𝐆𝐎𝐋𝐃 𝐑𝐔𝐒𝐇 [Jason Grace]

33

𝐏𝐢𝐩𝐞𝐫 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐉𝐚𝐬𝐨𝐧 𝐭𝐨𝐨𝐤 𝐜𝐡𝐚𝐫𝐠𝐞 of cleaning the lower deck, which had been thrown into chaos during the monster attack. Reorganizing sickbay and battening down the storage area took them most of the day, but Piper didn't mind. For one thing, she got to spend time with Jason. For another, last night's explosions had given Piper a healthy respect for Greek fire. She didn't want any loose vials of that stuff rolling through the corridors in the middle of the night.

As they were fixing up the stables, Piper thought about the night Annabeth and Percy had spent down here accidentally. Piper wished that she could talk with Jason all night—just curl up on the stable floor and enjoy being with him. Why didn't they get to break the rules?

But Jason wasn't like that. He was hardwired to be a leader and set a good example. Breaking the rules didn't come naturally to him.

No doubt Reyna admired that about him. Piper did too... mostly.

The one time she'd convinced him to be a rebel was back at the Wilderness School, when they had sneaked onto the roof at night to watch a meteor shower. That's where they'd had their first kiss.

Unfortunately, that memory was a trick of the Mist, a magical lie implanted in her head by Hera. Piper and Jason were together now, in real life, but their relationship had been founded on an illusion. If Piper tried to get the real Jason to sneak out at night, would he do it?

Sometimes she felt she didn't even know him. The way Dante insulted him so easily, like they had been good friends for years (yes, even though he insisted he hated Jason) Piper couldn't help but wonder what else she didn't know about Jason, what else even he didn't know about himself?

She swept the hay into piles. Jason fixed a broken door on one of the stables. The glass floor hatch glowed from the ocean below—a green expanse of light and shadow that seemed to go down forever. Piper kept glancing over, afraid she'd see a monster's face peeping in, but all she saw was an occasional school of herring.

As she watched Jason work, she admired how easily he did each task, whether it was fixing a door or oiling saddles. It wasn't just his strong arms and his skillful hands, though Piper liked those just fine, but the way he acted so upbeat and confident. He did what needed to be done without complaint. He kept his sense of humor, despite the fact that the guy had to be dead on his feet after not having slept the night before. Piper couldn't blame Reyna for having a crush on him. When it came to work and duty, Jason was Roman to the core.

Piper thought about her mother's tea party in Charleston. She wondered what the goddess had told Reyna a year ago, and why it had changed the way Reyna treated Jason. Had Aphrodite encouraged or discouraged her to like Jason?

Piper wasn't sure, but she wished her mom hadn't appeared in Charleston. Regular mothers were embarrassing enough. Godly glamour moms who invited your friends over for tea and guy talk—that was just mortifying.

Aphrodite had paid so much attention to both her friends Annabeth and Hazel, and herself. It had made Piper uneasy. When her mom got interested in somebody's love life, usually that was a bad sign. It meant trouble was coming. Or as Aphrodite would say, twists and turns.

But also, Piper was secretly hurt not to have her mother to herself. Aphrodite had barely talked about Jason. She kept mentioning how love could be misleading sometimes, how even demigods got fooled by the mist. She talked to Piper, but not about her relationship.

Which, Piper thought was a bit on the nose. Everyone knew Piper had fake memories of dating Jason before he came on the bus. But Piper had started feeling self conscious of her mother bringing that up again and again.