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Annabeth hesitated on the edge of their little camp, shuffling her feet and then scolding herself for being nervous. She shifted the firewood in her arms and stepped closer to Luke.
Thalia had gone to scrounge up dinner, leaving just the two of them for now in this little clearing half a mile behind the closed-out grocery store.
“I brought firewood,” she announced.
Luke turned, mustering a tired smile for her. He always tried to be strong for her, and Annabeth hated that she couldn’t be a shoulder for him to lean on yet. He trusted her with a dagger and his life, but not with his hurts. She would just have to get stronger. She’d have to become a person he could lean on.
“Thanks,” he murmured, patting her head. “I’ll get the fire going if you want to get into your sleeping bag. Start warming up.”
It really was getting cold, but Annabeth didn’t want to leave Luke yet. Not when he was still angry and raw like a wound. “Not yet.”
She crouched next to him, watching him build the fire and strike his flint. The flames burst to life, small, but cozy. Their hearth for the night. Annabeth sent a quick prayer of thanks to Hestia.
After a long silence, Annabeth leaned against Luke’s shoulder. “I’m sorry about your mom,” Annabeth whispered.
Luke stiffened, but he didn’t push her away or flee. Finally, he sighed and leaned into her. “Yeah, me, too.”
“I don’t like your dad,” Annabeth admitted, which made Luke laugh. It wasn’t a nice laugh, more of a startled, bitter thing, but it was a laugh, nonetheless.
“I don’t like him either,” Luke said, his eyes locked on the flames. For a moment, Annabeth could almost imagine the flames reflected in his eyes were a physical representation of his anger.
She shifted, hooking her chin on his shoulder and draping her arms around him in an attempt at comfort. “You don’t need him,” she said, conviction hot like fire in her veins. “We’re family now. I don’t need my dad, and you don’t need yours. I’ll take care of you,” she promised boldly.
Luke turned around, quickly snatching her up and hefting her over one shoulder as he stood, which made Annabeth hurry to stifle a little yelp of laughter. “How did you get to be so wise, Annabeth?”
“I was born wise,” she countered, giggling as he tipped her upside down.
“Hmm… that can’t be right,” he teased, taking exaggerated, bouncing steps as he paced the clearing. “I think you must have gotten if from me, your big brother.”
He grinned down at her, and Annabeth’s heart fluttered. A big brother. That’s what he had been for the past few months, but it was the first time he’d said something like that.
“Maybe,” she agreed, beaming back at him, though she knew her cleverness came from her mother. A mother she hoped would watch over them better than Luke’s dad did.
“Well, well…I guess that makes me your big sister,” Thalia said, announcing her return to the clearing. She hefted a bag of greasy takeout, and Annabeth’s stomach growled, making her blush while her siblings laughed.
Luke set her down, and she hurried over to Thalia, getting up on her toes to carefully touch a fresh cut on Thalia’s cheek.
“What happened?”
“Just a tree branch,” Thalia said, waving her off and starting to dish out burgers and fries.
Annabeth didn’t quite believe her, especially not when Thalia and Luke shared a look when they thought she couldn’t see, but Annabeth wasn’t too worried. Luke and Thalia said they were going to a demigod camp soon—the one the satyr had mentioned before. Grover claimed it was somewhere they would be safe. Somewhere they could train with other half-bloods like them.
Luke was clever, and Thalia was the best fighter in the world, Annabeth knew that the three of them would be fine on their own like this, but still. It would be nice to have a bed and a shower again.
Her brother and sister were the strongest people she knew, and Annabeth was certain they would make it to Camp safely, especially with her on their side. No cyclopes or dracenae or empousai would stand a chance or stopping them now that they had a goal in mind.
For the first time, Annabeth had a family who loved her and wanted her, just the way she was. No matter how thin their sleeping bags were as they hunkered down for the night, that knowledge was enough to warm her through.