all our broken skies, a kotlc + pjo/hoo fanfic

chapter four

a/n: this chapter is told from someone else's perspective.
the story will only be told from sophie and this person
unless i have a reason to use someone else.
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I ducked back, watching as Sophie and the two teens she'd befriended walked away. Damn it, they definitely saw me. I exhaled nervously, combing my bangs out of my face. Ah, hell, I'll have to tell everyone how badly I screwed up this time.

I knew I shouldn't have gotten so close, but I was afraid I'd lose Sophie in this crowd. Okay, and I was suspicious of the people she was traveling with. Wasn't it just a little suspicious that she'd so quickly found friends in the middle of New York City?

Well, Della didn't think much of it when she was briefing me, so maybe it's not that big of a deal, I thought. She was almost as overprotective as Edaline and Grady was now that her children and husband were dead. And that she took over Wraith's position.

The price had been high for all of us, but it felt like Della had received the brunt of the attack, Sophie falling just behind her. So many had been lost to the Neverseen—too many.

I sighed, weaving through the crowd and turning into a dark alleyway. I was about to use my home crystal to leap back when someone grabbed me by the shoulder, nails digging through the shirt to my skin. I winced, whirling around.

Linh's face was murderous. Ever since what happened with Wylie, it seemed stuck in some variation of anger. "Tam Dai Song," she growled.

I smiled weakly, holding my hands up in defense. "Linh—"

"What the hell was that?!" she demanded. "You let them see you! Do you know what could happen if Sophie got her memories back this early? Complete and utter chaos! Everything we've done, gone. Useless. Down the drain."

"I know, Linh," I said, rolling my eyes. "I just think th—"

"We were supposed to stick together," she continued, her voice calmer. "The obscurer can't cover such a long distance, Tam." Linh ran a hand through her hair. After Atlantis was destroyed before we could get there in time, she'd cut it. In the year and a half since, it had grown out to be jaw-length, but it was still strange to see it so short.

Then again, I hadn't cut my hair in over two years, so I probably looked weird to her. I could practically hear Biana complaining about the ponytail Linh had convinced me to wear.

I shrugged. "I was going to see if I could read their shadowvapor," I lied. Now that I'd said it, though, I wanted to—who knew what they were hiding?

"Well, let's wait until Tinker and Dex finish enhancing the obscurers," Linh said. "It's too dangerous to let ourselves be seen at this point."

"Seeing Gethen didn't trigger anything," I argued. "Why would seeing us do anything?"

Linh dismissed my question with a wave of her hand. "Gethen's different for Sophie. We're her friends."

"Gethen's practically her father. He should have the same chance of a trigger as us. I think we should just go up to her and slowly ease her back into the Lost Cities."

"And risk the Council's wrath?" Linh laughed. "We already have enough problems."

It wasn't that Linh was wrong—we did have a lot going on right now. The Black Swan was swamped, what with a change in leadership and almost all of the Collective being replaced. So far, we've been doing rotations on who gets to guard Sophie—Della, me and Linh, Dex, then Ro and Tiergan.