𝐁𝐀𝐂𝐊 𝐓𝐎 𝐃𝐄𝐂𝐄𝐌𝐁𝐄𝐑 - jason grace ¹

iii. the dark days

III.      VIOLET   !
⋆ ★
the dark days

          Violet didn't think her life could get any crazier. She felt like it was a big, fat ice cream sundae of insanity. First, for the vanilla ice cream, she had to quit figure skating because she found out she was part-god and her mom was so disliked she didn't even have a cabin. As for the caramel syrup, she had to be sent to a camp in America, fourteen hours behind her home in Korea. The chocolate syrup was when she arrived in the midst of repairs from a war no one knew about except the camp. And as the whip cream, where she was finally getting used to her life and getting the hang of it, her best friend disappears. And to add some sprinkles, she was sent to a Wilderness School to keep an eye out for two half-bloods who didn't even know they were related to gods or that they existed. The cherry on top? A random guy appears and saves her from falling to her death. The perfect ice cream sundae!

She stood in the back of the chariot with Piper, Leo, and Jason with Butch, handling the reins in front while Annabeth adjusted a bronze navigation device. They rose over the Grand Canyon and headed east, icy wind making Violet's breath ease after the chaos that happened in the morning. Behind them, more storm clouds were gathering. The chariot lurched and bumped. It had no seat belts and the back was wide open, so Violet wondered if Jason would catch her again if she fell. That had been the most disturbing part of the morning-a not that Jason could fly, but that he'd held her in his arms and yet didn't know who she was. They had only met a few minutes prior, what did she deserve to be saved by him?

Violet was far away enough from Jason to where she could steal glances at him without him noticing. Jason stood right next to Piper: with sky blue eyes, close-cropped blond hair, a little scar on his upper lip. His face was kind and gentle, but always a little sad. And he just stared at the horizon, in his own thoughts.

Meanwhile, Leo was being annoying, as usual. Violet noticed it was a pattern for him. She always felt uneasy about him, she wasn't really sure why. But something about him made her senses think: fire. She smelt it whenever he was near, sometimes he would touch her and it felt like he was going to melt her right there.

"This is so cool!" Leo spit a pegasus feather out of his mouth. "Where are we going?"

"A safe place," Annabeth said. "The only safe place for kids like us. Camp Half-Blood."

"Half-Blood?" Piper was immediately on guard. "Is that some kind of bad joke?"

"She means we're demigods," Jason said. "Half god, half mortal."

Annabeth looked back. "You seem to know a lot, Jason. But, yes, demigods. My mom is Athena, goddess of wisdom. Butch here is the son of Iris, the rainbow goddess. And Violet, she's a daughter of Khione, a goddess of snow."

Leo choked. "Your mom is a rainbow goddess?"

"Got a problem with that?" Butch said.

"No, no," Leo said. "Rainbows. Very macho."

"Butch is our best equestrian," Annabeth said. "He gets along great with the pegasi."

"Rainbows, ponies," Leo muttered.

"I'm gonna toss you off this chariot," Butch warned.

"Snow goddess?" Jason's eyes went directly to Violet. He seemed confused by her, like he didn't know how to feel about having a girl who could make a snowstorm happen on the chariot. "So that's why you made that snowball appear in your hands?"

"Mhm," she nodded. Violet didn't have much to say — she never did. She barely could interact with anyone because of the language barrier. Hell, she just learned how to string sentences in English together. Violet felt snowflakes fall onto her shoulders and a little onto Piper. Jason saw them fall, staring at them with such interest. Piper didn't hesitate to brush them off her and off Violet, giving her a small smile. At least Piper wasn't that scared of her: