Walk With the Shadows [ Percy Jackson OC ]

SIXTEEN | Ophelia

OPHELIA ASSOCIATED CABIN 11 WITH MANY WORDS, but silence wasn't one of them. Staring up at the chipped wooden beams that crossed the overcrowded Hermes cabin, she counted each breath filling her own lungs. Usually she'd count Travis's rhythmic snoring or the tossing and turning of young Michaela on the floor. But the Stoll brothers had taken the cabin for a competitive scavenger hunt against the Apollo kids at dawn, leaving the dusty old cabin empty except for three.

Alex had left not long after. She'd not had a chance to talk to him about the Oracle's prophecy the night before. He'd crawled into his bed beside her in the corner and laid down in silence, facing the wall. Then that morning, he insisted he needed to go for a run. Chiron can wait, he'd said. As Ophelia watched a small spider crawl alongside a ceiling beam, she ignored the gnawing fear in her chest.

She'd never seen a quest issued. During the war, campers were sent off by Chiron without prophecies nipping at their heels. Luke certainly didn't use prophecies. She and Alex and Chris Rodriguez and any number of other demigods had been driven forward by loyalty alone.

Ophelia held no loyalty for the Oracle of Delphi.

Why should you?

With warm sun bathing her face in light, she sighed. She should get up. While she felt no loyalty to the oracle, she didn't want to see any more of her siblings and friends dragged down by misplaced love for Kronos.

If you don't get up, you leave Leah to the mercy of Zeus. And we both know what that looks like.

"Thank you, Eris, but I don't need you to remind me," she muttered.

Ophelia sat up, causing the wooden slats and old springs to groan. Kitty had left half an hour before. She'd said something about going for a swim before breakfast. So it was just her, a dozen empty bunk beds, the spider overhead, and gentle light filtering in through the windows.

By the time she'd pulled on an orange Camp shirt, black jean shorts, and her choker necklace depicting crossed torches, Kitty came tumbling back into the cabin, clothing damp from her dripping wet, blue hair and smiling like they hadn't just been issued their death certificates the night before.

"Sup?" Kitty said. "Haven't seen you wear that necklace in a while."

Ophelia's hand went to the carved pendant. Hecate's symbol. It hadn't seemed right to wear it as the war intensified. Disrespectful to her mother, more than anything. And Ophelia wouldn't do that.

"Hadn't felt right," Ophelia said. "Did you see Alex earlier?"

For a brief moment, Kitty stopped digging through her drawer. Ophelia couldn't see her face, just noticed her muscles tense and imagined, if she could see her mouth, that her smile had probably disappeared. Ophelia asked her what was wrong.

"Nothing," Kitty said. She turned back around, pulling a new Camp Half Blood shirt over her head. Leaning back against the dresser, she crossed her arms and played with a hair tie around her wrist. "He was running along the beach. Did you talk to him last night?"