It seemed that Dionysus and I had come to an uneasy truce. I avoided him and he avoided me. We spoke through Felix and for the most part I took meals behind the closed door of my bedroom. I didn’t want to be around the drunken prick nor did I wish to see the trail of his harem fawning all over him. I was being antisocial, keeping to myself but in the long run it would make it easier for us to kill each other right? No connections. No friendships to make my hand waver.
I’d slept in, my head was throbbing and if I didn’t think Felix would drag me kicking and screaming from my bed I would have stayed there all damn day. Instead I traipsed down to the training centre to put in a few hours to satisfy Felix’s high standards. I found my way to the knife throwing station, slipping a belt over my shoulder before stepping into the target range.
Target’s moved to and fro as soon as I stepped inside, the wooden cut-outs coming perilously close to ramming into my side. “You’ve got to hit them, or they’ll just get closer.” The trainer called out as I fumbled with a knife, throwing it at the target that had swooped around on the track to head in my direction. The knife clattered to the cement and the target didn’t stop its trajectory. Slamming into my shoulder. I stumbled and found myself face planting on the concrete. This was stupid. This whole thing was stupid. Another target narrowly missed running over my hand as I pushed up into a seated position. I grabbed a knife, running the blade across my palm before throwing. The first knife hit the very tip of a target but the next found the target. I stood, moving around the field and throwing knives. Most fell to the floor but those that hit? They were slowly finding their mark. I had one last target to hit when a knife whizzed past my head and clunked into the heart of the target. The lights flicked on and I spun around to see Dionysus standing there. A shit eating grin on his face and a goblet of wine in his hand.
“What do you want?”
“That’s no way to speak to your old man,” his speech was slurred. His balance off and I couldn’t help but feel sick at the notion that he was my father. I hated him. I hated what he stood for and honestly I had nothing left to say to him. I pushed past him, moving further into the training centre when he called out to me.
“You’ll be dead before Day One even ends, Rowan.”
I turned, the admission didn’t make me sad nor did it really surprise me. “I don’t doubt that but you know what? It’s all on your head. You could save us. All of you, but what do you do? You get drunk and fuck anything that moves while your children fight to the death. Thanks a lot Dad. Nice talking with you.” I turned on my heel, leaving Dionysus behind me and hoping that he'd crawl into the bottom of a wine bottle and leave me be.
