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CHAPTER FIFTEEN xv. eternity is a long time _______
Hazel led them to an old building, leaning over the water on barnacle-encrusted piers. The roof sagged. The walls were perforated with holes like buckshot. The door was boarded-up, and a hand-painted sign read: ROOMS - STORAGE - AVAILABLE.
"Uh, you sure it's safe?" Frank asked, mimicking Sebastian's exact thoughts.
Instead of answering with words, Hazel found an open window and climbed inside. The rest of them followed. Their feet kicked up dust that swirled in the buckshot beams of sunlight. Mouldering cardboard boxes were stacked along the walls.
"It's warmer in here, at least," Frank said. "Guess no running water? Maybe I can go shopping. I'm not as muddy as you guys. I could find us some clothes."
Hazel didn't acknowledge that she'd heard him as she climbed over a stack of boxes in the corner. She moved a sign, revealing a bunch of photos and drawings that had been pinned there. Sebastian knew this must be tough for her, so decided on taking a seat on a solid box, not worrying about his clothes getting any dirtier, if that was possible.
As Hazel reminisced on the pictures from her past, Sebastian traced the now empty space on his finger. He still couldn't quite believe the ring was gone. He'd grown so used to having it there, for over six hundred years, and now it was gone, just like that.
He felt more guilty than anything else. He knew he hadn't purposefully lost the ring, but he supposed that it was his fault, in a way. He had done the right thing jumping in after Percy - he had to prioritise the living over the dead - but he felt as though he had let Henry die by doing so. That ring was all Sebastian had left of him and now he did worry that maybe Henry's fear would come true and Sebastian would forget him.
Frank cleared his throat. "Look, we passed a store on the last block. We've got a little money left. Maybe I should go get you guys some food and clothes and, I don't know, a hundred boxes of wet wipes or something?"
Hazel put the gold prospecting sign back over he mementos. "I'll go with you - make sure you don't get lost."
Once the two were gone, Percy sat down next to Sebastian, setting his sword on the floor where it glowed with a faint bronze light.
"Thank you for saving me," he said. "I should've told you that earlier."
Sebastian shrugged. "You've already risk your life for mine. It was about time I repaid the favour."
Percy let out a breath. "When I was down in the mud, I remembered that line from Ella's prophecy - about the son of Neptune drowning. I thought, 'this is what it means, I'm drowning in the earth'. I was sure I was dead."
His voice quavered.
"Percy," he said, "that prophecy might not have been complete. The books were likely to have been burnt. Maybe you'll drown someone else."
