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Burning red, bold orange, tantalizing amber, warm yellow, the occasional blazing white. The campfire roared with life, reflecting the moods of the campers gathered around it. It was a warm summer evening, and the smell of strawberry permeating the air filled the atmosphere with a sense of nostalgia.
There seemed to be more bodies than usual, and that was thanks to the Hunters of Artemis who had decided to drop by for a visit. Their latest adventure hunting another ancient and foul beast had been successfully pulled off, and there were no casualties. A sure cause for celebration. The laughter flowed naturally and conversations blended together into a comforting hum. Despite everything comforting about the scene, Drew Tanaka was feeling anything but. Normally she’d be at the front of the crowd, flirting with an Apollo boy or brushing shoulders with a Demeter girl, maybe even both at once. But not tonight. Something about tonight left her in a dour mood.
Maybe it was the diAngelo siblings.
They had been inseparable ever since Nico got word that Bianca was around. His deathly pale complexion seemed to have deepened into a healthy olive shade in the span of an hour, making him look more alive than she’d ever seen him. Drew watched as the two continued being familial, and she couldn’t help a pang of jealousy at the sight.
“Hey Drew, do you want to join us for board game night?” Lacy interrupted her train of thought.
The unassuming girl had been trying to include her older sister in the latest family bonding activities, and Drew had to admire her persistence. Still, she turned her face away, her chin up and her expression ever proud.
“Board games are a childish waste of time,” she sneered. “Just don’t leave a mess when you’re done because I’m not cleaning up after you.”
The other girl didn’t even look fazed, only nodding and then heading off to join the rest of their siblings, already all smiles again. She was so lucky, in Drew’s opinion. While not particularly eye-catching, she had a warmth about her that brought in everyone regardless, and people couldn’t help but fawn over her sweet honey eyes and gentle words. She was soft and delicate and all the things Drew wasn’t. Aside from her beautiful features and penchant for the finer luxuries in life, Drew shared little else with the rest of the Aphrodite cabin. The exception might’ve been Piper McLean, who was also cold cut and unrelenting as steel, but she, at least, had a heart she was willing to show.
By now, every other camper and the majority of the Hunters had already left. Only three and Nico–who didn’t quite see it fit to call himself a resident of this place–remained. Given that she was now the black sheep, all eyes naturally turned to her. Drew cursed internally, quickly straightening her posture and fixing her face into a neutral mask.
“What are you all looking at?” she asked, being careful to keep her tone cool.
“Are you sure you want to stay all the way up there? It’s warmer near the fire,” Bianca replied, her smile inviting.
Disgusting.
“I’m fine where I’m at. I don’t need your pity offer,” she snapped.
“It’s not a pity offer if it’s genuine, genius,” one of the other Hunters butted in. It was the one with spiky hair and the silver circlet in her hair. Thalia Grace, a walking epitome of Drew’s worst fashion nightmare.
After a bit of silent glowering, she slowly got up and stalked down to the bottommost bench of the amphitheater.
“You must be Drew. Piper’s told me about you,” the one with the braid down her back said.
She was sitting next to Thalia. There was no doubt in her mind that this was Rome’s former praetor. With her piercing obsidian eyes and powerful aura of confidence, she commanded attention. Reyna was not someone to make an enemy of.
“I’m sure everything she’s told you painted quite the flattering picture of me,” Drew said flatly.
“Quite the contrary, actually.”
Drew didn’t know if she was missing the sarcasm on purpose or if it genuinely flew over her head. Was having a sense of humor illegal at Camp Jupiter? Based on everything she knew about the place, it could very well be true. Constant war games? Eagle working as medics? An actual system of leadership? Hell, even a whole university? All of that sounded… intimidating. And most importantly, horribly suffocating, in her opinion. So much authority, and a hierarchy that could slip from her hands at any second. Drew wouldn’t fare well, and she knew it.
“You could stand to be a little kinder to your siblings,” the dark-eyed girl continued, oblivious to Drew’s internal monologue.
“It’s none of your business,” she scowled.
“Because you never know if you’ll see them again the next morning,” Thalia interjected. There was a burning smell of ozone in the air, and Drew guessed that she must be thinking about her recently deceased brother, Jason Grace. Word had spread around camp fast.
“How’d he die?” she asked, curiosity getting the better of her.
“Stabbed in the back by Caligula,” the way Thalia said the name made her shiver.
Whoever Caligula was, she hoped for his sake that he was dead. He probably was. A somber cloud had settled over the group. Even Nico was more withdrawn than usual at the mention of Jason’s death. Great. It seems like it was up to her to try and dispel the ice now.
“What’s your favorite memory of him, then? Seems like he was a great brother,” she knew it sounded sarcastic, but she was genuine.
Thalia took a while to think about that question.
“Probably when he came to me during a thunderstorm and just held my hand throughout the whole thing,” she finally said quietly. “It was the night right before she gave him up to the wolves.”
Oh.
In the following wake, Bianca spoke next.
“Back when Nico and I were still in the Lotus Hotel, there was this old arcade game. He would always get so close to beating it, and then it would glitch out and he would have to start all over again. Despite everything, he kept going, until one day, he beat it. Maybe it was possessed by a spirit or something, and that spirit got bored. But he was so excited to show me. He wouldn’t stop smiling the whole day.”
Nico was busy groaning in embarrassment and hiding his face away in his aviator jacket, but no shadows were elongating and no skeletons were emerging in hordes from the ground, so she surmised it was safe. All in good fun. Honestly, imagining Nico as a happy-go-lucky child with stars in his eyes was a bit hard. But based on the way Bianca talked about her brother with such fondness, Drew didn’t doubt that version of him existed, and that it could exist again too.
He muttered something under his breath, and they all stared blankly until he repeated it a little bit louder.
“I SAID the best part wasn’t winning but you telling you were proud of me.”
Bianca punched her brother lightly on the shoulder. “Softie.”
“Am not.”
Now all eyes were on Reyna.
“Before she was Queen of the Amazons, even before we were pirates, and certainly before we were ever servers on Circe’s Island, Hylla was just my older sister. There was this food stand in San Juan that served the most vibrantly flavorful mangoes. We always stopped for some before we went home,” a smile graced her lips as she recounted the memory, and it softened her features significantly. She looked like the young girl she really is, not the wizened leader she had to become.
“Maybe if we ever stop there again, you’ll show us that food stand,” Thalia suggested.
“Absolutely.”
They shared a smile, and Drew really began to understand why the Hunters chose the life they did.
“Silena was the first person I ever cried in front of.”
Great. She just had to go and open her mouth. Seeing as the attention was back on her, she might as well keep talking.
“She was only four months older than I am, yet she was so… perfect. Pretty, poised, precise in the way she moved and talked and acted. I was so jealous of how easy she seemed to have it. When Aphrodite claimed me as her kid, I didn’t want to believe it. She gave me a tour of the cabin and on a last minute whim, she took me back to the strawberry fields. Asked me what was wrong and I lost it,” she closed her eyes, picturing that arid afternoon like it was yesterday.
She could still feel the way her uneven split ends clung to the back of her neck, dampened by sweat, and how she had decided she would hate this unfamiliar place that took her away from her hometown.
“I said a lot of things I shouldn’t have. I was so tired and angry and I guess taking it out on the person I was jealous of was the best I could think to do. She let me scream until I was done and then she just picked a strawberry and handed it to me. The freshest of the bunch, she said. And she was right. Not that I ever told her that it was the most delicious strawberry I’ve ever eaten. After that, she became my role model. She was everything to me, until we all found out she was the traitor.”
Now that gloominess was back. She just had to go and ruin things just when they were getting better.
“Have you forgiven her?” Bianca asked.
“No.”
That was yet another lie.
“You think you ever will?”
That was Thalia. Drew shrugged.
“Lacy did. Everyone did. Of course they did, why wouldn’t they. But they don't get it. They never will.”
“You don’t know that for sure,” Reyna raised an eyebrow. “You don’t try very hard to talk to them.”
“What do you know?” she directed her glare back to the fire.
“That you’re still alive. They are too. Don’t let your most painful goodbye be one you never get to say.”
Like the goodbye I never had with Silena. she thought.
Eventually, they all went their separate ways. The fire dwindled out slowly as they bid one another a good night. Drew stood in front of the rosewood door, and after some hesitation finally pushed it open, the question lodged in the back of her throat coming out in a shaky breath, a faint but nervous hope speeding up the pulse in her veins.
“Are you guys still up for a round of Uno?”