Chapter Thirty-One:
A Sorceress' Island of Magic.
— Feeling more human and hooked
on her flesh, I lay my heart down
with the rest at her feet !
They were a Greek Tragedy.
Everything that occurred on their quests only proved such a profound statement. Annabeth Chase wept silently as she realized it. She'd managed to find Percy within the water after the explosion on the CSS Birmingham, but she'd been sailing aimlessly trying to find her best friend and Tyson. Her vision was silently obscured by the blurring tears that flooded her waterline, but she had a keen eye for the blonde hair she loved to braid and run her fingers through. She knew if she found Colette, Tyson couldn't be too far from the Sun's Daughter (right?). It was a while before she did find her best friend. Percy was still unconscious. Her breathing staggered in relief at the sight of a body floating right beside the rowboat she'd managed to get on. She was quick to reach out, her fingers trembling as she used every bit of her strength to pull the blonde onto the boat. She sniffled, slightly shocked to see Colette's dark blue and soaked backpack still latched onto the blonde's drenched body.
Percy had been the first of the two to wake.
Annabeth wiped a tear from her cheek. "Rest," she rasped out quietly, "you're going to need as much of it as you can get."
"Lettie?" Percy coughed out.
"I found her not that long ago, but she hasn't woken up yet." She knew the relief in her face was evident at her own declaration, but her eyes still darted to her best friend worriedly every now and then.
"Tyson?"
"Percy, I'm really sorry." She shook her head in a tactic to avoid looking at him. She hated that Colette being found gave him hope for Tyson, just to have it be crushed. "He may have survived," she tried to revive his optimism, "fire can't kill kim."
He only nodded and the two found themselves trapped in hopeless silence. Annabeth wasn't quite sure what to do either. Colette was usually their mediator. Without her, they were lost. It was a fact the brunette was slowly accepting. It was also dawning on her that she wasn't the only person in Colette's eyes.
She was going to have to share her best friend with Percy. And, as reluctant as she seemed about expressing it the way Colette did, she knew had feelings for him, too. They weren't as strong as they were for the blonde, but they were slowly blooming within her heart — no matter how hard she protested against it.
Colette gasped awake, immediately choking on all the water she'd nearly drowned in. She spluttered, coughing out heaps of ocean water back into the sea. Percy, despite being sluggish, rushed to pat her back in hopes of getting all the liquid out of her lungs.
"Putain," Fuck, she managed to croak out the curse through her dried and hoarse voicebox, "I hate the water." Her eyes were bloodshot from the salt in the ocean. Her hair was slicked back from how wet it was, and her clothes were clinging to her body for the same reason. Her eyes glanced up, not even squinting at the harsh sun that glared above them. The sunbeams only softened when she made direct eye contact with the enormous star. And, in a quick flash of light, she was dry again.
Annabeth felt the tears falling again. She threw herself into the blonde's arms, sobbing. "You have no idea how terrified I was." She blubbered through her cries. "I didn't know if you were gonna be okay!"
Another cough left Colette's lips, but one of her hands rested on Annabeth's waist. The ringed hand had snuck underneath the brunette's shirt, rubbing quick and comforting circles on the small of her back. Annabeth was the slightest bit confused on where her best friend's other hand was, but with a quick glance over the blonde's shoulder, she found the other locked with Percy's — rubbing circles on the back of his hand.
