Back at Greenwood, summer ended and classes had started. Onyx enjoyed the friendships she shared with Bethany and Cyndi, and all of the late nights and long afternoons she spent with them. Jake was not a threat to her, he refused to look at her in the halls or during classes they shared. It was the middle of September, and tryouts for the Mystic games were fast approaching. Kai had urged Onyx countless times to try out, that she would do so well and would be very beneficial for the Premier year's unit one team. Onyx gave in, as she knew it meant a lot to her and that it meant more one on one time with Kai while they practiced.
It was a Thursday afternoon, Onyx had just finished her classes for the day. She had agreed to meet her mother at one of the outdoor training arenas that Kai had reserved for them. When she arrived, Kai was already there and was setting up the cones on the field. Onyx helped her before they began to practice. Kai timed her as she ran laps around the track, showed her how to throw efficiently and tested her strength on the weight bench.
Overall Onyx had already exceeded expectations, having already surpassed Kai and her personal records when she was Onyxs' age. Once they had finished for the day, they cleaned up and put away the equipment they had used and started walking back to the bleachers when Onyx suddenly fell to the ground, screaming in pain.
"Onyx!" Kai yelled. She dropped her bag and immediately ran to the girl, flipping her over so that she could look at her. As she rolled her over, Onyx opened her eyes and bright white lights had formed in them and shot up into the sky. Kai watched as the white coursed through the girl's veins.
This had already happened once Onyx had turned eighteenth, why was this happening again? Kai thought. She held the girl's hand as she waited for the powers to subside. The lights in her eyes slowly dimmed and her eyes closed.
"Onyx?" Kai asked, shaking the girl's shoulders gently. Her eyes shot open, and Kai noticed that her eyes were red. Kai immediately began to move away as she knew that the girl was about to lose her temper if she hadn't already but it was too late. Onyx pushed Kai's chest, sending her more than a hundred yards through the air, almost the entire length of the football field. Kai landed on her back hard, immediately breaking a few of her ribs.
Kai laid there as she struggled for air. Onyxs' eyes suddenly returned to normal once she had seen what she had just done.
"Mom!" Onyx yelled, tears immediately formed in her eyes and she ran to Kai. Her mother was staring at the night sky, admiring the stars as she felt her lungs failing her. Onyx began to cry over her as she pulled out her phone and called Dimitras who answered immediately as she sensed something was wrong. Within seconds Dimitras had arrived and ran to Kai, who had passed out due to lack of oxygen. She placed her hands on her wife's chest and began to heal her as she too began to cry over her.
Minutes had passed and Kai still lay there, breathless. Once Dimitras knew Kai's ribs and lungs were healed, she began to preform CPR on the girl.
"Please mom, I'm sorry. I didn't mean to, I had no control." Onyx pleaded, begging Kai to wake up. A few moments later, they watched as Kai opened her eyes and desperately gasped for air. Dimitras and Onyx smiled and hugged each other tightly, giving Kai the space she needed to recover. Kai looked at them and smiled. Once she was able, she sat up and hugged Onyx tightly.
"Everything's okay, I'm fine. I know you didn't mean to."Kai assured her.
*************
Later that night, Kai and Dimitras were discussing what had happened.
"Lights shot from her eyes again, just like the way they did on her eighteenth birthday. Only this time, they were white," Kai told Dimitras.
"White?" Dimitras asked as her brow furrowed. She knew that when hybrids receive their powers their colors are green, and when mystics receive theirs they are red. She knew of one other instance where she had heard that the color of the powers were white and knew what it meant, but first she had to know for sure. "Are you sure they weren't green?" She asked, desperately wanting to make sense of this.
"No, I am absolutely positive they were white." Kai answered. Dimitras rummaged through the books on the desk in their room, she needed answers. Her eyes suddenly fell on the book she was looking for, the book that held her family tree. Only when she opened it, she noticed that the same name at the bottom that was faded on the family tree of hers on the wall in the meeting room in the city was faded here as well.
She knew this would drive her crazy until she found out who this person was. She decided it was time they paid a visit to the gods.
*************
The sun shone on Kai's face, waking her from her slumber as the person seated in front of them decided to open their window. They were on a plane to Athens, and when she checked their itinerary she was pleased to see that they were less than an hour away. She looked over and saw Onyx and Dimitras asleep, and she smiled. Once they landed, they had a car waiting for them that had taken them to Mt. Olympus. Once they arrived, they entered the lobby then took the elevator to the top. Kai took Onyxs' hand in hers as she knew the girl was nervous.
"Hey," Kai said, squeezing the girl's hand. "You don't have to go in if you don't want to. There are a lot of lovely people inside would love to meet you, but if you are not comfortable, I understand." Kai reassured her. Onyx knew that if her grandfather wasn't there, she would have stayed home at Greenwood. She had been there before but only to see him and it had been two years since they had last gone, she had not yet met the gods.
"I'll be fine, I'm fine." Onyx assured her. Kai wrapped her arm around Onyxs' shoulder and kissed her on the head before they proceeded and entered the house of the gods. They were taken to the same meeting room where Kai and Dimitras had met with them before. The doors opened and Onyx looked around in awe. All of the gods she had studied in school were there, right in front of her. Zeus, Hera, Athena, Poseidon, Ares, Apollo, Artemis, Demeter, Aphrodite, Dionysus, Hermes, and Hephaestus, she counted in her head.
Kai saw Dominic and smiled. He approached them and gave them each a tight hug. Before they had a chance to say their hellos, Hades entered the room with Persephone under her arm. Hades glanced at Dimitras and flashed her a smile, which was followed with a wink. Seeing Hades made her skin crawl and her stomach turned, she wasn't supposed to be there. She had asked Zeus personally to ensure that her presence would not be allowed.
Dimitras looked at Zeus and he sighed. She approached him away from Kai and Onyx so that they could speak privately.
"You told me she would not be here." She said, trying to stay calm.
"Dimitras, you called for a meeting with the gods and once she found out, she insisted that she came. There's no talking her down once her mind has been made, you of all people should know this. You should also know that this is her house too, keeping her out would would surely bring upon the beginning of another ten-year war. We don't want that, now, do we?" He asked. Dimitras sighed and crossed her arms. She had a bad feeling as she knew that having Onyx there was now an awful idea.
They took their seats at the table and the meeting began. Kai told the gods what had happened that night on the field, and how they had never seen anything like it. Dimitras noticed Zeus glance at Aphrodite.
"Is there something you aren't telling us?" Dimitras cut in with a demanding voice. "I know Persephone holds original copies of each of the supremes' family trees, I want to know who's name it is that you're keeping from me and I won't leave until I know." She added.
Zeus sighed as he sat back in his chair. Persephone looked to Zeus and he gave her a slight nod. She smirked as her eyes met Dimitras'. She pulled out a clear folder which held a faded piece of parchment with torn, tattered edges. She placed it down flat onto the table and stood as she slid it over to Dimitras.
"When a descendant of a pure god receives their powers, the powers are white, they are clean." Persephone explained.
Dimitras lifted it and read down her family tree. Once she reached the bottom, she saw an unfamiliar name.
"Peitho?" Dimitras read aloud. She looked at Zeus, not knowing who this was.
"She was a friend of mine..." Aphrodite suddenly spoke. "She was one of my companions a long time ago. She was the goddess of persuasion, she was known to hold the 'secret key to holy love.' She didn't survive the war." She explained with a look of sorrow as she stared down at her hands.
Dimitras sat back in her chair as she took it all in. She wondered if her mother knew that they were related to the gods. Suddenly, she remembered waking up the day after her eighteenth birthday, she was unable to remember anything from the night before. She wondered if her mother had altered her memories and if so, she wished she knew why. She looked up and her eyes met Athena's.
"Why wouldn't my mother want me to know this?" Dimitras asked.
"Peitho was very persuasive, both sexually and politically. Descendants of hers have done things in the past, awful things. They have used their powers to their advantage in order to manipulate order and laws that were unjust across Greece and Italy, and caused many uprisings and wars. Surely you can see why having descendants of hers in the United States this day and age could be concerning." Aphrodite explained. Dimitras sighed as she considered her words.
"Having one descendant of Peitho is the least of our concerns when there's now another descendant of hers who also has hybrid powers." Hades spoke.
"Hades..." Zeus said. Dimitras' fists clenched as she prayed that Hades wouldn't mention their deal.
"I think we are done here." Dimitras said as she stood. Kai and Onyx followed her lead.
"I'll be seeing you soon, Onyx." Hades said under her breath, but Onyx heard her plainly. She turned to face her. She looked at her mom, not knowing what Hades meant by this.
"Don't tell me you two never told her." Hades said. Dimitras' fists clenched again and she took a deep breath.
"What we tell her is between Kai and me, not you." Dimitras said through gritted teeth.
"Tell me what?" Onyx finally asked, now knowing she wasn't the only one that information was being held from. Dimitras took Onyxs' arm and they left the elaborate marble and gold building. Once they were outside, Onyx pulled her arm away from Dimitras and looked at her.
"What are you not telling me?" Onyx asked, demanding answers. Dimitras sighed as she tried to fight off the tears that had formed in her eyes. She looked at Kai who sighed then nodded.
"Onyx, before you were born, your mother and I came here to have a meeting with the gods, just like the one we just had. Only we had gone to request permission for our marriage, as I was pregnant with you and marriage between hybrids and mystics is illegal, whether the mystic is related to the gods or not. It's unfair, but we had to beg Hades for her vote." Dimitras explained, taking a moment to wipe the tears from her cheeks.
"The only way we could be together was if we agreed to surrender you to Hades on your twenty second birthday." Dimitras barely managed as she began to sob. "I know it was selfish but we agreed to her terms, hopeful that we would find a way around it but the gods have been of no help to us. They just keep telling us that since we broke a rule of Hades, she was allowed to state her terms no matter how absurd or unjust." She added. Onyx stepped away slowly, she couldn't believe what she had just been told. She looked at Kai who was looking away from her, she couldn't bring herself to look Onyx in the eye.
"Onyx, please hear me. Hades was after Kai her entire life and we knew that whether we agreed to her terms or not, she would have came for you too. She will never stop until she knows she is the most powerful. The moment she learned that I was pregnant with you, Kai was no longer her objective. You would have been damned either way, we just did what we thought was best. We wanted some time with you rather than none and this way we were given twenty two years without fear of her taking you from us sooner. I hope you understand..." Dimitras finished.
Onyx stared at the ground as she realized how much her parents had suffered just to have her, and to be happy. Her anger and frustration shifted from her parents, to Hades. She clenched her jaw as she stared at the engraving of Hades on the door to the house of the gods. She knew she wasn't going to let her get away with this, she knew she had to stop her.