Petals on The Moon || Reyna Ramirez-Arellano x Fem!OC

XIX

-ˋˏ ༻❁༺ ˎˊ-

Dear Diary,

I am incredibly bothered by Devon. There's something wrong with him. And there's something wrong with Suki's dad. Every time she sees him, she isn't herself. When she's away from him, she's better, but around him she gets... quiet. Sad. I don't like it one bit.

I especially don't like that a thirty-something-year-old man is so close to her. There's something wrong there, but I can't bring it up without it bothering Suki. And maybe it has to bother her for her to realize it's not normal, but I didn't get a chance to talk to her about it, because a huge storm was cooking and we needed to bring it up to Soledad.

"C'mon, pack your shit!" Sebastian ordered, stuffing all of his clothes in a duffel bag.

Suki neatly folded her things. "What could've hit the chair?"

"Maybe some kind of spirit," I said, "which would explain why we couldn't see it." Sebastian shrieked and fell to the floor as he tripped on a pair of pants. "We need to hurry up. If it starts storming-"

The door opened up and Michael walked in. "Devon took an Uber to the airport. Are you guys ready?"

Suki placed her last item in her bag and nodded. "Yes." I found it funny how she went to the trouble of folding her clothes, and still finished before Sebastian did.

"I'm going in with you," Michael said. "We're taking our own Uber towards the tunnel and walking the rest of the way. Who are your praetors?"

"Just Soledad," I said. "We're holding an election on the 24th of June."

"You just have one praetor?"

Suki pulled her bag over her shoulder. "The other one was kind of not good." Sebastian finally finished packing. "And nobody has a problem with Soledad's leadership. The two-praetor problem just isn't high on the priorities list right now. We need to explain some things. Remember that quest I told you about?"

"Vaguely."

Wow. He didn't even know his own daughter's heroics.

"That maze is still out there," Suki said. We left the room in total disarray and fled from the hotel. "And some of the gods are working with the Titans, like Somnus and Nemesis." He flinched at Nemesis's name. "There's probably even more."

We passed a window. The sky looked practically black from the incoming storm.

Michael cursed in Latin. "Could... Could that be Jupiter?"

"I don't think so," I said. "Why would he be attacking demigods?"

"He might be attacking the Titans," Sebastian suggested. "Let's see if a big lightning bolt hit the mountai-"

"He's not attacking the Titans," Suki interrupted. "It's not Jupiter. That storm is coming from Mount Othrys. It's spiraling out, not spiraling towards."

"Could it be Neptune?" I asked. "What if he and Jupiter are fighting?"

"That's a possibility," Michael admitted. "They're always fighting, but... are the seas violent?"