heavy bones [jason grace]

25. home sweet home

Piper's right. He's breathing. He's breathing, and he squeezed my hand. He's alive. Jason's alive.

"Impossible," Hera declares, ever the optimist. "I wish it were true, child, but no mortal has ever—"

"Jason," Piper says, laying on the charmspeak as thick as she possibly can. "Listen to me. You can do this. Come back. You're going to be fine."

Nothing. No, no, I saw it. I saw him breathing, I felt him squeeze my hand. He's alive. I know he is. So why isn't he?

I double over, pressing my face into his shoulder. He's still warm. I let out another sob. This isn't fair. This isn't fucking fair. After everything I've been through, haven't I earned just this one thing? My mom abandoned me, my stepmother was murdered by my father who then tried to bury me alive. I ran away from foster care and was all alone in the world, living on the streets, until...

Until I met Jason. Until he found me. Or maybe I found him or maybe we found each other. Either way, he came into my life and he was...beautiful. Beautiful and kind and funny. Clever and selfless and a little dorky. A shining light. My shining light. My sweet, wonderful Jay, who made me believe in things like destiny and true love. 

I remember. I remember now. All of it. We only had three weeks together until everything went wrong and we got separated. We were so close to safety — to here, the Wolf House — just a couple of days away, when the Chimera came out of nowhere. We were on a cliffside. The Chimera's fire melted the metal railing. I was trying to avoid its tail, not eager to get poisoned.

I fell.

And then I was in Pennsylvania, soaked in my own blood, wandering numbly down a highway until a satyr found me. Hera's doing, I'm sure. She'd saved me from the fall but hadn't had the decency of healing my old injuries which must've reopened at some point in my fugue state. I got taken to Camp Half-Blood, the right place for me. Because I'm Greek. Not Roman. Not like him. I would've stuck out like a sore thumb at his camp.

I think I would've been happy, though. I would've been with him.

"Healing is not a power of Aphrodite," Hera says. "Even I cannot fix this, girl. His mortal spirit—"

"Jason," Piper tries again. Somehow, there's more weight to her words. No, not weight, exactly. Resonance? Power. Just...power. Power so strong it might wake the dead. "Wake up."

It won't work. It shouldn't work. It could never work.

It works.

I bolt upright, yanking my hand away as he lets out a sharp gasp, his eyes flying open. My jaw drops. His eyes...they're gold. Glowing gold. I hold my breath until the light fades. He blinks at us, looking more like he's been abruptly woken from his nap rather than resurrected. "What—What happened?"

"Impossible!" Hera exclaims.

Piper's quick to pull him into a tight embrace. Maybe too tight.

"Crushing me," he groans.

"Sorry," she says, pulling away with a little laugh. She wipes a tear from her eye. She looks so beautiful and composed while I'm a snotty mess. It's so unfair. She's so lucky she's one of my favorite people in the entire world or I'd hate her for that.

Thalia shifts to take Jason's hand, a small smile on her lips like she's worried if she's too happy he's alive he'll die again. "How do you feel?"

"Hot," he says. "Mouth is dry. And I saw something...really terrible."

"That was Hera," Thalia grumbles. "Her Majesty, the Loose Cannon."

Hera bristles. "That's it, Thalia Grace. I will turn you into an aardvark, so help me—"