𝗪𝗔𝗜𝗧 𝗙𝗢𝗥 𝗠𝗘 ━━ l. valdez

xiv ━━ i knew too much (there was danger in the heat of my touch)

02. chapter fourteen

━━━━━━━━ ( 💫 ) ━━━━━━━━

𝐀𝐓 𝐋𝐄𝐀𝐒𝐓 𝐓𝐇𝐄 FOOD AT CAMP JUPITER was good. invisible wind spirits—aurae—waited on the campers and seemed to know exactly what everyone wanted. they blew plates and cups around so quickly, the mess hall looked like a delicious hurricane. if you got up too fast, you were likely to get beaned by beans or potted by a pot roast. i got souvlaki—my favorite food when i was younger and living in athens. i also got a side of teddy grahams which was my favorite snack when i was homeless for a month and had to resort to stealing from target. percy jackson got a cheeseburger and a strange-looking soda that was bright blue. i didn't understand that, but percy tried it and grinned.

"this makes me happy," he said. "i don't know why... but it does."

i knew percy was older than me by about two years, but he was honestly adorable. the original shock of meeting the percy jackson wore off and now he was just a silly little guy.

just for a moment, one of the aurae became visible—an elfin girl in a white silk dress. she giggled as she topped off percy's glass, then disappeared in a gust.

the mess hall seemed especially noisy tonight. laughter echoed off the walls. war banners rustled from cedar ceiling beams as aurae blew back and forth, keeping everyone's plates full. the campers dined roman style, sitting on couches around low tables. kids were constantly getting up and trading places, spreading rumors about who liked whom and all the other gossip.

as usual, the fifth cohort took the place of least honor. their tables were at the back of the dining hall next to the kitchen. that table was always the least crowded. tonight it was hazel, frank, percy, nico, me and centurion dakota, who sat there because he felt obligated to welcome the new recruit.

dakota reclined glumly on his couch, mixing sugar into his drink and chugging it. he was a beefy guy with curly black hair and eyes that didn't quite line up straight, so i felt like the world was leaning whenever i looked at him. it wasn't a good sign that he was drinking so much so early in the night.

"so." he burped, waving his goblet. "welcome to the percy, party." he frowned. "party, percy. whatever.

"um, thanks..." percy said, but his attention was focused on nico. "i was wondering if we could talk, you know... about where i might have seen you before."

"sure," nico said a little too quickly. "the thing is, i spend most of my time in the underworld. so unless i met you there somehow—"

dakota belched. "ambassador from pluto, they call him. then he got a little sidekick, daughter of that one underworld river titan or something. reyna's never sure what to do with them when they visit. you should have seen reyna's face when this guy showed up with hazel, asking reyna to take her in. um, no offense."

"none taken." nico seemed relieved to change the topic. "dakota was really helpful, standing for hazel."

dakota blushed. "yeah, well... she seemed like a good kid. turned out i was right. last month, when she saved me from, uh, you know."

"oh, man!" frank looked up from his fish and chips. "percy, you should have seen her! that's how hazel got her stripe. the unicorns decided to stampede—"

"it was nothing," hazel said.

"nothing?" frank protested. "dakota would've gotten trampled! you stood right in front of them, shooed them away, saved his hide. i've never seen anything like it."