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chapter twenty-nine ( battle of the labyrinth ) ❝ falling into the deep end! ❞
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Quintus was a traitor.
As if things couldn't get any worse.
He was a traitor, a spy, and now he was gone back down into the Maze, running with his tail in between his legs back to Luke, and he had left his dog here behind. It made me hate him more. We had all trusted him. Liked him. I liked him━I thought he was cool. But he had deceived us. Every time, someone just likes to betray us. Luke, Jay, Quintus ... I knew if Percy was here, he would want to run his sword right through him ...
Percy ...
The shrine drifted a breath of fresh ocean air up into the air, and it only made everything worse. Watching the flames flicker up and burn away Percy's shroud, I tried to keep in the tears, but I couldn't. I found myself, but I lost him. Was this was Hades meant about letting go? Did I have to let go of him? But he grounded me. He inspired me. He made me want to do better, to be braver, he made me warm ... he ...
It was my fault. I knew it was my fault. I left him there. I let my guard fall down from his lips on mine, and then I just let him risk his life━to trade his life for mine. I rubbed the tears out of my eyes, but they just kept coming. I always thought Percy would never die, which was stupid, wasn't it? We're demigods, tragedy is embroidered into our destiny. The Greeks invented tragedy; none of us were meant to have happy endings.
I felt like I had died all over again, and this moment, staring into the flickers of the flames it was like I was back in the Transition. I wasn't alive, nor was I dead. The person that made me feel truly alive again was now gone forever, and now ... now I'm just like the Transition. Dark, blank and nothing.
But I managed to take a deep breath. Percy would want me to be brave, and so I shall be brave. Turning to face the audience, I stifled my sobs and pushed through the lump in my throat, forcing out words. "He was ... Percy━he was one of the bravest people I ever know━knew ... I don't ... He ..." my voice fell away. I hadn't been looking at all the sombre faces to keep myself composed (well, as composed as I could be), and as I looked over their heads, my heart stopped.
It was him. He was there. Percy Jackson had the audacity to frown at the ceremony as if wondering, wait, who died?
The absolute━the━stupid━I was so angry I couldn't form words. But he was there. Looking not at all as if he had survived a volcanic eruption. His tanned skin seemed to glow in the firelight, and his hair was messy (as always), side-swept and looking like he just took a walk on the beach. And his eyes ... sea-green ... a deep end I was scared to step into, but at the same time, relaxed in seeing. And his clothes━oh, what was the idiot wearing? Are those linen?
