THE HEALER| Heroes of Olympus

eighteen

The Argo II was now parked on a hill overlooking the city. 

Jason, Hazel, and Frank had returned to the scene of the catastrophe, hoping to dig through the rubble and find a way to save Percy and Annabeth, but they'd come back demoralized. The cavern was simply gone. The scene was swarming with police and rescue workers. No mortals had been hurt, but the Italians would be scratching their heads for months, wondering how a massive sinkhole had opened right in the middle of a parking lot and swallowed a dozen perfectly good cars.

Dazed with grief, we carefully loaded the Athena Parthenos into the hold, using the ship'shydraulic winches with an assist from Frank Zhang, part-time elephant. The statue just fit, though what they were going to do with it, I had no idea.

Coach Hedge was too miserable to help. He kept pacing the deck with tears in his eyes, pulling at his goatee and slapping the side of his head, muttering, "I should have saved them! I should have blown up more stuff!"

Finally Leo told him to go belowdecks and secure everything for departure. He wasn't doing any good beating himself up.The eight demigods gathered on the quarterdeck and gazed at the distant column of dust still rising from the site of the implosion.

"It's my fault," Leo said miserably.

We stared at him. Only Hazel seemed to understand. She'd been with him at the Great Salt Lake.

"No," she insisted. "No, this is Gaea's fault. It had nothing to do with you."

"Leo, listen to me." Hazel gripped his hand. "I won't allow you to take the blame. I couldn't bear that after—after Sammy..."

She choked up. 

"She's right Leo," I said. "If it's anyone's fault it's mine. I wasn't fast enough to reach them...and if I had just had a vision about it instead of other useless images then maybe I would've known to stop it.."

"It's not your fault. You can't control what you see and when." Jasper said placing a comforting hand on my shoulder. "You did everything you could to save them." 

Tears still prickled my eyes. Percy and Annabeth had fallen into Tartarus and I blamed myself.

Nico di Angelo shuffled over, leaning on his black sword. "They're not dead. If they were, I could feel it."

"How can you be sure?" Leo asked. "If that pit really led to...you know...how could you sense them so far away?"

Nico and Hazel shared a look, maybe comparing notes on their Hades/Pluto death radar.

"We can't be one hundred percent sure," Hazel admitted. "But I think Nico is right. Percy and Annabeth are still alive...at least, so far."

Jason pounded his fist against the rail. "I should've been paying attention. I could have flown down and saved them."

"Me, too," Frank moaned. The big dude looked on the verge of tears.

Piper put her hand on Jason's back. "It's not your fault, either of you. You were trying to save the statue."

"She's right," Nico said. "Even if the pit hadn't been buried, you couldn't have flown into it without being pulled down. I'm the only one who has actually been into Tartarus. It's impossible to describe how powerful that place is. Once you get close, it sucks you in. I never stood a chance."

Frank sniffled. "Then Percy and Annabeth don't stand a chance either?"

Nico twisted his silver skull ring. His ring reminded me of Jasper's. "Percy is the most powerful demigod I've ever met. No offense to you guys, but it's true. If anybody can survive, he will, especially if he's got Annabeth at his side. They're going to find a way through Tartarus."