¹ON THIS SPRING DAY. p. jackson

001.

ON THIS SPRING DAY
━━━━━ chapter one

━━━━━ VIOLET KNEW SOMETHING was wrong. Something had been wrong. And something was going to go wrong—something horrible. However, whenever she tried to say anything, her heart got lodged in her throat, stopping the words from coming out. She gave up, choosing to just go on patrol with Silena.

               The daughter of Aphrodite seemed happy to have Violet for company, but they both were quieter than normal. Both knew the other had something heavy on their mind, but both came to a silent understanding that if the other spoke, then they would come clean—but neither spoke. Uncomfortable, suffocating silence settled between them. Or perhaps that was just on Violet's end; she always struggled to let silence stay what it was, always having the urge to break it.

               Violet knew what was bothering Silena—Beckendorf, her boyfriend, was sent on a mission to sink the Princess Andromeda. To say Silena was upset would be an understatement. It was taking a toll on her mental health—it wasn't odd to glance over and see the daughter of Aphrodite with tears in her eyes. Silena had begged Beckendorf not to go, but he had to; he was one of the best demigods at creating. He could create anything you wanted, including traps. And for the mission to sink the Princess Andromeda, they needed to sink that monster-infested cruise ship.

               And Violet understood how worried Silena was. Percy was going on this mission, too. Beckendorf was an obvious choice when it came to rigging traps; Percy was the obvious choice to take because of his son of Poseidon status. Of course, Violet and Percy weren't dating—unlike Silena and Beckendorf—but Violet couldn't deny the fact she liked the son of Poseidon.

               Violet was hoping going on border patrol would help them take their minds off things, but Violet seemingly had been hoping incorrectly. The daughter of Aphrodite was barely paying attention to the patrol—her glassy eyes kept darting to the horizon like she was expecting Beckendorf and Percy to be flying in heroically on the back of a pegasus.

               She tried many, many times to get Silena to talk. Violet was hoping acting as if everything was normal would be a way to cheer the girl up. But that didn't work—Silena was pretty tight-lipped, smiling whenever Violet would talk, but not entertaining a conversation. So Violet let the silence settle, even if it was against her nature. She hoped that just being there for Silena—when, or if, the daughter of Aphrodite wanted to talk—would help.

               Then, Violet's ears started ringing. She gasped, plugging her ears, crouching closer to the ground.

               Silena's expression morphed into confusion then worry. "Violet, are you okay?!"

               "No—I mean, yeah," gasped the daughter of Eros. "Just, um, tinnitus. It'll go away in a minute."

               But Violet knew it wouldn't. She knew what the ringing meant—someone had just died. It was a sensation she had started to understand last summer, the summer she and her friends explored the Labyrinth. Then, since Daedalus was still living, Violet heard a faint beating—Daedalus's heart rate. She had felt something similar much before; the winter Artemis and Annabeth needed saving. Violet's ears rang like a choir was inside her skull as she watched Zoë take her last breaths.

               Silena could tell it wasn't going to go away. She crouched beside Violet, placing comforting hands on the daughter of Eros's shoulder. "Violet, love, what's going on?"