Sunflower

15

The Ker reaches out for Jason and he quickly snaps the blade down the grass and raises it once more. The blade is no longer curved, but in the shape of a spear. Leo helped make that part of her weapons. She taught Jason how to use them long back. "What was the point in that? Are you going to run me through with it now? You know if you wanted it to hurt, you should've kept it curved."
Jason keeps his mouth shut and lowers the blade from her neck to her abdomen. "You really are going through with this aren't you? You're going to get rid of me without a second thought. I saw it in your eyes the second I saw you. You would do anything to get rid of me, even kill your friend."
"That's wrong. I'm not going to kill her. I'm going to kill you."
"If it kills me, it will kill her. It kills her, it will kill me. See how this works? Her life is linked with me."
"Again you're wrong. You underestimated Aelia. Look at her blade." Jason smiles.
Aelia looks down, completely confused at what Jason is talking about. She takes a step back and hisses, "Stupid witch. She cursed the blade."
"Of course she did."
Aelia's eyes start glowing again but Jason just laughs, "You can't get rid of it yourself."
"How would you know? You know nothing about magic."
"I know more than you." Jason says.
The Ker zaps Jason with Aelia's magic and stares at the fallen blade. Aelia's hand glows and it picks up the blade. The Ker smiles, "It won't injure me. I can wield the blade."
Jason stares at it in confusion. The minute he picked up the blade he felt the curse weighing it down, but maybe he was wrong to think it would stop the Ker. Jason reaches forward for the blade but the Ker holds it away from him, "You'll have to try harder than that."
Jason narrows his eyes and lifts himself into the air. The Ker drained most of his energy but he's determined to get rid of the thing. The Ker backs up and holds the spear at ready. Aelia raises her arm and a ball of hot magic flies right by Jason. The Ker curses, "Stupid magic!"
Jason takes the opportunity to go towards her. She holds steady on the blade and kicks Jason back. She, too, rises into the air, her entire body surrounded by a yellow mist. Jason had no idea Aelia could fly. He dodges left and right trying to avoid being turned to a crisp by her magic. She swings the spear over her head and Jason grabs it before it hits him. He uses the momentum of the swing to bring it into Aelia's abdomen. The Ker screams but it cuts short and Aelia looks at Jason, "Jason?" She gasps and falls from the sky.

Aelia's vision dimmed quickly, locking her in darkness. Unlike the rest of her friends, the Ker didn't let her see what was happening. But she heard the echoing voices of her friends yelling for her. Of them screaming in pain.
Aelia holds her head in her hands, "Stop."
They get louder and she hears Jason clearer, "I'm going to kill her! It's what she deserves!"
Aelia says a silent thank you that Jason was going to kill her, just like she told him to. The voices start merging together to the point Aelia can't tell one from the other. It's constant noise that she can't block out. The noise stops and the whoosh of a swinging blade takes over. Her vision goes white and then all there is, is pain. The clearing comes back and Jason is standing in front of her with her blade in his hands. The other end is inside of her. "Jason?" Why didn't you kill me? Her overuse of magic catches up with her and she gasps. She falls forward out of the air and Jason catches her.

Piper pushes Leo away, "I'm not hurt. It didn't hurt."
"You're smoking! It looked like the thing blew you up!" Leo says with wide eyes.
"I'm fine." Piper insists.
She gets to her feet to be instantly swarmed with Will and Sam. "I'm fine! Guys stop!"
Both boys look in bad shape. They're covered in blood and leaves. Will has huge bags under his eyes and is staring past Piper at the new barrier. "Nobody was killed." Will says.
"Then we succeeded. We won." Piper mutters.
"Nobody yet. There's still a Ker. But all the rest of them left or we banished them." Will replies darkly.
"Will stop or I will beat your head in with a rock." Piper growls.
"Okay before you kill each other I'm going to cut in. Why can't we just kill these things? They're monsters right?" Leo steps in between the two.
Nico, who was standing behind Will, is the one who says anything, "They aren't monsters. They're goddesses. Death spirits who work for my father. They're immortal just like any other god."
"That explains why they think so highly of themselves." Leo grumbles.
"We physically can't kill them. Banishing them is the best thing we can do, but even then it's useless unless my father reinstates his rules with them."
Piper looks around at the small group of campers, most of them stayed in the forest. The barrier behind her starts crackling and she looks back. The entire group backs away from it. For a second she can see inside. She's the only one from the group who walks towards it instead of away from it. Leo tries to stop her but she shrugs him off, "It's coming down."
Sure enough a few seconds later the yellow glow disappears completely and they can all see Jason and Aelia. Piper grabs Leo's arm when she sees Jason's spear inside of Aelia. Everyone seems frozen in time for a minute before Aelia falls forward out of the air into Jason. He catches her and falls to his knees with her. Will and Reyna are the first two to snap out of their trance and run forward.

Jason carefully steadies Aelia, "Aelia? I'm sorry."
Aelia looks at the spear as Jason is about to pull it out, "Wait, don't. It'll bleed out."
He pulls his hands back quickly, "I didn't kill you did I? I thought, I thought if I stabbed you in the same place you got stabbed last time it wouldn't kill you."
"Jason, take a breath. You didn't kill me. You should have, but you didn't. You were smart."
"Should have killed you? Are you insane?" Jason stares at her in surprise.
He watches as she takes the spear out and presses her hands to her wound, "No. I'm not insane."
Jason looks over to where a bunch of campers are coming from, "I stabbed you..."
"All good friends do." She sighs.
She's laying out on her back and Jason is at her side. Her eyes flutter close and Jason panics. "Jason, stop worrying if you killed me. I can see it in your face."
"Your eyes are closed." Jason whispers.
"I can still tell."
"Where's the Ker?" Reyna slides to a stop next to them.
Jason barely looks up, "Gone."
"Jason killed it." Aelia says.
"With your magic." He adds.
"Why do you keep getting stabbed? Stop getting stabbed!" Will growls at his sister.
She laughs lightly, "You're in a great mood. But in all honesty you should be, there's no more Keres. Whoo!"
"Stop moving." Will pushes her shoulders back down.
Reyna looks around the camp and sees it's in ruins, "You all have your work cut out for you. The Keres ruined the camp."
"Wait, you can't have killed the Ker." Nico says slowly, "It's impossible."
"Seemed pretty dead to me." Aelia tries to sit up but Will pushes her right back down, "I'm fine Will let me up."
"The Keres are goddesses! You physically can't kill them." Nico says to her.
Aelia slaps Will's hand away from her hair, "I cursed my blade. I'm pretty sure it's actually dead. Or if not dead then horribly injured."
"I thought you ran out of magic? Why would you risk using more?" Piper demands.
"I had no other choice." Aelia mutters.
"Like hell you did! You didn't have to trade yourself for me." Jason snaps.
Aelia pushes Will away again, "I'm fine. And yes I did Jason! It was my fault these things came here, it was my job to get rid of them."
"You traded yourself? What's that supposed to mean?" Will snaps to attention.
"It's not important." Aelia says.
"She told the Ker to possess her instead of me. To let me live and for her to die! I tried to stop her but I couldn't." Jason stops Aelia from saying anything else.
Everybody turns to look at the girl who is trying to stand up. Jessie storms forward and gets right into Aelia's face, "You idiot! You can't go around doing that!" They grab her hand and push some of their magic into her. She hisses and pulls back.
She falls back onto her knees, "Stop. Not your brightest idea Jes."
She clutches her stomach and lays back on the ground, "Yeah alright you win Will. I'll stay still now."
Piper hisses, "Your neck! You lied to me!"
"I didn't want you to worry. Like you are now." Aelia closes her eyes again.
The sun above her just adds more pressure to her already pounding head. "Aelia." Will quickly falls to her side once more.
He quickly scans over her, noting the multiple bleeding wounds. He bites his lip and lays his hand over her stab wound and the wound at her neck which has started bleeding once more. "Why did you take out the spear?" He demands.
"It didn't hit anything. Will, go bother someone else." She mutters and hits his hand away, "Others are hurt too."
"There are more of us. I'm focusing on you."
"I did this to myself. Let me suffer in peace." The corner of her mouth twists into a forced smile.
Most of the campers clear out when they see that both Jason and Aelia are alive. But the few that know them personally stay back and watch in fear as the girl stays laying on the ground.
"Are you kidding me? Aelia, I'm done with listening to you." Will snarls at his sisters idiotic words. He looks at Jason to ask him to help her up but he sits there about ready to fall over. Will nods at Leo behind him, "Help me get her to the medical cabin."
Leo stumbles forward quickly and helps Will pick her up. She groans in protest but does nothing to stop them. Clovis brushes her forehead softly and she falls asleep quickly as she passes him.