Wildflowers, Percy Jackson ₁

064, payBACK (purple heart)

CHAPTER SIXTY-FOUR

₊˚࿐࿔ 𖥧‧₊⚘ ❀༉. 𓏲｡

It wasn't suitable to just put Rachel in the attic. They could all agree on that. Until they also agreed on where to actually let Rachel stay, Chiron suggested the guest room in the Big House (Apollo rooted for a cave in the hills with torches and a mysterious curtain over the entrance. They'd see about that.)

The rest of the day was as strange as the beginning. Campers trickled in from New York by car, pegasus, and chariot. The wounded were cared for. The dead were given proper funeral rites at the campfire.

Silena's shroud was hot pink, but embroidered with an electric spear. The Ares and Aphrodite cabins both claimed her as a hero, and lit the shroud together. No one mentioned the word spy. That secret burned to ashes as the designer perfume smoke drifted into the sky.

Florian's shroud—the one he'd designed himself—was also there at the funeral rite. But the Demeter kids didn't dare put up a shroud for Eurydice too. It didn't feel fair for hers to be burned with the same amount of respect as Florian Whitlock's. Eurydice Arandel didn't deserve the same amount of respect as Florian Whitlock. So they refused to even discuss Eurydice's death at all. It was hard enough to mention Florian's.

Eurydice may have not been given a shroud, but Ethan Nakamura was—black silk with a logo of swords crossed under a set of scales. As his shroud went up in flames, Sylvie hoped Ethan knew he had made a difference in the end. He'd paid a lot more than an eye, but the minor gods would finally get the respect they deserved.

Dinner at the pavilion was low-key. The only highlight was Juniper the tree nymph who screamed, "Grover!" and gave her boyfriend a flying tackle hug, making everybody cheer. They went down to the beach to take a moonlit walk, and Sylvie was happy for them, though the scene reminded her of Silena and Beckendorf, which made Sylvie sad.

Mrs. O'Leary romped around happily, eating everybody's table scraps. Nico sat at the main table with Chiron and Mr. D, and nobody seemed to think this was out of place. Everybody was patting Nico on the back, complimenting him on his fighting. Even the Ares kids—well, besides a hateful Phoenix—seemed to think Nico was pretty cool. Hey, show up with an army of undead warriors to save the day, and suddenly you're everybody's best friend.

Slowly, the dinner crowd trickled away. Some went to the campfire for a sing-along, but without Florian and most of the Apollo kids, Sylvie didn't see a point in attending. Others went to bed, but Sylvie wasn't interested in that either. Instead, Sylvie slid next to Percy who sat at the Poseidon table under the moonlight.

"Hey," she said softly. "Happy birthday."

In her hands she held a huge misshapen cupcake with blue icing.

Percy stared at her. "What?"

"It's August 18th," Sylvie said. "Your birthday, right?"

He just seemed to have noticed this—that this morning he'd turned sixteen. Sylvie didn't blame him. It was the same morning he'd made the choice to give Luke the knife. The same morning Sylvie made the choice to attack Eurydice. Percy seemed a little sad at this, and Sylvie couldn't handle the thought of his birthday being ruined for him.