Wildfires, Heroes of Olympus ₂

053, oomfs are going through it

CHAPTER FIFTY-THREE
SILVIANA            DUVALL

Nine days.

Sylvie was falling, and her newfound knowledge abilities must've been kicking in, because now she was thinking about some old Greek poet who'd speculated it would take nine days to fall from earth to Tartarus. She was sure that wasn't a legend she'd known before.

Still, she hoped he was wrong. She'd lost track of how long she and Percy had been falling—hours? A day? It felt like an eternity. They'd been holding hands ever since they dropped into the chasm. Now, Percy pulled her close, hugging her tight as they tumbled through absolute darkness.

Wind whistled in Sylvie's ears. The air grew hotter and damper, as if they were plummeting into a wildfire. Her recently broken ankle throbbed, though she couldn't tell if it was still wrapped in black ivy.

The Titan godess Mnemosyne. Despite having no memories, being smashed by a car, and plunging into Tartarus, the Titaness had gotten her revenge. Somehow her black ivy had entangled Sylvie's leg and dragged her over the side of the pit, with Percy in tow. She might be down there still. She might be dead entirely. That was the least of Sylvie's worries, though, when she and Percy would probably be flatted on impact when they reached the bottom.

She wrapped her arms around Percy and tried not to sob—she'd already cried enough recently. It's not like Sylvie expected her life to be easy. Most demigods died young at the hands of terrible monsters. That was the way it had been since ancient times. The Greeks invented tragedy. They knew the greatest heroes didn't get happy endings.

Still, this wasn't fair. She had to endure her father's mental illness for sixteen years of her life. She had to be betrayed, stabbed, and tortured by her closest sister. She had to watch her favorite sibling die underneath her hands. She had to be ridden with constant anxiety and timidity that prevented her from breathing at times. She had to be stabbed a second time, this time by a poisonous knife, when protecting Percy. She had to lose Percy for seven months, thinking he had forgotten her, in the name of the "greater good." She had to forget Percy the moment she got him back. She had to lose sight of herself, break her ankle, fight past her pain, battle an ancient Titaness, and unlock a darker side of her power to defeat Mnemosyne that Eurydice would've been proud.

She had gone through so much just to retrieve that statue of Demeter. Just when she'd succeeded, when things had been looking up and she'd been reunited with Percy, they had plunged to their deaths.

Even the gods couldn't devise a fate so twisted.

But Gaea wasn't like other gods. The Earth Mother was older, more vicious, more bloodthirsty. Sylvie could imagine her laughing as they fell into the depths.

Sylvie pressed her lips to Percy's ear. "I'm sorry."

She wasn't sure he could hear her—but if they were going to die she wanted those to be her last words. Sylvie would never forgive herself for forgetting Percy, for the things she said. She hated herself even more for it. He had to know that. If she died, it would be under the weight of her guilt.