𝐆𝐎𝐋𝐃 𝐑𝐔𝐒𝐇 [Jason Grace]

104

𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐧𝐞𝐱𝐭 𝐝𝐚𝐲, 𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐫𝐞 𝐰𝐞𝐫𝐞𝐧'𝐭 𝐦𝐚𝐧𝐲 𝐚𝐧𝐬𝐰𝐞𝐫𝐬.

After the explosion, Dante and Jason— free-falling and unconscious— were plucked out of the sky by giant eagles and brought to safety, but Leo did not reappear. The entire Hephaestus cabin scoured the valley, finding bits and pieces of the Argo II's broken hull, but no sign of Festus the dragon or his master.

All the monsters had been destroyed or scattered. Greek and Roman casualties were heavy, but not nearly as bad as they might have been.

Overnight, the satyrs and nymphs disappeared into the woods for a convocation of the Cloven Elders. In the morning, Grover Underwood reappeared to announce that they could not sense the Earth Mother's presence. Nature was more or less back to normal. Apparently, Jason, Dante and Leo's plan had worked. Gaea had been separated from her source of power, charmed to sleep and then atomized in the combined explosion of Leo's fire and Octavian's man-made comet.

An immortal could never die, but now Gaea would be like her husband, Ouranos. The earth would continue to function as normal, just as the sky did, but Gaea was now so dispersed and powerless that she could never again form a consciousness.

At least, that was the hope ...

Octavian would be remembered for saving Rome by hurling himself into the sky in a fiery ball of death. And if Dante had snorted and whispered Good riddance under his breath, no one had to know. Jason had been the most affected by Octavian's death, but even he was more devastated by Leo's sacrifice.

The victory celebration at camp was muted, due to grief— not just for Leo but also for the many others who had died in battle. Shrouded demigods, both Greek and Roman, were burned at the campfire, and Chiron asked Nico to oversee the burial rites.

The hardest part was afterwards, when the seven demigods from the Argo II, Dorian and Nico di Angelo met on the porch of a Big House that Percy called: The Big House.

Jason hung his head, even his glasses lost in shadow. "We should have been there at the end. We could've helped Leo."

Dante's heart beat so hard and fast he was wondering how no one else could hear it. He had known Leo's plan and he'd gone through with it anyway. He had known it would crush Jason and he had gone through with it anyway.

He tried to catch Hazel's eye but she had broken down crying.

"It's not right," Piper agreed, wiping away her tears. "All that work getting the physician's cure, for nothing."

"Dante, did you..." Hazel's eyes were red from crying, Dante changed his mind and couldn't bring himself to look at her. Wordlessly, he pulled out the chamois-cloth package, but when he unfolded the cloth it was empty.

"How?" Annabeth asked.

"In Delos," Dante began, his throat scratchy. Only Dorian's hand on his shoulder gave him the strength to speak. "Leo pulled the two of us aside. Hazel and me. He pleaded with us to help him."

Through her tears, Hazel explained how Dante had switched the physician's cure for an illusion— a trick of the Mist— so that Leo could keep the real vial. Dante told them about Leo's plan to destroy a weakened Gaia with one massive fiery explosion. After talking with Nike and Apollo, Leo had been certain that such an explosion would kill any mortal within a quarter of a mile, so he knew he would have to get far away from everyone.

"He wanted to do it alone," Dante said. Even as he said it, he felt like a fraud of a hero for letting Leo go through with it. "He thought there would be a slim chance that he, a son of Hephaestus, could survive the fire, but if anyone was with him... He said that Hazel and I, being Roman, would understand about sacrifice. But he knew the rest of you would never allow it."