The Guardian Angel- A PJO fanfiction

Chapter 19- Zora

I was almost hyper-aware of Christian hand in mine. My whole arm was tingling and and the sensation nearly took my breath away. No Zora, you can't be falling for him. You'll only hurt more people. Lost in thought I didn't even notice how far into the forest we had gone.

"Christian where are we going? Aren't these woods stocked with monsters?" I asked slightly worried we would be attacked. Genius me wasn't carrying a weapon.

"Don't worry the monsters can't even get near this path. I had a Hecate kid put a spell on it. This leads to one of my favorite place in camp. Luckily only a few people know about it."

"Like who?" But just as I asked we came out into a clearing.

I think he answered but I didn't hear him. I was completely in awe of the beauty surrounding me. There was a glimmering pool with a small waterfall pouring into it, and the ground around the pool was covered in flowers of all different colors.

I turned to look at Christian and saw an amused smile on his face. The sun lit up the golden streaks in his hair and turned his eyes even more gold than usual. The effect was unreal and I felt my breath catch in my throat.

Before I knew it, he encircled me in his arms and pulled me close. I looked up into his eyes and saw desire written all over his face. I don't know what would have happened if I hadn't noticed someone else in the clearing.

As I pulled away from Christian and took a better look at the person, I realized that it was Rania. Oh great. Luckily her back was to us, so hopefully she didn't see any of that.

She was sitting at the edge of the pool with her knees pulled up to her chest and her arms wrapped around them. Her head was buried between her knees and her body was shaking.

It took me a while to realize that she was crying and probably came out here to be alone. Apparently Christian was oblivious to this fact.

"Rania?" he asked, "What are you doing out here?"

Her battle reflexes kicked in and she whipped around to face us. Her cheeks were blotchy and her eyes were puffed up from crying, but she couldn't have looked more terrifying. Once she realized who it was she relaxed slightly and wiped her eyes.

"Christian," I said quietly, "Go back to camp."

He didn't need any prompting. I'm sure he could tell that he didn't want to be around for this. Once he was out of sight I turned back towards Rania, but she was already walking away in the other direction.

"Rania, wait! I just want to talk." I exclaimed running to catch up to her.

She stopped and turned to glare at me, "Why? So you can gloat about how he likes you better. About how you were never really my friend."

I was shocked, "No, I-"

"Look at me. Take a good long look so that you can go back to him and laugh about how pathetic I am! I've known him for years and all of the sudden you show up and your all he can think about! All he can talk about! Well I'm done he's not worth the heartache. You can have him."

I couldn't stand the hurt in her voice or the broken look in her eyes.Everything she was saying was true. She trusted me and she became one of my only friends at camp. Now I have ruined it all by letting my emotions cloud my judgement.

"Rania" I began, "I can't even begin to apologize for what happened, but I'm not going to laugh at you. You're one of my only friends at this camp, and I've already screwed up so badly that I can't think of any way to fix it. I want you to know that there's nothing going on between Christian and I. I don't know what else to say. Just please, please forgive me."

I was begging and I knew it was pointless. I was a stranger who came in and wrecked her life. How could she forgive me? I was staring at the ground, holding back the tears that threatened to fall, when I heard her move closer.

"Fine. I forgive you. We can't go into this quest hating each other." She said stiffly. I didn't feel very forgiven, but she had already turned and stalked off.

Great. This can't possibly get any worse. I thought. Oh gods was I wrong.