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chapter forty-three ( the last olympian ) ❝ where hope survives!❞
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Clarisse cradled Silena's head in her lap. I've never seen the daughter of Ares cry before, in all the time I've known her. I've seen her scared, I've seen her furious, but never have I seen her in such misery that she sobbed over the burnt and dying face of her best friend. "What were you thinking?" she whimpered.
Silena tried to swallow; her lips were dried and cracked. "Wouldn't ... listen," she managed. "Cabin would ... only follow you."
"So you stole my armour," Clarisse held her closer. "You waited until Chris and I went out on patrol, you stole my armour and pretended to be me," she glared at her siblings. "And none of you noticed?!"
The Ares campers all looked to their feet. I heard a few sniffles amongst them. Silena shook her head, wincing. "Don't ... don't blame them," she whispered, and Clarisse turned back to her. "They wanted to ... to believe I was you."
"All my fault," a tear fell down the side of Silena's face. "The drakon, Charlie's death ... camp endangered━"
"Stop it!" Clarisse cried. "That's not true."
Silena opened her hand. In her palm was a silver bracelet with a scythe charm━the mark of Kronos.
It was like a blast of chilling cold water hit my face, and my breath hitched. Sharing a glance with Percy and Annabeth, I knew they were thinking the same thing; feeling the same surprise, shock ... and realisation that it did make sense, deep down.
"You were the spy," Percy breathed.
Silena tried to nod. "Before━before I liked Charlie, Luke was nice to me. He was so━charming. Handsome. Later, I wanted to stop helping him, but he threatened to tell. He promised ... he promised I was saving lives. Fewer people would get hurt. He told me he wouldn't hurt━Charlie. He lied to me."
Something rose in my chest. I don't really know what it was. It was more than anger and betrayal━I've felt that. This was something else. Something worse and more powerful. Far more. It made me grit my teeth and clench my hands into tight fists. Luke had manipulated her━he did this. I don't know why, considering I knew this all along, but seeing Silena die in front of me, hearing what Luke had done ... not Kronos; Luke ... there was no grief, no guilt on being taken-aback by his actions yet again, there was just fury━white-hot, boiling fury.
