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The snake’s eyes were a bright, burning gold, which Artemis found almost insulting. Gold had always been Apollo’s color. This serpent, after all the things he’d done, didn’t deserve it. He didn’t get to take it, to twist it into something to hurt her brother with.
A figure tumbled into the cavern, an arrow glittering gold as it was shot across the cave and went right past the serpent.
Python’s voice was like a hundred thousand insects moving beneath her skin. She shuddered at the feeling, like he was crawling into her mind through her ears. She couldn’t exactly make out the words, but they felt mocking and vicious and violent.
The figure didn’t seem to care, running at the beast with a reckless abandon, shooting arrow after arrow at his enemy, then stabbing them into the gleaming scales when his bow was broken.
Apollo’s form seemed to flicker, like he was moving in and out of the Mist. One moment he was Lester, dull brown curls and a face full of acne like a sky full of stars, cloudy blue eyes bright with the sort of determination only a mortal could possess. Then he looked like he had when they first came into the world, those few days on Delos before he had even gone to fight the serpent the first time, tiny hands on his bow and sun kissed skin, so much like their mother except for their father’s violent blue eyes. Then he was her Apollo, so brilliant he was blinding, golden hair and gilded skin and that reckless careless smile that seemed permanently affixed on his face.
He fought as hard as he could as Python grabbed him in his coils and slowly crushed him.
Artemis tried to move, to go to him, to get him as far from Python as possible, but her feet were stuck to the floor. It felt like the stone of the cavern was crawling up her legs, making her into a part of itself, turning her into the sort of statue that would crumble at the lightest touch. She tried to speak, to scream, to call out to her brother, but his name got caught in her throat, and if she couldn’t say his name then she couldn’t make any sound at all.
She could do nothing but look on in terror as Apollo broke free of the snake’s coils and ran to the edge, tumbling down below and dragging Python with him.
Artemis woke up with a desperate sob. She didn’t know where she was, she didn’t know what was happening, all she knew was that he was gone. He was gone and he was never coming back to her and she was never going to see him again and she was going to be alone alone alone-
There was a light touch on her shoulder.
She scrambled back. She was tangled up in a pile of furs, trapping her in place. Her eyes were blurry from tears, but she could almost make out the figure in front of her, messy golden curls and tan skin, bright blue eyes wide with some emotion she couldn’t name.
“Artie?” he called softly, his hands up placatingly, like she was a wild animal he was afraid to scare away.
Artemis took a deep, shuddering breath. She was on a hunting trip with Apollo. She wasn’t in the caves under Delphi. Python was gone permanently. She was safe. Apollo was safe. He was safe and sound, right in front of her, real as the ichor in her veins.
Artemis threw herself into her brother’s arms.
He was still for half of a moment, then he pulled her somehow closer to him and held her so tightly that he might have broken something in her if she were mortal. She soaked in the feeling of it, of him warm and alive and all around her. She buried her face in his neck, tangling her fingers in the fabric of his deep blue sleep shirt so he couldn’t leave. She felt him press his face to the top of her head, tears dripping into her hair.
“I’m here,” he whispered. “I’m here, Artie, it’s alright. I’m here, I’m not leaving you, you won’t lose me. It’s alright, we’re alright.”
He didn’t stop talking, nonsense spilling from his lips while he held her close and combed his fingers through her tangled hair. The words didn’t catch, but the musical lilt his voice always had, even when it was hoarse and trembling, lightened her earlier terror.
Eventually, she managed to pull away, if only enough so that she could see his face. His eyes were rimmed with gold, like he’d been crying for a while, even before she’d woken up. She felt her heart break a little bit.
“You too?” she asked softly.
He hummed an affirmation. “Almost every night now,” he admitted. “I can’t really sleep at all without seeing… something.”
“I’m sorry,” she whispered, more tears escaping her aching eyes. “I should have…” Should have what? Should have known? Should have helped him, somehow? She’d proven time and time again that she was a terrible sister. Of course she’d found a way to fail him again.
“It’s alright,” he said again. “I’m alright.”
She shook her head. “You aren’t.” She’d failed him too many times to count, but she couldn’t stop trying to do right by him. She wouldn’t stop trying. Her brother was worth all of her efforts.
She wouldn’t let him push her away anymore. She wouldn’t let him push down his feelings or put on a smile that wasn’t real or pretend he was fine when he wasn’t for her sake. Not anymore.
He exhaled, a sad, tired sigh that broke her heart all over again. “No, probably not. But… I will be.”
“You will be,” she said firmly. She would make sure of it. She would do whatever she had to do. “We’ll both be alright. We have each other.”
“We have each other,” he repeated. His arms tightened around her. “Forever and always.”
“Forever and always.” She let herself sink back into his hold. Nothing and no one could take him away from her. She wouldn’t let them. Not ever again.