LOVE THE WAY YOU LIE . . . hoo

XXX.

MIA FOUND HERSELF sitting on the edge of the crow's nest, staring at the city of Atlanta below her numbly.

Sophia had left a while ago, bringing any sense of completeness Mia felt with her. She felt like yeeting herself off of the railing, but for now she smoked a cigarette as she stared ahead of her.

The ladder rattled violently, as if someone was coming up it angrily. Mia sat there and blew out smoke as Hazel's life force got closer until she was standing next to Mia.

"That smells awful," Hazel scrunched up her nose.

"Sorry." Mia really wasn't, but she let the wind snatch her cigarette away. "What's up, Hazel?"

"Why are you doing that?"

"Because it takes away the pain," Mia told her sister, avoiding looking at her. "That's not really why you're up here. What's going on?"

"Jason and Leo want to leave Nico for dead!" Hazel said angrily, and from the corner of her eye, Mia could see her raising her arms in exasperation. "They just want to leave him in that jar to die."

"You know about the jar?" Mia asked.

"You knew?" Hazel asked, appalled.

"In Alaska, when I was underwater, Gaea showed me a vision." Mia's voice turned more harsh at the goddess's name. "He was put into that jar. He's in Rome, with the giant twins. I could see the seeds I made him keep."

"We can't leave him," Hazel insisted.

"We won't." Mia finally turned to Hazel, placing a hand on her shoulder. "I swear on the River Styx that I will not let him die down there. I can't kill another one of my siblings."

She looked away at the last part, staring down at more of the city below.

"Amelia . . ." Hazel frowned. "Can I call you Mia?"

"Either name brings bad memories," Mia shrugged. "Admittedly, when Nico and I were in the Underworld, his sister wasn't the only person we were looking for. My sister, Sophia, was also killed."

"Because you joined the Titans?"

Mia nodded. "And when we found you . . . well, I see a little bit of her in you. You're very different, but the same in what matters. And I sort of thought of you as my redemption. You could be someone that I could never be because of the decisions I've made, and because of what the stars wanted for me."

"Me?"

"You deserved a second chance, Hazel. You deserved everything that you could never have and more. So I begged Nico to take you with us to Camp Jupiter. You belong there, anyway. It wasn't that hard to convince him, because he's soft for all of his sisters and he knows it. And I . . . I'm sorry, Hazel."

Hazel's frown grew wider. "For what?"

"For not being the sister that you deserve."

"No, Mia, it's not about what I deserve," Hazel scolded. "It's what I want. And I want you to be here, and to be the best sister that you can, okay? Because you're my sister. That's all I need."

Mia shrugged. "If that's what you want," she said. "But I'm going to save our brother, and I will do it, whether it's with this crew or if I have to shadow travel by myself to Rome and break him out myself."

"I know you will," Hazel told her.

* * *

Mia had somehow fallen asleep on the crow's nest, waking up to a chorus of screams down below.