Love or Fate Read Online Free Page A

selves, the girls we’d known back home on Olympus. They were no longer sheathed in the modern mortal costumes of the Backroom Betties, or the band Beautiful Omen, or the colonial workers we had met on our disastrous road trip. The only modern touches that remained were three black berets perched perfectly atop their wild heads of hair. I don’t think I had ever seen them look so happy. I don’t think they had ever seen me look so afraid.
     
    You’ll be quite amazed at how mean we can be,
    And your daddy is not here to shelter you three.
    You’re alone, you’re washed up, you’re totally done for!
    We don’t think you can imagine the horrors in store.
    Now follow us; don’t lollygag or you’ll pay.
    It’s off to your new home, where you always will stay.
     
    With these last words and a wave of their hands, they summoned us, deep into the dark depths of the one and only Tartarus.

FOUR
    T he woman from the park’s hair didn’t work. Neither did the hair of the six other people Apollo accosted. He tried a woman with black hair and a man with brown. There was a large woman with tons of white hair piled high on her head; he actually asked her first before yanking a few strands. But no matter whose hair he got, no matter how he wrapped the hair around his fingers, no matter which ear he thrust it into, the results were still the same. A big fat nothing.
    After the last try when, out of desperation, he performed the spell with the hair of a sullen-looking teenager who actually chased him after he stole a few strands, Apollo became so frustrated, so utterly distraught, so feverishly upset that he let out themost horrifying scream ever known to mortal or God. It was chaotic and uneven and loud, tremendously loud. It echoed for miles; it echoed for centuries. It knocked him off his own feet.
    Apollo angrily brushed himself off and had started to stand up when a cloud of smoke appeared just inches from his face, which startled him so much that it knocked him over again. He looked up to see the shocked face of his twin sister, Artemis * , gazing down at him.
    “What, what is the matter? I heard your screams halfway around the world, from centuries away. And why are you dressed so oddly and in this mortal form?” She of course recognized her brother, despite the funny clothes and unfamiliar body. They were twins, after all.
    “Artemis! I love you!” Apollo was so happy to see her, he couldn’t even begin to answer her questions till he’d grabbed her and spun her around and around, her feet inches off the ground.
    “But are you okay? That scream?” Artemis wondered. She didn’t have time for sappy nonsense.
    “No, or rather yes, now that you’re here, I am okay. My word, I’m glad to see your somber face. I didn’t think I could reach you with just a scream.”
    “That wasn’t just a scream,” said Artemis.
    “It must be some sort of twin radar. I thought I was stuck here on earth, in the future, forever. Oh, I love you so!”
    Artemis was wearing a suede loincloth and a flowing silk shirt, classic ancient warrior wear. An old woman in the park couldn’t help but gawk at the striking pair. Besides her funky clothes, Artemis was casually carrying the head of a wild pig in her left hand.
    But Artemis didn’t notice the woman’s stare. And she didn’t mince words. “So this outfit. This facade. This place. Explain.”
    “It’s Thalia. This is the place Zeus banished them to after the”—and here Apollo blushed slightly—“the engagement debacle. Athens, only it’s Athens, Georgia, in a country called the United States and in the future. I came down here to protect Thalia and her sisters from Hera’s tricks. Oh, and the Furies are here, too.”
    At the mention of the Furies, Artemis shivered and winced.
    “Exactly. So everything was going fine, well, relatively so; Thalia was even falling for me, well, Dylan, this mortal body I’m in. And then she told me she knew it was me and was ready to marry