The Winds Of Heaven (Annabeth Chase x Male Reader)

36. The Hunt Begins

Instantly Annabeth sensed this was a dream. For weeks she'd been sleeping in the open as she searched for Percy across the United States with Y/N, Grover, Piper, and Jason. Her back was used to the ground, regardless of its nature—rocky, muddy, uneven. Now she stood inside the cabin of Athena, aware that a few States separated her from Camp Half-Blood.

Cold filled the cabin. She rubbed her hands, but she could get no warmth in them. There was an odd comfort in the cold, though, as if it were a shield. A shield against what, she could not figure. Something murmured in the back of her mind, a dim sound only vaguely heard, scratching to get in.

"You will give him up. It is the best thing for you. Come. Sit, and we will talk."

Annabeth turned to look at the speaker. The bunk beds scattered in the room were empty except for the lone woman seated in a corner, in the shadows. The rest of the room seemed in some way hazy, almost an impression rather than a place, especially anything that she was not looking at directly. Somehow, it didn't bother her. It should. But she couldn't have said why.

The woman beckoned, and Annabeth walked closer to her table. Now the room was filled with square tables. Frowning, she reached out to touch the tabletop, but pulled her hand back. There were no lamps in that corner of the room, and despite the light elsewhere, the woman and her table were almost hidden, nearly blended with the dimness.

Annabeth had a feeling that she knew the woman, but it was as vague as what she saw out of the corner of her eye. The woman was in her middle years, dressed in a long brown sleeveless dress. She sat straight, commanding. Weirdly she kept her eyes closed, yet Annabeth felt they were staring right at her.

"Give up who?" she asked.

"Him, of course." The woman nodded to a Polaroid shot on the table that showed Y/N, smiling as he talked to someone else out of the picture. She sounded surprised, as if it were a conversation they had had before, an old argument taken up again.

Annabeth hadn't realized the photo was there. She took it in her hand. The paper felt . . . solid. More solid than anything else there. Maybe even more solid than she was herself. She kept it in her hand, to hold onto something real.

"I have thought of it," she said, "but I don't think I can. Not yet." Not yet? The room seemed to flicker, and she thought, No!

"No?" The woman smiled, a cold smile. "You are a leader, girl. And a good one. You were made to lead, not deal with a boy who can't handle his own emotions. Go back to that before it's too late."

Annabeth found herself nodding. "Yes. But he needs me." I have told her that already, she thought at the same time. She was sure of that, though she couldn't say why.

For an instant the woman's smile became a grimace, but then it returned in more strength than before. A cold strength. "There are ways to change things, girl. Ways to avoid even fate. Sit, and we will talk of them." The shadows appeared to shift and thicken, to reach out.

Annabeth took a step back, keeping well in the light. "I don't think so."

"At least have a chat with me. To years past and years to come. Here, you will be more relaxed after." The woman patted a chair next to her that had not been there a moment before.

Annabeth peered at the woman's face. The shadows seemed to shroud the other woman's features like Hades's Helm of Darkness. Darkness molded the woman like a caress. There was something about the woman's calmly shut eyes, something she thought she could remember if she tried hard enough.

"No," she said. "I don't want to."

She turned and started for the door. Now the room wasn't her cabin anymore at all; a few long tables lined by benches filled the room, and a fireplace with rounded river stones warmed the air. She suddenly wanted to be outside, anywhere away from this woman.