𝚢𝚘𝚞'𝚛𝚎 𝚘𝚗 𝚢𝚘𝚞𝚛 𝚘𝚠𝚗, 𝚔𝚒𝚍 - percy jackson x oc

021

XXI - DAMN THE HOOVER DAM

THALIA APPARENTLY DID KNOW how to drive after all.

They found a tow truck with a full tank of gas that was surprisingly able to start.

"The skeletons are still out there," Thalia reminded them. "We need to keep moving."

She navigated them through the desert. Zoë sat up front with Thalia. Grover, Valeria, and Percy sat in the pickup bed. The air was cool and dry, with bright blue skies like some sort of fairytale.

Except it was the farthest thing from a fairytale. Bianca was dead. She would never see the sky again.

"It wasn't your fault," Percy said to her. She turned to him, her curls blowing around her face freely. "Don't blame yourself."

Valeria nodded, but that did not ease her guilt whatsoever. She traced the ridges in the small figurine in her hand.

Gods, poor Nico.

He would be expecting a full report from his sister about her epic journey to save the goddess of the hunt. Valeria would have to break the news to him.

She supposed he was her sibling too.

The universe worked in cruel ways. Taking Nico's sister only to give him another. She would never be as great of a sister as Bianca. But gods, she would try to be.

Valeria's lower lip trembled. When she was younger, she had dream of going on a quest. To enhance her knowledge, to be something more than just the poor girl with no memories who was unclaimed.

Real quests were not like the past two summers. Real quests got people killed. Real quests took innocent lives.

And wars took even more. The inevitable war that was to come would be devastating.

Valeria frantically rubbed at her eyes, trying to stop her tears. She would not cry. Not now, not ever.

"Sunshine...."

Valeria barely had time to think before she was being enveloped in a hug. Her eyes widened so much that she was sure she looked insane.

She must have been frozen for too long because he pulled back and said, "Sorry, I thought—"

But then Valeria was throwing her arms around him and quietly sobbing into his shoulder. Percy whispered apologies as he held her.

"It should've been me," Percy said. "I should've gone into the giant."

"Don't say that!" Grover panicked. "It's bad enough
Bianca is gone. Do you think I could stand it if..." He sniffled. "Do you think anybody else would be my best friend?"

"Ah, Grover..."

He wiped under his eyes with an oily cloth that left his face grimy, like he had on war paint. "I'm...I'm okay."

But he was not okay. Ever since the encounter in New Mexico—whatever had happened when that wild wind blew through—he seemed really fragile, even more emotional than usual.

The tow truck ran out of gas at the edge of a river canyon. That was just as well, because the road dead-ended.

Thalia got out and slammed the door. Immediately, one of the tires blew. "Great. What now?"

Valeria could only see too many mountains and a canyon with a river.

"There's a path," Grover said. "We could get to the river."

Valeria squinted her eyes and saw a tiny ledge, barely big enough for the Mythomagic figurine, in the side of the cliff.

"That's a goat path," Percy said.