Last Shadow || Deception Book III

Chapter 21

Clarianna 

Chiron was waiting for me at the Big House. As I made my way up the rickety wooden steps, I realised that an impromptu meeting had been called and I was the last to arrive.

"Oh good, you're here," Chiron said as I wordlessly slid into the chair across from him. "We can start now."

My gaze slipped across the rest of the people at this meeting. Percy, Annabeth, Grover, Nico. And Clarisse, Travis and Connor, the new head counselor or Apollo's cabin, and a bunch of other people I didn't know but presumed were the rest of the Head Counselors. Pollux wasn't here though, and neither were there any representatives from Apollo's cabin. All of them were either staring at the wooden table mutely, as if someone had drained all their spirits the way a vampire drained blood, or staring at me, their eyes unreadable. "I assume this is about Kronos?" I ventured, my voice flat.

Chiron nodded tiredly. "Rianna, you were the first lieutenant and right now, what we need more than anything is information."

I sighed. "I know nothing."

"I told you, she's not with us!" Clarisse snapped, pushing back her chair as she stood up abruptly. "Now if you'll excuse me, I have places to be."

My fingers twitched and tendrils of shadow erupted from the ground, grabbing Clarisse and pulling her back down into her chair with a thud. Hands reached for their weapons, only to be halted mid movement by my shadows. "If you say that one more time," I said, my grief and guilt bubbling over into frustration and anger. "I will, sides be damned, toss you into the godsdamn ocean."

Annabeth slammed her knife into the table. "Can we stop arguing for just one moment? If you've all forgotten, Rianna saved us, okay? If it wasn't for her, the person leading this attack would not have been Kampe but L–" she cut herself, her eyes reddening. "It would have been Kronos. And none of us would have survived."

"You're just upset over the fact that—"

"Enough," Chiron cut in. "I'll say it one more time. Rianna was sent to the Titan Army on orders of the Olympian Council. If any of you have questions or concerns, feel free to take it up with Zeus or Athena. I will not be having any more of this rhetoric about whether or not Rianna is an ally. She is one of us now, and that is it."

Clarisse and the other counselors lapsed into subdued silence. From beside me, Nico's hands silently slipped off the hilt of his sword. I wordlessly flicked my fingers again and the shadow restraints on the campers vanished into thin air. Clarisse shot me one more glare full of poison and hatred but she made no movements to leave.

"I don't know anything," I repeated again. "Something will happen next summer. But you all know that," I nodded at Percy, "He turns sixteen next year."

"There's one thing I don't understand," Silena said, staring at me. I flinched. I hadn't realised she was here. Oh shit, what do I do? Call her out for being a traitor? Pretend I didn't know her? Did she know I had actually betrayed Kronos or did she think I was pretending to be an ally of the Camp? Just pretend, a voice whispered to me in my mind. What's another lie?

I had just told Ally I was done with lies. I almost laughed. This was some sick joke I was in, it seemed. However, before I could make up my mind, Silena asked, "Why didn't you kill Luke the whole time you were with the Titan army?"

"Good question," Clarisse said, her gaze pinned on me. "I would like to know the answer to that too."

"There was no point," I replied. "It didn't matter who it was. Luke or some other demigod, it didn't matter. Kronos was bent on reviving himself and he didn't care who he used as his vessel."