"If I were to put a star everytime your thoughts crossed my mind, the universe would be jealous of the galaxy I made."

UNKNOWN

__________________

Theon

People crowded the roads like flocks of restless lambs, pushing against one another just to catch a glimpse of us 'the war heroes.' Flowers crushed beneath my horses’ hooves until their sweet scent mixed with the heavy smoke of burning incense drifting from the temples.

To them, it probably smelled like celebration but to me it could never hide the scent of blood.

I could still smell it on my armor, on my hands, fresh and metallic.

War never truly leaves a man after battle. It lives inside him, under his skin, inside every breath he takes.

The whole Athens sang my praises, but these are the same people who showed me nothing but disgust. The same people who looked at me as though I were filth dragged from the gutters.

Back when I had nothing, they would not even treat me like a human being, in their eyes, I was worth less than a starving dog.

But power changes everything.

Now I carried victory on my shoulders, and suddenly Athens had decided I was worthy of worship.

Pathetic.

“The Blade of Ares!”

“Theon!”

The chants thundered through the streets as I led my army toward the palace of King Theseus.

I was looking around when my gaze drifted toward the temple.

The house of the gods.

A humorless smile nearly pulled at my mouth.

I did not believe in gods.

Not anymore.

Once, I had.

As a child, I had knelt before every altar in Athens with blind devotion burning inside my chest. I had prayed until my knees bruised against stone floors. I had begged for mercy, begged for justice, begged for someone to listen, but the gods had remained silent and eventually, that silence turned my faith into bitterness.

It had been nearly two decades since I last bowed my head before any god of Olympus.

Another roar rose from the crowd around me, but I barely heard it now as my eyes shifted toward the priestesses gathered at the temple entrance.

White robes and thin veils moving softly in the wind.

My knuckles turned white as the reins tightened unconsciously in my hand and my horse slowed beneath me because standing beside the High Priestess was a woman dressed in white.

At first, I could only see the outline of her face beneath the veil..

Then she raised her gaze and our eyes met, and for one impossible moment, the world around me disappeared. No chanting. No thunder. No thousands of voices screaming my name through the streets of Athens. There was only her.

The rain-heavy wind moved the thin veil covering part of her face, and I saw those eyes clearly beneath it.

I knew them instantly. I would know them even in death.

Warm brown touched with gold, like Autumn.

Those eyes had haunted me for years.

In my dreams. In my memories.

But there was no recognition in hers. Not even the smallest flicker. Her gaze rested on me with calm distance and then she lowered her gaze as though I were nothing more than another passing warrior returning from war.

It should not have affected me but it did. A strange hollowness settled heavily inside my chest, but I could not blame her.

A starving bastard boy standing in the shadows of Athens while the world stepped over him without a second glance.

Easy to forget.

The city remembered me now because power forced them to, but years ago no one remembered boys like me.

Before this moment, I had never truly known who she was. She had lived inside my memories like something half imagined but now, seeing her standing beside the High Priestess beneath the temple columns made the truth painfully clear.

A priestess.

Perhaps even chosen by the gods themselves.

A bitter thought crossed my mind.

How fitting.

The gods had taken her too.

“Commander Theon… is something wrong?”

One of my soldiers spoke carefully beside me, his voice cutting through my thoughts like a blade. I turned my head slowly toward him and then towards the soldiers who had begun exchanging confused glances.

“No,” I answered coldly. “Why do you ask?”

The man hesitated before speaking again. “You stopped for quite some time.”

Only then did I truly become aware of my surroundings again.

My horse stood motionless in the center of the street and the crowd had fallen silent too.

Thousands of eyes remained fixed on me, Even my warriors had stopped behind me, the entire city had paused simply because I had.

A humorless feeling twisted inside me. People once refused to acknowledge my existence, yet now Athens held its breath whenever I moved.

Slowly, my gaze drifted back toward the temple.

She was no longer looking at me.

Her head remained lowered beside the High Priestess as though our eyes had never met at all. As though I had imagined it.

“It’s nothing,” I said finally, though the words felt false even as they left my mouth.

I pulled lightly on the reins, and my horse began moving again, the city came to live once more.

“The Blade of Ares!”

“Theon!”

“Hail the Untamed!”

The chants exploded louder than before as the army continued through Athens toward the royal palace.

But now the noise felt far away as my thoughts remained behind at the temple. With her.

Soon, the palace of King Theseus rose before us in all its glory, towering above the city like a monument carved by the gods themselves. Royal guards lined both sides of the stairway with spears raised high in salute as we approached.

Thunder roared loud enough to shake the earth itself.

And then the heavens finally broke.

Rain poured heavily over Athens.

The crowd cried out in awe while priests began shouting praises to Zeus above the storm.

Thunder roared violently overhead, lightning tore across the sky like cracks splitting apart the heavens themselves, illuminating the city in blinding silver light, It felt like the gods ro

ared their approval.

But it doesn't matter to me now because I had stopped listening to them a long time ago.

End of the chapter