𝗪𝗔𝗜𝗧 𝗙𝗢𝗥 𝗠𝗘 ━━ l. valdez

xviii ━━ had a good run, a moment of warm sun (but i'm not the one)

04. chapter eighteen

━━━━━━━━ ( 💫 ) ━━━━━━━━

WE APPEARED ON THE HILLSIDE overlooking the River Acheron. The sun was just rising, making the water glitter and the clouds glow orange. The cool morning air smelled of honeysuckle.

I was holding hands with Leo on my left and Piper on my right. We were all alive and mostly whole. The sunlight in the trees was the most beautiful thing I'd ever seen. I wanted to live in that moment–free of monsters and gods and evil spirits.

Then my friends began to stir.

Nico realized that he was holding Percy's hand and quickly let go.

Leo staggered backwards. "You know... I think I'll sit down."

He collapsed. We all joined him. The Argo II still floated over the river a few hundred yards away. I knew that we should signal Coach Hedge and tell him we were alive. Had we been in the temple all night? Or several nights? But at the moment the group was too tired to do anything except sit and relax and marvel at the fact that we were okay.

We began to exchange stories.

Frank explained what had happened with the ghostly legion and the army of monsters–how Nico had used the sceptre of Diocletian and how bravely Jason and Piper had fought.

"Frank is being modest," Jason said. "He controlled the entire legion. You should've seen him. Oh, by the way..." Jason glanced at Percy. "I resigned my office, gave Frank a field promotion to praetor. Unless you want to contest that ruling."

Percy grinned. "No argument here."

"Praetor?" Hazel stared at Frank.

He shrugged uncomfortably. "Well... yeah. I know it seems weird."

She tried to throw her arms around him, then winced as she remembered her busted ribs. She settled for kissing him. "It seems perfect."

Leo clapped Frank on the shoulder. "Way to go, Zhang. Now you can order Octavian to fall on his sword."

"Tempting," Frank agreed. He turned apprehensively to Percy. "But you guys... Tartarus has to be the real story. What happened down there? How did you...?"

Percy laced his fingers through Annabeth's.

I happened to glance at Nico and saw pain in his eyes. I could tell that Nico was thinking a lot of things. Firstly, he was thinking how lucky Percy and Annabeth were to have each other. Nico had gone through Tartarus alone. Also, I knew him seeing Percy and Annabeth holding hands wasn't easy.

"We'll tell you the story," Percy promised. "But not yet, okay? I'm not ready to remember that place."

"No," Annabeth agreed. "Right now..." She gazed towards the river and faltered. "Uh, I think our ride is coming."

I turned. The Argo II veered to port, its aerial oars in motion, its sails catching the wind. Festus's head glinted in the sunlight. Even from a distance, I could hear him creaking and clanking in jubilation.

"That's my boy!" Leo yelled.

As the ship got closer, I saw Coach Hedge standing at the prow.

"About time!" the coach yelled down. He was doing his best to scowl, but his eyes gleamed as if maybe, just maybe, he was happy to see us. "What took you so long, cupcakes? You kept your visitor waiting!"

"Visitor?" I murmured.

At the rail next to Coach Hedge, a dark-haired girl appeared wearing a purple cloak, her face so covered with soot and bloody scratches that I almost didn't recognize her.