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Percy circled the table, tugging on his hair. "They've taken another troop of our soldiers, Annabeth. Frank almost died, and we lost—" His voice caught, thick with emotion. Having paced around the table twice, he settled near Annabeth and let her pull him into a hug.
"I miss Rachel too, Percy." Her voice was soft, like grief lay heavy on her tongue. "That's why we have to capture them. We can't let them run us around anymore."
"It's not safe! I can't— I can't risk our people like that, Annabeth. They're ours to protect, and I have to keep them safe." He'd bolted upright from her shoulder, eyes blazing blue-green, then thumped his head into his hands. "I've got to bring them back home. Besides, what are those empousai going to know anyways? We'd need them to send the big guns, and they never do."
Nico cleared his throat. "I mean... they'll only kill us slowly if we don't get the jump on them. We can't sustain all out war forever, and their monster army outnumber us by far. They regenerate, Percy."
Percy raised his head to wrinkle his nose at him, then scrunched up his whole face when Annabeth nodded. "Whose side are you two on?!"
"Nico's." "Annabeth's."
Percy wailed. His Princess and Advisor merely smirked at him, levity cutting through the solemnity that still thickened the room. It felt good to laugh, traitorous to Rachel's memory and so true to it too.
"Whose side are you on, my Prince?" Annabeth teased, pushing into Percy and laughing again when he flopped into her lap.
"This feels like a trap, Wise Girl," he complained.
Nico snorted, lips curled. "It is one," he added helpfully, "if you'll take my advice, don't take the bait."
Percy glared from his spot across Annabeth's lap, then bolted upwards, ignoring Annabeth's startled shriek. "Bait! A trap, we trap them. We've got to bait them here — be ready for them when they get here." He got up to start pacing again, re-energized. "The monsters are always one step ahead of us, so we have to play offensive if we want to capture intelligence. If they think we have something to lose, they'll stop wasting canon fodder on us and send someone important — someone with information. Someone worth capturing."
"Someone like Luke."
Annabeth's eyes were shining, and Nico had already pulled out a pen. "So, what do we have that they want?"
Percy turned to where Rachel's ashes lay, ready to be spread across the river. He didn't speak. He didn't have to.
They lost Rachel, but they still had the Oracle. And Kronos would spare nothing to get that. He hoped with his whole heart that she'd foreseen it — she deserved a victory in her name.
"I'll keep our home safe, Rachel. I promise."
Next to her urn, purple cards glimmered with gold. Percy reached for them, and — dyslexia be damned — started reading.