Audentis Fortuna Iuvat

Mark began to walk towards the huge temple and I shot him a look of panic.

"What in the name of Pluto do you think you're doing?" I hissed, tugging on his sleeve as he continued forward. "Our mission was to identify suspicious activity. Well it's been identified! Let's go!"

He turned to me with a grin. "What happened to that stubborn courage I used to see? We'll just have a look inside then head on back."

I sighed in resignation and we trudged up the steep temple steps that I had the feeling were never meant to be climbed by humans.

We reached the top puffing far too hard for two fit demigods and I felt this pressure on my chest; an impending sense of pure doom that seemed to have replaced the rushing adrenaline my ADHD normally pumped through my veins.

"Mark, I don't think this is a good idea." I hissed but he just ignored me and ducked through the huge black doors, pulling me through with him.

I bit down on my tongue to muffle a squeak as I stumbled through the door into the dark room where collosal forms hunched over a huge table. Before I could have a proper look Mark dragged me behind a giant pillar.

"Listen." He whispered, holding me tight in the shadows, probably to stop me doing anything stupid which in hindsight was a brilliant idea.

"We need to take action, we're wasting our time waiting up here." A harsh voice boomed with a sound similar to what a rock would sound like going through a woodchipper.

"That's exactly what we're doing; waiting." Another voice said that sounded so normal in comparison. "They don't know we're here so we take that opportunity to plan and bide our time until we get the orders from Saturn to-"

Mark clapped a hand over my mouth but not before I gasped loudly and the voices in the chamber cut off.

Footsteps began to walk in our direction and Mark turned me around and bent down to whisper hurriedly in my ear. "No matter what happens, no matter what I do just trust me and play along, okay? As far as they know we're mortal."

I nodded and steeled my mind as the booming footsteps began to round the corner of the colemn. A cold chill raced through the air but my thoughts were completely cut off when Mark clamped his lips over mine and my eyes shot wide open.

"Play along." He murmured and I relaxed... slightly. But kissing him still felt awkward; like kissing a brother. Though my rebellious instincts began to kiss him back and my heart split in two with a tear I'm sure the heard all the way back at camp.

The footsteps ended and an awkward throat clear came from behind my back, I pulled away disgustingly reluctantly and whirled around to see a surprisingly normal security guard standing there.

"This is a no access zone." He told us with the nasty, grinding voice we had heard earlier, obviously just thinking that we were a clueless mortal couple who had stumbled in for a bit of privacy, which was probably the ingenious point of Mark's plan.

"Sorry we didn't realise." Mark apologized, taking my hand in his and pulling me towards the door.

"You know, you should really put up some signs." I told the guard as we slipped past him through the door. "And pick up some throat lozenges while you're at it." I added just before the door boomed shut and then I wobbled a few steps before collapsing on top step with a confused dizziness. "Did you find out what you need to?" I asked Mark as he sat next to me and rested a hand on my shoulder in a show of concern for the mortals below.

"Yes, thank you." He said. "Thank you for not freaking out when I did that."

I shrugged. "It probably saved my life so I can't exactly complain. But if you ever do it again then I will have to grind your podex to dirt." I threatened with the disgusting feel of reluctance again.

"Have to?"

"A matter of pride." I told him.

"Ah, I see." He sighed. "Just please don't tell Catie about this."

"As long as you promise to never tell anybody ever in the history of the earth about this." I offered him my pinky and he raised his eyebrows. "Come on, this is the most sacred promise there is."

He groaned with a grin and hooked his pinky through mine.

"Pinky promise never break a promise." We chanted before collapsing onto our backs against the hard black stone that had turned cold with the steadily sinking sun.

"We haven't even walked anywhere." He told me. "Why am I so tired?"

"We walked up the steps."

"Does that mean we have to walk back down?"

We groaned in unison.

"I suppose we should go then?" He sighed, standing up and offering me a hand to pull me to my feet.

"I suppose so."

And so we walked back to the stuffy rental car with an awkward relief that filled the air with more tension that it had on the way up- if that was possible.

"But it was a nice kiss, right?" Mark asked as he unlocked the car and ducked into the driver's seat.

"So not having this discussion." I told him, red battling its way up my cheeks. "Just turn up the radio and stop being awkward."

"Spoil sport." He muttered with a smile but turned up the radio none-the-less and we began to make our way to the motel Reyna had booked in advance incase the mission took to long as 'Bleeding Out' blasted from the speakers.

'You tell me to hold on
Oh you tell me to hold on
But innocence is gone
And what was right is wrong'

My mind closed itself off and mulled the lyrics over as they tumbled into my thoughts in a neverending cascade of melody. It was about sacrifice for love, that much was obvious. I sunk into a hole of my mind and even those words drowned out.

And my confusion turned to sadness as I continued to fall into the abyss of my conflicted heart.

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