The Five Demigods Who Saved Olympus | Book 1, 2, & 3

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Noelle needed to clear her mind. Her thoughts ate at her, keeping her awake and unable to rest like she should've been. She was tired, yes. But, she couldn't help but wonder how was she to keep her group safe. Her friends safe. Her family. She felt as if she failed them twice. Once in Nova Scotia, and again in Paris. She was by far the more experienced one in the group due to Hestia being persistent with her training and never really allowing her to rest. Yet, she felt like she was the weakest and that it was obvious to everyone around her. She thought about how Donovan was able to bring roots up from the ground to hold Cronus back long enough for them to get away. She thought about how Zander could quite literally shock someone to death, and his strength gave him the ability to fight Cronus in hand-to-hand combat. Amara could easily slice someone in half if she were provoked. And finally Heath. Heath could raise the dead. He could quite literally bring anyone he chooses back to life and have them fight for him like he was a puppet master and held the strings to someone else's life. They were all so great. Noelle felt she had nothing to bring to the table. Meanwhile, back at camp, the others grew worried for Noelle, wondering why she had been gone for so long.

"One of you should really go and check on Noelle. She's been gone for a while." Donovan said worriedly as he threw more sticks into the fire. The voice of Donovan awakened a tired Zander. Nobody responded, all just sat in silence.

"I'm serious. Someone should go look for her." Donovan said, throwing a stick in their direction to get their attention. Zander was the unfortunate one to get hit with it. He slowly turned around to face Donovan. He brought his hand up to the back of his head and rubbed it, wondering why he kept getting hurt on this trip.

"Heath, go look for your girlfriend." Zander yawned, turning back over to fall back asleep. Heath ignored what Zander referred to Noelle as and stood up from the bed of flowers.

"She better stay put." Heath sighed, picking up his coat and putting it on. From a far distance, an ear-piercing scream is heard. A scream Heath instantly recognized.

"Noelle!" Heath shouted, running into the forest. Noelle looked down at what had grabbed ahold of her ankle; a cold, skeleton hand with long fingers. She tried to kick off the hand with her free foot, but the grip around her ankle was tight. More hands came from out of the soil and began to wrap around her. Noelle tripped and fell to the dirt. She began prying the hands off of her body. Once she finished, she stood up and bolted away from the area. She turned her head back to see full-bodied skeletons crawling their way out of their unmarked graves. She screamed even louder and ran faster than before, becoming desperate to get away from them. Two minutes of running had passed, but to Noelle, it felt like hours. She stopped to catch her breath. She looked around but didn't spot anything out of the ordinary. She began to turn her head back in the direction it was before but stopped when she heard trees rustling from behind her. She slowly turned her whole body around to see what the noise was. Noelle then spotted a tall, slender figure standing behind a tree, its hand then extended out for her, waiting for her to take it's hand. She could see more slowly inching towards her. Her eyes widened at the sight before her. Noelle opened her mouth to scream, but nothing came out. She then felt a hand on her shoulder. She twisted herself around and held up a fist. She stopped herself when she saw that it was Heath. She sighed in relief and put her fist down.

"Did you see them?" Noelle asked frantically, turning her head to find the skeletons, but they were nowhere to be found.

"See who, Noelle?" Heath asked. When she didn't say anything, Heath placed his hands on her shoulders, shaking her to get her attention.

"Noelle, are you alright?" Heath asked, but once again, she didn't answer. He then put his fingers underneath his chin, turning her head to face to face him. He examined her face for any cuts, bruises, or gashes. Any sort of indication that she had gotten hurt.

"There's something behind those trees, Heath." Noelle whispered, tears brimmed in her eyes, making Heath even more concerned than before.

"What is it, Noelle? Show it to me." Heath said. Noelle began shaking her head.

"I'm not going back over there." Noelle stated.

"There were hands coming out of the ground, a-and then skeletons! Literal skeletons rising from the ground a-and they followed after me!" Noelle stuttered. The wind moved the trees, terrifying Noelle. She turned back to see what the noise was, but Heath turned her head back to him.

"Hey, hey. You're alright." Heath cooed.

"I won't let anything happen to you, alright?" Heath said, leaving her in her place and walking behind the trees to investigate. Heath looked in all directions, but didn't find anything.

"Why do you think were they trying to hold me there?" Noelle questioned, letting tears slip from her eyes. At that moment, she didn't care if he saw her cry. She was petrified.

"What?" Heath asked, turning to face her.

"They were holding me there. Why do you think that is?" Noelle repeated, holding onto her arms as she shook from fear.

"Holding you there?" Heath asked to confirm. Noelle shook her head instantly.

"Back at camp, Donovan suggested for someone to go look for you. Before I left, I just thought 'She needs to stay put'." Heath explained.

"You did that?" Noelle asked in a voice barely audible, but he heard.

"I guess I did. I'm sorry for the scare." Heath said, making his way towards her. He cupped her cheek in his hand, wiping away tears that fell from her chocolate brown eyes with his black, leather glove.

"A-and you came running? When you heard me scream?" Noelle asked unsure, biting her lip.

"Of course I did, Noelle." Heath said, wrapping his arms around her. The display of affection surprised her, but she hugged back once she got over her shock. He placed his hand behind her head, bringing her closer to him. She placed her forehead on his shoulder and took in his scent. It was a familiar scent. A scent she couldn't quite place her finger on, but it felt like home. After a moment, Noelle backed up far enough to look up at him but still held onto him, as did he. Neither wanted to let go. She noticed while staring into his eyes, her fear washed away. Noelle mindlessly moved her head towards his. She was close enough to feel Heath's cold breath on her lips. She stared deep into his sky-blue eyes. Heath's hand moved back to her cheek. She leaned into it, keeping intense eye contact with him. Heath inched closer to her, about to place his lips onto hers, but stopped when he heard a loud roar, shaking the ground.

"What was that?" Noelle asked.

"I don't know. It sounded like it was coming from over there." Heath said, pointing to the right of him.

"We should go." Noelle said.

"Yeah, we should." Heath said, not wanting to forget about the moment the two of them just had. Noelle was just about to walk off and head towards to direction of the noise when Heath grabbed ahold of her wrist.

"I think we should talk about this later." Heath said. Noelle blinked at him before swallowing hard.

"Talk about the skeletons rising from the ground?" Noelle asked. She knew what he meant, but in all truth, she was scared. She had already gotten close enough, and she feared getting closer.

"You know what I'm talking about, Noelle." Heath said, giving her a serious look.

"No, I don't. I have no idea what you're talking about. Nothing happened." Noelle said.

"Don't shut down now. We were doing so well." Heath said with a sad face.

"Nothing happened, Heath." Noelle repeated. Just then, a scream was heard in the direction of the loud roar they heard moments before. Heath sighed, taking Noelle's warm hand into his cold one. Heath turned to her and said,

"We've got to go."