Goodnight Moon ↣ P. Jackson + A. Chase

2.17

They landed in Crissy Field after nightfall.

As soon as they landed, Annabeth and Percy ran off to see Dr. Chase as she knelt down next to Zoe with Thalia. She worked through her bag, tossing out a few things as she drew out a first aid kit.

With the help of Artemis, they began to bind the wound on her side as she looked through the collections of salves that threatened to fall out of the small bag. Lee and Michael had overfilled it when she left and had forgotten to put labels on at least half of them knowing full well that Kassandra was a nectar and ambrosia with a couple of bandages, maybe a hymn, type of girl.

Even still, she could feel the girl slipping further and further from her grasp, could feel the healing doing nothing for the wound. Because it wasn't Landon that was killing her, but the blow struck by her father, his anger and hatred that was breaking her, killing her.

Nothing she could do would work. Kassandra was nothing more than the offspring of a divine being, nothing but wisps and pieces of what her father was and what he could do. Even then, her skill could not surmount to spectacular, they could not compare to the care and determination that her siblings put into healing. They had the talent and enjoyment of healing that she did not only because of how close it left her feeling to a man that had not and did not want her.

Now, she could only face her mistake with tear blurred vision because she could do nothing to help her, nothing to help Zoe when a better daughter might have been able.

(Blood covered her hands, warm as she pressed against the wound and cried desperately for her father. Kassandra yelled his name, screamed it to the heavens as she prayed and prayed, singing hymn after hymn in a trembling voice as she swallowed sobs and held her best friend to her chest.

She had never seen Ariel so afraid before. She had never seen someone cry and beg to stay alive.)

(Later, Kassandra would return home and destroy her room. She would rip it apart and scream as the sunset with a golden glow overhead. It wasn't the first time that she had cursed the gods and it wouldn't be the last.)

(Zoe had been so kind to her when they had first met, had been so welcoming. She had sat with her by the fire when she cried about the shadows in the dark, and told her that the moon would always provide her light if only she would look.)

"Percy! Annabeth!" Thalia calls, voice thick and urgent as she gazed down at the hunter.

They came quickly, but the was nothing that they could do to help either. All the ambrosia and nectar that she had wouldn't work, none of the bandages or salves, none of the modern medicine or any of the hymns. Zoe was... Zoe was just ready to go, ready to die. She had lived a long time, had served her goddess for millennia. She was ready.

Kassandra swallowed her sobs, clenching her jaw ignoring the flash of pain it sent through her face at the movement.

"Can't you heal her?" Percy asks, kneeling at her side. "I mean... you're a goddess."

Artemis shakes her head, eyes glowing a wet silver. "Life is a fragile thing. If the Fates will her string to be cut, there is nothing that can be done. But I can try."

The goddess moves forward to place a hand on Zoe's side, but the girl stops her, grabbing her wrist. She looked into Artemis's eyes.

"Have I... served thee well?" Zoe whispers

"With great honour," Artemis says softly. "The finest of my attendants."

Zoe's face relaxes. "Rest. At last."

"I can try to heal the poison, my brave one."

Kassandra's face drops, covering her face with her hands to stifle her cries. She sobs, shoulder shaking silently.