ᎧᏝᎩᎷᎮᏬᏕ ᏖᏒᎥᏗᏝᏕ

I stood at the edge of the arena, fingers brushing the smooth wood of my bow, the familiar weight of my quiver against my back. The air was thick with anticipation, making my heart hammer and breaths shallow. From the marble dais above, Zeus’s voice boomed, announcing the first pairs. Each boy and girl, bound by the invisible golden band, would feel every pang, every thrill, every fear of their partner. The arena itself was alive, shifting to challenge each pair differently. Forests with whispering shadows, deserts under a merciless sun—it tested not just strength, but heart. The winners would become Zeus’s messengers, protectors of the mortal world, champions of Olympus. My stomach tightened as the last names were called, and then… I felt it—a gaze. He stood across the arena, taller than anyone, muscles taut beneath his dark top. Black hair streaked with silver hung like mist around his face, and his gray eyes cut straight to my chest. Smoke-like tattoos curled along his arms, shifting subtly, alive as shadows. The son of Hades. My chest constricted. He had always been my rival—the boy I resented and couldn’t ignore, the one I’d sparred against since I could remember. Zeus’s voice rang again: “The final pair… chosen by fate and bound by the golden band…” My breath caught. I realized before I looked that it was us. Him and me. The crowd erupted. A golden, flickering band wrapped around our wrists before vanishing. I felt it immediately—his heartbeat, a deep drum against mine, a current of tension and unspoken challenge I could not ignore. Our eyes met, and for a moment, the arena faded. Only the bond remained, and the undeniable truth: we were bound, child of Artemis and son of Hades, and from this moment, we would face whatever hell the Olympians could conjure… together.