The Shadow Summoner | Book Three - PJO Universe

twenty

GIFTS

The next few days were almost as hard as battle itself. War leaves a huge mess that cannot simply be addressed with a mop and a bucket.

They leared the rubble and shored up the most precarious damaged buildings.

They put out fires, both literal and figurative. Terminus had made it through the battle, though he was weak and shaken. His first announcement was that he was formally adopting little Julia.

The girl seemed delighted, though Ariana wasn't sure how Roman law would work out adoption-by-statue.

Tyson and Ella were safely accounted for. Once Ella learned that Apollo hadn't messed up the summoning after all, she announced that she and Tyson were going back to the bookstore to clean up the mess, finish the Sibylline Books, and feed the cat, not necessarily in that order.

Oh, and she was also gratified Frank was alive. As for Apollo...Ariana got the feeling she was still making up her mind.

Peaches left them once more to go help the local dryads and fauns, but he promised them, "Peaches," which Ariana took to mean that they would see him again soon.

With Thalia's help, Reyna somehow managed to find One Eye and Short Ears, the abused pegasi from the emperors' chariot.

She talked to them in soothing tones, promised them healing, and convinced them to come back with her to camp, where she spent most of her time dressing their wounds and providing them with good food and plenty of open air.

The animals seemed to recognize that Reyna was a friend of their immortal forefather, the great Pegasus himself.

After what they'd been through, Ariana doubted they would have trusted anyone else to care for them.

They didn't count the dead. They weren't numbers. They were people they had known, friends they had fought with.

They lit the funeral pyres all on one night, at the base of Jupiter's temple, and shared the traditional feast for the dead to send their fallen comrades off to the Underworld.

The Lares turned out in full force until the hillside was a glowing field of purple, ghosts outnumbering the living.

Ariana noticed that Reyna stood back and let Frank officiate. Praetor Zhang had quickly regained his strength.

Dressed in full armor and his maroon cloak, he gave his eulogy while the legionnaires listened with awed reverence, as one does when the speaker has recently sacrificed himself in a fiery explosion and then, somehow, made it out alive with his underwear and cape intact.

Hazel helped, too, going through the ranks and comforting those who were crying or looking shell-shocked.

Reyna stayed at the edge of the crowd, leaning on her crutches, gazing wistfully at the legionnaires as if they were loved ones she hadn't seen in a decade and now barely recognized.

As Frank finished his speech, a voice next to her and Apollo said, "Hey."

Thalia Grace wore her usual black and silver. In the light of the funeral pyres, her electric-blue eyes turned piercing violet.

Over the past few days, they had spoken a few times, but it had all been surface talk: where to bring supplies, how to help the wounded.

They had avoided the subject.

"Hey," Ariana said, her voice hoarse.

She folded her arms and stared at the fire. "I don't blame you, Ariana. My brother..." She hesitated, steadying her breath. "You made a choice. Heroes have to do that and I'm thankful that you choice to save my brother."