"you could be the king, but watch the queen conquer"
-
Rosalyn Carter is the daughter of Aphrodite and the last thing Percy expected to find at Camp Half-Blood.
But he wouldn't want to fight deadly battles with anyone else.
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Grover, Annabeth, and Percy walked behind Rosalyn as they made their way deeper into the trees along the New Jersey riverbank. She carried her hairpin in her hand, scouting the darkness ahead of them.
"All our money was back there," Percy groaned. "Our food and clothes. Everything."
"Well, maybe if you hadn't decided to jump into the fight-"
"What did you want me to do? Let you get killed?" Percy argued.
"You didn't need to protect me, Percy. I would've been fine," Annabeth insisted stubbornly.
I wasn't worried about you, Percy thought. He felt guilty looking back now, because he hadn't paid Annabeth or Grover a second thought when he drew his sword on the bus. He took one look at Rosie facing down three monsters from the Underworld for him, and the choice was made.
Rosalyn did her best to ignore their voices. She didn't want to be caught off guard again.
While Percy was correct in saying that they'd lost all of their supplies, he failed to notice that Rosalyn's backpack never left her body. Even as they boarded and found seats, Rosie kept her pack strapped tightly to herself. She'd been on enough trips out of camp to know that the tables can turn on you in a second.
"Look, I appreciate your coming back for us, okay? That was really brave," Annabeth sighed into the night.
"We're a team, right?" Percy asked the blonde girl, though his eyes were on Rosalyn's back.
"It's just that if you died... aside from the fact that it would really suck for you, it would mean the quest was over. This may be my only chance to see the real world," she spoke quickly. "It didn't work out for me living at home. I mean, Camp Half-Blood is my home."
Only Percy caught the way Rosalyn's shoulders tensed.
"I live with my brothers and sisters," Rosie smiled, doing her best to be nonchalant.
"What about your parents?"
Percy watched Rosie's smile fall and instantly wished he hadn't asked.
"They're not around. It's complicated."
The memory from years ago hit him painfully. It made so much sense now. The mannerisms and phrases that Percy thought were odd in their younger years were a product of her childhood at Camp Half-Blood.
Light broke through the trees, distracting him from the memories.
Tattered signs and a closed down gas station greeted them from the otherwise of a deserted road. The neon sign above a warehouse was the only sign that a living person was in the area. The smell of food floated through the air.
