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The day Leo arrived with Calypso, trailing magical fireworks that colored the whole of the camp’s airspace, was the day Jason finally agreed to come back home.
“Leo’s here,” she said, still laughing, but her eyes finally dry. “He’s alive!”
Jason’s face broke into a grin. But Piper noticed there was little shock in his eyes as he said, “Really? How is he? Calypso’s with him?”
She nodded. “They’re both at the welcoming party right now. I only just got away.” She hugged herself, because it would have been stupid to hug an IM message. “Come,” she said.
“I’ll be there.”
Piper did not ask him if he’d be bringing along company. She wouldn’t have much liked either answer.
===
She did not really know him, the boy in the shadows, not before or after. Perhaps she should have tried to; relationship problems were supposed to be her forte. But most her life she was the girl who hid behind self-cut hair and ironically bad clothing, and she was not used to rescuing fellow refugees.
Still, she did pity him, in a detached, obligatory sort of way not unlike one would feel for a particularly unsightly stray, and she was glad when Jason didn’t abandon his efforts to be friends with Nico even after leaving the Argo II.
“The infirmary? Is he all right?” She asked, the day after the whole Gaea fiasco got taken care of, and Jason came back from visiting Nico in the infirmary.
“Yeah, the head medic says he’ll be okay in a few days. Just too much shadow travelling, and a werewolf scratch.”
Then Jason kissed her, and she thought no more of it until the next day, when Jason caught her in her cabin. His face was set, and showed more of the Roman Praetor than he had in months.
“I’m going to ask Chiron to let me out of camp,” he said.
She nodded, even before he told her why. Jason had that effect on people, he had a commanding aura about him that attracted the inner vulgus. “Take me with you,” she said.
Jason shook his head. “I’m sorry, but I have to go alone. There’s not much time left.”
“Time left for what?”
Jason held her hand, but he was already backing away. “The full moon.”
At the infirmary, she heard them even before she located the bed. The others were looking pointedly in other directions, pretending not to hear the shouting from behind the curtain.
“I still cannot believe you didn’t tell me it was Lycaon that maimed you.”
In a voice much colder, “What, I should have told you every little detail about every little thing that happened? How the fuck was I supposed to know that was important?”
“Forgive me that I actually care about what happens to you. Lycaon’s the first ever werewolf. He’s more contagious than the rest put together!”
“Well I thought it was only the bite that was-“
“Yes, you thought, and you were wrong, weren’t you. How little self-preservation do you have to have in order to-“
“Calm down,” she charmspoke, peeking past the curtain, a little mad that while her boyfriend was out there, risking his life for Nico, the two were squabbling like children over who was to fault.
Her magic worked, but the eyes of the two did not linger over her for long.
“I’m sorry,” Nico said, eyes dropping to the sheets on which he was sitting on.
“Don’t be,” Will said, staring at Nico’s dropped head with hollow devastation. “Just, don’t be.”
They were a foot apart, but Piper could not have felt her own intrusion more acutely had they been wrapped up in an embrace.
She let herself out. Whoever had said being able to sense love was a useful ability?
Despite the worry, however, there seemed not much doubt that Jason would come through. They had just stopped an apocalypse. This was manageable by comparison, and the campers were too busy soaking up the festive atmosphere to be much concerned about a kid whom they had never known or liked.
It was only two days after, during sunset that the possibility of failure hit her for real.
“He’s coming,” she said, reaching Will and Chiron at the porch of the Big House. “I saw him on Katoptris. He’s coming.”
“See?” Will said, turning towards Chiron, almost radiating relief. “Jason will be here with the Gorgon’s blood.”
“You do understand I was only considering the welfare of the other campers when I suggested Nico be removed out of the camp grounds.”
“And leave him to the monsters? I’ve been trying so hard to get through that thick head of his that he’s actually wanted here. No, if we do that, that’ll be the final straw. It’ll be the last rejection he’ll take. Besides, the basement is barricaded. He’s perfectly safe.”
Chiron said nothing, but looked towards inside of the door with the doubt of someone who’s seen a million times the luck of demigods.
The doubt was contagious. Piper waited with the two, fidgeting with her knife and watching the horizons over the hilltops. Percy and Annabeth came to check in, then left when they weren’t permitted entry into the basement. Campers rushed about for supper as the shadows lengthened and the smell of burnt meat wafted along the summer breeze. She watched them, and wondered if they all knew what was happening, or if they just didn’t care. She would find her disapproval to be, in hindsight, conceited. She did not know it then, but her apprehension was focused on the possibility of Jason’s failure, rather than the fate of the boy downstairs whom she’d barely crossed words with.
She watched the moon rise, a vague thumbprint in a light-blue sky. By the time it had darkened enough to see its yellow outline in full contrast, it was already a quarter across the sky.
“Do you hear something?” She said.
“What?” Will said quickly.
But there was nothing when the three fell silent, listening.
“Do you think he’s changed?” She asked, voicing the question they were all thinking of.
Then they all felt the vibrations of something slamming at the walls. In pain, or for release, it was impossible to tell.
“It’s not too late,” Will said.
Chiron did not answer, but Will said, “We’ll still save him.”
“Wait,” Chiron said, “I do hear something.”
There was the sound of wind, unnaturally loud against the calmness of a clear summer night, almost like the neighing of a horse.
“Tempest!” Piper said, springing up. She ran down the stairs to see Jason jumping down from a mass of winds. He hit the ground running, and didn’t stop. “Where is he?” He shouted towards her.
Piper wordlessly pointed. Jason sped by her, and she saw a gaunt face, a ripped shirt, and scar ridden arms as he did so.
“You have it?” Will asked. Jason pulled out a vial from his pocket, and giving it to Will, held his knees and gasped, trying to find his breath.
Will ran inside. Piper saw Chiron’s eyes opening wide. He tried to grab Will, but his height cumbered him, and the screaming soon started.
Over the course of a year Piper had seen many forms of violence.
She had never appreciated the fact that monsters dispersed in bursts of dust, but she did now. The porch was splattered red, and she saw something like a small log hitting the floor before she realized what it was and turned away.
Other campers, attracted by the sound of screaming, no doubt, was starting to collect around her. All of their attention were focused on the shadow stepping over Will’s prone body.
It was smaller than she’d have expected; she was now too used to oversized monsters and giants by now. But the wolf was just that, a wolf, bigger than the average hunting dog by a mere miniscule. Its pelt was dark grey, the coloring on its back darker, almost black, while its muzzle was stained a vibrant red.
She watched it, transfixed, until its eyes met hers, wild, scared, and dangerous. She took an alarmed step backwards, and stumbled over her own feet.
The wolf was prowling towards her, and Piper realized with a jolt that she was the closest to it. She was still watching the wolf, and the wolf her, and the two yellow eyes, seemed to expand, waxing like the moon itself.
She tore her eyes away from the wolf, and she saw why it was approaching her. The campers had surrounded the Big House, sparsely caging it in, and she was the weakest link of the semi-circle.
A carnal growl emanated from the creature before her, and she looked back at it, unable to move, unsure if she should run or stay still. Its hackles were risen and its teeth bared.
The wolf took another threatening step towards her, and she saw, behind it, Clarisse aiming her spear.
“No!”
An arrow hit the ground, only a few inches from her feet. Piper looked at the direction it had come from, and saw Jason pushing aside Chiron’s arm, which held the bow.
“No,” Jason said strongly, addressing the rest of them.
The wolf was looking at Jason now, who started to slowly circle around towards her. He met the wolf’s eyes unblinkingly, and his posture was straight, confident, while his hands were held out, the palms facing the wolf. Jason reached her, and standing in front of her, pushed her sidewise out of the way. Piper stumbled towards the other campers, feeling small and useless, but more overwhelmingly, relieved.
Jason clapped, drawing the wolf’s attention to him, then backed away. But of course, Piper realized, Jason had been brought up with wolves. He’d learnt to fight and win over them through something like sibling interaction.
Whatever experience he drew from, it worked, and Piper and the rest of camp watched as Jason slowly led the wolf the way up the hill towards the forest and into the shadows.
===
She met Jason’s worn out face two days after.
“When are you coming back?” she asked.
Jason looked ten years older, his face sunken. Nevertheless there was a glint in his eyes that was akin to battle fever.
“I can’t,” he said. His voice was hoarse, as if he’d spent the previous nights shouting commands.
“Why? He’s human now, isn’t he?”
Jason looked back towards something out of the IM view. Piper could see trees behind him, but Jason had told her it wasn’t the woods of Halfblood Hill, it was somewhere much more out of the way.
“Yes,” he said, lowering his voice. He hesitated. “I think… he tried to kill himself.”
“Oh.” Piper could say nothing to that. She would not beg for attention like a pampered child. “What do you mean, think?”
Jason shook his head, then looked over his back again. “Look, I gotta go. I have to watch over him.”
She nodded, then opened her mouth to tell him to call back. But the IM was already over.
===
People tended to underestimate Aphrodite’s children. Actually, they tended to underestimate intuition itself.
She might have missed it as well. The farewell party for the summer was concentrated on Percy and Annabeth, their greatest heroes, and hope and good tidings were nearly tangible in the air. There was, however, a sense of profound melancholy that jarred it out of place.
She navigated around the crowds, until she located the source.
She waited a bit until Will had finished hugging all his numerous siblings to approach him. “You’re not coming back, are you?” she asked quietly.
Will frowned. “How did you know? Did Lou tell you?”
She shook her head. “I felt it,” she said simply.
Will studied her for a second, then sighed. “Don’t tell the Apollo kids, okay? Nothing’s been decided for certain. I think I might pop back in to see them during the holidays, at least.”
“But you’re not coming back as a camper.”
“No.”
“But…” Piper paused, trying to get her bearings. There was nothing between them but one-dimensional comradeship. “Why not?”
Will smiled. She could tell he tried hard to make it not a bitter one. “You guys don’t need me here. Not anymore.”
He held up his hands for show, and for a second she saw the Mist waver, revealing a left hand of bronze. On the right side, the metal sheen was up to his upper arm.
She blinked, and she saw tanned skin again. “I thought the Hephaestus kids did a good job.”
“They did. They’re good hands. They can be good doctor’s hands. They could be great surgeon’s hands. But they’re not-“
“Healer’s hands,” she finished quietly, remembering the golden glow that used to come from his palms.
“Exactly.” He didn’t bother smiling this time. “I never did attract monsters that much. I stayed because I could help demigods.”
“You can still help. You’re a great medic.”
“Not really. Most stuff I did was pretty instinctual. I need to know more, study more, to really be of help now.”
Piper could say nothing to that. It would not do to pity him. He had a good future ahead of him, perhaps better than what would have been in store for him. There was only one thing that was unreclaimable.
“Wait,” she said to Will, who was turning away.
“Yes?”
She looked into his eyes, wondering if she should be the one to mention this. “Do you think you could ever forgive him?”
Will smiled lopsidedly, a little sadly. “I already did. I think the question is, whether he will himself.”
Piper thought they both knew the answer to that. Will left her for his siblings, and Piper stood there, thinking of lost opportunities and the fragility of human emotions. She thought of her own siblings, those that broke people apart for fun. She thought about things that could have been, and found that she was no longer thinking about Nico and Will, but of Jason and herself.
===
At the top of half-blood hill she could see the fireworks still going on, and hear Leo singing Livin’ La Vida Loca to the karaoke machine the Apollo kids had brought out. She was looking over the whole of the camp, waiting.
“Piper!”
She whipped around, and there was Jason, grabbing her in a bone-breaking hug. She held onto his neck, and he twirled her around like some heroine from a black and white movie.
“Gods, I missed you,” he said into the crook of her neck.
“I missed you more,” she said, stupidly crying again.
He let her down, and when she wiped the tears from her eyes, she saw, in the shadows, a figure swathed in darkness. She turned her attention to Jason.
“Why are you so old?” she said, laughing.
“Why are you so old?” Jason said, chuckling.
“Why are we so stupid? We just saw each other.”
“I know. And you’re even more beautiful than I remember. How is that even possible? You know, Reyna is an idiot to let you go,” he said.
Piper smiled. The breakup with Reyna had been clean and expected, though not entirely painless-she’d been first to notice Rachel and Reyna’s growing affections for each other. It was a good breakup, as their relationship had been. She had no regrets about losing her virginity to her.
“Don’t be stupid. We haven’t been together in like a year.”
“A year?” He said. Piper wished to see something like regret in his face, but there was none. He looked just a bit tired.
“I want to hear everything you’ve been doing these past two years,” she said. “How’s life away from general civilization?”
“I already told you everything,” he said. “And like I said, it’s not like we’re living in the middle of nowhere, it’s at the edge of the suburbs. Isn’t it, Nico?”
Piper had the feeling Jason had noticed she was intentionally avoiding talking to Nico.
“Yeah, I guess.”
Piper bit back a cry of surprise as he came out of the shadows. She didn’t know what she had been expecting, the small boy of fourteen?
Nico had grown taller than Jason, in a way that only accentuated his thinness. He was still deadly pale, with his cold, dark eyes in a face the skin of which stretched taut over the cheekbones and temples, as one might imagine a cemetery caretaker or a lighthouse-keeper would look. But what had surprised her was the piercings. His ears, his brows, his nose and the side of his lips glinted in the dark gloom with a metal sheen. A second later she saw how his arms were covered in black print, all the way up to where they disappeared into the sleeve. She could see tattoos on his neck as well, peeking out from over the collar of his shirt, and she could imagine the whole of his torso inked.
“Hey,” he said, quietly.
“Hey,” she nodded.
Though he was the one that had brought Nico into the conversation, Jason seemed strangely guilty. “So, have you been seeing anyone else?” he said awkwardly.
“Oh, plenty,” she said, forcing herself to be flippant. “I fucked a satyr.”
She laughed at the incredulous look on Jason’s face.
“What was that like?”
“Like you’d expect, really. Hairy, smelly, but big and enthusiastic. I get why Mr. D keeps them close.”
Jason made a face. “Thanks, Piper. That’s one imagery I’ll never get out of my head.”
Down the hill, the singing stopped, and she could hear Leo going ‘mike test 123’, readying for a speech.
“We should go see him,” Piper said.
“Yeah, just, hold on a second,” Jason said, looking towards Nico. He went to him, and though he lowered his voice, Piper could hear him saying, “You think you’ll be okay on your own?”
“I’ll be fine.” Piper might have expected a layer of sarcasm to the words, but they was none.
“I’ll be quick, okay?”
“Take all the time you want.”
Piper turned away, not watching them kiss. She wasn’t like Drew, seeing people as prizes, but she could not help thinking about everything Nico had taken away from Jason. Jason would not leave Nico alone at night, as much for the safety of others as for Nico’s, and since he would not bring Nico out to the common public, either, it meant that both had no lives of their own.
“Let’s go,” Jason said, coming up to her.
Piper hesitated. “Go ahead. I’ll catch up with you in a second.”
Jason halted. “Why?”
Leo’s voice boomed out from the speakers ‘yes, yes, thank you, random person I don’t really know…’
“I want a word with Nico.” She turned towards the kid. “Is that all right?”
Nico raised an eyebrow, but nodded a second after. She flashed an uncertain looking Jason a smile, and shooed him away.
Nico was looking guardedly at her when she looked back. She didn’t know herself what she wanted to say. Perhaps she wanted an outlet for the frustration she’d built up but rarely shown. Perhaps she wanted to hear guilt and gratitude in Nico’s voice.
“How are you?” she asked awkwardly.
“Fine.” He rolled his eyes. “What do you really want?”
She felt a twinge of annoyance at Nico’s stance. “I’m not going to be mad at you or anything. Like I said, I just wanted a word.”
Nico didn’t answer.
She tried again. “How long have you two…” She searched for the right words. Become boyfriends? Form a codependent relationship?
“The day you broke up with him.”
“You know what I mean.”
“We didn’t do anything before. He wouldn’t. You know that.”
Of course she did. But even if Jason had cheated on her, what did it matter now.
Nico took a step forward, his piercings glinting. A sudden thought crossed her mind and her blood ran cold. “Is that- are all those silver?”
Nico touched the one on his lower lip. “Yes.”
“Don’t they hurt?”
“Not enough to kill, unfortunately.”
Now that he was closer, she could read the words of the tattoos on his right arm. A mortal might have passed them over for some ostentatious gibberish, but they were in Ancient Greek, and she read, Lady Hecate, heed my prayer. Give me the power to-
“They were Jason’s idea, you know.” Nico was glaring at her, fiercely defying her pity. “He’s a good guy.”
“Yes,” she said, suddenly a little dizzy.
“He’s good for me. Maybe he would have been better for the rest of the world but that’s how it is.”
Piper nodded. For so very long she’d assumed Nico had taken Jason’s freedom. But she saw Nico was as much Jason’s prisoner as Jason was his. She wondered how content they could be in their confinement, and how much Jason had confused his devotion to the safety of others with his affection for Nico. For the first time she saw how none of this was inevitable. Nico might have been happier left alone to roam, Jason might have been happier with her, but there was little to look back on. Everything was the culmination of their own choices.
She was finally free of the jealousy she had not let herself feel. She had already abandoned the teenage fantasy of love eternal, and seeing the two trying to live it no longer inspired her to revert to her childish infatuation of the perfect companion.
“I wish you the best of luck, the both of you. I really do,” she said, and she meant it.
“Thank you,” Nico said, but she was already turning away- away from the prison, the shadows and the darkness, towards the light and the mindless clamor of freedom.