled cheese sandwich acting as a paperweight.

Cassian walked up the marble staircase to the master bedroom, the one furthest away from the stairs. The door was closed, and he could hear two low voices coming from within.

"It's Cassian," He said as he knocked twice. The voices hushed.

"Come in," Athena's voice called.

Cassian walked in to see the goddess sitting in bed with Cassandra resting her head on Athena's shoulder, each with a book older than time on top of the cotton bedsheets.

"Hey, I just wanted to come by to say hi."

"Hi baby bro, now get out of our room." Cassandra put her book on the bedside table then snuggled into the covers.

Athena smiled, then returned to her book.

Cassian left, walking up another flight of stairs to the guest room he normally took. He liked the room because it had deep blue walls, different from the boring white of the other rooms. A set of cotton pyjamas was waiting for him on the bed, next to a fully stocked toiletries travel pack. Athena was so organised that she had practically turned the guest rooms into a proper B&B, complete with a map of the kingdom tucked under the toiletries.

After taking a shower, Cassian went to bed, the chaos of the meeting the next day preventing him from falling asleep immediately as he usually did.

A FLOOR BELOW the sleeping sin, Athena paced in front of her bed, thinking about the missing Sins and what Fletcher Cheung had to do with it.

"You aren't telling me something," Athena said to her girlfriend.

Cassandra shook her head, blue eyes softening. "That's not true, and you know it."

Athena stopped, leaning against the television mounted on the wall. "You told me to choose Fletcher Cheung just in time for her to conveniently fill up the vacant spot for one of the sins."

"It was a coincidence!" Cassandra sat up, throwing the duvet aside as she stood up as well.

"Coincidences don't happen all the time. I don't know who's responsible for pulling Fletcher into this mess. I need to figure it out." The goddess massaged her temples.

"We'll figure it out." Cassandra grabbed Athena's arm gently, pulling her back to the bed. "But the only thing we can do is sleep on it and hope for the best."

Athena fought off the goddess. "I can't 'hope for the best', Sandra. An immortal is dead and we have no idea who did it! We don't even know who died! You can't just ignore that, they're a part of your team, too."

"I know." Cassandra grimaced. "I promise that tomorrow's meeting will sort things out. I'll convince your dad to send a proper task force."

"I need to be leading that team."

"Of course."

Athena flopped onto the bed, placing her arms underneath her head. Cassandra pulled the duvet over them both.

"All of the other gods are incompetent."

Cassandra laughed, reaching over to switch off the lights. "We'll see about that tomorrow."