LOVE THE WAY YOU LIE . . . hoo

VIII.

THEY APPEARED ON the beach near where the boat was docked.

At least, Mia thought so. Her head throbbed from shadow traveling her and Percy, but she'd done more before. She'd be fine.

She took her hand off of his shoulder and started walking forward, her feet unsteadily finding the docks as she forged forward.

"Wait, Amelia!" Percy caught up with her quickly — no surprise, considering how short she is and how tall he is — and placed his hand on her shoulder. "That was shadow travel, right?"

"I'd just explained it to you up there," Mia quipped. "But yeah."

"Huh."

They got to the boat and Percy climbed on, looking for his pack.

"Do you and Nico know anything about me?" he asked her, finding his pack and shouldering it.

"No, we don't," Mia lied, and he made eye contact with her. Now, she didn't look away, his familiar green eyes drawing her in.

"You're sure."

"I have never seen you before," she confirmed. "I've lived in California my whole life. I found out that I was a demigod when I was around . . . fourteen or fifteen? My mother brought me to the Underworld so she could train me, because . . . it's dangerous here. Not seeing any monsters on our way to Alameda was a fluke," she let out a fake laugh. "There are so many here, and I . . . I wasn't prepared enough. And I never went to camp because I was closer to the Underworld. And they'd never accept me there."

"Oh," Percy said smartly.

Mia giggled, before she sobered up. "Sorry for trauma dumping on you," she said. "Even though my story's not as traumatic as a lot of other people's. Can you hand me my bag, please?"

"Yeah. Yeah, sure." He grabbed her bag and offered it to her, and she took it, holding it against her as she searched for ambrosia. "It's alright. And trauma's different for everyone, right?"

She pursed her lips before nodding, breaking a square of ambrosia in four and eating it. By now, she's learned how to get over the nostalgic taste of her favorite cookies. "Let's go," she told him, zipping her backpack shut and slinging it over her shoulders.

"Yeah," he said, and he offered his arm to her. Mia had flashbacks to a time where he always did that, with a smile mostly reserved for her and a faint blush on his cheeks. But now wasn't the time, now that Hazel needed them. So Mia grabbed his arm and shadow traveled them back up to the cliff, where her head throbbed even more, even with the ambrosia she'd taken.

"Oh, fuck me," her vision swam as she took her backpack off of her shoulders and searched for another part of ambrosia.

"Are you okay?" Percy asked her, though she couldn't see him with her vision swimming.

"Fine," she took out a water bottle instead, offering it in his direction. "When I shadow travel too much, my head starts to hurt when it's short distances. It's fine. We just need to get that to Haze—"

"Guys?" Frank's voice suddenly appeared, just as Mia had found another little piece of ambrosia and stuffed it in her mouth. "Hazel was taken."

"Taken?" Percy repeated, just as Mia's vision cleared. "By what?"

". . . the grass?"

"Wonderful," Mia sighed, searching for Hazel's life force. Her gut was tugging her toward one direction, so she ran toward that direction. "She's somewhere this way. Come on."

"How do you know that?" Percy asked.

"I can feel her life force," she told him. "Another power of mine. Now, are you going to find her or ask me more stupid questions?"