Invisible ― Jason Grace

xv. no such thing as accidental heroes

CAMILLA AND JASON were given the task of cleaning the lower deck, which had been thrown into chaos during the monster attack. Reorganizing the sickbay and battening down the storage area took them most of the day, but Camilla didn't mind. For one thing, she got to spend time with Jason. For another, last night's explosions had given Camilla a healthy respect for Greek fire. She didn't want any loose vials of that stuff rolling through the corridors in the middle of the night.

As she worked, Camilla thought about their meeting with Venus. Whenever she remembered how Venus had called what Camilla and Jason had true love, she got all warm and fuzzy inside. She knew better than to put much faith in fairy tales and the idea of soulmates, but just the thought of the goddess of love endorsing their relationship made her the slightest bit giddy.

And then she remembered Venus's warning about dark days and that giddiness flew right out the window.

What had the goddess meant by that? Hadn't Camilla gone through enough bad stuff? She'd been abandoned by her mortal parent, ignored by her godly parent, and became a traitor to her camp, her home. How much worse could it get?

Camilla bit her lip. Probably better not to voice that question aloud. She didn't want to tempt the Fates.

She swept the stray hay into piles as Jason fixed a broken door on one of the stables. The glass floor hatch glowed from the ocean below—a green expanse of light and shadow that seemed to go down forever. Camilla kept glancing over, afraid she'd see a monster's face peeping in, but all she saw was an occasional school of herring and a whale shark that kept bumping his nose into the glass and talking to Camilla. Apparently that was something she'd need to get used to as a daughter of Neptune.

And the whole hurricane-summoning thing. She should probably put a little more practice into that.

Every time she thought of the hurricane she'd summoned at Fort Sumter, she was torn between excitement and dread. The storm had taken so much of her energy and strength, but it had felt good to bring it to life. For so much of her life, she'd coasted by without a real purpose. Now, it felt like she actually had a reason for being on the quest.

But she still couldn't understand why she and Percy were both on the quest. Why did the prophecy call for two children of the sea? Was it because so much of their journey was at sea, or was it because of something more dangerous?

The tiniest part of her wondered if maybe only one child of the sea would make it to the end.

"What are you thinking?"

Camilla returned her focus to the real world, realizing she'd been frowning like she'd just been handed an unsolvable puzzle.

"Nothing," she said, though anyone could tell it was a lie. "I mean... a lot of things. Kind of all at once."

Jason laughed. The scar on his lip almost disappeared when he smiled. Considering all the stuff he'd been through, it was amazing he could be in such a good mood. Camilla felt like she was close to dropping, and she figured Jason wasn't far behind.

"It's going to work out," he promised. "Everything's going to turn out all right."

Camilla sighed, willing herself to believe it. Even optimists could have their pessimistic moments. "I hope so."

"We're almost to the ancient lands," he said. "We've left the Romans behind."

"And now they're on their way to start another demigod civil war," Camilla pointed out. She might have never seen Camp Half-Blood herself, but it was her brother's home, and the home of half the crew. It was Jason's home, now, too—one of them, at least.