Horizon's Point: The Rise of the Lyre (Jason Grace)

Chapter 10: Hunters

We made our way back to the pegasi and Tempest. After about five minutes of awkward silence, Percy decided to run on ahead to greet the Hunters if they had arrived. I suggested going instead as it was a girl-only group, but Percy insisted that I took it easy after finally opening up. I was glad to hear this, because my legs were still a little shaky after listening to Eris. Her words pierced me like arrows. I should know, yes, some people are that bad at archery that they hit me instead of the target. But the part that stung the most was that what she said was all true.

Maybe if I had dived deeper, maybe if I had convinced her not to do it, to stop being so ambitious... she could still be alive if I had done something else, something more. I let my hair fall around my face, concealing it from all other eyes. Jason's presence was so welcoming, but I didn't want to be a weakling on this quest. I had to get over her death, one way or another.

She's gone. There's no way of bringing her back. It was my fault. It wasn't my fault...

I recalled what the Goddess had told me 'You know that it wasn't an accident, Poseidon killed her, now you are going to try to save him?' Was it true? It was perfectly possible that he could have killed her, and even more possible that he could have saved her. Was I really going to go out of my way to rescue him now?

'I'm doing this to save Thalia, not dad.' I firmly thought to myself. I can't let this get in the way of our quest, holding grudges wasn't going to help me. So why did it feel wrong to be going off to save him after what he did?

'What he potentially did.' A small part of my mind reminded me. 'She's the Goddess of spite and family feuds, this is what she wants you to think.'

'No, this is reality. The God of the seas drowned my mum.' The other side argued. I sighed in exasperation; I was arguing with myself! This was stupid.

I had almost forgotten that Jason was there until he slipped his hand into mine. I won't lie, I flinched a little. I couldn't actually see him through my hair screening but his hands were very distinct - to me at least - comfortably warm, strong and somehow soft. He squeezed mine and I squeezed back. We had this way of communicating silently with one another, when we know that we shouldn't be talking but want to communicate by holding hands under the table.

We weren't holding hands in a romantic way I swear! We started doing it when Jason was dating Piper, before they broke up. I wasn't mad at her for doing it, she wanted to discover who she is without being in a relationship that the Goddess of marriage and the Goddess of love had created. But Jason didn't laugh as much after that, only when Leo and I were joking around with him would I hear it. But it's been a while since then, we've got our old Jason back now, thankfully.

I understood what he was saying and our conversation went something like:

'Are you feeling ok?' -Jason

'Yeah, I guess.' -Me

'Look at me, Abi.' -Jason

He pushed my hair back behind my ear (I noticed that there was a twig in it and couldn't be bothered to take it out, Drew wasn't here so did it matter?) and I shyly looked up at him. His familiar face shone like the sun, his blonde hair was slightly messy, but not like mine which could have passed off as a bird's nest, his electric blue eyes studied my face for emotions, and that cute little scar above his lip tickled the corner of his mouth. This was my best friend: kind, brave, and a goodie-two-shoes.

Before either of us could say anything, Percy ran into us and we all fell over in a massive heap. He was saying something as he bombarded mine and Jason's moment of comfortable understandings, something about the Hunters arriving and doughnuts, I think. But at that moment I wasn't thinking about that.