My Boyfriend is a Dead Roman Hero | Jason Grace

I Crash My Boyfriend's Funeral

Frank is a little bit scared of Juliette.

Frank is also a little bit scared of Percy, though. It's sort of insane to him that those siblings aren't blood related, because they're the same equal mix of terrifying and airheaded.

Or hardheaded, Frank hopes.

"Do you think she's okay?" He mutters to Hazel, squinting up at the ripples in Terminus' forcefield. He cringes in sympathy as he watches Juliette's green scaled wyvern shake its head, dizzy following her very very loud and painful looking collision with the barrier god surrounding Camp Jupiter.

Hazel's hand slips into Frank's. Her fingers are trembling. He glances at his girlfriend in concern and finds her eyes are trained across the square still.

On the pyre.

Where their friend is lying atop it, clad in shining gold armor and a purple praetorean cloak.

"No."

Frank closes his eyes. He squeezes Hazel's hand.

For a moment, he'd forgotten where they were standing.

"BEGONE, DAMNABLE WEAPON!"

"Frank." Reyna turns her stern gaze on him.

It isn't hard to guess his colleague's meaning, even with the dark circles under her eyes. He kisses the back of Hazel's hand and nods, shifting himself into an eagle and taking flight. As he soars up to where Juliette's talons are poking Terminus' borders inwards like stretched, wet clay, Frank finds himself preparing for the worst.

Apollo's told them all what happened to her. From the little time that he's spent with the god, though, Frank wonders just how much might have gone right over the man's head. Who knows what Julie has really been through? And now...

The unlit pyre down below already feels scorching hot. Frank shakes out his wings and welcomes the sudden chill that comes with passing through Terminus' forcefield.

"Ah! Praetor Zhang! Honorable Roman demigod!" Terminus' floating face greets him. "Assist me in removing this abomination from the Pomerian Line!"

Juliette screeches in frustration and slams her forehead into the god's so hard that ripples echo all down the dome. She backs away, blinking dazedly, and Terminus shouts his outrage.

"SCOURGE OF THE EMPIRE! MONSTROUS LEECH! I AM SLAPPING YOU FOR YOUR INSOLENCE! DO YOU FEEL THAT?!"

She roars in response. Frank caws loudly, and they both fall begrudgingly silent, looking to him.

Gods, now what?

His friend's draconic form fully swallows him up in its shadow. Her scales are filthy, covered in a strange black sediment. She has long scars down the undersides of her wings like someone hacked their webbing apart. They disappear beneath two heavy looking golden shackles fastened to the base of each wing. She's panting like a dog, and Frank's avian instincts squirm in uncomfortable sympathy at the tired tremble in her shoulders.

How fast did she fly here?

Frank chirps at her in greeting. The feral glint in her eye dims a little. She nods her enormous head at him, and he turns to Terminus.

One caw for entrance. Two for 'shields up.'

"Caw!"

"WhAT?! THIS CORDOLIUM IS SHACKLED BY THE ENEMY-"

"CAW!"

He looks scandalized. Affronted. But, with a scoff, he relents. Terminus wiggles his nose, and a rectangle of the protective dome opens up like a midair sliding glass door. Frank expects Julie to zoom right through it. Instead, she just stares at it for a moment, exhausted wings holding her airborn.