A/N: Hey guys, hope you enjoy the update. Shout out to HarmonyHarpshine7 for leaving a lovely review! See you all next week ~ Emma
Rory understood that people who went through something traumatic together often felt their bond strengthened because of it. He wondered if that's what had happened to make him fall so hard for the girl whose head now rested on his shoulder. He couldn't pretend what happened in LA didn't still affect him. His heart quickened every time he walked down a street alone and almost every night he woke screaming for Emma. Sometimes he was screaming for her help, but more often than not he was watching her fall from the krakens grasp. Except, this time, instead of being caught and saved she just hit the ground with a sickening thud. He couldn't even stop himself seeing it now. It was as if the image of her dying had been carved into the walls of his skull
When Rory thought back to the person he had been just two weeks ago he couldn't quite grasp how much he'd changed. He couldn't imagine choosing parties and getting off with girls over being with Emma when she needed someone. The old him wouldn't have agreed. He wondered if it was possible that they could have become close even without the mythical world being real. Whether he would be able to bring her round to seeing the part of him he rarely shared or whether she would be too stubborn in her distaste for guys like him to ever believe he could be anything more than what she had seen in Riley and the other boys. He wondered if even now her history with Riley would stop their friendship from becoming anything more than just that.
She shuffled on the sofa, adjusting herself as she turned the page of her book. She now lay with her head on the armrest and her legs across his lap. He rested the book he had borrowed on her legs and for a moment allowed himself the chance to just look at her. Her eyes were puffy and her cheeks were red and blotchy, but somehow the sheen her eyes seemed to hold only served to intensify the green of her iris'. She didn't seem to mind when she caught him starting.
"Do you want to go to sleep?" Emma asked, biting her lip nervously.
"It's been a long day for both of us." He said. "I hope you haven't thrown away the toothbrush I got yesterday."
She laughed gently.
"No, I don't suppose I ever will. If this weekend is anything to go by, you'll be moving in before too long."
He knew she was joking, but he couldn't help but imagine what it would be like to not have to stay at his dads all the time. He wondered if he would ever have a place he could truly call home.
As he moved to get up off the sofa she curled her legs back in a perfectly elegant motion, before he offered her a hand. She walked into her room without a word, emerging a few moments later with a pillow and a couple of blankets.
"Hope the sofa looks as comfy as it did last night." She joked, dropping the blankets down. She held her arm awkwardly, looking away.
"Goodnight Emma." He said. Her eyes sparkled as she met his gaze. She looked beautiful in a way he'd never seen in other girls. Like a gemstone before it was cut into an artificially perfect form. She looked raw.
"Goodnight Rory."
Rory made it through the night without screaming Emma's name. He hadn't been sure that he would have the same luck as the night before. If he had woken from one of his nightmares, as he so often did, and she had come in running with a knife in hand he would have to explain everything to her. He wasn't sure if he was ready for that.
He got off the sofa and wandered into the kitchen area, looking for some coffee. After searching through a few of the cupboards, he eventually stumbled upon what appeared to be an entire cupboard dedicated to tea. Baffled, he started pulling out boxes of all sorts wondering who decided there needed to even be this many kinds of tea, let alone who would need to own all of them. He could have sworn there was a jar on the counter labelled 'tea' anyway, so why the whole cupboard? After searching through it he found a tub of hot chocolate but yet still no coffee. He sighed, getting to his feet. He decided he'd put the kettle on and use the teabags from the jar to avoid any decision making. Emma would probably appreciate a mug of the stuff after the night she'd had. She clearly liked it a whole damn lot.
He tried to replicate the way she had made it the morning before and then knocked gently on her door.
"Come in?" Came a groggy voice.
When he pushed the door he couldn't help himself from smiling at her. Emma had propped herself up on her hand and was squinting at him through one eye as she rubbed the other. Her hair was falling out of the braid she had slept in, curling around her face and neck. She was wearing a baggy oversized band tee shirt that surprised him. The band depicted were one of his favourites. She dropped her arm scowling at him.
"Is there a reason you're waking me up McKenzie?" She sounded more tired than annoyed.
"It's noon. Besides, I thought you might like one of your thousands of teas." He smirked at her, holding up the cup.
Her face melted into a look of surprise as she tucked her hair behind her ear.
"Oh." She stammered. "You- You didn't have to."
"It's okay." He said, moving over to set it down on her bedside table. He was very aware of the way her eyes followed him. "What's not okay, is the lack of coffee. Who in their right mind doesn't have any coffee."
"I don't like coffee." She said adamantly before blushing and looking away. "Besides, I don't have many guests."
His heart twinged in his chest. He loved seeing glimpses of the real Emma. The unapologetic Emma, who knows what she wants and isn't afraid of it. He hated that every time that Emma came out, she turned embarrassed and bashful as if she had done something wrong.
"Well, if I'm having a toothbrush, I'm having a pot of coffee. It's gonna sit right next to the tea one." He grinned, knowing humour was the best way to offset her discomfort.
She looked back with a smile, and seeing her relax seemed to have the same effect on him.
She took a hesitant sip of the drink.
"Oh thank god." She said, almost as if she had only meant to think the words that had tumbled out of her mouth. Her eyes bulged a little. "I mean… thank you."
"Emma Turner, did you not believe I would make a good cup of tea?" He exclaimed, jokingly but her face filled with minor panic anyway. "Because neither did I. I'm amazed it's not awful, but I guess it just goes to show that any drink I make is perfect."
She narrowed her eyes at him but couldn't hold the smile off her lips. She took another drink and when she looked up again her expression was serious.
"You've been out two night in a row, is your dad not going to be worried?" She said.
He looked down instantly. He didn't want to talk about his dad. He never wanted to talk about his family. He got by because he could so often pretend the didn't exist.
"The only thing my dad worries about is if I'm messing up my swim training."
"You don't get on then?" Emma said quietly.
"No, not really. How about you?" He said eager to change the subject.
"You mean my dad, the ancient greek god of the ocean?" Emma laughed and he realised his stupidity at asking the question. "Never met the guy."
It struck him as strange that they had grown so close yet knew nothing about each others family. Though he was curious, he knew asking her would result in him having to share as well. He trusted her, but some things were best left buried. He didn't have to think about the question much longer as apartment buzzer sounded.
Emma threw her head back and groaned loudly.
"I swear to god, if this is Austin again I will burst whatever pipes I can find in the basketball courts and ruin the whole god-damn season for him."
She was out of bed before she had finished the sentence. Her bare legs flashed out of the covers and, realising she wasn't wearing shorts, he spun around so fast he only just kept his balance.
"I'm gonna go see who that is." He said, leaving hastily. He really had changed.
As soon as he was out of her room, he dragged his hand over his face in an exasperated gesture. Why was he such a mess around her. 'I'll go see who that is'? Yeah, cos he was really going to pick up the phone for her apartment. That made sense. And why had the sight of her long toned legs scared him off like that? They were just legs! But they were her legs and looking at her like that when she didn't know he liked her felt so wrong he couldn't put it into words. He barely had time to collect his thoughts when she came out in skin tight leggings and a jumper than hung off one shoulder. Did she own anything she didn't look great in?
She picked up the phone and, after a few seconds, let whoever was on the other end into the building.
"It's Annabeth." Emma said, her face white. She started pacing. "What the hell do I do? After everything I said yesterday…"
He walked up to her and gripped her shoulders before she slid off into a whirlpool of panicked thoughts.
"Emma. You fought. That's what families do. They fight and then they forgive." He knew he was spouting generic bullshit, but he needed to calm her down.
"But I don't want forgiveness. I want to keep everyone a mile away from the earthquake that is my life before I hurt anyone else!" She snapped. Once the words were out, her eyes grew wide and she covered her mouth with her hand.
Realisation hit him like a slap in the face. That was what last night had been about. The strain in her voice when she'd asked him to stay hadn't been because she didn't want him to. It was because she hated that she couldn't stop herself from doing it. She was trying to go back to how she was before. Before Austin came back into her life and fucked it up for the second time.
There was a knock at the door.
Emma hesitated for a split second before going to open it.
"Whatever happened yesterday doesn't matter. We have bigger problems." Annabeth said before anyone else could get a word in. "Rachel has spoken a prophecy. We're pretty sure it's about Bahram and I'm pretty sure it'll make more sense to you than to us."
Emma had schooled her features into the blank, unreadable expression she always held. She wouldn't let her slip up in front of Rory affect the way she was in front of everyone else. She couldn't tell if Annabeth's words meant she saw through.
She lead the older girl into the living area and listened as Annabeth told them the whole story of Bahram. She explained that there was only one sword known to be able to defeat him. Then she recited the prophecy. The first line just confused Emma as she felt it told them nothing. 'Sugraphe may be found among her kind, to slay the fiend who plagues the mind'. So the sword was with other swords? So even if they found the pile of swords which it was in, they wouldn't know which one it was. How helpful.
After that each line filled her with more and more dread, but there was one that kept ringing in her head at the end.
'A mortal boy betrays an old friend, Who will perish before the ritual ends.'
All the pieces slid into place. She remembered what Annabeth had said in LA.
'He must have eyes everywhere. Rory's been chasing you around a lot recently, hasn't he?'
She could only think of one person who would have truly known all of Rory's movements. And then there was the fact that she had been followed. She hadn't questioned how they knew where she would be, how they knew where she lived. She knew when someone was tailing her and it had started...
"Austin." She said, urgently. "He's the mortal in the prophecy."
"What?" Rory said. His face a mixture of astonishment and confusion. She could tell he didn't want to believe it on any count.
"Don't you see? Yesterday as soon as I left my apartment a guy got out his car on the street. I hadn't noticed it then, but he was the one following me later. He had the same coat and hat. That means they knew where I lived, and almost no one knows that apart from the people in this room and Percy. Except Austin."
She looked at Annabeth for confirmation but she was meant with inquisitive grey eyes. Annabeth didn't agree with her yet, but she was close.
"Austin knew I was going to be in LA." Rory said filling the silence that had formed. She could tell he felt as if he were betraying his friend just by saying it. "I told him that the pier was my favourite place and he knew everything that had happened between Emma and I up till then. He would know better than anyone that you were the best shot to making me upset. He even asked me if I was falling for you. Jesus christ."
Rory rubbed his jaw, his eyes closed as he really thought it all through. Emma felt the urge to hold him but brushed it aside.
"And we know he was having dreams from Bahram." Annabeth sighed. "It checks out. We can't be sure, but he's definitely got a lot of evidence against him."
After the last few days, Emma hadn't thought Austin could fall any lower in her graces. But if she was right, if he had betrayed them… She felt her skin crawling.
"Emma this must be a mistake." Rory said, snapping his gaze up to her. He sounded sure, but his eyes were wild. "Surely it's someone else. It can't be Riley. He may not be the best at showing it all the time, but he does care about you."
Emma was dumbfounded to the point where for a moment all she could do was stare at him in disbelief.
"How else would you explain Bahram using all the information Austin knows against us?" Emma said angrily.
She could see him searching for a reason. Desperate not to admit that he had no logic behind his claim. That it was based on trust and trust alone. This is why it was best not to trust people. If you trust someone, it becomes harder to see their betrayal, but Emma saw it clear as day.
"Because if he's the mortal, that makes you the old friend." Rory said, his voice was strained and weak. He didn't say the rest but they all knew what he meant. Emma had to admit, that was not where she saw that going. She was used to calculating people's actions and emotions based on their feelings toward other people. Never toward her.
'A mortal boy betrays an old friend, Who will perish before the ritual ends.'
If Austin was the mortal and Emma was the friend, then she wasn't going to survive this fight. Every battle she had won would come down to this and she would lose. It seemed funny to her that her death wasn't the bit about the prophecy that scared her the most.
'The wandering child must learn to trust, To stop the world returning to dust.'
The wandering child. Her step father had called her that once. She had snuck off into the trees at a garden party when she was seven. As she made her way through the woods, she had come across a giant snake. It lunged at her and tore her dress. She ran back crying to her mum, but when her step dad overheard he pulled Emma out of her mother's arms and told her with a stern look to go and change. When her mother had tried to reason with him he snapped that Emma was just a wandering child with a wandering imagination and needed a firm hand from reality. She couldn't help feeling resentful of her mother for not standing up to him when she knew Emma wasn't lying.
So many things in her childhood had stopped Emma ever trusting another person. Austin had been close, but he had ruined it all before she could get there. She didn't even know if she had the ability to. Trusting wasn't her skillset, in fact her skillset was the opposite. So whether or not she died before the ritual ended, if the fate of the world relied upon her learning to trust, she wasn't sure anyone else would see another day.