How Do You Say Gods- Titan's Curse

4: THALIA TORCHES NEW ENGLAND

Thalia took the book from Rachel without batting an eye and used all of her immortal grace to grab just a few to many pages as subtly as possible, it would be no major difference to Percy she was sure if he just skipped this one part and arrived at camp without-

Rachel caught her before she could finish flipping the few innocent pieces of paper necessary, gently meeting her eyes and giving her wrist a reassuring squeeze.

How to explain? She couldn't be seen as weak in front of them. She was a Hunter of Artemis, she was Percy's closest friend in here and his guide on how to navigate this insanity. And Jason...

Whether that guy was the ghost of her baby brother back to haunt her or some deranged joke by the gods of a look-alike, he was as lost as Percy. She wanted to be the example for the two of them how to calmly get out of this, and she didn't think she could do that with this chapter.

She wished Annabeth were here, her little sister at least knew what she didn't want to share. Rachel just seemed to know she was afraid of something. Then Thalia glanced at Percy and Nico, both of whom were going through pretty much their most miserable time in this book. Her eyes lingered on Jason, the little two-year-old in her mind crying as his lip bled from that cut as she tried to stop it while their mom had been on the phone telling them to quiet down. The first thing Beryl Grace had said when she'd seen it was it might need cosmetic surgery to hide a scar.

She felt like she'd shared more than enough already, wasn't dying and coming back to a broken world enough? She didn't want to expose this fear too.

Percy leaned forward in his seat as she kept hesitating, he'd watched her try to skip those and wasn't going to say a word. "You want to get out of here Thals?" Eyes flickering to the door in clear invitation, just the two of them could leave. It really wasn't anybody else's concern, and at least if just Percy found out she wouldn't have to endure him mocking and laughing at her like the others would be prone to do. A child of Zeus afraid of heights, who wouldn't laugh?

It was the choice that made her decide to stay though. Like nobody had ever given her before on the course of her life.

If she'd just skipped over every awful thing that had happened to Percy thus far he'd have no clue what was going on in his own life. This wasn't the only time it would come up in hers, and if she started picking and choosing now what unpleasantness she wanted to skip, how would that be fair to Percy and Nico who hadn't once complained of their own pasts being revealed?

"No, I'm, I'm good," she lied. She was glad that Percy had moved away though, she might intentionally zap him when he figured it out. She could still do it across the room sitting next to Jason, but she might hesitate a little more.

She still had to give Rachel's hand a little shake to let go of her wrist, and her friend reluctantly did so with troubled eyes. 'Sorry,' she mouthed, but Thalia knew she was right too. Even being immortal now, keeping this kind of thing buried didn't mean it would never come back. Annabeth might have let her get away with skipping, but she would have protested later about the wisdom in that.

With a ragged breath, Thalia read, "Thalia Torches New England. Wow, it is kind of weird reading your own name."

"Know my pain!" Percy agreed triumphantly.

'You have no idea,' she silently agreed as she forced herself to start over Alex and Jason's spluttering, already laughing protests they wanted her to give a clue she would not be providing.

"When did this happen? Am I secretly dead?" Magnus asked. He'd notice his city on fire, even the Mist couldn't hide that. He was ignored right along with them though.