Kyra Pafford has been at Camp-Half Blood for three months. The gates to Olympus have closed and she has yet to be claimed. When three demigods show up to Camp Half-Blood, everything begins to change. She finally gets her chance to prove herself to t...
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
KYRA DIDN'T REMEMBER MUCH ABOUT the rest of the night. They told their story and answered a million questions from the other campers, but finally, Chiron saw how tired they were and ordered them to bed.
It felt so good to sleep on a real mattress, and Kyra was so exhausted, she crashed immediately, which spared her any worry about what it would be like returning to the Apollo cabin.
The next morning she woke in her bunk, feeling reinvigorated. The sun came through the windows along with a pleasant breeze. It might've been spring instead of winter. Birds sang. Monsters howled in the woods. Breakfast smells wafted from the dining pavilion—bacon, pancakes, and all sorts of wonderful things.
She spent the next few hours showing her siblings how she could control light and retelling her adventures. Once she had finished, Kyra left to go find Jason.
At the commons area, she found Jason relaxing on a bench, a basketball between his feet. He was sweaty from working out, but he looked great in his orange tank top and shorts. His various scars and bruises from the quest were healing, thanks to some medical attention from her cabin. His arms and legs were well muscled and tan—distracting as always. His close-cropped blond hair caught the afternoon light so it looked like it was turning to gold, Midas style.
She sat next to him and they watched the campers going back and forth. A couple of Demeter girls were playing tricks on Logan and Marcus Jacobs—making grass grow around their ankles as they shot baskets. Over at the camp store, the Hermes kids were putting up a sign that read: flying shoes, slightly used, 50% off today! Ares kids were lining their cabin with fresh barbed wire. The Hypnos cabin was snoring away. A normal day at camp.
"Get any sleep?" she asked him,
He looked at her as if she'd been reading his thoughts. "Not much. Dreams."
"About your past?" Kyra asked and he nodded.
She didn't push him. If he wanted to talk, that was fine, but she knew him better than to press the subject. She didn't even worry that her knowledge of him was mostly based on three months of false memories.
Jason spun his basketball. "It's not good news," he warned. "My memories aren't good for—for any of us."
Kyra was pretty sure he'd been about to say for us—as in the two of them, and she wondered if he'd remembered a girl from his past. Maybe the brunette girl she saw when she was trying to heal him. But she didn't let it bother her. Not on a sunny winter day like this, with Jason next to her.
"We'll figure it out," she promised, grabbing his hand.
He looked at her hesitantly, like he wanted very much to believe her. "Annabeth and Rachel are coming in for the meeting tonight. I should probably wait until then to explain ..."
