Hello all! Sorry this is up a few days later than I expected. I REALLY tried to get this out sooner, but this was a really longer chapter. I originally had intended post it as two separate parts but decided it made more sense to put it all in one longer post which is why it took longer than I originally thought it would. So yeah, sorry. I really did try. ANYWAYS I hope you like the latest chapter and thank you to everyone who's reading/reviewing/favoriting/following.

~secrethalfblood

Apov

In the end, despite his attitude, Harper and I decided it was probably best if Charlie were selected for the third member of our team for this mission. Mostly because Tamera was likely to get carried away and seriously hurt James if we found him, and if we didn't, Charlie might cause some major problems trying to prevent Harper from leaving if he wasn't involved.

But, since we hadn't been able to find him and convince him that Harper leaving camp was unavoidable, Harper and I had gone to the mission briefing alone.

Much to my surprise, Harper had suspected there was possible entry point to the Cordrian Library not too far from camp for years, but had never bothered to check it out because she'd assumed it was a myth. That and she didn't think she'd be able to get out of camp without Charlie or Chiron noticing.

I couldn't help but notice how tired she'd looked when talking to Chiron. I didn't think I'd ever seen her so exhausted. Not even when pulling all nighters reading the latest book of whatever current series she was obsessed with at the time. But despite getting no sleep, and very publicly losing her mother's favor, she'd been completely composed when talking about what needed to be done. Almost scarily so. But Harper had never been one for hysterics. As nice as she could be, it wasn't as if I wasn't aware of the edge steel that lied under all the logic and reason of the children of Athena. It was what made them as dangerous as they were intelligent. The sort of mindset that, despite its brilliance, could be as cold as it was calculating, and could rationalize almost anything as long as an objective was reached.

Despite being aware of this, I'd never seen it so prominent in Harper. I'd never had to. Charlie had made sure of that. But this wasn't something that Charlie could fix for Harper, or bully away. And now she facing what was probably the biggest crisis of her life, I couldn't help but think I'd never seen her look so much like her brother.

"I need to talk to you."

I looked up from the bag I was packing and turned to see Charlie was leaning against the doorframe of my bunkroom. His arms were crossed over his chest, and while his tone had been measured, his eyes were furious.

"Listen, I get if you're upset about Harper-" I started, but he cut me off.

"No." he said control slipping and ice entering his words. I didn't think I'd ever seen him so angry. "No Ash, you really don't. What the hell were you thinking volunteering to lead the mission like that? You're going to get Harper killed."

"Harper is just as much of a demigod as we are." I argued incredulously, wondering how I'd never noticed just how extreme Charlie's paranoia about his sister really was. This couldn't be healthy. It sounded as if it was all he could do not to jump across the room and lunge at me. "She's not some helpless little girl who needs someone protecting her."

"I never said she was."

"Then what is your issue?" I asked annoyed.

Part of me wanted to be angry with Charlie. Couldn't he see I was only trying to do what made the most sense in the situation? I knew he didn't want Harper to leave camp, but it wasn't like we had a choice. And throwing a tantrum about it wouldn't change that. I figured if we couldn't avoid the situation, it would be best if we were both there with her.

"Look," he said with a sigh, and he pushed his hair back from his face. He looked as tired as Harper had earlier this morning, but unlike his sister, the stress of the situation seemed to be getting to him. There was a feverish sort of anxiety in his eyes, the kind you saw in wild animals when they'd been caged. He looked like someone on the verge of cracking. "I know you're trying to help by volunteering to lead the mission, but you don't know everything that's going on Ash."

"What are you talking about?" I asked, frowning slightly, but he didn't seem to hear me. He just kept talking and it seemed as if the person he was talking was himself, not me.

"I should have tried harder to keep that asshole away from her." He said shaking his head. He was pacing now, still muttering himself and getting more worked up with each word. "But I didn't think she liked him all that much…"

"I don't think she thought she did either." I pointed out, but again, it was as if he'd forgotten I was here.

"I didn't think he would be the one to start this disaster. If I'd just-"

"Ok, Charlie, just… stop." I said shaking my head and he looked up at me as if he'd only just remembered I was here. "The situation is bad yeah, but it's not the end of the world." His eyes met mine and I tried to inject a tone of common sense into my words as I continued. "We've been on missions before and you and Harper are the smartest people I know. We'll figure it out. There's no need to panic."

I know he was worried about his sister, but it was three of us versus James. He was acting as if this was the end all be all about his sister, but I'd known Harper for years. I knew what she was capable of. And if Charlie thought someone like James was going to break a girl like her, then Charlie had misjudged his twin.

"Ash, you don't understand," he said and he sounded miserable. The kind of misery a condemned person might feel, when their fate was upon them, and the last vestiges of hope were fading away.

"You keep saying that." I said peevishly, crossing my arms over my chest. "But you never explain what I'm not understanding."

He seemed to debate something to himself and from a brief moment, I thought he might actually have an answer for me. But he let out another sigh and once again shook his head.

"I can't." he said softly and I was surprised to feel a current of anger go through me.

"Then I don't know you want me to do Charlie." I said throwing my hands up in frustration and turning back to my bag to continue packing.

Charlie was my best friend, he had been for years, and I'd always thought of him as something similar to a brother. I'd thought he'd trusted me. But it was clear to me now that the feeling didn't go both ways. Maybe that it never had.

I jerked the zipper on the bag shut with more force than I probably should have, well aware he was watching me, but too angry to care.

He obviously wasn't telling me something, the reason he'd always been so paranoid about his sister. And whatever it was, it was clear that he didn't trust me with the information.

'But he's not the only one who cares about Harper.' I thought bitterly tossing my bag over my shoulder. 'Surely, after all this time, I had a right to know.'

"Harper and I are leaving tomorrow morning." I said stiffly, making to push past him out of the room. I wanted to check the armory on the off chance it might have something that might be useful over the next few days. "You can come on the mission if you want, but if you don't, then Tamera will take your place."

I didn't look at him as I stepped into the hall, figuring the conversation was over and he'd either make peace with the situation or he wouldn't, but was surprised when he spoke.

"It's not a mission."

"What?" I asked, confused into turning around to look at him, feeling my eyes narrow as he explained.

"Everything that's going on, with James and Harper having to leave camp. It's not a mission. It's a quest."

That caught my attention.

"What are you talking about?" I asked with a frown.

Missions weren't exactly common, but they weren't unheard of. But a quest required a the existence of a prophecy, something far less likely to happen than the occasional demigod venture outside of the camp's boundaries. Despite the threat of the situation we were in posed to the gods, no prophecy had been made. At least not to my knowledge. Was he confused?

"When Harper and I first came to our father," Charlie continued, fidgeting slightly as he spoke. "We came with a letter from our mother, explaining who we were. That we were demigods, and our lives were never going to be normal. But it wasn't the only thing that was there."

He walked towards me while simultaneously reaching into his pocket, pulling out a small scroll.

It wasn't nearly as old as some of the texts you could find in the Athena cabin, or the Big House, but by it's yellowing I could tell the paper's best days had been behind it for years.

"Harper was holding this when he found us." He continued, holding out the scroll for me to take.

It was bound with gray silk, as well as the familiar insignia of an owl. I took it gingerly, afraid of tearing the material, but as it unraveled, and I read the words, I nearly dropped it in shock.

Together they were born

Together they will stay

Until a lack of caution

Will take one away

The peril will be dreadful

But one they can't escape

For in this child's hands

Lies Olympus's fate

Daughter made by wisdom

The second born of two

Will unlock the secret

Only old ones knew

Danger lies before her

The moment that they part

Set in motion by the one

Who has claimed her heart

For his actions are the ones

That put her on this path

A road made for redemption

Or Olympus and it's wrath

Careful those who love her

Of these words take heed

Or she might be forever lost

Because of one boy's greed

The words were as awful as they were familiar, because I'd heard them before.

"Harper had this?" I asked quietly, feeling an icy horror take hold of me as Charlie took the scroll from my grasp, and I looked up at him.

"Yeah." He said tonelessly.

"This is why you never liked it when guys were around her." I said quietly, realization flooding through me as my mind played reel after reel of the nightmares I'd been having lately. "Why you didn't like being too far away from her."

"Yeah, and thanks to you, she's off to a fate that might kill her."

"But I didn't-" I started in protest, but the look he gave me had the words dying before they could come out.

It was my fault. I'd agreed to take Harper on the quest. I'd set it into motion. And there was nothing I could do now to prevent it if I tried because that was the nature of prophecies. Once started, they didn't stop. They became a supernatural force, a current that dragged everyone involved until it came to fruition, regardless of how many people it drowned.

"Why didn't you tell me?" I asked my mind scrambling to try and find a way out of this. "Why didn't Harper?"

I could back out of the mission, fake an injury, pretend to be sick… But what about her friends? They'd already agreed to take her if no one else would. Could I convinced Tamera to back off?

"She doesn't know." He said quietly, which brought me up short.

"She what?" I asked, snapping my gaze on him, hardly able to believe what I'd just heard. "What do you mean she doesn't know?"

"I mean my father and I never told Harper about the prophecy about her."

"Why not?" I asked furiously. "Charlie, if she'd known-"

"Then what Ash?" he asked angrily and there was defensiveness in his tone. "Do you think the situation would be any different if Harper knew? I wasn't even supposed to know! I found the scroll on accident when I was a kid trying to find where he'd hidden our birthday presents."

"And he made you keep it a secret?" I asked incredulously, appalled at the information I'd been confronted with in the past few minutes.

"How are you supposed to tell a six-year-old they might be destined for tragedy?" he snapped. "That whether or not the Gods decided to punish her depended on someone she hadn't even met yet. Or might never meet, as long as-"

"Her brother kept them away from her." I said darkly. This explained everything. The reason Charlie had been so paranoid about boys talking to Harper. Why he went so overboard over the littlest things that happened to her. "Charlie, you should have told her. If she'd known... been aware... she might have been able to do something."

"Like what?" he asked caustically. "Never talk to any boy other than our brothers? Be so afraid of accidentally discovering something she never wanted to read ever again? Do you really think Harper would stand for living like that?"

"No." I said quietly, feeling the anger which had flared so suddenly within me, dull slightly.

If anything, it might have made her more curious to figure out what the prophecy meant. It might have happened sooner, when she was far less equipped to deal with it.

"I thought if I kept her close, if I protected her enough, she wouldn't have to know." He explained and while the defensive note still resonated in his words, there was also a hint of desperate self justification. As if he wanted me to agree with him, and it would make the situation better. "We figured she'd be happier not knowing, not having this giant weight over her head all the time. And if I saw anyone getting close enough to her, close enough to start the chain of events, we could warn her. Let her know what could happen before it got too far."

He shook his head and ran his fingers through his hair again, gripping at the roots as if they were the only thing that was grounding him.

This is all my fault." He muttered. "I shouldn't have let James get anywhere near her. I should've said something before it got too late, but I just didn't think that he-"

"He'd be the one to cause all this."

The words came out mechanically, finishing Charlie's sentence in a tone that felt hollow even to my own ears.

Had she really cared about James that much? I mean, I knew she was hurt by what he'd done, but I thought it was more because it was a crappy thing to do to her than because it was done by him...

"I thought I would have known when it happened." He said softly, a hint of disbelief in his tone, as if a part of him still hadn't accepted the situation we were in. "That I would have had time to say something, do something. And now," he let out short laugh, but it was bitter and the words that came out next were choked. "It's too late."

And it was my fault.

"I guess it doesn't matter now." He said with a shrug, but I'd never herd him sound so hopeless. "But you want to know the worst part?"

"What?" I asked quietly, though I wasn't sure I wanted to hear what he had to say next.

"A part of me always thought it might be you."

I felt a shock go through me, and though I knew what he meant, I couldn't help myself.

"Me?"

"Yeah, it's why I never told you." he explained, scratching his head a little awkwardly. "Well, that and you might let it slip to Harper. She could always get you to tell her anything if she tried hard enough." He grinned a little wistfully at this, but continued nonetheless. "But a part of me did always wonder." He shook his head. "I mean, it sounds insane I know, and I know you would never do something like that. But she had that huge crush on you Freshman year, and I dunno." He shrugged. "I guess I couldn't help but fear every once and a while, that the person who might take my sister away from me, might be my best friend."

I had no idea what to say to this. He looked so guilty and miserable to have hidden something like this, but I couldn't exactly be angry. Not when I'd kept how I felt about his sister a secret from him for so long. Maybe he'd been right.

But it couldn't go as far as to say it. Instead, I grabbed onto the only part of this statement I could even start to think of a response to.

"She had a crush on me?" I asked in disbelief, thinking back to our first year of high school. How often she'd get irritated with me, or complain that having me around was like getting another annoying brother. "I thought she hated me back then. She acted like she couldn't stand me."

"Yeah." He said and I was amazed to see half an amused smile quirk into life at the corner of his mouth. "That's how I could tell. Harper doesn't exactly like dealing with strong feelings." He pointed out still sounding a little entertained. "I think she sees them as a waste of mental energy, and she really liked you. It drove her crazy. To be honest, I'm not sure how you didn't notice."

I knew I should have been honest with Charlie, and that it wasn't just Harper who'd had more than friends on their mind when we'd first met, but I couldn't. I was too stunned at the information and the fact that Charlie, of all people, was the one telling me this.

I was sure the shock was written plain on my face, because he didn't seem to expect me to say anything in response.

"Look." He said with a sigh. "I didn't come here to make you feel guilty or blame you or anything like that. I know you're just trying to help, and I know that you're right. We can't ignore what my mother said, I just… I just wanted you to know that I'm not crazy." The expression he gave me was a mix between defiance and a desperate grief. It was the look of someone who was angry at the situation he was in, but knew he could do nothing about it. "I know my sister isn't helpless, but this isn't a normal mission. Harper is in real danger, and anyone who goes with her will be too. I figured you should know."

His words seemed innocent enough, but something about the way he said them made me hesitate.

"Why?" I asked suspiciously. "Because you think it would make me change my mind?"

I expected him to deny this, to say he knew it wouldn't, but he didn't.

Instead, he shrugged.

"She's not your sister."

I looked at him incredulously, a part of me wondering if the stress he was under had temporarily relieved him of his sanity.

"Charlie." I said trying not to sound angry. How could that have crossed his mind? Did he know me at all? Had he ever really trusted me? "You're my best friend. I care about Harper just as much as you."

"I know." He said nodding, but I noticed he didn't seem to want to meet my gaze as he continued. "That was always the problem, wasn't it?"

It was so soft, I wasn't sure I was meant to hear it.

"What-" I started confused, but he'd already pushed passed me.

"Harper and I will meet you at the Big House tomorrow morning." He said walking towards the cabin door. He sounded so defeated. "I'm going to try and get some sleep until then. Let me know if you need anything."

"Alright." I said quietly, watching as he stepped out into the sunlight, wondering if I should had gone after him. A part of me wanted to ask him what he'd meant, but rest was too afraid. I had a feeling I knew.

…..

Charlie might have managed to get to sleep after the events of last night, I didn't know, but I didn't. I couldn't.

How was I supposed to sleep after everything that had happened over the past 24 hours? After everything he'd said.

I rolled to my side and hugged my pillow, trying to ignore the footsteps and voices of my siblings talking to each other throughout the cabin. While I imagined most people from the meeting last night had avoided going to activities today to try and sleep like Charlie, I was the only one from cabin seven that had elected to stay in. Sunlight gave us energy, and trying to sleep through nice weather, which Camp Halfblood always seemed to have, was like trying to take a nap right after chugging an energy drink. Practically impossible.

But I didn't feel that energy right now.

I watched for hours, in a tired sort of blankness, as the patch of light that shone through the room's only window traveled across the floor, manipulating it's beams every once and a while, just for something to do while random thoughts and memories darted through my head.

So Harper had liked me back in the past.

Had she ever stopped?

'Surely she had.' I thought pulling another beam towards me absentmindedly. The light weaved it's way between my fingers before fading. 'She probably would have said something if she hadn't.'

'You didn't.' An unwelcome voice said from the back of my mind.

It reminded me of James, and what he'd said when I'd confronted him about the perfume he'd given Harper. He'd all but called me a manipulator when it came to the Davis twins, a manipulator and a coward.

'But that was different wasn't it?' I thought distantly, not really sure who I was arguing with at this point.

Charlie was my best friend. Harper was his sister. Not just his favorite one, but his twin. If I'd said anything, it would have destroyed everything, wouldn't it? Messed everything up?

That was what I'd told myself all these years, whenever I allowed myself to think about it, which, admittedly, hadn't been often.

'Maybe that's what she'd thought too.' I thought distractedly.

The sun had started to sink, not much, but enough to be noticeable, and I felt the exhaustion it and my thoughts had been keeping at bay starting to creep in.

Closing my eyes, I wondered if the nightmares might be worse tonight now that I finally understood them, when suddenly, a voice shouted.

"Ash! It's time for dinner if you want any!"

It was Libby, and while I tried to ignore it, just the mention of food was enough for my stomach that had been denied both breakfast and lunch today. It gurgled for a moment, then rumbled angrily when I tried to pretend I didn't feel anything.

"Alright." I said annoyed, abandoning any residual hope that I might be able to fall asleep.

I sat up and ran my fingers through my hair, well aware that it was probably a wreck. I didn't care.

As I got to my feet, I heard the cabin door open then shut. Figuring it was probably Libby heading to dinner, I didn't think much of it as I clicked open my trunk, intent on finding a fresh set of clothes. I hadn't bothered to change from last night's sleep shorts and ratty t shirt this morning, figuring I was just going to try and sleep today, but it looked as if that just wasn't going to happen at this point. If I was going to be around other campers, I should probably wear something with less holes in it.

"Ash?"

I turned in the middle of swapping shirts, a little surprised at the familiar voice to see Harper stepping through the door of the bunkroom.

"Oh… sorry." She muttered her eyes darting away from me.

"No problem." I said, quickly pulling on my camp shirt, not really sure why the situation felt a little awkward.

It wasn't as if she hadn't seen me without a shirt before. Our team had practiced shirts vs. skins plenty of times when she'd been watching, people always gave Charlie crap about it, and her father's house had a pool. Hell, I'd even gone on vacation with Davis family to the beach more than once. So, why did it feel suddenly so tense between us?

"What's up?"

She wasn't wearing her glasses of course, because she didn't have them, and she looked so different it was a little distracting.

"I wanted to talk to you about something." she said, and while her voice was steady, I noticed she was running her thumb over the edges of her fingernails, something she only ever did when she was extremely nervous.

"What is it?" I asked frowning at the movement. Only now did I register the bookbag that was slung over her shoulder, and the short sword on her belt. "Harper, is something wrong?"

"What? You mean besides being tricked and humiliated in front of the entire camp, having my mother all but say she hates me in front of my family, and threatened by the Gods?" she asked sarcastically.

The bag shifted as she crossed her arms over her chest, and looked away from me.

"Your mother doesn't hate you." I said gently and she let out a bitter laugh.

"Fine, thinks I'm a failure, whatever."

Her expression was hard, but this time her voice did waver, and I had a feeling anger wasn't the only reason she was avoiding my gaze. Something about the tightness in her tone told me that out of everything that had happened over the past day, her mother's disappointment was the thing that had hurt her the most.

"Harper-" I started, but she cut me off.

"Don't Ash." She said with a sigh. She glanced back at me and I saw that already her composure was back. "I don't want your sympathy. I don't deserve it, and besides, we don't exactly have time for it anyways."

"We don't leave until tomorrow," I pointed out sinking back onto my bunk.

She still looked tired, but not as exhausted as before and distantly I wondered if she'd actually managed to sleep. I didn't know how she could of, not with everything going on, then again, she didn't know everything that was going on, did she?

Should I tell her?

"That's what I wanted to talk to you about," she admitted uncrossing her arms, reverting back to her nervous habit. "I think we should leave now."

"Now?" I asked in shock and she nodded.

"You're already packed," she said gesturing towards the overstuffed bag resting next to my bed, my quiver and bow propped up against it. "And we don't have a lot of time."

"Even if we wait until tomorrow, that still gives us plenty of time to find-"

"Nine days." She interrupted, a hint of anxiety creeping into her tone. "Nine. That's not a lot of time Ash, barely over a week. Not just to locate, but also bring back a son of Hermes, who doesn't want to be found." She shook her head. "Who could be at multiple locations, at any given time."

"We'll find him." I assured her, trying to keep the exhaustion out of my tone, but she again she shook her head, harder this time.

"No Ash, I don't think we will. And even if we did find him, what guarantee do we have that he hasn't told someone else about the information he stole? Even if we did manage to catch him and bring him before the Gods, what's to stop someone else from trying to do what he did? The problem isn't solved, it's just… passed on to someone else."

I wanted to comfort her at this statement, but her tone wasn't resigned, it was realistic. This was something she'd thought about.

"Well," I said, frowning slightly, but she made a good point. I hadn't really memorized the finer points of everything that was going on, just that James was looking to control method of traveling between the divine dominions that was currently unstable. "What do you think we should do?"

"I think we should try to beat him to it."

"What? The library?" I asked a feeling skeptic.

Did she want to set a trap for James if he actually managed to find it? Assuming we managed to find it ourselves.

"No." she said resolutely. "The key."

She said this as if I was supposed to know what she was talking about, then, when it was obvious I didn't, she continued.

"Even if James did manage to get into the library, it wouldn't do him much. The interrealm is unpredictable. The only way to control where you end up is by the doors through it to each domain. And the only way you can control them is-"

"With their key." I finished for her and she nodded.

"If we found it, it wouldn't matter if James managed to get into the library. Or if anyone else did for that matter. We could turn it over to Chiron or something, he could make sure it got into the hands of the right person. Maybe even open the library back up."

I hesitated for a moment, considering the idea.

"You honestly think we could find it before him?"

We were a day behind James, and now we weren't just playing catch up. We were trying to get ahead.

"I do." She said with a nod, and while she sounded tired, there was confidence in her tone. "He might have the information he needs to find the key, but this is something I've studied for years. And they key, where ever it might be, isn't a moving target. James is. But I still think we should get going. I might have had longer to think about this but with the scrolls, James won't be far behind."

"Alright." I said shrugging. "If that's what you think needs to be done then we'll do it."

She looked relieved, but the expression changed with what I said next.

"Let's go find Charlie. Tell him there's been a change of plans. Is he in the dining pavilion?" I asked while standing. "We can head out after dinner."

"I don't think Charlie should come with us." She said quietly and I froze.

"What?" I asked incredulously, looking at her as if she was insane. "Harper, you can't be serious."

"I am." She said and while her expression was guilty, her tone was stubborn. "I don't think he should go."

"But why?" I asked.

I couldn't believe this. The twins did everything together, well, all the important things. School, camp, Harper went to all of our tournaments, even the ones out of state, and when Harper had been accepted to that research program in Canada last December, he'd somehow managed to convince his Dad they should spend our winter break there, and that I should go with them. The only time they'd ever spent time apart was when Charlie left camp, and Harper had been left behind. Now that it was Harper's turn, It looked as if she wanted to continue the practice.

"You saw how he was earlier." she said with an exasperated gesture. "He totally freaked out. Every time Charlie think's there's even a hint of danger around me, he goes completely ballistic and you know it." She gave me a look that was half rigid determination, and a sort of hopeless guilt. "If Charlie comes with us he won't be able to keep a clear head. He'll spend what little time we've got trying to keep me out of the way and eliminate any danger, no matter how trivial. He'll drag his heels and argue about what we should do and we won't get anything done."

"Because he cares about you." I protested. "And he's right. Harper, this isn't like a game of capture the flag, or a chariot race." I explained hoping to make her understand that. "This is going to be dangerous. Wouldn't you want Charlie there?"

"No." she said shaking her head, but from the way she bit her lip, I knew the statement wasn't totally true. "I mean, of course I do. But I don't think he'll be able to handle it. Not when it involves me. And I don't want to put him through that." She looked away before she continued. "Besides, it's like I said. We don't have a lot of time, and if he wastes all of it trying to keep me safe… well," the corner of her mouth lifted slightly in the same way Charlie's had earlier. The ghost of a bitter smile. "It won't have mattered much what he did, will it?"

A silence fell over us, and I realized that this was the first time I'd heard her say this out loud. That she understood the position she was in. That the gods were angry with her. And things were a lot worse than most people were letting on.

"You know I'm right." She said glancing at me.

She looked so different without her glasses. Older, not like the dorky little kid I knew her brother had never really stopped seeing her as, and against my volition, I felt another stab of hatred towards James. The person who'd caused all of this.

But it wasn't just the glasses, and the fact she was no longer wearing them. She looked more focused, as if the part of her attention that was normally wandering, lost in thought or devoted to a book, had finally found something important enough to apply itself too.

She'd always been confident, and she'd always been smart, but this was the first time either of those traits had been put under real pressure and she wasn't bending. If anything, it seemed to bring them out further. It was a little intimidating.

"Maybe." I said eventually, and while I knew Harper had a point, just admitting it felt like betraying my best friend. I crossed my arms over my chest, trying to ward off the discomfort. "But he's not going to listen. If you try to tell him to stay behind, he's going to freak."

"That's why we wouldn't." she said quietly.

"Harper-" I started, feeling exhaustion wash over me yet again, but she interjected before I could get any further.

"If we leave now, it might take him hours to notice." She said quickly. "He might not even realize until tomorrow."

"I can't just not tell him."

"Then I'll go by myself." She said stubbornly, her eyes flashing as they snapped to mine and a surge of shock went through me.

She was serious…

"Harper, you can't-"

"I can and I will." She said sharply. "And don't tell me it's dangerous." She continued stubbornly, forestalling my argument. "I know that."

But she didn't know, not really, because Charlie had never told her about the prophecy.

Maybe that made her right though. Charlie's attempt to protect Harper from the truth had gotten us into this situation. One in which Harper was thrust into a fate she'd had absolutely no idea belonged to her. One she could have been ready for, it if he hadn't done everything he could to keep her from finding about. And she was right. He'd continue to do it, no matter how much we tried to reason with him.

"Look, I came here to ask you to come with me Ash." She said her gaze steady. "I don't want to go alone, but I will if I have to. And you can't stop me."

She was right about this too of course. Only Harper knew where we needed to go and the position it put me in was as impossible as it was awful.

"You're asking me to choose between you and Charlie." I said quietly and she guilt crossed her features.

She didn't bother to deny it. Harper wouldn't hate me for siding with her brother, I knew that, but if I helped her leave without him… well, I wasn't sure Charlie would ever speak to me after that. Even if it was the only real option. She couldn't do this alone.

"Look, I understand if you don't want to come." She said softly, looking away from me. "I don't want to put you in a spot you don't want to be. I just…" but her sentence faded, and there was a hint of emotion in her eyes before she quickly pushed it back, but not quickly enough for me to see it. She was more afraid than she was letting on. "Just, don't tell Charlie. Not before tomorrow. Or, ever, maybe. He'll try to stop me if he finds out."

"Harper." I said incredulously. "I'm not letting you go alone."

"You're not?" she asked her eyes going a little wider in surprise as she glanced at me, something like hope in her expression.

"No."

It always amazed me how her eyes, despite being the same exact color as her brothers, held so much more expression. You shouldn't have been able to see so many emotions in a single shade of green. It made it almost impossible to look away.

In the end, it wasn't even a choice. I knew Charlie would say that as his best friend, I should try to stop her, go to him or Chiron immediately and prevent her from leaving, but that wasn't going to solve this. And he wasn't the only Davis I cared about.

I knew Harper well enough to know that she was going to do what she was going to do, and Charlie wasn't going to be able to stop her. I cared about them enough to do what had to be done, even if he had to hate me for it. I wouldn't let Harper do this on her own.

"You're sure?" she asked hesitantly.

"Yeah." I said with a nod, and she continued to look at me for a moment.

I wasn't sure what she was thinking, but it was clear I had surprised her. She hadn't expected me to come with her.

"Then we should get going." She said calmly, but I could tell it was an act. "While everyone's at dinner."

She held out a hand, which I took and she pulled me to my feet.

"You know, you make that look a lot easier than I do." She said a little absently as I grabbed my bag, and I grinned a little.

"There's a lot more of me than there is of you."

'You should tell her the truth.' A guilty voice said in the back of my mind said. 'You should tell her everything.'

Harper still didn't know about the prophecy. About what she was really getting into, but, did she really need to know?

'It wasn't like it changed anything.' I reasoned putting my bow over my shoulder, remember the flash of fear that had crossed her features before she'd hidden it.

In the end, the objective was the same wasn't it? Stop James from getting control of a doorway between the divine realms. She didn't need to hear a prophecy to do that. We already had a plan.

'There's no reason to scare her.' I thought, trying to quell the surge of unease the justification brought up.

She didn't need that hanging over her. We just needed to focus on what was a head of us. The job we had to do. Not dire predictions about what might happen.

"You ready?" she asked as I secured the strap on my quiver, and despite her best efforts, I heard the anxiety in her tone.

"Yeah." I confirmed with another nod and she copied the movement.

"Alright. Let's go then."

But when she turned to leave the room, I caught her hand.

"What?" She asked glancing back at me, and again, while she was doing a good job of keeping the fear down, I could see it. And it made me glad I decided not to burden her with the information that both Charlie, and now I, knew.

"It'll be ok. You know that, right?" I asked her and something in her expression seemed to faulter. "We'll get this sorted out."

I didn't know if what I said made her feel better at first, or had just succeeded in reminding her just how serious things were for her, but then her fingers interlaced with mine. And while it might not have seemed like a big deal to anyone else, her words were as meaningful to me as they were familiar.

"I know."