Wildflowers, Percy Jackson ₁

056, she should be at the club

CHAPTER FIFTY-SIX

₊˚࿐࿔ 𖥧‧₊⚘ ❀༉. 𓏲｡

Percy was gone by the time Sylvie woke up again.

It was Annabeth who was on "Sylvie watch" when her eyes fluttered open. Sylvie realized the pain in her arm had dulled down, but it wasn't gone; like a constant low buzzing noise in her ear. It was present, yet bearable.

Annabeth told Sylvie that Travis (and his group that definitely didn't steal) had returned with supplies, so Will healed her a little more while she slept. Her siblings had been taking turns watching her too, but Sylvie's wounded state stressed them so much that they had to take a break and start cooking for everyone again. The information that scared her the most, though, was that Percy had left because a Titan wanted to see him under a flag of truce with a message from Kronos. He left with Thalia and Grover, and while Annabeth wanted to go, she wanted to make sure Sylvie was okay much more.

"And, Sylvie," Annabeth said finally. "I have to tell you something."

Sylvie's eyebrows knitted, and she tried shifting up to properly absorb the weight to Annabeth's tone. But she was still pretty weak and drained, so just Annabeth guiding her back down was enough to keep Sylvie reclined.

"What is it?" Sylvie asked. Her voice sounded a lot stronger than before.

"It's about why Hermes is so mad at me," she admitted, and there was a little shame in her tone. "I wasn't going to tell anyone, but... you might understand."

Sylvie had a horrible feeling suddenly. It wasn't her poisoned arm, and instead a different wound that killed her slowly. Older siblings gone to a lost cause.

"Luke came to see me in San Francisco last year," Annabeth confessed.

"Like—In person?" Sylvie felt her heart rate rise, which didn't do the greatest of things to her injured body. "Like he came to your house?"

"This was before we went into the Labyrinth," she clarified, but she meant before Luke turned into Kronos. "He came under a flag of truce. He said he only wanted five minutes to talk. He looked scared, Sylvie. He told me Kronos was going to use him to take over the world. He said he wanted to run away, like the old days, and even forget Eurydice. He wanted me to come with him."

"But you didn't trust him."

"Of course not. I thought it was a trick. Plus... well, a lot of things had changed since the old days. I told Luke there was no way. He got mad. He said... He said I might as well fight him right there, because it was the last chance I'd get."

Fuck, Sylvie thought, so she said it.

"Fuck."

That was a lot. Sylvie didn't know how Annabeth kept that in for so long—Not that she felt angry about it, but if it had been Sylvie in that position with Eurydice knocking at her door, she wouldn't have been able to refuse her offer. She would've carried the weight of that conversation like a heavy burden, desperate to tell someone else about it. Annabeth was always so much stronger than her.