LOVE THE WAY YOU LIE . . . hoo

XIX.

AFTER FOUR DAYS of nonstop flying, only stopping to visit the ruins of Odysseus's palace, Mia had finally fallen asleep.

Her dreams hadn't been good, though — she kept dreaming of Tartarus, and of scenarios where Nico was dying, along with Reyna and Coach Hedge. And she kept seeing her father, suffocating to death in front of her, and the phantom pain of the stab wound in her shoulder had been replaced by the phantom pain of nearly suffocating to death.

Needless to say, Mia didn't want to fall asleep again.

She woke up, not late but also not early, and she stared at her ceiling for a couple of seconds before making herself get up, in the hopes that getting dressed and putting on makeup and doing her hair would help.

Since Tartarus, she hasn't found much joy in the simple things that she'd been so excited for before — but she did them anyway, because it was nice to have something for her hands to do. The stars know how shaky her hands have been without doing something.

She got changed into a crop top and some shorts, wrapping a light jacket around her neck because she consistently felt either really hot or really cold after Tartarus. There was no inbetween. She didn't do her hair, but she'd probably put it up later today, and she did her makeup elaborately, hiding her baggy eyes with makeup and eyeliner designs. She drew a heart on her cheek with lipstick and grabbed her backpack and left her room for breakfast.

When she stepped out of her room, she found Leo leaning against the doorway, so she joined him, propping her foot against the doorframe so she could lace her sandals up her calf.

"You look like shit," he commented.

"Thanks," she snorted quietly. "I guess that's what I get for trying to sleep."

"We should make a club," he offered. "Insomniac gang. Meets during night watch. Don't invite anyone else."

Mia felt her lips pull into a crooked smile. "I think that's the best idea you've had yet, Leo Valdez."

"Excuse me?"

She let out a small laugh, looking sideways when she felt eyes on her.

Percy had been eating a huge stack of blue pancakes while Annabeth chided him for pouring on too much syrup.

"You're drowning them!" she complained.

"Hey, I'm a Poseidon kid," he said. "I can't drown. And neither can my pancakes."

At Mia's laugh, they'd looked over to her, and she'd immediately looked away, dropping the smile. She'd been avoiding them. She knew it, they both knew it. It's not as if she was doing it on purpose, just being with them was not what she wanted right now. She liked being alone, especially since she'd gotten used to it before Tartarus. She still hung out with Hazel, a lot more than she did before, actually, and she spent a lot of time near Leo because they were kind of lumped together, but she was content with being alone.

She should talk to Percy and Annabeth. Just not right now.

To their left, Frank and Hazel used their cereal bowls to flatten out a map of Greece. They looked over it, their heads close together. Every once in a while Frank's hand would cover Hazel's, just sweet and natural like they were an old married couple, and Hazel didn't even look flustered, which was real progress for a girl from the 1940s. Until recently, if somebody said gosh darn, she would nearly faint. Except for Mia, who she got quickly used to swearing. Whoops.

At the head of the table, Jason sat uncomfortably with his T-shirt rolled up to his ribcage as Nurse Piper changed his bandages.

"Hold still," she said. "I know it hurts."