Sunburn- phoebus apollo

--iii. flashes of the battle come back to me in a blur

RHEA JACKSON

In all honesty, Rhea was having a really bad day. To be more specific, she was having a really bad week, and she knew it was only going to get worse from here.

As a seer, she was used to predicting doomsday, but most of that was just exaggeration. Now, she was being literal, because if things didn't go a very certain way, then it would literally be the end of the world.

But Rhea was pretty sure they'd be able to avoid that, as long as the Great Prophecy went the way she believed it would. Which meant she and Percy had to go along with Nico's plan.

And it was, in truth, a Very Scary Plan.

Rhea knew all about mythological precedent, and the last time someone had done what Nico kept pushing Percy to do, nothing good had come out of it. It'd been tragedy after tragedy; death after death. And yet they didn't have any other options. If the theory that her and Nico had been discussing lately was true, then Percy wouldn't have any chance of beating Luke if he didn't do what needed to be done.

Still, she could understand his hesitation. She wasn't super comfortable with the idea either, and she felt like she was flying in blind. 

Because Rhea felt very, very alone.

Her visions of the next few days were absolutely nothing good. Hazy glimpses of monsters and battles. Michael and Ethan falling to their deaths. The tempting trick of Pandora's Box. Luke Castellan bleeding out on Olympus's floor.

And that wasn't even taking in the theories she had about Rachel's ominous circumstances and Morpheus's role in the upcoming battle. Most of what Rhea saw was hopelessly confusing and plenty violent. The only real things she had to hold on to were her gut feelings, along with her friends' firm trust in her that she didn't feel she deserved. She just wasn't sure what exactly to do with herself now.

But she knew where they had to start. Nico did, too.

Mrs. O'Leary led them to him.

She'd taken off almost immediately after they came to visit her, and when Rhea and Percy managed to finally catch up to the hellhound, they found her in the clearing where the Council of Cloven Elders had once put Grover on trial—but it looked remarkably different from the way it'd looked last summer. The grass had turned yellow. The three topiary thrones had lost all of their leaves. And in the middle of the glade stood Juniper, Nico, and a satyr.

Nico was the only one who didn't seem frightened by Mrs. O'Leary's appearance. He was wearing the usual fit Rhea was used to seeing from him: an aviator's jacket, black jeans, and a shirt with dancing skeletons on it, while his Stygian iron sword hung loyally at his side. He was only twelve, she knew—but he looked much older and sadder. It always caused an ache in her chest whenever she saw him, but she supposed that after everything they'd went through, she should just be glad he was alive.

He nodded when he saw Percy, smiled briefly when he saw Rhea, then went back to casually scratching Mrs. O'Leary's ears.

The satyr, however, wasn't nearly as placid. "Will someone—what is this underworld creature doing in my forest!" He waved his arms and trotted on his hooves as if the grass were hot. "You there, Percy Jackson! Rhea Jackson! Is this your beast?"

"Yes, we're sorry," Rhea apologized, though Percy didn't look too sorry.

"You're Leneus, right?" he asked instead, which was about as tactful as he got.

The satyr rolled his eyes. "Well, of course I'm Leneus. Don't tell me you've forgotten a member of the Council so quickly. Now, call off your beast!"

"WOOF!" Mrs. O'Leary said happily.