The Missing Gods

Chapter 23 - The Fate of Ganymede

I think I may have screamed but I'm not sure. The last line of the prophecy that Rachel recited suddenly leapt out at me, "while one dies forever" seemed glaringly close in the face of this new enemy. It felt like my stomach fell into my feet as my jumbled and frantic thoughts tried to steer themselves away from Annabeth. I had to save her from whatever fate the prophecy mentioned. It would have to be me.

I gritted my teeth, placed my feet, and gripped Riptide with a new ferocity. This giant felt like nothing we'd ever faced, even in the depths of Tartarus, and I had a fleeting wish that Ganymede were up here with us, if only to form a more solid team.

"Where is my father?" I yelled, hoping my voice sounded less shaky than I felt. The enormous blackness shifted, glittering stars blinding Annabeth and I as we inched forward with our arms outstretched. She stayed close to me, our shirts brushing each other, and it held me tethered to the world.

"Manners, demigod," the void spit back at us, seeming to shift and churn in the cosmos. I thought I saw a flash of ocean green in one of the bright stars to my right when it shifted again, covering everything in blackness and rendering us blind. "You have come to my palace now, and there is nothing to keep you from imploding except for my good grace."

My face felt hot at his words and I felt Annabeth grip tightly at my arm. She squeezed twice, very quickly and almost imperceptible, before her soft hand was replaced by a larger one. I felt panic rise in my throat, thinking one of the astrothesiae had stolen her while we were unable to see, taking advantage of our weakness, until the darkness shifted yet again, and a small amount of light returned from the stars. I gasped to see Ganymede now beside me, gripping my arm where Annabeth just was, his face in profile staring straight at the void in front of us, his eyes now glittering in the starlight. I almost asked him where Annabeth had disappeared to, starting to shake with fear and anger, when he shook his head slightly, almost imperceptibly.

The booming voice let out a raucous laugh, seeming amused. "Ganymede, my dear old friend, you have come to join the mortals in their deaths?"

Ganymede clenched his jaw, the muscles rippling on his otherwise expressionless face. "Aether has fallen, Astraeus. Your hold on this realm is becoming weaker and soon you must return home."

The void seemed to rush past us, filling in everything around us; though no wind blew, it felt like I were standing on a dark train platform with trains bustling by. Ganymede used this as an opportunity to whisper to me. "Annabeth used her cap, she is going amongst my cousins in the stars to rescue your father—quickly, we must join her before Astraeus completely swallows us." He gripped my arm tighter, and I could feel him step off beside me, both of us breaking into a dead sprint.

In the back of my head I tried remembering where the edge of the balcony was, but Ganymede didn't give me time to formulate it as we suddenly were catapulting off of it.

My arms started flailing widely, knowing it was probably useless since I was son of the sea god and therefore not built for flying, but instead of the familiar falling sensation in my stomach, we started to rise, shooting up and over the blackness before it closed around us entirely.

Once again blinded by the dazzling light of the stars, I looked quickly at Ganymede at my side, who seemed to be guiding us, with giant angel-like wings sprouted from his back and gliding swiftly through the air. "Do you remember the gift Dike gave you?" He yelled over the wind rushing past us.

My brain raced to keep up, the fog of the past few days hindering my memory. "She said... something about my heart... and to continue my path to balance the scales." I knew Annabeth could have done better and probably recite the thing from memory, but that's all I could come up with in our current predicament.

Ganymede nodded. "Close enough. I'm going to bind you to a star using your heart, and then I will find Annabeth to assist her. You will be able to fight Astraeus in this form, but it will burn you alive from the inside out and blast you to pieces if you don't keep focused. We only have a short amount of time. Keep him distracted." And with that, Ganymede dropped me and flew off, his wings glistening like starlight themselves.

I fell for only a half second before thinking again of Dike's and then Annabeth's words. My fingers tightened across Riptide's hilt and I closed my eyes as I felt the ocean stir within me, knowing my father was near. A sharp tug, not in my gut, but in my chest, brought me to a painful halt in the sky. I opened my eyes again to see Ganymede had disappeared and the enormous void that was chasing us was now rushing at me.

"Ganymede is a fool if he thinks you can stop me," the blackness roared, my ears feeling like they are coated in dark, dripping, liquid. "Once I am finished with you, I will wake my father Ouranos and he will eat the gods, one by one."

I touched my chest, the tugging sensation had given away to a slight burn, almost feeling like slow, volcanic lava making its way through my heart. The void suddenly stopped short, desperately tried curling around me, fingers of darkness wisping around trying to find a weakness in my sudden bubble of protection.

Astraeus let out a hiss, and it sounded like a meteor shooting through the sky. His form quickly shrinking into a hulking humanoid blackness, which I could only make out due to his menacing silhouette amongst the background of stars.

"Ganymede is even more of a fool than I thought," Astraeus said, his words dripping with slow poisonous rage. "You are but an insect to me. I will crush you quickly."

"I've heard worse from better gods," I said, inflecting a sort of laziness in my voice will I tried to find a weak spot. How do you kill a shadow?

Astraeus didn't even respond, an arm-like limb appearing from his side, the shadow giving way to a sharp, crystallized weapon, a sword made out of pure starlight.

I gaped at it and hoped that Riptide was up to the task. Sending a quick prayer to any of the gods that might be listening, or heck, any of them that could even hear me up hear, as Astraeus charged.

The shadow came at me fast and we parried quick blows as the starlight dazzled my eyes; I had to squint from being blinded again. With each clash, Riptide shuddered in my hands, and the enormous blade of Astraeus' weapon seemed to glow even brighter. My heart hurt, felt like it was burning, and my limbs started to grow weak and slow. It was a similar feeling to holding up the sky, and I knew I couldn't keep at it for long. I wondered how fast Annabeth and Ganymede could find the gods and break them out.

It seemed that Astraeus himself could not penetrate this small bubble of safety around me, but his weapon could. I tried to formulate a plan to knock it out of his hands (or at least I think they were hands?) but he was too fast, slicing at me with quick and sure strokes that I kept dodging and jumping over, knowing my strength was waning.

"Ganymede bound your heart to a star, Jackson. You belong to me," Astraeus crooned as he hacked at me. "You will never escape my palace and after the disrespect you have brought along with your friends, I think I will keep you forever as one of my astrothesiae pets."

A chill went down my spine as I understood what Ganymede had done to make this happen, my heart almost feeling like it was touching open flame now. No wonder he said I would implode if I stayed like this. I can't believe he had betrayed me to get his revenge on Zeus. I sent a thought out for Annabeth, hoping she would realize the truth and save herself before the prophecy came for me.

Astraeus felt me falter as I grew tired, blown away by my discovery, and went in for the kill, his enormous sword aimed right for my heart. I tried to parry it away with Riptide but he saw it coming, his aim coming with deadly force. I squeezed my eyes closed as all the muscles in my body clenched for the blow, flashing open when I was quickly shoved to the side by someone else's hand.

Ganymede took the blade for me; it struck his heart with such a large boom I knew my ears would bleed again.

His eyes, not looking at Astraeus, stared straight into mine instead, his hands gripping the edges of Astraeus' sword lodged halfway into his chest. I saw a single tear run down his smooth face, glittering just like his eyes in the starlight, as he gave a fearsome yank and ripped Astraeus' sword from his hands and plummeted with it down to the earth.