Chapter Twenty-Eight:
Reunited With The Traitor.
— Rushing to shore to meet her, foaming
with loneliness. White hands to fondle
and beat her, give her his onliness !
Fury wasn't something that waned easily.
Everything to do with anger stemmed from the heart and slithered to the mind, poisoning every one of the other emotions. Colette Victoire was incredibly familiar with fury. It was an emotion she'd grown close with since the betrayal of her once honorary brother. The worst part about the betrayal was that she understood why he did it — where he was coming from. How could she not? He told her everything about his quest, how his father — the one who was supposed to love and care for him — not only set him up for failure, but ruined his mother. When Luke returned to camp, he didn't want anyone to see him. His stubborn nature frustrated Chiron to no end. He didn't relent until the centaur had offered for Colette to heal him. That was when Luke agreed. She was the only one he let see him. She was the only one he opened up to. He knew that when the day came for him to turn his back on camp, she would be the one to understand him.
She hated that she did more than anything. She wished she could've been ignorant to his hurt; Hating him would've been so much easier then. By the gods, did she hate him. But every ounce of the hatred in her soul was softened by the vast amount of sympathy she held for him — for all that had been done to him.
Colette felt a ringing in her ears, causing her to tune out the conversation between Annabeth and Percy. She could hear bits, something along the lines of volunteering to scout ahead, it being too dangerous to go alone, and everyone going or no one at all. She didn't come to her senses until fingers intertwined with hers and the Cyclops accompanying them spoke.
"Nobody!" Tyson voted(?). "Please?" The poor, oddly sweet Cyclops.
In the end, he followed the demigods, nervously biting at large fingernails. The four stopped by their cabin to gather their things. Colette remembered her father warning her to take her backpack everywhere, so she refused to leave without it. Percy seemed to protest when Tyson offered to carry the three duffel bags, but Annabeth cut in and handed hers to the Cyclops, making Percy copy her. The younger son of Poseidon carried all three bags without problem, it probably felt light to him.
The four of them snuck through the corridors, following the ship's YOU ARE HERE signs toward the admiralty suite. Annabeth, despite Colette's hissed warnings, scouted ahead invisibly. They hid whenever someone passed by, but the people were glassy-eyed passengers in a trance.
As they went up the stairs to deck thirteen, where the admiralty suite was supposed to be, Annabeth's invisible figure halted, her steps quickening toward them. "Hide!" She hissed and shoved them into a supply closet.
A few guys were walking down the hall. "You see that Aethiopian Drakon in the cargo hold?" One of them asked.
The other laughed. "Yeah, it's awesome."
Annabeth was still invisible, but she squeezed Colette's bicep tightly. That was all it took for it to dawn on the blonde; She knew who was speaking quite well — as well as she knew most of the Hermes campers, claimed and unclaimed alike. It made her squeeze her eyes shut.
"I heard they got two more coming." The Latino voice replied. "They keep arriving at this rate, oh, man — no contest!"
