Lies after lies, after lies.

All of it—lies thrown at his face his entire life.

Heron almost felt like a joke.

All those years, all those moments in his childhood where he held close to his heart, when Elias and his mother would comfort him, hold him, take care of him.

Elias felt more like a father to him.

Only for that image to be shattered once his mother revealed to him that the old man was actually Zeus, his true father.

Nothing felt more suffocating than the moment Heron stared into his mother's brown eyes, searching for jest in them, like it was a cruel joke.

But as those same eyes were filled with nothing more than shame and guilt, with her head down, Heron knew she was serious.

How—how could they lie to him like this? And for his entire life?

The more Heron learned more about the past, of what his mother had told him, the more he questioned the reality he was living in.

It was overwhelming, tears starting to fill his eyes as his chest started to rapidly rise up and down, trying to control his breathing.

It felt too much. The confusion, the questioning, then the frustration of it all.

Heron had never been good at handling his emotions, it was hard to control when all you feel is like you only had yourself in the world.

He didn't want to cry in front of her.

So he just ran—he ran to the last place he saw Elias, or in actuality, Zeus, running up the rough soil as his feet burned in pain from the barely healing blisters on them.

Finally, with a barely concealed sniffle, Heron slowed, his calves still badly aching from the rough climb on that damn mountain.

He wanted to demand answers, just to know—to understand why Zeus lied to him. Why Zeus didn't protect them after all these years of suffering, why he stood by the sidelines and watched them both be forsaken and treated lower than animals.

But Heron saw no one. Only a shining sword that emitted divinity resting against a large rock protruding from the ground. The blade glinted with a light, blue as Heron's eyes.

His lips twitched, glossy eyes staring at it. It was beautiful.

With hesitance, he approached with slow steps, until finally, he picked it up. Examining it.

It felt powerful in his hands, but that power only reminded him who made the sword. The man, the cowardly god, who he never wanted to see again.

Then, with a sudden surge of returned rage and impulsiveness, Heron ran forward and hurled it into the sky as hard as he could. The earth shook for a second as it finally landed.

Heron lets out another sniffle, a bandaged hand lifting to wipe away a tear from his already red eyes.

“Damnit.” He gasped breathlessly to himself, out of breath from the mere effort of trying not to sob out loud from frustration.

Flimsily kicking pebbles and rocks out of his way, Heron sat on the rock, thinking as his tears felt sticky on his cheeks.

He was a demigod, the bastard of Zeus, but right now, that was the least of his concerns as his mind, despite being filled with emotion, was still thinking about the demons.

He was worried for his mother, even if Electra had lied to him too, he still loved her.

Heron did know one thing though, and that is he never wanted to see Zeus again. Never.