The Veiled Legacy | PJO - Book Two

one

BETRAYALS

Ariana felt stupid beyond relief.

Since her, Percy and Annabeth returned from Tartarus she had barely done anything but sit in her room. Even now, whilst Annabeth was on a quest with Piper and Leo, she stared at her wall.

Everything was reminding the girl of Tartarus; the screams and pleads of the voices haunted her dreams.

She had barely slept.

And to top it all off, she had developed a fear of the darkness. Ariana wanted to laugh at the irony - a daughter of Hades scared of the darkness. She could literally control the shadows.

Ariana had basically locked herself up in her room, she had lost count of how many times the other sevens demigods and even a Coach Hedge had tried to force her out of it.

A knock at the door, Ariana barely turned her head to see who it was.

"Meeting in the Mess Hall, we are almost near Olympia." Ariana recognised Pipers voice easily.

She didn't respond with words, instead the daughter of Hades just nodded and listened as Pipers footsteps disappeared down the hall.

The other demigods were eating breakfast by the time Ariana had decided to show up (she was staring at her wall for ten minutes).

After Coach Hedge left on his shadow-travel expedition, Leo had decided that a three-legged table could do just as good a job as their
'adult chaperone'.

He had laminated Buford's tabletop with a magic scroll that projected a pint-sized holographic simulation of Coach Hedge. Mini-Hedge would stomp around on Buford's top, randomly saying things like:

"CUT THAT OUT!"

"I'M GONNA KILL YOU!" and the ever-popular "PUT SOME CLOTHES ON!"

Today, Buford was manning the helm. If Festus's flames didn't scare away the monsters, Buford's holographic Hedge definitely would.

Ariana stood in the doorway of the mess hall, taking in the scene around the dining table. Percy was 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."

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 Hazels, 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.

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."

"It's just cold." he said. Ariana could hear the pain in his voice.

"What's up, guys?" Leo exclaimed with a grin as he walked in. "Aw, yes to brownies!"

As he walked past Ariana, he ignored her. She wanted to scoff, since returning she had found out that the boy she had kissed )and had grown to love) found himself on Calypsos island and fell for her.

The worst part? Ariana didn't even hear it from Leo, instead Hazel had told her when Ariana spotted a drawing of Calypso.

Of course, like anybody would, Ariana confronted Leo and the pair got into a massive argument.