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I 015. I
𝑮𝒍𝒐𝒓𝒚 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝑮𝒐𝒓𝒆
❝ spotlight ❞
ARIADNE KEPT LOOKING BACK. She half expected to see those nasty sun dragons toting a flying chariot with a screaming magical saleswoman throwing potions, but nothing followed them.
Her body felt odd. And guilty.
Yes, in the end, she had taken the dragons down, but for the first three-quarters of the whole department store experience, she had been out of her mind and not thinking straight. Annabeth would've slapped her at how stupid she had been. In the end, it was as if she had let this new group down. Like she was the worst quest member in the world.
Riding on the back of Festus she was think deeply. The other three could see. Her amethyst eyes were stormy, clouded over with some dangerous thought that could be their undoing. Truthfully, that may just as well be the case. Whoever she envisioned was behind this wanted them gone.
She kept a tight hold on her backpack, scared to let it go, in fear of losing it as she had Percy's note. She still hadn't forgiven herself for that one.
Oh, Percy. Every part of her was itching to find him. There was a deep yearning in her to be able to hold him again. To feel his hands holding hers, those sea-green eyes that haunted her every waking moment, the crooked grin that sparked every good feeling in her soul—she was harboring so much grief and longing, it was hard to decipher which of her emotions were about him or the quest.
Ariadne hoped somewhere, wherever Hera had stored him, he was thinking the same of her. That he was missing her touch just as much as she missed his. The feeling of their hearts beating at the same quick pace when they kissed, those fireworks igniting in their brains.
Imagining that was enough to feel like she was close to him again—just the tiniest bit, she was okay.
Her necklace weighed heavy around her neck. Part of her believed it was a tether to him, that he would lead her to him through it. The other part knew it was the guilt of not having the right amount of strength to focus on the quest at hand, she could only imagine what he would say:
"You can't always worry for me. As long as you come back to me, I'll be saved. Go be the savior that you are."
They were near and dear to her heart.
Leo steered the dragon toward the southwest. Eventually, the smoke from the burning department store faded in the distance, but none relaxed until the suburbs of Chicago have way to snowy fields, and the sun began to set.
"Good job, Festus." Leo patted the dragon's metal hide. "You did awesome."
The dragon shuddered. Gears popped and clicked on his neck.
