"Helios!"
Circe's voice rang through the room sharply, cutting through the sound of Helios' uneven breathing.
Helios slowly looked up from where he stood surrounded by shattered glass, his bloodied hand trembling faintly at his side.
Sweat clung to his face, his hair disheveled, his chest still rising too fast.
"Mother…"
Relief hit him almost instantly.
A horrible, desperate kind of relief.
Because no matter what changed around him, no matter how badly things spiraled—
This hadn't changed.
His mother was still here.
"When I was told you needed me, I thought you just missed your mother, but oh…my baby…"
Circe hurried toward him immediately, the sharp clicking of her heels against the floor echoing through the ruined chamber before she dropped gracefully to her knees in front of him without hesitation, uncaring of the shattered glass around them.
Then she pulled him into her arms.
It was familiar.
It was still warm.
And Helios still felt safe.
