Virgil's POV

Out of the two goddesses I had met, Aletheia is definitely the one with the most goddess-y vibe.

With the weather control thing and the dramatic white dress thing, it was way more impressive than Aphrodites approach of embarrassing me and treating me to a nice little "talk" about one of my least favourite things.

"That's one way to make an entrance." I said under my breath as I pushed off the wall I was leaning on to stand slightly behind Roman and Logan.

"Lady Aletheia," Logan said respectfully, bowing his head. I noticed Roman doing the same so I followed their lead. "It is an honour to meet you."

I really wanted to roll my eyes but the power surrounding the goddess was making my skin itch so I thought better of it. I looked up again to look at her. She had black hair and glowing silver eyes that were kinda creeping me out. She was floating just above the ground.

"Lower the pleasantries, son of Wisdom." Aletheia replied. "Why do you pursue me?"

"Aletheia," Roman began, raising his head. His usually styled hair was flattened with rainwater. "My mother sent us to you. She said that you know where Patton Morales is?"

"I do possess that knowledge," Aletheia informed. Logan noticeably perked up. "But I shall only share it with those that live a life clear of lies." 

Uh oh. I didn't like where this was going but Logan and Roman exchanged uncomprehending looks.

"Um, guys-" I tried to interject quietly but Logan didn't hear me, and answered the goddess.

"That should be of no complication, My Lady." He sounded kinda confused, but I had a creeping feeling of what the goddess was playing at.

"Is that so?" Logan and Roman nodded. "One of you seems to disagree."

Aletheia inclined her head towards me and the two other demigods turned to look at me, both looked puzzled. I tried to mirror their expressions.

"Virgil what is she talking about?" Roman asked, crossing his arms. Oh gods.

What was she talking about? Like sure, I hadn't exactly told my friends everything about me but does that really count as lying? It's not like I'd ever said 'My foster father hasn't sent me to the hospital multiple times.' or 'My childhood was absolutely perfect.' or even 'I'm definitely not in love with Roman Garcia'.

Okay, maybe I've lied by omission....a lot. But which one was this weirdo goddess talking about and why does she care so much? There was no way I'd ever tell Roman about my feelings for him and I'd rather die than ever ever tell anyone about my experiences with Sebastian. I pushed my wet hair off my forehead.

"I have no idea." I played dumb but Aletheia was obviously not fooled.

"Virgil August, are you sincerely denying the chance to admit what you conceal of your own will?" Aletheia asked gravely serious.

Logan was looking at me warily, only knowing one of my secrets and thinking that was all. Roman looked concerned but totally clueless, and Aletheia was staring unblinkingly at me through her glistening silver eyes. I let go of my fake confused expression. Should I just come clean and tell everyone.

I met the goddess' stare with stoney eyes.

"I don't know what you're talking about." I said in my strongest drop-it-right-now tone like the one I used with Roman at Grand Central.

"That's a shame." Aletheia seemed genuinely regretful, the most emotion I had seen her show since we got here, as she shook her head. "I suppose I'll have to inspire you to reveal it.

"Hold on a-" Roman couldn't finish his sentence before Aletheia swept her hand around in the air, spraying silver sparks.

Out from the stone that made up the walls sprung thick chains with shackles.

The shackles fastened around my wrists tightly and pulled me back against the wall facing Aletheia hard. I couldn't suppress a small cry of pain as my still healing back hit against the rough bricks.

"What the hell?!" I half groaned, half yelped in pain.

"Virgil are you alright?"

"I'm still alive so I guess that's a good sign."

I lifted my head to glare at Aletheia who was watching me with a blank face, her eyes gleaming. On the opposite wall Logan and Roman were struggling against their shackles but to no avail. Roman was trying to reach the sheath on his thigh to defeat this dude with his badass knife throwing skills, but the chains weren't letting him come close.

"There's no use struggling," Aletheia said without looking at my two friends. "These chains won't release you until I allow it."

"Why the hell did your mom send us to this psycho, Roman?" I groaned, still dazed.

"You think I know how her brain works?" Roman had given up on tugging at the shackles. He joined me in glaring at Aletheia. "Your guess is as good as mine."

"I would watch your manners if I were you, Virgil August." Aletheia said lowly, floating closer to me. "I may not possess the power your father does but I have enough to vaporize you in an instant."

"Yeah but you're not going to. I'm pretty sure Hades wouldn't be too chill with you killing his only son." I shot back, done with trying to be even slightly polite to this goddess. At least with Aphrodite I had one reason to try and be nice. "And I typically save my manners for people that don't chain me to a wall, but that's just me."

Aletheia's eyes narrowed.

"Virgil August, I shall not release you, nor your friends, until you reveal your most closely guarded secrets." She informed eerily.

Roman and Logan looked alarmed and concerned as I swallowed nervously.

"And if I don't?" I asked, trying to keep the shake from my voice. "You can't keep us here forever. Someone will know we're missing."

"Eventually, yes." Aletheia was examining her nails. "But you have a quest to complete and a demigod to rescue. I shall only tell you the location of the captors you seek when you complete my terms."

At this point I was on the verge of a panic attack. My breaths were coming quicker and my hands were starting to shake. It's impossible for me to let her keep us here, but if I tell everyone about Roman I'll ruin everything. And if that ruins everything, if I tell my secret about Sebastian I might as well take those ruins and set them on fire. I swore to myself that I would never tell that secret to anybody.

What am I supposed to do?

"Would now be a bad time to tell you that I'm claustrophobic?" I said meekly. She ignored me.

"I find that matters of the heart are the most difficult to say aloud." Aletheia pondered casually. "Although in your case that's not entirely true, I can't believe it's easy. Truth is hardly ever easy."

"Matters of the heart?" Roman asked, sounding pissed but my eyes were screwed shut. "First my mother, now you? Give it a rest! It's not like Virgil's in love or something-"

I opened my eyes and looked at him.

"Oh." He realized as his eyes widened.

"Virgil, It's okay," Logan said reassuringly with his glasses crooked and his arms too restricted to  "You can tell us anything."

I met Romans eyes, red mixing with red just like they did that night at my first campfire.

Why bother hiding it at this point? I thought. It's not like I'm going to randomly fall out of love with him. These feelings might never go away so he's going to know eventually

I took a breath.

"Fine." I spat out at Aletheia who was looking at me expectedly. 

I stared defiantly at the glowing silver eyes of the goddess.

"I'm in love with Roman Garcia, okay?"

Roman's POV

"I'm in love with Roman Garcia, okay?"

Hold on, Virgil Alexander August is in love with me? Holy fucking shit. I must be dreaming.

To say I was shocked would be a huge understatement. Is this coming out of nowhere or am I horrendously oblivious? I looked over to Logan to see an I-already-knew-that expression on his face that I had seen many many times. 

So it was true. Virgil loved me, and I knew that I loved him back. I knew something was different about him that first night we met, when I first talked to him and he blushed super hard but thought I couldn't see. If I could have, I would've ran over to the son of Hades. But as it was with being fixed to the wall with thick iron chains, my knees went weak and I slumped down in a rather ungraceful way.

Virgil hadn't even spared a glance at me after dropping that bombshell. He was glaring fiercely into Aletheia's silver eyes, who looked more satisfied than before.

"Oh my gods." I breathed.

"See, that wasn't too difficult was it?" The goddess asked. Virgil dropped his head so his chin hit against his chest.

"Screw you." He muttered and I realized that he really didn't want to admit his feelings. I bet that if this wack job goddess hadn't made him do it I doubt he would've ever told me considering his lack of self confidence.

He shouldn't have ever been forced to tell me, I should've just known. I'm a son of Aphrodite! Romantic feelings are basically her whole thing. If only Virgil wasn't so damn good and hiding stuff...

"I suppose I shall tell you the location of the demigod you seek." Aletheia contemplated.

Next to me Logan whipped his head up, suddenly fully interested. There was nobody Logan loved or cared about more than his boyfriend.

"Patton! Where is he?" He nearly demanded.

The truth goddess stared down at him disapprovingly.

"Patton Morales may be found beneath the state of Florida. The access point is located in the most popular city on the East Coast." She informed.

"Miami." Logan breathed.

Miami. Huh, that's convenient.

"Great, cool. Now get these chains off of us, we'll dip and go find Patton." Virgil said, still not looking at me.

"But those were not the terms." Aletheia turned back to him. "And you still have a large part of your life hidden."

Wait what? What could Virgil possibly be hiding?

"No." Virge said as his eyes widened like he knew what she was talking about. "This is not happening."

"Confess or you'll never leave." Aletheia warned.

Logan and I exchanged concerned looks as Virgils breathing noticeably sped up.

"Stop!" He implored, starting to tug at the iron chains holding him trying to get out.

"If you don't confess, Patton Morales will never be rescued." The goddess continued, her voice getting louder.

"Stop it!" I yelled as I watched Virgil's shaking hands claw at the shackles. His chest was rising and falling dangerously fast and his eyes were darting all around the room. "Leave him alone!"

Aletheia got closer and closer to Virgil until she was right in his face. Her long black hair floated around her head in tendrils.

"Are you truly willing to sacrifice not only yours, but your friends' lives?"

"It's none of your business!" He shot at her. I could tell that he was on the edge of a full blown panic attack for what ever reason when he turned his head away with his eyes screwed shut.

"How many souls will be lost so you can keep your inner demons?" Aletheia grabbed Virgils chin and made his head face her.

"Let go of him!" I shouted, pulling against the chains to no avail. She needs to get her hands off of that gorgeous boy before I make her.

Virgils eyes were still shut and quivering as Aletheias voice became more intense.

"Tell them, or your best friend and the man you love will die!"

Virgils eyes snapped open. They were glowing purple like they did the night of the campfire attack and his hair was starting to float up with power.

"Leave. It. ALONE!" Virgil exploded, his eyes glowing brighter. Aletheia stepped back cautiously as the temperature in the room dropped.

"Oh gods." I said under my breath.

The glow of Virgils eyes consumed any colour in them that wasn't purple. The shadows cast by the chandelier above gathered around his hands and soaked into the iron shackles fastened around them. When Virgil pulled against them one more time, they shattered.

As soon as he was free he stood between us and Aletheia defiantly with his fist already wrapped around the pommel of his sword. The purple gleam of his eyes reflected on the face of the goddess.

"Let them go." Virgil demanded firmly, but people who knew him like me and Logan could hear how much his abilities were affecting his energy. Aletheia crossed her arms and was silent.

Virgil whipped his sword out of his scabbard. The Stygian Iron edge was surrounded in a purple aura that matched Virgils eyes. He swiped his sword through the air, sending a blade of darkness rocketing towards me and Logan. I braced myself for some sort of impact but it never came. Instead, the chains holding me to the ground were cut in half and fell to the ground with a metallic thump.

I rubbed my wrists where the shackles had clamped on and saw Logan doing the same.

"You're going to let us leave now, got it?" Virgil asked Aletheia, the glow of his eyes receding but still looking gorgeously powerful.

"You may have power, August, but you are only half god." Aletheia reminded him as she spread her arms, probably to release some crazy powerful god ability. "And it is the mortal half of you that will be your downfall."

Before anything more than sparks could be released from her finger tips, I reached down and grabbed two throwing knives from my sheath. I let them fly perfectly, pinning Aletheia to the stone wall by her dress sleeves.

"But if we're all half god, and there's three of us," Virgil pondered. "Then we've got a solid one and a half of god combined. So really, we're all more godly than you."

"That's not-" Logan tried to correct but I held up a hand to shush him.

"He just saved both of our lives, let him have that." I told him. He held his hands up in mock surrender.

Virgil slid his blade back in his scabbard trying to seem unaffected. I couldn't help thinking:

What else is he hiding?

*******

After we had left Aletheia pinned in her little shed, we had made our way out of the forest to find a park ranger station where we were going to take a break in as we tried to plan our next move.

"I just don't see why she had to bother with that stupid rainstorm." Virgil was saying as we walked into the little station. "Mud is the most annoying thing any god has ever created."

"I'll admit, it seemed unnecessary." He nodded politely at the park ranger standing behind the desk who paid us no attention. "She seems to have quite a flair for the dramatic. It almost rivals yours, Roman."

I pretended to be offended, complete with one hand against the chest and the other across my forehead.

"Dear Logan, how you wound me so!" I exclaimed in a theatrical gesture.

Virge suppressed a laugh but Logan smiled a bit (which for Logan is like a grin.)

Virgil had been acting different since that absolute shrew Aletheia forced him to proclaim his love for me. Don't get me wrong; I'm overjoyed to know about Virgils feelings for me! I just wished that he had told me by his own choice, when he was ready.

But here we are, Virgil won't even look at my face. Gods, even when he's next to me we couldn't be more far apart.

I lowered my hands with a sideways smile at the purple haired demigod.

"I'll be right back." I said, then held up a golden drachma. "I need to make a call."

Logan nodded but Virgil was staring at the TV in the corner, seemingly lost in thought.

I closed the door behind me and exhaled. As I walked down the steps, I had no idea how to feel. On one hand, I was ecstatic that the son of Hades returned my romantic feelings, but on the other hand I knew that he was hiding something from me and Logan and wasn't planning on telling us what that something was.

I looked up at the mist that rose from the fallen rain and the hot summer sun.

"O Iris, goddess of the rainbow, accept my offering." I said to the mist and threw my drachma into it. "Show me Remus Garcia at Camp Half-Blood."

After a second, the mist rippled to show the form of my twin brother in what I recognized as the weapons room of the training arena. He was hanging his mace up on the wall in just a black t-shirt, his green letterman jacket hanging behind him.

"Remus!" I called to him and waved.

He perked up and looked around. He smiled as soon as he saw me.

"Roman!" He greeted happily as he moved closer to the Iris-Message. "It's so good to see you! Life here is such a drag without you, especially since I have to act as the cabin leader while you're gone."

I laughed as Remus made a pouty face. Seeing my twin was very welcome right now, even if it's only been under a week since I had seen him last. Hey, he was my other half!

"But how'd your quest going? Tell me all about it!" He instructed.

"Well I've been kidnapped by a herd of Gryphons, met some obnoxious mortal girls that would give Serena and Leena a run for their money, and saved Virgil from some Cyclopses on the roof of a moving train." I told my brother, who whistled lowly. "But even worse than all that, I had a conversation with mom."

"Yikes, that's never good." Remus said sympathetically. "What brought that on?"

I sat down on the wooden stairs of the ranger station.

"Well she started out with her typical move: manipulation for her entertainment." I rolled my eyes and so did my twin. "She freaked out Virgil with all her talk of love stories and stuff. She talked with him one on one but he wouldn't tell me what she said."

"Ugh, August." Remus groaned.

"I know, I know you don't like him." I rested my head on my hand. "But he's actually the reason I needed to talk to you."

Remus raised his eyebrows in a gesture that I assumed meant 'go on'.

"I think he's hiding something. Something big. But I don't think he's ever going to tell us." I told him.

"Well I wouldn't be surprised," He pondered. "But why do you think that? You bit my head off before you left when I said you should be more careful about being friends with him."

"Well mom didn't just show up to embarrass me. She sent us to find a goddess that would know where Patton is and when we did..."

I retold the story about Aletheia and Virgils confession. I told him how Aletheia said that there were two big secrets, but she only made Virgil reveal one.

"At the one he's hiding seems way bigger than the one he told us. I don't know what to do from here!" I finished and caught my breath.

Remus looked speechless.

"Wait, so August is in love with you?" I nodded. "And you love him back?" I nodded again.

He ran a hand through his hair. He looked weirdly distressed.

"You're pretty screwed." He said with his hands over his face.

"Trust me, I know." I said.

He shook his head for some reason.

"You're in love with him, but he doesn't sound at all like someone you could or should trust." He told me.

"But he has saved our lives from that snake thing at the campfire, and Joan from the Dracaena, and me from Gryphons, and Logan and I from Aletheia-"

"But how can you be sure he's who you think he is?" Remus asked tapping his fingers on the counter of the weapons room. "I mean, he shows up at camp and Patton gets kidnapped. A serpent made of fire attacks us at the camp and August is conveniently the only person that can stop it? That sounds suspicious."

"I mean, I guess there was the thing with the poster..." I trailed off. I didn't want to listen to Remus but I had to admit, he made a couple good points.

"What poster?" My twin asked.

"They've been everywhere." I told him playing with a pebble that was on the ground. "Someone, I'm guessing his foster dad, put missing posters up for Virgil all over. NYC, Columbus, even this park ranger station in North Carolina for some reason! Hold on,"

I got up and pulled the missing poster I saw earlier off of the bulletin board on the wall by the door. I held up the paper for my twin to see.

"Virgil Morgenstern?" He read aloud. "Is that his real name or something?"

"I have no idea. Whenever he sees one he either rips it off whatever it's hanging on or tears it into pieces." I sighed. "I tried to ask him about it when we first saw it but he made me drop it."

"Well," Remus said with an unfamiliar look in his eyes. "I think you need to find out whatever this 'big secret' is. How can you fight along side someone you don't trust?"

"I know, you're right." I relented.

"Listen, you can't let your feelings for him get in the way." He warned. "If I'm right and he does have something to do with these attacks and Pattons kidnapping, then you, Logan and Patton could all be in danger."

I looked down at the poster in my hand, then folded it and put it in my backpack.

"I know. I'll get to the bottom of this." I said, determined. "I'll tell you if I find anything out."

My brother nodded in approval.

"Good. I'll hold down the fort here and I'll send you an Iris-Message if anything big happens." Remus smiled, his previous serious demeanour forgotten.

"Got it." I smiled back. "See ya!"

He waved goodbye and I waved my hand through the image, ending the call. Once the image disappeared, my smile fell.

"Virgil," I said to myself. "You and I are going to have to have a talk."

AN- All comments are read and appreciated <3

Hello everybody!

I'm not too proud of this chapter...I've been planning the Aletheia plot point for a while but I really don't think I wrote this very well.

But if you guys like it, that's the important thing.

IMPORTANT- There is something wrong with the #LimitsFic tag on TikTok where I can't see any of the videos you guys make with that hashtag. So from now on if you're posting a video using the tag you'll have to also tag my TikTok account (if you've already posted videos in the tag and I haven't seen them, tag me in the comments)

Thanks!

Fun fact: Roman's favourite musical is Legally Blonde, Virgils is Hamilton, and Patton and Logans is The Phantom Of The Opera

Hope you enjoyed :)