SAFE . . . reyna ramirez-arellano

44 - reunion

A SEA OF hastily assembled demigods parted for Briar and Annabeth as they walked through the forum. Some looked tense, some nervous. Some were bandaged from their recent battle with the giants, but no one was armed. No one attacked.

Briar looked down at her feet, examining her shoes as she walked. She should've had her chin held high and a smirk on her face as she walked through to her home. But she couldn't. She was so scared, she was literally about to puke on her nice shoes. They were pure white tennis shoes, with blue butterflies painted on them from when she'd gotten bored in arts and crafts. They looked okay with her dress, at least. And they were pretty. She didn't want to ruin them.

"I can feel you shaking from here."

Briar glanced over at Annabeth, and she saw a nervous gleam in her eyes that basically reflected what she was feeling right now.

"We'll be okay," Annabeth promised, but it felt a little empty.

"I'm literally about to throw up, and you're telling me that's alright," Briar muttered. "See what happens when I puke all over you."

Annabeth let out a small laugh. "You won't throw up, Briar. I'm serious. She'll still like you."

Briar frowned. She registered that Annabeth had overheard her conversation with Jason as the demigods in front of her made way for a familiar girl in armor the same color as Briar's shoes and a purple cape. Brown, choppy hair tumbled across her shoulders, and some strands were braided. Her eyes changed the exact same way Briar's did.

Piper.

Briar grinned at her sister. Medals decorated Piper's armor. She carried herself with such confidence the other demigods backed away and averted their gaze.

Briar recognized something else in Piper's face, too — in the hard set of her mouth and the deliberate way she raised her chin like she was ready to accept any challenge. Piper was forcing a look of courage, while holding back a mixture of hopefulness and worry and fear that she couldn't show in public.

Briar knew that expression. She'd seen it on Piper many times, and she'd had to make Piper take it off of her face many times.

Annabeth and Piper considered each other. Jason and Leo went to stand on Annabeth's right, while Briar stayed on her left. Briar heard people murmuring her and Jason's names, staring at them in awe.

Then someone else appeared from the crowd, and Briar ignored all of the attention that was on her.

Reyna stared at her in awe, examining her from head to toe. Briar had sketched Reyna a lot throughout her time at Camp Half-Blood, but Reyna had changed slightly. Her dark hair was longer, the braid it was in now tumbling over her shoulder. Her eyes were even darker, glinting with an emotion that Briar couldn't quite figure out as she gazed at her. She was wearing the ring that Briar had given her after the incident of Mount Diablo, along with a toga that looked hella good on her.

Briar was too stunned to move. She felt that if she got any closer to Reyna, her heart might burst out of her chest. Sure, she'd seen Reyna six months ago — hell, she'd saved her life. But that was when Briar barely had any memories of the past fifteen years. And she had to leave Reyna at the entrance to Camp Jupiter — the tunnel, she now remembered — because it would've fucked up the fate of the world.

But during their separation, something had happened to Briar's feelings. They'd grown painfully intense — like she'd been forced to withdraw from a life-saving medication. Now she wasn't sure which was more excruciating — living with that horrible absence, or being with Reyna again.

Piper straightened. She turned toward Jason, and then Briar.

"Jason Grace, my former colleague . . ." She spoke the word colleague as if he was a stranger to her. "And Briar Lovelace, my former advisor. I welcome you home. And these, your friends—"