My Boyfriend is a Dead Roman Hero | Jason Grace

Steal Sons of Three

Jason thinks he's been in denial all this time. He doesn't think he really got what's been happening.

He knows the prophecy. He knows Herophile's warning. He knows that Imperial Gold will stop his own heart before he'll ever let it pierce Juliette in his presence.

She won't be beating him down to Hades. That's a race he's never going to let her win.

That certainty right there - the complete understanding that Jason is never going to watch his girlfriend die - is probably the reason that he never quite understood just where she has been. What she's been going through.

But now Jason is holding her bow.

He's never seen anyone hold her bow except her. Not even Nico. Not even Percy.

And yet Apollo carries the little arrow charm on a string around his neck.

'She just gave it to me,' He'd told Jason. 'It's beautiful. I don't know why she trusted me with it.'

Jason knows. It hit him like a brick to his face the moment that he saw it.

She was never expecting to come back.

The sketchbook on his desk is filled with notes to Annabeth and Reyna. There's a page at the back completely dedicated just to Nico. Jason's spent weeks on it. He wanted there to be something left behind of him that might offer at least a little bit of closure.

This bow was going to be his murder weapon. Whether she meant it to be or not. And Jason has made that sketchbook into hers.

He's ashamed of himself. He's grateful. He's angry at her.

He's so incredibly conflicted.

The souls on the surface of the Stygian Ice in his hand are screaming all of those feelings right at him, and she isn't here to calm his inner storm with just a touch.

"Do you know where she is?" Piper asks, eyes a blazing sunset orange. "Have you known this whole time?"

Jason stares at the girl he's most recently let down, the air conditioned hallway silent and cold, the square bulbs in the ceiling stale and white and shadowing her features.

Piper's shaking. Her fists are clenched by her sides, and the braids in her hair are frayed like she hasn't slept in weeks. Like she's praying he's going to tell her no.

She looks terrified and angry, and Jason is the reason. But before this, she's had months of peace. After this, she'll move away with her father and finally have a childhood. He can't find it in himself to regret it. Not even when he answers her with a nod, and the flat of her palm cracks against his cheek.

Apollo gasps, hands flying to his mouth. Jason's glasses clatter to the floor along with Meg's jaw.

His instincts want him to defend himself. Jason tamps them down and lets Piper slap him again, this time in the middle of his chest. He flinches at the sting.

"You are a coward, Jason Grace," She spits, tears in her eyes. "A fucking coward."

He knows.

"You don't deserve her."

He knows that too.

"How long?!" Piper screams at him. Jason's eyes stay on the hallway floor. The tiles are the same ones as in his dorm room. Just dirtier. The classroom he emerged from has gone silent at her shouting. Piper hits his chest again. He feels the slap all the way through to his back. It echoes between his shoulder blades. "How long have you left her there?!"