I'm sitting on the edge of the guest bed on the first floor of my house. I bounce my leg up and down in growing anxiety of what was slowly forming. I had made Erato, a Goddess as ancient as modern civilization, run away just because she couldn't make a deal with me. 

Was I doing the right thing?

Then again she was on the brink of disappearing and I had basically hammered the nails on her coffin that was unless she could find some foolish human to make a deal with, which I'm sure is actually easier done then said. Although Erato didn't strike me as a Goddess like my mother, one that was power hungry and didn't care about who it was or what it would cost. Considering Erato took her time not making a deal in the past two hundred years there was only two conclusions I could make. She chose carefully when doing so or she cared so little for her life that she no longer felt the desire to make a deal. The second one seemed plasuabile but if that was the case why was she trying to make a deal with me and if she did choose carefully why would she decide I was a good contractee in the matter of a few days of knowing me? 

I had a dozen questions and not a single one has been answered since meeting her. 

I turn my head over my shoulder to look at the place she was laying at minutes before. She was wasting away and it was so prevelant. I don't want to be cornered and lured into a contract just because I feel guilty about her but at the same time should I let this ancient being die. 

She was still beautiful even when she was a shell of what she once was. 

I turn away and look at my hands which are clasped together while my face gets warm at the thought of her hair falling in perfect dissary. 

The door suddenly swings open. "Canan!"

I leap up as my mother rushes to me. "Mother! Why are you back?"

"I sensed it!" Her eyes narrow while her lips purse. "You thought she was pretty."

I roll my eyes and turn away. "Mother please!" I groan.

"No tell me now!" She demands.

I shake my head. "No I won't because I don't."

"Don't lie to me Canan!"

"How can I possibly when you already know the answer of all the interest I've ever had in any person."

She gasps and places both hands to her mouth. "So you do think she is cute!" 

I place my hands to my face. "As cute as the rat you call a dog."

"Don't talk about my baby that way!" She points a condescending acrylic nail at me.

"If anything I find her annoying because her problems seem to be becoming my own."

She raises a suspicious eyebrow. "How so?"

I lift my chin up and glare at her. I wasn't about to tell my mother that Erato wanted to make a contract with me, she would just find some way to use her desperation to her advantage it was what she did best. Prey on desperation.

"Don't you have some famous person to make a deal with?"

She crosses her arms. "My love," She only said that when she wanted something. "A famous person is still a mere human in the end. To make a Goddess fall in love with another God is far more rewarding." 

I press my lips into a firm line. "I am not a God."

"You are a demigod."

"I don't even have powers."

"You do."

I place my hand to my chin as I recollect on the one gift I had which I wouldn't even consider a power. 

"People falling in love with me is not a power especially since you gave me an attractive face."

She blows a rasberry and shakes her head. "We're getting off topic." She meets my eyes. "I want you to fall in love with Erato."

I feel my chest clench at the thought. "I refuse."

"Then I will make her fall in love with you."

I glare. "Don't you dare."

She seems surprised by that but then her brows bunch to rage. "You can't stop me in fact I don't think I need to make her. You are my child she will fall in love with you just as the power I gave you was intended to be used. Without any effort."

I feel my jaw clench. "Don't do that." I shake my head. "Don't lie to me again. I know I can surpress it."

She shakes her head in dissapointment. "Did Philp tell you?"

"No actually, Julius did."

She seems surprised I've talked to my half brother. "When?"

I sigh and look away. "After..." I look for the right thing to say. "The deal you made with Cleo."

She rolls her eyes. "You're still mad about that?"

I grind my teeth. "Get out."

"What?"

I meet her eyes which are filled with disbelief. "Just get out." I sigh sitting back on the bed. "Get out now Mom!"

She sighs. "I just want what's best."

I leap up. "For who?" I feel tears well up in my eyes. "For you!" I shake my head. "That's all you want it's always been about what you want!" 

She's silent as her eyebrows bunch up and her lip pouts. She's playing the victim as she does, at this point in my life I am more than use to her emotional manipulation she did whenever she didn't get her way. I suppose this is another power of the Goddess of love. To manipulate and make you feel something you really didn't.

I take a deep breath. "Just leave."

She sighs and turns away leaving without another word. 

Mother.

That was who Aphrodite was to me. Not a Goddess, not a person, not an ominiscent person who knew when someone was in love or a witch who made people fall in love. She was just my mother, the person who raised me. Raised me to fall in love with a person so that she could gain power. At this point in my life she had raised me and my siblings in a manner where we were more like farm animals that would later give her food. Only thing was there was only a few of us who could see through her facade. Mainly the ones she had done the most too. I suppose I was one of them. Julius was another too, my older brother who she made fall in love only to have his partner fall out of love so that he could fall in love with another affluential person. Then there was also Philip who was happily married with two kids only for my mother to destroy his life by making his fall in love with another and divorce him. 

She could be brutal. I would say she was better now but still could be terribly heartless that's why I couldn't fall in love with Erato no matter what. Even if I wanted to, she would just use and abuse her new power more than likely on my other twelve siblings then on mere humans. 

For you see us demigods could in fact get an upperhand on our own mother if we can see the facade of her traps. For my mother's own children she didn't have to make deals with us to make us fall in love. She could make us fall in love regardless of if we agree or not but the problem with that is if she used her powers on us we could take her powers in return making her weaker. In fear of this she did not dare use her powers against us but if she did gain enough humans love then she could definitley do whatever she like to us and if she made Erato fall in love with me there was no doubt she could make any of her children love whoever regardless of what we wanted. 

The biggest issue with this ace up our sleeve was making sure we caught onto the little things that may have been her doing, for example me thinking Erato was beautiful. It could have been my own thought and it could've been my mother's influence the trick was just not accepting the feelings at all then there was both a denial of my mother and my own feelings.

I tap my foot against the floor as I stare at the door she had just left through. I may need help. I tap my foot against the floor faster in thought. If I asked for help there may be problems and I may be jepordizing the other person due to my mother. 

I sigh there was only one other person who could play this game against my mother better then me and my two older brothers and that was my oldest sister. The one who had lived nearly as long as mother and sympathized us younger siblings, perhaps that was because she could see our demises and maybe this is why she was able to make deals for as long as mother has. 

I lower myself to the bed and pick up my phone. My oldest sister was a wild card to ask for her help was like asking if my fate was sealed in stone, only she could see and only she could direct me down the path which was my fate. Whether that be good or bad, only she could save me from my mother's attention and if she said no to my request it essentially meant I was fated to follow my mother's plans and fall in love with Erato. If she said yes then I had a chance. 

I slowly scroll through my phone and look for the only Goddess I knew besides my mother. It's easy considering she's at the top of my contacts. I hover my finger over the green phone icon for a moment as I consider what I'm going to say to my sister whom I haven't called in months. Then again she was immortal and a few months was but mere days to her. I lower my finger down and take a deep breath in as it begins to ring once, then twice, and I begin to hope she doesn't pick up but after the fifth ring she picks up. 

"Hello," She says slowly and softly. 

"Hi," I sigh.

She takes a breath in then sighs. "I'm about to have an appointment but the answer is yes."

I scoff. "You don't even know what I'm going to ask."

She chuckles deep but sweet like the older sister I loved when she was not busy telling people about their inevitable fates. "I can already see it and I will oblige for the well being of my siblings and to subside our mother's quench for power but lets get coffee tomorrow I know you have no classes on Friday so let's go for nine."

I shake my head even though she can't see. "I still have a class." 

"No you don't."

I laugh. "Okay fine nine it is."

"Perfect, see you then also tell Jesse to come to. I miss him and know he's also free."

"Thank you Adre."

She speaks softly and gently. "You can't avoid it anyways Canan, you were fated to talk to me for help but nevertheless you're welcome and you need to tell me about this Goddess you met."

"Did you see that in my fate as well."

"No but mother brought her up wanting to know if I saw her in your's."

I curse. "Mother works fast."

"A little too fast. Which is why I schedule my appointments around her."

"Smart."

"Very, now goodbye brother."

"Bye."

I hang up and sigh at least that was one problem solved thank goodness for my sister, the Goddess of inevitable fate, Adrestia.