Home Is Where The Heart(h) Is

Chapter 13: Shattered

Percy thought he had seen long queues at Macy's on Black Friday, but it was nothing compared to the waiting line in the underworld.

As he stood on a hill where he had initially appeared when he entered, five feet from the summit and slowly shuffling forward, courtesy of the five or so people that were queuing, he had a lot of time to think.

Not to say he had a lot of thoughts clouding his head; quite the contrary rather, he only thought about what he had left behind. His mom, his stepdad, Poseidon, his friends at Camp Half-blood, Tyson, Grover, Annabeth...Hestia.

He could not suppress a sigh escaping his lips. So many things, he thought, so many things to tell you, and I can't. Regret hardened around his heart like concrete. When should he have told her the things he wanted to tell? When should he have opened his mouth to speak his heart and truth? Why didn't he have the courage to pour his soul out for her?

Those questions surrounded Percy. He thought he heard voices repeatedly echoing them into his head. He knew a thing or two about unknown voices whispering into his mind, but the voices sounded like his friends and family. They sounded melancholy, lamenting of what could have been. Though he knew it was almost impossible for someone like Hestia, chaste and uncapable of romance, to love him, he just wanted to say, all these things, he wanted...to say.

And what of now?

Percy Jackson felt wetness drip from the sides of his cheek. For a second, he felt human again, breathing and living flesh and blood, with a beating heart. Then it faded into the void of despair.

No more.

~

It will work.

Annabeth had been chanting those three words inside her head like a mantra for the past half an hour. She had connected the dots. The fennel stalk would bring Percy back. She wasn't sure how, but she knew Hestia and Percy were close. It would most definitely have some effect.

She was skilled at analysing facial expressions, an ability a child of Athena should possess. She recognised Hestia's as embarrassment, slight fear, but also an expression that Annabeth thought she would never see on the goddess of the hearth.

When she had discovered Hestia's secret through this, Annabeth was slightly mortified. Hestia falling in love? What in the name of Hades was this? Nevertheless, she put that thought at the back of her mind, likely because Hestia did not look like she wanted to discuss her feelings, and also because they both had a more pressing matter on their hands.

At first reaction, Annabeth was not particularly infuriated about this, like how other mortal girls would react if they found out their boyfriend had a second lover, nor did she spite Hestia. Percy's and her adventures together taught her that much. However, she did want to talk to him. She may have been forgiving towards Percy in her discovery, but at the very least, she deserved that much.

Annabeth pushed those thoughts aside. That would have to wait, she told herself. She had been watching Hestia for the past few minutes who was holding the fennel stalk in her fingers delicately. Jets of fire issued from her fingertips. Her eyes were molten gold.

A yellow light, like the light at dawn, enveloped Hestia. She rose into the air, hovering three feet above the ground, almost touching the ceiling of Annabeth's room. Annabeth unconsciously backed away, eyes widened.

Then, in a voice as clear as a mountain stream, melodious as a harp and resonant like ripples in a river, Hestia said, "Yes, I see Perseus." Her voice did not seem to be Hestia speaking those words, like someone else were controlling it, for the voice held no emotion at the name. However, Annabeth was confident that the outsider was not hostile.