Daughter Of Light- Book 1: PJO

Chapter 34: I Kill a God. On Purpose.

The chariot touched down on the inside of the iron gates. I hopped off and together Thalia and I got Grandpa Helios off the back of the chariot. Will got Raph to his feet and he swayed dangerously. He looked pale and sweaty, and ready to pass out.

As angry and hurt as I felt I still furrowed my eyebrows.

"Are you all right?"

"...never ...never..better..." He mumbled.

Will was holding most of his weight now. And just about dragging him along the front lawn. Artimis ran up the steps and into the building. We had made it up the first step when the door was ripped open and Doctor Asclepius, Alistair, Lilly and a few others came pouring out of the front door. They swept Helios away and to my surprise Raph.  Will and I were kind of left behind on the front step.

I looked at Will and he looked just as worried as I did. I reached for his hand. He pulled me into a tight hug. My hair was falling out of it's twisted up do, my make up was smeared from crying.

"Hey. You guys wanna change?"

I let go of Will and turned to see Thalia walking back down the hall towards us. She tossed us each a backpack and pointed to the public bathrooms.

"Thanks Thalia." I mumbled.

Closing the door I slid down and crumpled into a heap on the floor and finally cried. I finally let out all the frustration and fear and hurt and anger. I felt the burning in my chest and stomach. My hands grew hot and tingly. With tears blurring my vision, I held my hands out to see, and as the anger built, and hurt from what I'd seen Raph do, my hands glowed. Then shone brighter and brighter, I could see my blood, like liquid gold in my veins. I sat and watched my hands glow until it faded with my tears. I was all out of tears. The glowing stopped and I pulled myself up and washed my face, scrubbing the make up off, leaving me with my plain old freckled face and natural tan.

I pulled all the pins out of my hair. My hair had somehow turned golden and red and blond, I ran my fingers through my hair trying to comb the tangles out. I braided my hair in two, just to keep it out of my face. I rummaged through the backpack and pulled out my jeans. No idea how Thalia found my jeans, but I pulled the dress off and dumped it into the corner. I kicked off the sandals. I wasn't going to wear it again as pretty as it was, it was from Aphrodite.  I ripped the jewelry off and tossed it as well. The only thing I kept was the charm bracelet. I pulled on a simple white t shirt and my sneakers on.

I picked by the backpack and it morphed into my old one. I smiled sadly, running my fingers over the patches, they were each given to me by dad at some point. I sighed and threw the backpack over my one shoulder and yanked the door open and found Will slumped and waiting. I sat down beside him. The bag on my lap, hugged tight to my chest.

"Sorry I took so long."

"It's okay. I knew you needed some...time."

I shrugged and looked away. I wrapped my arms around myself. I felt Will pull me into a hug.

"Sleep. Thalia said it might be a while."

"What...what happened..?" I asked quietly.

Will didn't need me to elaborate. He knew I was asking about Raph. I felt him sigh.

"Do you really want to know?"

"Please Will, I've had enough people lying and keeping things from me. I need to know."

I sat up and pulled a pen out of the side pocket. I looked sadly at it. It was the pen Raph had snatched from the arts and crafts table. With a grunt of anger I chucked the pen across the room. Will sighed, he leaned over and pulled a pack of markers out and handed them over to me. I started to draw on my forearm and Will leaned back and slowly explained what happened in the room with Raph, Eos and Artimis.