A Demigod in Wonderland? (TWST x PJO)

Chapter 8

The air from my lungs rushes out fast. My throat closes up.

I'm choking on nothing.

....

It hurts. It hurts. It hurts. It hurts. It hurts. It hurts. It hurts. It hurts. It hurts. It hurts. It hurts. It hurts. It hurts. It hurts. It hurts. It hurts. It hurts. It hurts. It hurts. It hurts. It hurts. It hurts. It hurts. It hurts. It hurts. It hurts. It hurts. It hurts.

....

I'm sitting on the stairs, knees to my chest. Will was beside me, picking petals of the rose one by one. I watch him drop the petals one by one. He's counting them out loud.

One...Two..Three...

We pretend it's just the two of us. We pretend no one is looking at us. We pretend that it's silent. We pretend not to hear the screaming from inside.

A tall woman is standing across the street. She wore a long coat and a golden hat with a silver veil. I can't see her eyes. But I know she's watching us. 

Someone is always watching us. Even when others say they're not.

Will doesn't see her. I stare right back at her.

She smiles and holds out her hand, palm up. It's gloved. She blows something towards me.

Something sparkly floats to me. I catch it.

It was a black feather covered in golden dust. It was so soft and pretty. I hold it carefully in my hand. I look back at the woman.

She's gone.

Will is still counting the petals.

Forty-two... Forty-three... Forty-four...

We hear a loud slam of the door. And Mama walks out of it, angry and red. She's holding a suitcase behind her. She has her big coat on, the one that she wears whenever she goes back to school.

We stand up. "Mama, are you going away again? When will you come back?" Will asks. She sees us, and her frown goes away. She drops down and pulls us in for a hug. It is warm like the sun.

"I'm not going anywhere," she says, her voice soft. "You both are coming with me. We're all going to be together now. I'm not leaving you here."

 I put my head in her coat, holding it tightly.

"Where are we going?" Will asks again.

"Somewhere far, far from here." She says it like a secret only meant for us.

When we sit on the bus, the road out of town, I remember the feather again. I put my hand inside my pocket.

It's gone.

When I pull out my hand, I see a small shiny star on the base of my thumb. It looks like the sun.

My stomach lurches, and I breathe in sharply. The world is spinning more slowly now. I blink, still dazed. The spinning stopped.

My fingers were clutching something sharp. I stared at the pointy splinters of red-black wood on my palm. A black smoke emerges from it, odourless. It dissipates.

Then I notice the broken collar on the grass next to me. The crack is jagged on one edge and becomes slightly smoother as it runs across it.

I look at it and look back into my palm. Then look back at the collar again.

Two tall shadows fall on me. I look up.

Ace and Deuce are staring at me like I sprouted heads like a hydra. Grimm is between them both. And for the first time, he looks utterly speechless.