My Boyfriend is a Dead Roman Hero | Jason Grace

I Give Kansas a Snow Day

Julie's grilled cheese is full of stab wounds.

She's glaring down at it, frustration and terror plucking her rib bones like the strings of a poorly tuned guitar. She barely hears the others enter, too focused on the mushroom and spinach filled murder scene on her plate. Hazel's words still linger in her mind.

Six days.

She has six days. After that, her best friend will be dead.

"We'll make it." Piper tells her, placing her hand on Julie's back in what's probably meant as a soothing gesture. Instead, it gives her away. Piper's doubt burns through the skin of Julie's bare shoulder all the way through to the bone, searing through layers of skin and muscle like dry leaves in a forest fire. She tries to close her eyes against the feeling, but there are faces waiting for her in the darkness.

Lee. Michael. Charlie. Silena.

Phil.

She can't do it. Not Nico. Julie can't lose him too.

A wafting of cool, summer scented air brushes her senses, and she looks back up from her ruined meal. Jason marches through the door a moment later. He's wearing purple again. His hair is neatly combed and glistening gold against the wire frames of his glasses. His skin is still a bit pale from recovery, but his jaw is set as he moves towards the end of the table with the aristocratic grace of a seasoned, elite soldier. The grace of a prince.

The tangles in Julie's hair feel more apparent than ever. She tries to be subtle about removing them with her fingers.

Percy enters then too, whistling as he walks for the end of the table as well. Neither boy is paying much attention to the other until they both reach for the head chair.

There's a moment where the group falls into silence as the two stare at one another. Julie purses her lips at the sparks flying up from Jason's fingertips as Percy stares him down. She can't decide if she finds the tension between them amusing or terrifying. Especially once she sees the dangerous way Percy narrows his eyes.

Thankfully, Annabeth strides in then and takes the seat herself without even looking up from her tablet, leaving no room for argument. Percy sits down beside her, Frank on his left. Jason slides into the chair next to Juliette. Their knees knock together, and he reaches down to give hers an apologetic squeeze.

Percy's eyes narrow further.

The following meeting is one of the grimmest Julie's ever been a part of. It's pretty clear to them all that the screw up in New Rome was a permanent one - they can expect no aid from Reyna and Octavian's forces. On top of that realization, Nico's time constrained predicament settles in as the poisonous cherry on top of the sunday-from-hell that is this day.

At some point during Hazel's explanation, Jason's knee migrates back into Julie's space, pressing comfortingly against her own. She finds herself clinging to the contact - like she's bungee jumping over a vat of acid, and his presence is her only safety line. Her palm itches. It's prickling painfully. It's agitating her, and every word one of Julie's friends speaks feels like another nail in Nico's coffin. Especially when Piper recounts her visions. Especially, when Julie hears the words from the Sibylline books.

Wisdom's daughter walks alone,

The Mark of Athena burns through Rome.

Twins snuff out the angel's breath,

Who holds the key to endless death.

Vengeance for a princess scorned

Rears passage through the lion's horns.