As Above, So Below | Jason Grace

vi. kate performs a magic trick

UNSURPRISINGLY, the food at camp was great, which made it really easy to dodge the suspicious glances Jason kept throwing her way. They'd sat with Chiron at the director's table, seeing as neither of them knew where they belonged. With Piper still knocked out in the Big House, they didn't have much to talk about. Which was fine; Kate wasn't particularly up for conversation. By the time dinner was over, she'd cleared her plate and downed three glasses of the melon flavored cream soda her chalice had magically filled with. The taste was smooth on her tongue and Kate's heart lurched at the empty memory of a home it reminded her of.

The campfire, on the other hand, was something Kate hadn't been prepared for at all. Every camper was gathered around an obscenely large fire pit singing songs about some guy named Minos and his land. As they chanted, the ten foot flames grew in size and glowed brighter, shifting colors from scarlet red to crayon yellow to sparkling gold.

Leo was sitting quietly next to a group of burly looking kids covered in grease stains. He had to be the smallest among them, but he stood out to Kate because he was the only one who looked like he wasn't having any fun. He kept eyeing the flames like they made him nervous. Kate waved and smiled at him, but he only half returned it.

She had half a mind to go get him, but Annabeth had explained that campers grouped themselves by their godly parents, and Kate didn't want to mess up a chance for him to bond with his siblings. Icy coolness rushed over her again, partly combated by the warmth of the fire in front of her. The Lichtenberg scars on her arm pulsed and stung.

Since neither she nor Jason knew their godly parents, they sat on the bottom steps of the amphitheater with just enough space between them so Jason wouldn't start blushing again. Annabeth had kindly offered to keep them company, though Kate had a sneaky suspicion that she was actually doing it to lessen some of the awkwardness that lingered around the pair ever since their talk on the beach.

Kate was trying (and failing miserably) to ignore that. She knew she'd made a mistake outright lying to him. She was a terrible liar, of course he wouldn't believe her. Not to mention it was objectively shitty to demand the truth from him and refuse to give it back. She tried to rationalize it earlier, lying. The truth was she had made sense of it, the three distinct paths she'd walked down.

Kate scoffed. Three paths at once, yeah that was a trip. At least Ebenezer Scrooge had seen past, present, and future at different times.

Jason bumped her shoulder gently. "You okay?"

Her eyes sliced through the darkness with ease. She felt better now that it was night. Some of that itchy tiredness that followed her around all day had fled. She wasn't exactly feeling stronger, but at least she could sit up straight without her spine screaming at her to stop.

"Yeah," she said. "Just thinking." She risked a look at him. He looked divinely carved in the warm light, like he'd been cut from a Roman statue with careful fingers. "You?"

He shrugged. "I'll get there."

Around them, campers faded into applause as the satyrs strummed a last note on their lyres. Kate spotted Piper out of the corner of her eye, sitting next to the redhead from the Big House, Rachel. Though she looked shaken up and a bit drowsy, some of the color had returned to her cheeks and she was clapping along with the rest of the crowd. When her eyes met Kate's, she smiled.

She was about to go over and escape the crushing guilt she felt with Jason when Chiron trotted up to the campfire and silenced the noise with one stomp of his hoof. Even with a spear full of toasted marshmallows he looked intimidating. Kate shivered.

"Very nice! And a special welcome to our new arrivals. I am Chiron, camp activities director, and I'm happy you have all arrived here alive and with most of your limbs attached. In a moment, I promise we'll get to the s'mores, but first—"