The Shadow Summoner | Book Three - PJO Universe

seventeen

GRIEF

APOLLO'S POV:

For the next few hours, Apollo's mind deserted him. He did not remember Tempest dropping them on the beach, though he must have done so.

Apollo recalled moments of Jason and Piper yelling at him, or sitting in the surf shuddering with dry sobs, or uselessly clawing gobs of wet sand and throwing them at the waves.

A few times, Piper slapped away the ambrosia and nectar Jason tried to give her.

Apollo remembered slowly pacing the thin stretch of beach, his feet bare, his shirt cold from the seawater.

He was sure his eyes were red from crying, but it the former god didn't care. All he cared about was wanting to hold Ariana one last time.

He regretted not telling the girl he loved her, because he did. He really did.

The plug of healing goo throbbed in his chest, leaking a little blood from time to time.

They were no longer in Santa Barbara. There was no harbor, no string of super-yachts, just the dark Pacific stretching before them.

Behind them loomed a dark cliff. A zigzag of wooden stairs led up toward the lights of a house at the

Meg McCaffrey was there too, her eyes red. Wait. When did Meg arrive? She was thoroughly drenched, her clothes shredded, her face and arms a war zone of bruises and cuts.

She sat next to Piper, sharing ambrosia. Apollo supposed his ambrosia wasn't good enough.

The pandos Crest squatted some distance away at the base of the cliff, eyeing Apollo hungrily as if waiting for his first music lesson to begin.

The pandos must have done what he had asked.

Somehow, he'd found Meg, pulled her from the sea, and flown her here...wherever here was.
The thing Apollo remembered most clearly is Piper saying she's not dead.

She said this over and over, as soon as she could manage the words, once the nectar and ambrosia tamed the swelling around her mouth.

She still looked awful. Her upper lip needed stitches. She would definitely have a scar.

Her jaw, chin, and lower lip were one gigantic eggplant-colored bruise. Apollo suspected her dentist bill would be hefty. Still, she forced out the words with steady determination. "She is not dead."

Jason held her shoulder. "Maybe. We'll find out. You need to rest and heal."

Apollo stared incredulously at him "Maybe? Meg, you didn't see what happened! She.. Ariana...the spear-"

Meg glared at Apollo, tears in her eyes. She did not say Shut up, but Apollo heard the order loud and clear.

On her hands, her gold rings glinted, though Apollo didn't know how she could have retrieved them.

Perhaps, like so many magic weapons, they automatically returned to their owner if lost. It would be like Nero to give his stepdaughter such clingy gifts.

"Tempest will find Ariana," Meg insisted. "We just have to wait. She'll be alright, it's Ariana Parker. She's a badass."

Tempest... right. After the ventus had brought Jason, Piper and Apollo here, Apollo vaguely remembered Jason ordering his horse to find Ariana.

There was still hope.

Tempest had raced off across the surface of the sea like an electrified waterspout. Now, staring at the horizon, Apollo wondered if he could dare hope for good news.