It was obvious: Reyna was at her breaking point.
The day it began to show was about a month after Jason went missing. Reyna had looked to her side, mouth open as if to make a remark to her co-praetor. Within an instant, a look of pain flashed across her face, but it quickly disappeared, a moment of weakness.
When Jason had initially disappeared, Reyna believed it was a joke. After searching everywhere, she closed her eyes and summoned Gwen, Bobby, and Hazel to her office. She told them it was to be kept quiet, and that it would later be addressed in a senate meeting.
Octavian, of course, took the opportunity to try to become praetor. "I am the right choice. Why won't you appoint a new praetor?" He had asked.
As she paced across her room, furiously screaming curses at the gods, she didn't understand why she couldn't be left alone. She screamed at them even as thunder rumbled and rain poured. She screamed at them until her voice was hoarse and tears streamed down her cheeks.
When the tears stopped, she walked into her small bathroom and wiped the tear stains off her cheeks. She looked into the mirror and saw she looked normal, but terrible. Her eyes had bags under them, and her eyes held not a glimmer of happiness as they used to, but a darker glint of weariness and distrust.
Everybody thought Reyna was just a steely warrior, except her closest friends.
They knew the truth.
As she stood beside the green eyed son of Neptune, she wondered if Jason remembered her.
Jason climbed off the ship, bright blue eyes scanning the crowd as if he was looking for someone. His eyes landed on Reyna, and he immediately sprinted towards her.
He remembers.