Where You Go ― Jason Grace

ii. homeward bound

AFTER SIX MONTHS of building, training, and preparing, the Argo II was finally ready to sail west to California. There would be no more scrambling to make last-minute repairs; no more morning jogs with the Hermes cabin; no more days spent training for a war that seemed so far off.

The time had come. The Prophecy of Eight was officially underway.

The entire camp had come to send them off. After a surprisingly optimistic speech from Chiron—surprising only because Ophelia had gotten so used to the centaur's pessimism in the last half-year—the campers said their goodbyes.

Leo and his siblings were rushing around, quadruple-checking every part of the ship to make sure everything was in order, which was their own way of saying goodbye to their head counselor.

Piper was saying her goodbyes to her half-siblings—even Drew Tanaka had come to wish them luck, though her cynicism made up for Chiron's lack of pessimism. Drew had seemed to calm down in the six months Piper had been the Aphrodite cabin's head counselor, and she'd even grudgingly apologized to Ophelia for threatening to steal her boyfriend. Ophelia doubted she and Piper's sister would ever be friends, per se, but it was nice to leave knowing they didn't outright hate each other.

Annabeth was saying goodbye to her siblings as well, though she was definitely eager to get going and get to her missing boyfriend. She'd spent the last six months trying to get to him sooner, but as most of them had predicted, they'd had to wait for the Argo II to be ready before they could set off for Camp Jupiter. Ophelia and Jason had narrowed down the camp's location from their memories, and Annabeth had gotten word from one of the search parties that Percy was alive and well, but the daughter of Athena was still a bit frantic to hit the road—or, well, skies, in their case.

Not that Ophelia could blame her. She doubted she'd be any better if she and Jason were in Annabeth and Percy's position.

Ophelia and Jason stood with her half-siblings as they said their final goodbyes, Travis alternating between glaring at Jason and pretending he wasn't crying like the rest of his siblings.

She knew her leaving was hitting her siblings hard. The last child of Hermes who'd been apart of a Great Prophecy hadn't survived, and there was a lingering fear that Ophelia might not come back from the voyage to Greece. It was a half-step up from a suicide mission—they'd be sailing into the Mare Nostrum, a place Roman demigods were banned from entering (for good reason), and attempting to stop the giants from raising Gaea and enacting her 'destroy the mortal world' plan.

It wasn't hard to imagine that they might not all make it back.

"Iris-message whenever you can," Lorena instructed, her tone motherly despite the fact that she was a full two years younger than Ophelia. "Don't look any gorgons in the eye. Keep your weapon on you at all times, even when you sleep. Remember to drink plenty of water—not just when your thirsty."

"Okay, mother," Ophelia teased.

"Just be careful," Lorena said, rolling her eyes at Ophelia's sarcastic tone. "And come back to us."

Ophelia smiled softly, pulling her sister into a hug. "I'll do my best," she whispered, because that was all she could offer.

Lorena's smile was understanding. "That's all we ask."

"My threat still stands," Travis told Jason, narrowing his watery eyes at the blond. He sniffled, then glared harder to make up for the sniffle.

Jason nodded, casting a fearful look toward Ophelia. She stifled a laugh.

Thomas wrapped his skinny arms around Ophelia's waist. "I'll miss you."

Ophelia hugged him back tightly, ruffling his perpetually messy hair for good measure. "I'll miss you too, buddy," she whispered.