Heir of a Titan - Book 2 PJO

Chapter 45: Wait! Nope, I found Hope Again!

I sat huddled, in front of a dying fire. The stupid jar of Hope cradled in my arms. Hope seemed pretty useless to me right now. So many of my friends were dead. Rachel was acting weird. I watched s my dad was smacked out of the sky, Raph was still trying to fight for his life, I had lost so many of my Cabin 7 brothers. And my parents were asleep down in the streets somewhere while a monster army surrounded the building. Olympus was on the verge of failing, and I'd seen so many cruel things the gods had done: Zeus destroying Maria di Angelo, Hades cursing the last Oracle, Hermes turning his back on Luke even when he knew his son would become evil. Hera killing my mother.

Surrender, Prometheus's voice whispered in my ear. Otherwise your home will be destroyed. Your precious camp will burn.

Then I looked at Hestia. Her red eyes glowed warmly. I remembered the images I'd seen in her hearth—friends and family, everyone I cared about. I looked at Percy, I felt like crying. I could see the hopelessness in his eyes. I got up, holding the jar closer to my chest. My legs worked before my brain, I sat down beside Percy. He looped an arm around my shoulders. I laid my head on his shoulder. We sat quiet for a second before I sat up and looked at him. 

"Beckindorf...Selina, Lee, Michael, Castor...They didn't die for nothing. I wont let them die for nothing." 

 "Chris Rodriguez said something earlier...There's no point in defending camp if you guys die. All our friends are here." Percy signed.

I thought about Nico, standing up to his father, Hades: If Olympus falls, he said, your own palace's safety doesn't matter. I thought about how much Apollo loved my mother, and how much Hereme's did love May, how I loved Raph, and Percy and Will and Kayla and all my Camp Half blood family. I thought about how much Clarisse had loved Raph and Selina to become a beast in battle. There was good in the world, I felt the small ember of hope growing, it was tiny. But there was reason to fight. 

I felt vibrations of footsteps and glanced over my shoulder. Annabeth and Grover came back into the throne room and stopped when they saw us. I probably had a pretty strange look on my face.

"Percy?" Annabeth didn't sound angry anymore—just concerned. "Should we, um, leave again?"

Suddenly I felt like someone had injected me with steel. I understood what to do. Percy jumped like he had been electrocuted. 

He looked at Rachel. "You're not going to do anything stupid, are you?" He signed. "I mean... you talked to Chiron, right?"

She managed a faint smile. "You're worried about me doing something stupid?"

"But I mean...will you be okay?"

"I don't know," she admitted. "That kind of depends on whether you save the world, hero."

"Oh gross. Enough. Racheal, you know everything I told Chiron everything, you now know it all. The decision is now yours. And Percy was always off limits- I told you that many many times. You maybe blood family, but I'll fight you!"

I held Pandora's jar close and stood up. I looked hard at Percy, and raised my eyebrow. He understood exactly what I meant. He stood up and touched the jar. The spirit of Hope fluttered inside, trying to warm the cold container. We made eye contact again and we both nodded. Turning to Hestia. 

"Hestia," Percy signed, "We give this to you as an offering."

The goddess tilted her head. "I am the least of the gods. Why would you trust me with this?"

"You're the last Olympian," I signed. "And the most important."

"And why is that, Percy Jackson, Eleanora Blofis?"