Invictus

Twenty

[motu proprio]

"What?!" Tessa demanded, her heart panging in fear.

Kaden's face lacked its normal pallor. He ran his fingers through his hair, walking back to the living room with Tessa at his side. "Flynn's entered shock. We need to get back to Camp Jupiter right now."

Instantly, Tessa's mind turned to Amelie or Kaya. One of the girls could summon a portal to whisk them all back to camp...the only problem was that neither of them were here.

Imogen poked her head around the corner, her defined eyebrows drawn taut. "What's wrong?"

Tessa exhaled shakily, meeting the daughter of Cupid's gaze. "Can you call Kaya and ask her to open a portal for us?"

Imogen's jade eyes flickered with concern. "Should I be worried?"

Tessa and Kaden's silence was answer enough. The blonde girl nodded curtly, digging out her cell phone and walking out of sight.

Kaden went to rally the troops, darting from pod to pod of their friends around the first floor of Tessa's house. In the meanwhile, Tessa found herself staring out the foggy windows of her home, at the snow falling in clumps into the night. The whisper flakes no longer looked enchanting and welcoming; instead, they looked like flakes of ash falling to earth, remnants of a world now burnt to pieces.

Your fault, your fault, your fault, the voice in the back of Tessa's head whispered. Images of her life before all this flickered through her mind like flames. Herself and her mother smiling happily and laughing to the TV, burnt to ash; Kaden's warm smile turned into his shuddering sobs after Collin had been killed, surrounded by flames; Flynn's sunny personality, now dark from his endeavors, crumpled into embers.

"Tessa?" Madi's voice shook Tessa out of her reverie. The second daughter of Poseidon took one look in her sister's eyes and knew exactly what was going through her head, it seemed.

"Come on," Madi said softly, nodding towards the rest of their friends. "It'll be okay."

She didn't sound so sure.

~~

Eli, as always, was a one-man welcoming committee of panic. As soon as Tessa set foot through the portal, the son of Ahklys darted over from where he was standing. His white hair was on end, his arctic blue eyes electric with stress.

"Thank the gods!" Eli threw his head back to beseech the ceiling before returning his gaze to the people before him.

"Any updates on Flynn's condition?" Kaden asked, immediately stepping into pace with the jittery son of Ahklys. Tessa jogged to stand at the side of the two boys, their friends following in their wake.

Eli shook his head. "He's still seizing, and when he stops, his heartline goes flat."

They turned a corner, and Eli hurried ahead to the room at the end of the hall. Tessa knew she wasn't prepared to see her friend in such a state, but nothing prepared her for the sight she walked into.

True to Eli's word, Flynn was having what looked to be a shock-induced seizure. He was shaking from head to toe, and Amelie was doing her best to keep the son of Apollo on his side, tears in her eyes. Kaya was standing nearby, a frazzled look on her face as she ransacked the drawers and cabinets, in search of something that could help.