The Fall of Icarus (Book 1 in the Apollo series)

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Icarus was lying on his bed in the tower when his father came running in.

"Icarus!" He exclaimed, as he gathered up his notes and hid them under his bed. "It's done! The Labyrinth is finished and Minos knows it!"

Icarus bolted upright and looked at his father in shock. "Minos knows?"

Daedalus nodded meekly.

Icarus swung his legs over the side of his bed and looked to the floor. "What are we going to do?" Icarus said quietly. "What's going to happen to us?"

"I don't know. Minos is going to come and find me most soon enough, and I don't expect to be in his good graces." Daedalus almost laughed, but Icarus couldn't understand why. "I finished the Labyrinth days ago, but I never told him. Now he's found out that I lied, and he is most certainly going to punish me."

"Us." Icarus stressed. "He is most certainly going to punish us. He'll think I knew about this, I'll be punished for it."

Daedalus sighed. "I'm sorry Icarus. I wish there was something I could do."

"You didn't consider the consequences of lying to Minos and you should've done, because now look at where we are." He almost spat. "I might have to pay the price for your idiocy!"

He said nothing.

"I have finally reached a point within myself and in my life where I am happy. I'm satisfied, I have accepted this as my life, and soon enough I might not have a life to be happy with."

"Icarus I'm sorry." Daedalus frowned, seeing the tears form in the corners of Icarus' eyes. "I'm really sorry, I only wanted to give us more time."

"More time for what?"

"More time to think of an escape plan!" He grabbed onto Icarus' forearms pleadingly. "I have been trying to find a way to escape this place and I was trying to give myself more time to think. I almost had a fully-coordinated plan before Minos discovered the truth. Icarus, I only need more time!"

"Time is the one thing we don't have anymore!" Icarus yelled, stunning his father into silence with his anger. "We had time once, you should've done something then. We don't anymore, thanks to you."

"Icarus..." Daedalus said, almost in a whisper, with watering eyes. "Icarus, I'm-"

"Don't you dare say that you are sorry." He seethed through his teeth. "I don't want to hear you lie, not again."

"I didn't think, and I should've done. I wish there was something that I could do."

"There is."

"What?" Daedalus asked eagerly, clearly hoping to right a wrong with his son.

"Go." Icarus replied, with a snarl bitter enough to rival Nemesis. "Please, just go. You've done enough damage for one day."

Tears fell from Daedalus' eyes, but he nodded and obliged nevertheless. He looked at Icarus pleadingly, hoping he'd say something, but he remained silent and watched his father turn around, grab his notes from beneath his bed and walk upstairs to his workshop, where Icarus hoped he'd stay, at least until he had finished crying.

Icarus moved to the familiar comfort of his windowsill and dangled his legs over the side, so that they were swinging over the Crete countryside.