Ambrosia

Ch. 15: Asteria's Prison

When I wake, I hyperventilate as I cling onto the person holding me. Theo appears in front of me and holds my hand.

"You've finally woken up! I was so worried!" he hugs me tight.

My eyes remain widen and my breathing heavy as I stare in front of me. Theo furrows his eyebrows as he pulls away to look at me. He looks above my head with a worried look. The person behind me nods then moves me around. I come face to face with my best friend and I gasp. He raises an eyebrow.

"Ambrosia? What's wrong?" Asks Jack.

After that dream I had, it is hard for me to accept that this is reality. The trauma from the nightmare makes me not believe he's real. I slowly cup his cheeks and stare into his eyes.

"You're... real...?" I whisper.

He grabs my left wrist softly and nods, smiling a bit.

"Of course I'm real... Why wouldn't I be?" he asks, sweetly.

Tears stream down my cheeks as I hug him really tight. I never want to let go, ever. Not after that dream.

"Asteria trapped m-me inside a n-nightmare. A-all my fears i-in one big d-dream." I stutter while crying.

"What does that have to do with me?" he asks, stroking my hair to calm me.

"She killed you. She killed all the people I care about. But your death... It hurt me. I broke down. I couldn't breathe, Jack!" I am talking with an unusual fast tone.

He grabs my hands and squeezes them. I stare at him with a scared expression and he smiles a bit.

"I'm here now though. We all are. We're not going anywhere, I promise."

"You better not. Otherwise I'll come to the Underworld myself and kill you for leaving me." I smile a bit.

He smiles back then stands up and holds his hand out for me. I gladly take it then look around.

"We're not in Paris anymore... Where are we?" I ask.

"We're about an hour away from the Rhone. Ambrosia... You've been out for a whole day." Dianthe says.

My eyes widen. A whole day?! Why does this keep happening to me?

"A whole day..." I mumble.

"We stayed as long as we could back in the mountains but we needed to get going since time was running out." Jack frowns with an apologetic look.

"We had to carry you around everywhere. People kept giving us weird looks. They all thought we knocked you out or something. We just told them you were tired." Theo winks at me.

I raise an eyebrow then shake my head. Not even gonna ask.

"Then we should start going then. We don't have much time do we?" I ask.

"Less than two hours." I hear a familiar voice say.

Behind me, Apollo stands there with a worried expression.

"Apollo." I whisper.

"Are you alright? Last time I saw you... you passed out from-"

"Did you tell them?!" I almost scream.

"No! Was I supposed to?" he asks.

"No... They'll find out soon."

"Um... guys! We're right here!" Dianthe says, waving her hands to indicate they could still hear our conversation.

Sighing, I look to Apollo, unfortunately not touching back on the subject.

"What's the fastest way to the Rhone River?" I ask him.