I grabbed at Ayana, I tried to stop her, I swear! But I couldn't, and I watched helplessly as she dove into the water after Aika.

"Ayana!" I called after her. I would've dove into to the water after her, but Narcissus held me back. Ayana didn't know that this was Mirror's Edge lake, named because from the surface it looked crystal clear, but when you came to the mirror's edge, it dropped off into hundreds of feet of thick mud that she would never be able to get out of.

"Ayana! Aika!" I screamed hysterically.

"Shh. Shhh, it's ok," Narcissus cooed. "They'll be fine."

I pushed him away in anger. "How could you hold me back? They might die!" I yelled at him.

He lowered his head, but then he looked back up at me with his calming green eyes. "I'm sorry. But if I had let you go, you might've died, and I can't let you go yet, not after I just found you." He lowered his head again. "My whole life I've been a hunter, on the move, never settling down. My family only ever wanted me because of my income and the only reason girls ever liked me was because of my face. But then I met you, and you were different. You made me feel important, like I mattered. I know it's selfish of me, but I'm not ready to lose you yet."

I gasped softly as he moved forward and put his lips on mine. Aika and Ayana quickly faded from my mind as I was caught up in the magic of the kiss.

He quickly stepped back, "I'm sorry, I shouldn't have done that."

"Yes, you should've," I whispered and pulled him closer as we began kissing again.

But we were abruptly interrupted when Ayana broke the surface and deposited Aika on the bank. She gave us an odd look before collapsing too.

"Oh my gods!" I shouted, breaking off the kiss and running toward them.

"Wait! We were kissing. What are you doing?" Narcissus called after me.

"Are you serious?" I asked, looking back at him, "my friends are hurt, we need to get them back to the immortal realm."

"Umm, sorry can't help you there, I'm mortal."

"Well I guess I'll see you later then."

He looked slightly abashed, but he turned and started walking back to the town.

I sighed, now I had to deal with how I was going to get two fully grown nymphs transported to the immortal realm.

To get from the immortal realm to the mortal realm, there's a door on Olympus and all you have to do is open it and walk through. Getting back to the immortal realm is a bit more complicated. You have to prick your finger and draw blood with Adamantite, usually we're with Zeus and he always Adamantite on hand.

My eyes landed on Aika's hair whip thingies. "Brilliant," I whispered to myself. I walked over and took one of the shards from her hair, I tried to prick her finger with it, but it glanced harmlessly off her skin. I rolled my eyes, of course, she had been fighting mortals, her hair whips would be on the adamantine setting.

I cleared my throat and did my best Aika impression, "Amoibe." But not to my surprise nothing changed. I groaned now I was right back where I started.

"Aika! Aika! Wake up!" I said shaking her.

Her eyelids slowly fluttered open and she looked at me with groggy eyes. "What?"

"Say, Amoibe."

"Amoibe?"

Instantly her hair shimmered and the whips changed from the dull mortal metal to celestial Adamantite. "Thank you," I said, quite satisfied with myself.

"Huh?" But before I had time to explain, she was passed out again.

I sighed and pricked her finger and then Ayana's and lastly mine. We were caught up in a swirl of light, and we began moving and faster and faster through the mortal realm. Suddenly there was a *pop* and we landed in Aika's meadow.

I positioned them comfortably and draped a blanket over them both, before retiring to my meadow to get some well needed sleep.

************************
I sat in the breakfast pavilion the next morning, telling a story to a group of nymphs, when I saw Aika and Ayana enter the pavilion. I hastily got up to go see them, but the nymphs protested and demanded an end to the story.

"And they all died, the end," I said as I walked over to see my friends. I was about to make a joke about the lake and they're near death experience, but their serious expressions made me bite my tongue.

"Echo we need to talk to you," Aika said seriously.

This made me really nervous, because Aika is never serious.

"What about?"

They looked at each other and Ayana nodded at Aika.

Aika looked at me hesitantly, "Narcissus."

I blinked, "What about Narcissus?"

"He's bad news! He made a move on me while you were off with Aika, and Aika says she sensed something when he touched her hand," Ayana said.

"It's true," Aika nodded, "he has a bad aura, he's not who he says he is. His soul is empty," she said, shuddering.

I looked at them with disbelief. "I thought you guys would be happy for me. I found love! But instead you're jealous, I thought you were better than that, I didn't expect you to be so selfish," I said angrily.

"Echo we're not being selfish! We're worried about you, Narcissus doesn't love you! You need to stay away from him!" Aika said.

I snorted, "Now that is some rich relationship advice coming from the girl who has a different guy in her bed every other night."

"Hey!" Ayana shouted. "You don't get to talk to her like that."

"Oh I'm sorry, I didn't realize there was a rule against throwing shade at your sluttiest friend," I said, sarcastically.

"You can't deal with the fact that the the first person to actually like you is just using you, so you're coming at me. So I'm sorry if this is a struggle for you, but don't you dare try to pin your insecurities on me, I know who I am," Aika said, lashing out.

I turned and stormed off, "I'm starting to think Hera's a better friend than you two are!" I yelled at them.

"Oh please, miss tight-ass stone-cold bitch is a better friend than we are?" Aika shouted after me.

I ignored her and just kept walking until I finally came to Olympus' gates. I had work today. I slowly climbed the stairs and nodded at the guards who were now accustomed to seeing me here.

I walked into Hera's room and barely noticed her warm greeting. I couldn't focus on my story, because Aika's words were echoing through my head.

"Echo, are you ok?" Hera asked, pulling me out of my daze.

"I'm fine," I said. "But it's a bit stuffy in here, why don't we go out, I know a place I think you'd like."

"Ok. Why not?"

*3 minutes later*

"Nope, not doing it. There's no way you are going to get me down there."

I sighed, as soon as Hera realized I wanted to take her to the mortal realm, she became more stubborn than a mule.

"Please."

"Hmmm, no."

"Come on, I promise, it will literally be so fun."

"I'm sure."

"Oh no! There's a force dragging me towards the door!" I said melodramatically, as I pretended like I was being pulled through the door. "Hera, save me!"

She looked at me, unimpressed.

"Aaaaah!" I screamed, as I jumped through the door." I landed softly on a forest floor. Now she better come, otherwise I'm stuck here.

Sure enough, a few seconds later, there was a shimmering and Hera appeared beside me. "This is the stupidest thing I've ever been peer pressured into doing," she said in irritation.

I laughed, "But it'll be so much fun."

Hera groaned, "I have a headache."

I rolled my eyes and grabbed her arm, "let's go," I said, dragging her through the forest.

We walked through the woods for sometime, and Hera proved herself wrong as she basked in the beauty of the forest.

We kept going until we came to a cliff edge that dropped off into the ocean. Now if any of you have been paying attention so far, you know exactly what I'm going to do.

"Geronimo!" I screamed, as I threw myself off the cliff and plunged down into the water below. I gotta say, the look of horror on Hera's face was priceless.

As I soon as I splashed into the cool water, I looked up to see if Hera was going to jump off too. She looked like she was estimating how far down it was and the odds that she would land comfortably.

"Jump!" I shouted up at her. She made a face and timidly stepped off the edge. Does the fact that I was laughing as she screamed on her way down make me a bad nymph?

She splashed into the water beside me and surfaced quickly. "Ugh! I am never coming out with you again," she said flicking water at me.

I laughed, "Admit it, that was fun."

She lowered her voice and glanced around quickly, "Ok, maybe a little bit."

We both started laughing as we kicked around in the crystal-clear salt water. Since we can both breathe underwater, we dove down to explored coral reefs and make friends with dolphins.

But eventually we got bored of the water, and began swimming to the beach. As soon as we were on dry land our hair and clothes instantly dried.

"You know I've never really been around the mortal realm before, I want to go see a town."

"Ok," I agreed, "there's one near here."

We walked a couple miles until we came to the small town of Kaoka. It was fun shopping with Hera and we bought lunch at the market.

The rest of the day we spent wandering around and sight-seeing. It was about 5 o'clock and the sun was staring to set.

"We should probably head back soon," Hera said. "Do you want to get a drink before we go back? I've always been interested in trying mortal wine."

"Sure, but I promise you, it is nothing compared to your green tea."

She laughed and smiled at me.

We walked into the tavern and I ordered some wine, but when I turned around to ask Hera what she wanted, she was gone.

I found her, screaming her lungs off at Zeus, who had, by some stroke of horrible luck, come to the same tavern as us.

"You son of a bitch!" she screamed. She flicked her wrist and the girl Zeus was flirting with dissolved into a pile of ash.

Zeus turned and saw me in the crowd, "You were supposed to distract her!" He shouted at me.

Hera froze. I froze. The entire tavern froze. The silence was deafening as Hera slowly turned around and locked eyes with me. I could see the hurt in her eyes and the question reflected in them, How could you do this to me? She looked pained and betrayed, and there had never been a moment in my life when I felt worse.

I opened my mouth to say something, anything. But her body went rigid and the hurt in her eyes disappeared and was replaced with the same stony look she had when I first met her. I watched in horror as her face hardened and the humanity left her body. She reached up her hand and snapped her fingers.

I was caught up in a whirlwind of light and suddenly I was standing next to Zeus in the throne room on Mount Olympus.

My entire body trembled when Hera looked at me. She was sitting in her throne, her look was deadly and her eyes held a rage like I'd never seen before.

"Echo, you are charged with deceiving and lying to a goddess. Do you have anything to say?" Her icy voice cut through the silence and put goose bumps on my arms.

I knew, nothing I could ever say would heal what I had done. There was no point in begging for mercy, the woman sitting on the throne was not my friend, Hera was gone, instead I was faced with the Queen of Heaven, and I knew she would show me no mercy.

So I turned to my last hope, Zeus. "You promised me that if this happened, you would protect me."

"Zeus, did you make such a promise? Hera asked turning to Zeus and staring him down.

"Umm, well it's complicated, and it's all very foggy, so umm—"

"Did you or did you not?" Hera asked, done with his ramblings.

"I did not," he mumbled.

"You son of a bitch!" I yelled. "You swore it to me! You swore it to me on the river Styx!" I screamed.

"Guards! Please restrain this hysterical imposter," Hera ordered.

Two guards grabbed me and twisted my arms behind my back painfully.

"No." I said, sobbing, "please, I never meant to hurt you."

"You are hereby found guilty of both crimes, and I have just the sentence for you," she said with a cruel smirk. "The gift you used to deceive me will be yours no longer. You can no longer speak, but if somebody says something, even if you wish to remain silent, you will be forced to repeat what they have said. The only time you will ever be able to speak for yourself is in a moment of true rage. In time you will become devoid of everything that gave you personality and you will simply be a ringing echo of those around you."

I opened my mouth to beg for mercy, but no words came out, panic flooded through me and I thrashed trying to escape the guards grips. Tears streamed down my face, but I couldn't scream or cry. Horror filled me as I finally realized what had happened, she had taken away the thing that made me, me, my voice.

She laughed sadistically as she watched me struggle and try to form words. "Poor Echo, can't tell stories anymore."

"Poor Echo, can't tell stories anymore," I was forced to repeat, and it only made my tears come faster.

"You will never return to Olympus again," Hera ordered, and I repeated it. "Ok that's annoying," she said.

"Ok that's annoying," I repeated.

She grabbed one of the guards swords and hit me over the head with the hilt. "Now get her out of here," she ordered.

"Now get her out of here," I mumbled from my state of half consciousness.

The guards grabbed my arms and dragged me down the steps out of Olympus. Black spots were dancing at the sides of my vision and my head was pounding from the sword, my last thought before I slipped off into darkness was, this can't be happening to me.

[Thank you so much for reading! This chapter was pretty intense, tell me what you think about Hera now. Remember to vote!]