Death's Son (And All Its Perks)

Chapter 24

Will watched Almaji grow up. He watched the different homeless people that raised him, watched the miraculous ways that he survived. If he had been a mortal, he would have been dead years ago. But he must have been healing himself along with others through starvation and the bitter cold that winter brought. Will watched him go a month without food before finding a half eaten apple on the street, and throughout an entire winter without a coat.

He healed all those he could without even realizing it. He walked past a woman, brushed against her arm, and cured her influenza. He pick-pocketed a man and fixed his bad knee. The cop that tried to arrest him? He was even cured of Stage 1 cancer. Almaji never knew any of this, but whoever showed these memories to Will made sure he knew.

They became more recent until Will watched Camp Half-Blood take Almaji in. The Stolls were busy heading towards one of their favorite prank shops when they saw Almaji in an alley, his form small and curled up against the raging winds. He looked up at them, saw their arms full of goods that still had price tags on them, and ran over to them. "You stole all of that? How good are you?"

Travis and Connor looked at each other before looking at the boy, smiling. "How good are you?"

They spent the day with him, stealing food and drinks, thinking he was a son of Hermes also. They eventually invited him to come live with them at a camp and Almaji agreed. Who would ever pass up the chance for free food and a place to stay? They gave him his new name and he officially wasn't Malik anymore. As they led him away, the area around him fractured and broke. The perfect little web the Fates had set up collapsed until everything was darkness again.

And then he saw something he wasn't planning on seeing.

The light came back but to the day they found Almaji. Instead of finding him, they walked right past that alley. Almaji had been turned around, never seeing them and their arms full of things. They went back to Camp Half-Blood, and Almaji was left alone.

Only minutes after, an older woman found him and took him in. He saved her life, cured her disease, and she ended up curing cancer. She was like a mother to him, gave him a good home and family, and she ended up saving thousands of lives.

But they had taken that all away the moment the Fates were messed with.

Will snapped out of the visions with his eyes glazed over and his mouth open wide. He looked around feverishly, noticing the crowd that had gathered around him and Rachel. They whispered to each other, blaming it on the fact that he was the son of Apollo. But nobody had hijacked the oracle before.

"What did you see?" one of them finally piped up. "Was it a prophecy? Is the next Great Prophesy happening?"

Will merely shook his head.

Rachel put a hand to her head and stood up. "It was just memories. Nothing about the future. You all can leave now."

"But-"

"I said you all can leave now."

The crowd hesitantly dispersed, shooting Will curious and suspicious gazes. When they were all finally out of earshot, Rachel turned to Will. "So you saw everything?"

Will nodded again.

"The Fates must have been pretty pissed at you to show you all of that," Rachel admitted. She then looked at him and put her hands on his shoulders. "Relax. What's done is done. For now, all you can do is focus on making everything right."

"And how would I do that?" Will asked quietly. "When Nico hears about this, he'll flip. He'll blame himself."

"He shouldn't." Rachel agreed. "He should blame Anubis."