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Every day, Annabeth looked around and questioned how she got here. Sometimes she thought back to the first time she arrived at Camp Half-Blood, blindly following a younger Grover and grabbing Luke’s hand as they screamed for Thalia.
But that was long behind her. She reached out and squeezed Jason’s hand.
He looked down at her, brow furrowed in concern. “What’s wrong?” he asked. “You alright?”
She nodded and moved to rest her head on his shoulder. From their spot on the sofa, they watched Percy reach into the fridge for the drinks
“Just thinking,” she said. “You might not get it, you’ve always had New Rome and adults around you. We didn’t. I just never thought I’d make it this far.”
That was why she’d always wanted to build something grand, something that’d last, tall and beautiful and eternal.
Jason kissed the top of her head. “But you’re here,” he said. “We’re here. Together.”
She squeezed his hand again. “Yeah,” she said. She looked up at him. “I’m excited to tell everyone.”
He smiled, bright and perfect as always. “I am too.”
“They already know,” Percy called out, grinning just as wide. “We all know it. I don’t think it’s possible to keep secrets here.”
She threw her head back and laughed. “That’s because someone couldn’t keep their hands to themselves,” she said, elbowing Jason in the side. “Do you know how many people I had pull me aside to tell me you might be cheating on me? At first I thought the girl in my group project was just trying to get between us, but the third time was a bit too much.”
Percy shook his head, laughing.
Jason brought her closer against his side. “Can you blame me?”
She smiled up at him. “Never.”
No matter how shocking waking up felt each day, she knew she had her boys. No matter what challenges came their way, she was prepared.
—
A couple hours later, she stood up and walked to the front of the room, pulling Jason and Percy with her.
Leo’s eyes sparkled, and she saw Jason mouth what was surely an insult out of the corner of her eye. Percy stood silently, looking over the room.
“Hey guys!” she called out. “We have an announcement!”
“You’re pregnant!” Leo cackled.
Frank slapped his hand over Leo’s mouth. “You’ve decided to take over the world!”
Piper smiled wide, laughing. Annabeth was certain she already knew; though whether that was due to her mother or Jason’s inability to keep anything from Piper, she didn’t know. Not that it mattered.
She looked between Percy and Jason and then back to the others. It was just the Seven, Nico, Will, and Reyna. People they loved; the people Percy was comfortable around. Her eyes landed on Frank, strong and solid as always.
“We’re together,” she said, holding her chin up high. “The three of us. Thought you should know.”
The room was silent for a moment. Percy squeezed her hand and both him and Jason stepped closer, daring the others to say something.
It was Leo who spoke first, because of course it was.
“Knew it!” he cried, raising his glass. “I told you! I was right! I don’t know why any of you doubted me!”
Jason laughed, and it was like a dam breaking. Percy let go of her hand to wrap an arm around her waist and hid his face in her curls.
“And that doesn’t mean you’re not pregnant!” he added. “I’ll be a great uncle. C’mon, tell me!”
Piper got up off the couch to wrap her hands around the three of them, pressing a kiss to Annabeth’s cheek. “I’m so happy for you,” she said. “If anyone deserves it, it’s you three.”
Annabeth smiled back at her, feeling a bit of tension fall from her shoulders. She hadn’t been nervous, but there was something to say about not having to hide something so important. Not that they’d ever been hiding, exactly, but it hadn’t felt the same.
And so the night went on.
Not much changed, but she didn’t have to stop herself from reaching for Jason’s hand, didn’t have to keep an eye out for Jason and Percy getting distracted by each other. It was nice, simple but freeing, and she definitely let Reyna and Nico talk her into too many celebratory shots.
Far too many celebratory shots. She was still functional, by all means, but she sank into the sofa at Hazel’s side with much louder a sigh than she ever would when sober.
Hazel just raised a brow and sipped at her own drink. “So?” she said. “Percy and Jason? You never were one to settle.”
Annabeth snorted. “That’s one way to put it.”
“Have you ever?” Hazel asked.
She sat back, thinking about it. Her fingers tapped a steady rhythm on the armrest. She looked around, everyone here was happy, more comfortable with each other than with anyone else. But she knew she didn’t imagine the tension that even now was present in everyone. Some things left their mark, and they had all seen too much.
Annabeth had seen too much before she even got to camp.
“I don’t know if it was settling,” she said, after a moment, thinking back. “But I think about what I could have done better. With Luke.”
Hazel blinked. “Luke?”
Annabeth nodded. “I miss him sometimes,” she said. “Who he used to be, who he could have been. He died a hero.”
Hazel had questions, but Annabeth didn’t think she wanted to answer them. She searched until her eyes landed on Percy, laughing at something Piper said. She waited for him to look her way before holding out her hand.
Within moments, he was in front of her. “Ready for bed?”
“Yeah,” she said. “I think so. Do you think Jason will be okay?”
Percy smiled. “I’m sure he will, come on.”
—
No one stayed long after Percy took Annabeth to bed. Percy came back out, but it was obvious he wanted to be curled up in Annabeth’s arms; the boy’s face showed emotion like no one else.
Reyna wrapped her arm around Hazel’s waist, pulling her close as they made their way back to their apartments. The night was a bit chilly, which gave her the perfect excuse to hold Hazel steady without suspicion given neither of them were wearing jackets.
Maybe she should say something about the few too many drinks that Hazel had, but Hazel was Roman to the core and this came with the territory. Besides, even a Praetor deserved to relax.
“Did you know Luke?” Hazel asked, suddenly.
“Luke?” she asked, turning to look down at Hazel. “Who’s that?”
“That’s a no then,” Hazel sighed. “And I think he was involved with the Titans, before Jason was taken.”
Reyna hummed. She felt a prickle under her skin where Hazel was pressed against her. She ignored it.
“Where’s Frank?”
She laughed. “He’s taking Leo home,” she answered. “He thought it’d be a good idea to try keeping up in a drinking game with Jason and Piper. You know how that goes.”
Hazel furrowed her brows. “I guess,” she said. Another shiver ran down Reyna’s spine. “Nico wants to teach me more about my powers.”
“Oh?” Reyna asked. She wasn’t sure how she felt about that. Power was to be respected, and she trusted Hazel. She even regarded Nico somewhat fondly, but there was only so much death she needed in her life…
“He says I could bring people back as ghosts, but he’s the ghost king,” Hazel said. “Whatever that means. It makes me think of old stories, from when I was a kid. Res—what’s the word? Bringing people back from the dead?”
“Resurrection.”
She did her best to ignore the shimmer out of the corner of her eye. The jewels and precious metals Hazel summoned didn’t hurt anyone anymore, but she hadn’t gotten this far without taking care.
“That!” Hazel said, face brightening. She stumbled on the next brick and Reyna tightened her hold. “Annabeth misses Luke sometimes.”
Reyna hummed.
“She told me,” Hazel said, nodding. “Do you think she’d want Luke back. Maybe I’ll get her Luke back. For Christmas.”
She didn’t have the whole story, but between Jason’s sharp glares and her own suspicions of anyone dead and associated with the Titans, she didn’t have a good feeling about that.
“Maybe not,” she said. “Talk to Annabeth first. And practice. I think a demigod who’s been dead for years might be a bit too ambitious for a first attempt.”
Hazel shook her head. “But I’m Roman,” she insisted. “I’m ‘sposed to be ambitious.”
“You are,” Reyna agreed. “As am I. But maybe sleep this off first.”
Hazel frowned, but turned back ahead. “Don’t want to.”
Within moments, the air around them dropped several degrees and Reyna would swear she could see own breath in front of her. It was a bit chilly, yes, but they were in California.
“Hazel…”
“I—”
Hazel didn’t finish whatever she was trying to say before her eyes rolled back and she fell into Reyna’s arms.
Reyna prayed to every God she could think of that this was a fluke; Hazel tripped, or her blood sugar dropped and there was a sudden burst of wind. Maybe Hazel was one of those people who the alcohol hit all at once. There were countless explanations and not a single one of them held water.
Not when Reyna’s foot connected with something that could only be a body.
She froze.
“Hazel…”
It was no use.
The lighting wasn’t great, but she didn’t recognize the man lying across the path. And it was a man, blonde and handsome with a scar cutting across his face.
At her side, Hazel stirred.
“Oh,” Hazel moaned. “I just had the weirdest feeling. It was like I was three places at once, there were all these voices and then this tugging sensation and then nothing.”
Reyna was silent.
“Who’s that?” Hazel asked. “Is he okay?”
Countless possibilities were running through her head. “I don’t know…”
“Hey,” Hazel said, crouching down to the man’s side with a little stumble. “Are you awake?”
Lares gathered around them, whispering to each other and looking between Hazel and the new man. Reyna really didn’t like this.
The man groaned and opened his eyes. “Who are you?” he asked. “Where am I?”
Reyna stepped forward, pulling Hazel back. “No,” she said. “I think the question is: who are you?”
—
Annabeth tapped her pencil on the page of her notebook, re-reading the equation. She knew she’d dropped a sign somewhere. In the kitchen, Percy hummed to himself as he started to get things ready for dinner.
She jumped when someone knocked on the front door, immediately looking toward Percy and reaching for the knife she didn’t have. Percy reached for the knife block and nodded his head. They were in New Rome; it was probably nothing, but some instincts ran too deep.
She opened the door to find Reyna and Hazel, both looking like they hadn’t slept in a week.
“What’s up?” she asked. “Is something wrong?”
Hazel opened her mouth, but Reyna beat her to the chase. “I don’t even know where to begin,” she said. “It’s something you have to see to believe.”
Annabeth crossed her arms over her chest. “Right,” she said. “Try me.”
Hazel reached her arm out to the side. “I’m sorry,” she said. “I want to say that first. It was an accident.”
“What was?”
Hazel pulled whatever was to the side over.
Annabeth very much wished she hadn’t.
It was Luke. It had to be Luke. There was no one else who could look at her with those eyes out of that face and have such a unique look of awe, fear, and familiar determination. Those were the same eyes that comforted her as a child, the same eyes that had pleaded with her. She’d never forget them; how could she when they haunted her day and night? Luke was supposed to be her hero, and he’d left her behind.
And here he was, standing in front of her.
She was speechless. She didn’t like being speechless. She reached out to the doorframe and gripped it so hard she felt splinters digging under her fingernails.
She knew those eyes, but there was a new shine to them, an unnatural hollowness and depth. A shiver ran up her spine.
“Luke,” she breathed out, finally getting her lungs and voice to work. “I—how?”
He swallowed. “Annabeth,” he whispered, stretching his hand out. “I—”
The words fell flat.
“I don’t know what happened,” Reyna said. “Hazel did something, but it wasn’t on purpose.”
“Reyna was walking me home,” Hazel said. “And I was thinking about what you said, and then I felt funny and Nico was telling me he’d teach me how to raise the dead, and—”
“I don’t think this is what he meant,” Annabeth interrupted, never taking her eyes off Luke.. “I don’t think even Nico could do this.”
To her credit, Hazel’s regret overshadowed her pride. “I don’t know,” she said. “It feels wrong, but I don’t think it was just me. There was something else, pushing him almost. I don’t know.”
“It feels wrong because it is wrong,” Annabeth bit out, still not looking away from Luke. “Take him back.”
“They already tried,” Luke answered. His voice felt like a punch to the gut. He lifted his shirt to reveal a wound on his abdomen. It wasn’t bleeding, but she could see torn skin. “Reyna stabbed me.”
“More than once,” Reyna interjected, which explained the size of it. “He won’t die.”
Annabeth sucked in a breath and looked back up to Luke’s eyes. There was no flash of gold, but what did that really mean?
“Is everything okay?” Percy called from the kitchen. She knew he didn’t have the best view. If he did, he’d be standing in front of her with a chef’s knife embedded deep in Luke’s chest. “Hazel? Reyna?”
She wouldn’t lie to him, couldn’t.
“You’ll have to come here,” she called back. “I don’t think we can explain it.”
Annabeth took in a deep breath and counted down. Luke’s expression didn’t change. Maybe it couldn’t.
She felt Percy freeze behind her.
“What is this?” he asked, voice hard. Reyna’s eyes narrowed. “Explain. Now.”
“What does it look like?” Reyna asked. “Obviously—”
“Obviously someone is pretending to be someone that’s dead in a poor excuse for a prank,” Percy cut in. “Or there’s something extremely fucked up happening and I need to be concerned. So let me repeat myself: Explain. Now.”
There was something in the air that spoke to an oncoming storm and Annabeth knew she wasn’t the only one that noticed. Percy had only gotten more powerful with age and experience.
“They don’t know,” she answered, reaching back to tangle her fingers with Percy’s. “Hazel did something, but it wasn’t just her. She said something pushed him. Reyna stabbed him. He can’t die.”
“Yet,” Percy bit out. “We can try a few things.”
“Percy…”
He squeezed her head. “Fine,” he said. “Bring him inside. I’d rather keep an eye on him.”
Reyna and Hazel nodded, and in the next moment Luke was on the sofa while the four of them stood around him in a half-circle.
Luke sat as still as a statue, palms resting on his thighs.
It wasn’t like him. Luke had always been vibrant, full of life and hope, even when it became twisted.
Percy crossed his arms over his chest and frowned. “This is beyond us,” he said. “I hate to say it, but we need help.”
Annabeth gave him a weary look. “Are you sure?”
“No,” he sighed. “But maybe it’s like a 24 hour bug and we just have to wait it out.” He turned to Luke, eyes burning. “You’re unarmed?”
Luke nodded. He had to be, to be within city limits.
Percy turned to Reyna. “Have you told anyone?”
“No,” she said, shaking her head. “I watched him all night but knew we needed to tell you first. He barely moved, has barely spoken aside from asking us who were are and telling us his name.”
“Right,” Percy said, nodding. “Go home. We’ll wait for Jason and decide from there. Hazel, see if you can get in touch with Nico. Ask him to come as soon as he can.”
“Are you sure?” Hazel asked, shooting Percy a worried look. “This is my fault.”
He sighed, and Annabeth took a step forward to wrap an arm around his waist. It was to comfort her as much as it was him.
“You never knew him,” he said. “It makes sense he stays with us.”
—
It was like seeing a ghost, but Percy had seen ghosts with more life than whatever put Luke Castellan in front of him. Annabeth had a meeting, leaving him to deal with Luke alone until Jason came home.
“How long has it been?” Luke asked, voice a bit crackly from disuse. “Since—”
“Since you killed yourself?” Percy interrupted.
Luke snapped his jaw shut. “Yes,” he said, after a moment. “After I died.”
Percy set the plate he was washing down. “Less than you think, probably,” he said. “Only a few years.”
“Right.”
Percy went back to washing the plate.
“So you and Annabeth?” Luke asked. “I’d always wondered, you know. Annabeth was always so—”
“Be very careful with your next words,” Percy bit out. “I have a bit more experience than Reyna with things that aren’t supposed to die.”
Luke nodded.
Percy gave up on the dishes, instead moving back into the living room and sitting down on a chair. This felt like a dream. Luke’s death haunted him still, and he knew it haunted Annabeth. Even now he wondered about what Luke could have been, about what would have happened if he’d made a single different choice.
War had taken its toll on all of them, and he recognized the empty look in Luke’s eyes. It was the same one he saw every day in the mirror.
“Annabeth loved me, you know,” Luke said, looking straight ahead with his hands still resting on his lap. “Does she still?”
Percy fought the instinctual wince. “You helped raise her,” he said, forcing the words out. “Nothing will change that.”
Luke nodded. It didn’t take a genius to know it wasn’t what he wanted to hear. “Take care of her,” he said. “Please. Not for me, but…”
“Trust me,” Percy said. “You don’t have to worry about that.”
He didn’t like the silence, but he didn’t want to fill it either.
“What is this place?” Luke asked, eyes darting from side to side. “The girls that brought me here, they were Demigods. They talked about a Legion?”
Percy froze. The idea of explaining New Rome to Luke was…terrifying. Wasn’t this what Luke had wanted? In his own way? Sure, he went about it wrong, but if seeing generations of Demigods and legacies had nearly broken him?
He took in a sharp breath.
“New Rome,” he said. “It’s not just the Greeks who are still around.”
“Annabeth mentioned college.”
Luke’s tone was cool, even. Terrifying.
Percy nodded. “Yes,” he said. “New Rome University.”
“New Rome University,” Luke repeated, brows furrowed. “Their demigods live that long?”
“Yes.” Percy looked outside. He didn’t want to see the expression on Luke’s face. This conversation was bringing too much to the surface. “Demigods and Legacies.”
Luke couldn’t control temperature, but Percy swore the room dropped a few degrees. “Legacies?” Luke asked. “What are legacies?”
He crossed his arms over his chest. “Children of demigods,” he said. “Grandchildren, great-grandchildren.”
“Children…” Luke said. “They have children.”
“Yes,” Percy said, still not looking at Luke out of more than the corner of his eye. “And—”
“Stop. Talking,” Luke bit out. “Please.”
Percy didn’t owe Luke anything as far as he was concerned, but this much? This much he would give.
Of course, that was when Jason walked through the door.
Jason noticed him first, already smiling.
“Hey!” he said, walking toward him and setting his bag on the ground. “You’ll never believe what I’ve had to deal with today. Annabeth has her meeting tonight, right? Do you know when she’ll be back, there are a couple questions about the designs.”
Percy smiled when Jason reached for his hand, always happy to see his boyfriend.
“Annabeth should be back soon, I know she wanted to cut today’s short,” he said, looking toward Luke meaningfully.
Jason either didn’t notice or didn’t care, because he bent down to capture Percy’s lips in a kiss.
It was a routine, one Percy looked forward to. It didn’t matter if it was Annabeth or Jason walking through the door, he savored the domesticity.
He wasn’t supposed to have lived this long, and it was these moments that made each second feel less borrowed and more like something to enjoy.
None of that mattered. He and Jason had battle-honed Demigod reflexes, but it seemed that Luke—even this shadow of Luke that Hazel had brought back—hadn’t lost his touch. Before Percy had been the best, it’d been Luke. Neither of them were keen to forget it.
“How dare you?!” Luke shrieked, eyes wild and teeth pulled back. “After all she’s done for you?!”
Percy stood up and shoved Jason behind him.
It was a mistake. Even a half-second wasted was one too many in a fight.
Luke’s hands wrapped around his throat. A small part of his mind noticed that they were about the same height now.
“Is Annabeth not good enough for you?” Luke asked, squeezing. “Think you’re some big hero now? Too good for the Titans? Too good for me? Is that why you did what you did? Chiron used to mutter to himself, saying you were too much like your father. I never got it, you were a whelp of a thing, crying out for his mother. Is this what he meant? Is it?”
Percy clawed at Luke’s wrists. “No,” he got out, eyes scanning Luke’s face. He found nothing but hurt and confusion. He’d always been able to look through Luke’s anger. At one point it was out of hope, desperation. Now, well…recognition was for late night thoughts. “Let me down.”
He didn’t need to worry, not once Jason got his bearings and charged.
“What do you think you’re doing?” Jason growled, driving Luke forward. Percy fell onto his knees when Luke let himgo. “Who are you? What are you doing here?”
“I’m Luke Castellan,” Luke said, glaring up at Jason from where he was pinned up against the wall. “And I’m trying to figure out why in Tartarus Percy Jackson thinks he can go behind Annabeth’s back with you. Who are you, anyway? I don’t know you.”
“And I don’t know you,” Jason bit out, ducking his head closer. “But I know of you, and I don’t like you. Percy isn’t going behind anyone’s back, and certainly not Annabeth’s.”
Before Luke could answer, Jason grabbed hold of his collar and slammed him back. Hard.
Jason let go and Luke fell to the floor, unconscious, leaving only a crack in the wall where his head had been.
“So,” Jason said, turning around with a frown. “Care to explain?”
—
Annabeth got out of the meeting as fast as she could.
She heard Luke before she saw him and bit back a curse as she walked into the apartment.
Luke was tied up on a barstool, dark blue rope tied in sailors’ knots holding him in place.
“Annabeth!” Luke cried, turning to her with wide eyes. He seemed more energetic then before, more alive, but there was a frantic edge that had her remembering wounds that didn’t bleed and promises he’d made and broken. “You have to understand!”
“Understand what?” she asked, weary. She set her bag on the floor, never taking her eyes off of him. Jason and Percy’s back were to her, both standing in front of Luke with their arms crossed over their chests. “What happened? Why is he tied up?”
She walked around until she could see all three of them. Percy’s eyes were a storm and Jason didn’t look much better.
“He attacked Percy,” Jason said, frowning. “I knocked him out, but it didn’t last long. Stabbing didn’t take.”
Annabeth winced, but knew she wouldn’t be much better if someone went after Percy.
“Are you okay?”
Percy nodded. Her eyes focused in on the bruises around his throat and she felt a familiar, hot rage flicker up her spine.
“I see,” she whispered, exchanging a look with Jason.
“Why’d you attack him?” she asked Luke. “Were you waiting for me to leave?”
Luke, to his credit, seemed bewildered. Heartbroken, almost. “He betrayed you,” Luke said. She’d never heard this tone from him, he sounded like a confused child. “Kissed the other one without a thought for you. I couldn’t let him do that, you have to understand.”
She sighed and thought back to the first time someone had injured her at camp; it’d been an accident, but Luke had been on the warpath.
Suddenly, she had an idea.
“How much do you remember?” she asked.
Luke blinked, eyes shining. “I…don’t know,” he answered. “Everything, nothing. It’s flashes. Nothing makes sense. I can barely remember who you are, but I know I used to braid your hair and that I fought you and…”
She swallowed. The words stung, but she could handle it. She had to.
This wasn’t Luke in front of her. It couldn’t be. It was whatever remained of him. She’d hoped, prayed, that he’d found rest. And maybe he had, maybe he was ripped away and brought here.
“That’s it,” Percy said. “He can’t stay here.”
“Where can he go?” Jason asked, frowning deeper.
They all exchanged a look. Resignation warred with panic on Luke’s face. They all knew he couldn’t stay like this. He couldn’t stay living, if that was what they could call this.
“No,” Luke pleaded. “Maybe this is a second chance. Come on, please, help me.”
She shook her head, blinking bag tears. Luke didn’t beg. They couldn’t do this to him. He deserved rest.
Percy had always known what she needed from him, and no was no different. He dragged Luke out kicking and screaming.
“Nico should be here by now,” were Percy’s last words before he left. “I’ll be back.”
As soon as the door shut behind him, Annabeth turned and practically ran toward Jason, hiding her face against his chest. Jason’s arms came up around her and she melted into the embrace.
“He’s not the Luke you remember, is he?”
She shook her head. “No, not at all.”
He pressed a kiss to the top of her head. “I’m sorry.”
—
Hours later, he was lying on the couch with Annabeth on top of him, her head pillowed on his chest. Neither spoke, but sometimes words didn’t feel right. He could feel the thoughts buzzing in Annabeth’s brain, but he left her to them and offered what silent support he could.
Luke was terrifying in that soul-deep way he didn’t like to contemplate. He could fight a monster, and even Gods, Titans, and Giants had some sort of physicality to them. But Luke? He was real, Jason had certainly felt something under his hands. But the horror was in everything Luke wasn’t.
Annabeth and Percy didn’t speak poorly of Luke the one or two times they talked about him. There was a sense of understanding beneath it all. But that wasn’t what Jason saw; Jason had seen a scared, lost little boy.
The Luke he’d seen had been every feeling he’d been pushing deep, deep down since he was first left with Lupa. Showing weakness meant death, but sometimes strength was only surface level.
He squeezed Annabeth tighter. She was real, she could be a source of strength. He buried his face in her hair and breathed in deep.
Jason heard the door swing open and smelled the ozone that foreshadowed Percy’s dark moods.
He looked up. “Everything okay?”
Percy let out a shuddering breath. “Okay’s a word for it,” he said. “But it’s been taken care of.”
“Taken care of?” Annabeth asked, lifting her head.
Percy nodded, looking back behind him for a moment as he closed the door. “To quote Nico,” he said. “Dead things should stay dead.”
Jason extended one of his arms, and that was the only invitation Percy needed to join them. He welcomed the additional weight and warmth. Having both Annabeth and Percy in his arms like this soothed something deep in his chest.
“I love you guys,” Percy said, hiding his face. “So much.”
Jason pressed a kiss to the top of Percy’s head. “Love you too.”
Annabeth shifted a bit and pressed a kiss to Percy’s cheek. “As if I could ever stop loving you, seaweed brain.”
Percy hummed.
Jason squeezed them both tighter.
A few moments passed before one of Percy’s hands crept down under his shirt to trace along the muscles of his abdomen. Jason wasn’t surprised, Percy always liked the physical reassurance after something like this.
Jason liked it too. Sometimes it was enough to hold them, enough to provide an anchor and keep him from floating away like the empty shell he sometimes felt like he was. Other times he wanted something more.
Now was a time he wanted more.
Percy’s hand moved lower and Jason pushed into it while grabbing the side of Annabeth’s neck to pull her in for a deep kiss.
No matter what, they had each other.
—
Luke was gone. Again. He’d been gone for about a week now. Nothing more than an unwanted reminder of what she’d once been and what she’d lost. It’d haunt her; one more thing to add to the list.
Despite how it made the word feel like it had tilted on its axis, Luke’s reappearance hadn’t made a difference. So few had known about it in the first place, and it made it easier to pretend it was all a bad dream.
Or it was until Reyna cornered her.
“I never got the full story,” Reyna said, falling into step beside her the moment Annabeth walked out of class. “About Luke. Hazel and I had him for almost a day, and the only thing he seemed to care about was seeing if you were okay once he got settled.”
“Settled,” Annabeth said, snorting. “I don’t think Luke had ever been settled.”
Reyna hummed, giving her a knowing look. “What was he to you?”
“What wasn’t he?” Annabeth asked instead. “It’s complicated.”
“We’re Demigods,” Reyna shot back. “Most things are.
She sighed. “Yeah, you’re right.”
Reyna hummed.
“It doesn’t matter what Luke was, or wasn’t,” she said after a moment. “He’s dead. Whatever you met, that wasn’t Luke. That was whatever’s left of him, maybe in our memories or maybe death isn’t so clear cut; we all remember the mess with the Doors.”
“You want to pretend it didn’t happen.”
“I do,” she admitted. “I can’t, but I do. Iit doesn’t change anything.”
Reyna shrugged. “It could have.”
“A lot of things could have happened,” Annabeth pointed out, quirking a brow. “There’s no wisdom in losing myself in what-ifs. For a long time I lived knowing each moment could be my last, I didn’t have time for them. And now I do and it’s been a tough lesson to learn to let them go. But I have to. I have to if I want to move on.”
“I think about moving on a lot too,” Reyna said, looking straight ahead. It was more revealing than Reyna usually allowed. “What am I supposed to do now? I’ve always kept moving forward, but what am I supposed to aim for?”
“Happiness,” she said. “I think that’s the answer.”
Reyna snorted. “That’s not very Roman of you.”
“Good thing I’m Greek then,” she said. She nudged Reyna’s shoulder with hers. “And considering how few people find it, I think striving for happiness is very ambitious.”
“Is that’s what’s left then?” Reyna asked. “The same as anyone else? Just wanting to be happy? Is that even in the cards?”
She shrugged. “Why not? We’ve lived more life than most mortals do in four times as long. We’ve earned this.”
“Is that really what you think?” Reyna asked. “You’ve built Olympus and you’re done?”
“Never,” Annabeth laughed. “But anything I do now? It’ll be for me, for Jason and Percy. Maybe we’ll build something like New Rome in New York. New Athens has a nice ring to it.”
She’d lost more than she could say, but she’d gained even more.
“New Athens?” Reyna asked. “Now that sounds like an idea. What are you thinking?”
She looked her arm through Reyna’s. “Come on,” she said. “I’ll tell you all about it over coffee. Jason and Percy are meeting me.”
