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chapter eighteen

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Chapter Eighteen

He stood before me.

His golden skin, beautiful blue eyes, and deep blond curls still the same as they were before. He wore an ivory toga that only magnified his muscles, his calves, his arms, and his strong chest and much (much) more. His brown ancient Greek sandals still were tied proudly around his feet as he stood in the temple with his eyes showing nothing more than contentment.

My heart squeezed painfully in my chest, as I fluttered my eyelashes closed. I didn't want to learn that Lord Morpheus had managed to out smart Lady Hecate, I didn't want to imagine that I would open my eyes and it would be that god standing in front of me instead of my god. I didn't want to imagine the wicked smile upon his lips and those hardened artic eyes of his.

"My darling Icarus..."

Slowly opening my eyes, I noted that Apollo reached his hand out for me to take. My heart squeezed again, with worse pain than before, as I took a step backwards. All I could remember was Lord Morpheus grabbing me to him before we were both engulfed in flames. So many flames, so much pain....

"No...No..." I could only repeat that one word over again, because I had no idea what I should do next. I knew that this was my Apollo. I knew that the God of Sun was actually in front of me but I had been scarred for nights on end when it came to being burnt alive in my nightmares.

Thump.

One moment I was taking steps back from him, as though he were a wild creature that needed to be pushed away, and the next moment I moved too quickly. My socked foot slipped on the cool surface of the marble floor. I hit the ground in a loud thud, enough that I flinched from the impact.

"Icarus," Apollo whispered my name, as though he thought that if he spoke low enough he could be able to take away all those nightmares. I still had tears drip down my cheekbones at the remembrance of that wicked version of him.

I stayed still and kept my eyes closed. Red warmth washed underneath my eyelids. The atmosphere was different here. I felt as though I belonged here. I was in his temple. I wasn't in strange houses that were created just as backgrounds for the dreamscapes. I was here, my Apollo was here.

"D-Don't t-touch me," I pleaded as his footsteps headed in my direction. I only opened my eyes after the footsteps stopped, noting that Apollo lingered in front of me with his head tilted to the side. His fingers twitched, I knew that he did want nothing more than to comfort me.

He didn't say anything, but he crouched down so that he was in front of me. Wind came and played with our curls, he sighed, "Tell me what happened, please. Lady Hecate wouldn't tell me what it was that had kept me from you, but she assured me that it was taken care of. Tell me what happened."

"It was Lord Morpheus, and Lord Epiales. Lord Morpheus would shift his form to look just like you. Lord Epiales would make sure that the environment wasn't ever the same. It would be a random house, never the same house. I would try to get away from Lord Morpheus but he would always find me...he'd grab me and burn me alive, waking me from the nightmare..."

The sunlight was sucked clear away from the air around us. It was as though a total eclipse was happening, for the darkness that came still produced sunlight in a way. It wasn't beautiful. It wasn't breath taking, it was macabre. It reminded me that this god in front of me controlled the very sun.

"I thought that I could touch you, if I saw you again. Lord Morpheus has made that impossible. I don't think that I could touch you. The trauma is still as present here as it was in those mindscapes of mine," I admitted, as the sunlight danced around me and began to lighten up. My canary curls strengthened in hue, and my curls swirled from the wind that enveloped the both of us.