Frank hadn't slept since they returned.
He lay on the bed in his houseroom, eyes wide open, staring at the ceiling as the fan above spun like a slow clock. Every time he blinked, he saw her. Athena. Hair burning with firelight. Blood on her hands. Her face still, indifferent. Elegant in motion. Merciless in execution.
He hadn't screamed when she turned a minotaur into a pile of ash with a flick of her fingers.
But now, alone in the dark, he wanted to.
He had loved her.
Frank sat up, running a hand through his hair. Sweat clung to his skin, though the air conditioner hummed faintly in the background. He reached for the glass of water on the nightstand, but his hand was trembling too much to hold it steady.
Who was she?
She hadn't just known magic—she had mastered it. She wasn't surprised by the chaos, wasn't overwhelmed. She'd known that world. That temple. That war.
And for five years, she'd said nothing.
No slip-ups. No clues. No accidental magic tricks or suspicious comments. Athena had been perfect. Supportive. Warm. Normal.
Or so he thought.
Frank stood and walked to the window, pulling aside the curtain. Abuja stretched quietly below him—cars, lights, normal lives. But now, it all felt like a lie. There were beings walking among them. Beings with power. Beings like her.
Beings who could burn down cities in minutes.
He touched the glass.
"She was smiling," he whispered to his reflection.
He remembered it too clearly. In the middle of the bloodshed, while slicing down a beastman begging for mercy, Athena had smiled.
Not out of joy. Not out of cruelty. It was the smile of someone fulfilling duty. Or instinct.
And what chilled Frank the most was that she had looked... beautiful doing it.
A wave of nausea rolled over him. He staggered back from the window.
He needed answers. But more than that—he needed to decide if he was ready for them.
And yet, no matter how hard he tried to think about Athena or the fight or the crown… his mind always came back to Philip.
Something was wrong with that too. Why had he taken that crown? It didn't look valueable at this point remembered the gold and gems he and philip had been picking.he would deal with that later.
Frank sank back into bed, curling into himself as the first light of dawn painted the walls a soft gold.
For the first time in his life, he was afraid of the woman he loved.
And even more afraid that he might still love her anyway.