Hello again! As promised here is the second update. I know the last chapter was a bit shorter than usual but I felt that while these two chapters needed to be broken up, especially with the POV switches, I also felt they needed to be read together especially as there a lot of information in them and it all leads up towards the end of the chapter, so it's a good update together but drawn out if I continued to post at my usual speed. Like I said, I'm really trying to commit to picking up the pace just so I can focus on one story at a time but because I posted this story so early, I just need to make absolutely sure what I've written is what's going to be the final edit in the over all story. Anyways. I hope you all enjoy the two chapter update!
~ Secrethalfblood
Hpov
While Ashton's mother hadn't shouted at us for turning up on her doorstep looking like we'd just stumbled out of a bar fight, and very clearly having gone AWOL from camp, I almost wished she had.
Somehow, she'd managed appear simultaneously incredibly furious and scarily calm, and if standing next to Ashton felt like being out in the sun, facing her gaze felt like a cold wind in January.
"Your mom seems pretty pissed." I said hugging my knees to my chest as Ashton stepped through his bedroom door, his light hair a few shades darker after his shower.
I'd been sitting on his bed feeling a little more excited than knew I probably should be to be left alone in the room of my brother's best friend. It didn't look much different than what I remembered, however, the bed was bigger. Probably because, seeing as how tall he'd gotten, he might not have fit all that comfortably on the last one. The mini basketball hoop that had been on the room door was now on the closet, but apart from that, the guitars on the wall and the chaos of his desk was the same as when I'd last seen them, leading me to think he hadn't ever actually opened any of the text books piled against the wall. Some of the posters had been updated and I was surprised to see myself in some of the photos on the wall next to his bed. There were more than I had expected, and they went back several years. Had they always been there?
"That's just how she is." He said distractedly, running his fingers through his hair sending showers of water droplets onto his shoulders and the carpet. "She always seems upset about something."
He looked tense, like he always did when he had to talk to his mother, and I couldn't help but feel a surge of sympathy for him even if I didn't exactly know how to help. I knew things weren't great between my own mother and myself right now, but despite this, and despite the fact that she was literally a goddess, at least we usually got along, even if she was a bit remote. I had a feeling Ashton hadn't had that feeling with his mother in a very, very long time.
We'd swapped stories of what had happened to the other since I saw him chasing after the Satyr, him running into his father and everything I'd learned from Lucy. By the time he'd realized Kronos might be involved, he'd said his head hurt and had decided to take a shower to clear his thoughts.
"Ok," he said grabbing a shirt from his dresser and putting it on before flinging himself in the computer chair at his desk and spinning to face me. "What do we know?"
"James knows about and has been in and out of the library for years most likely, and Lucy, who is a mortal from everything I can tell, has no idea what's going on in the word outside it." I started with a sigh, going over the same information that had been ruminating in the back of my mind since the previous night. If what we'd experienced in the library had been night. "He's been looking for a way to control the doors, for Gods only know why, but if the Lord of Titans really is involved, it can't be good."
"That, and he's a garbage human being." Ashton muttered darkly, picking up the mini basketball on his desk and shooting it into the hoop across the room. It was clear he was still furious with James, but I decided it was best to ignore this and continued my line of thought.
"He's also managed to get into Olympus through the doors, though, personally, I have a feeling that was probably more of an accident than anything."
"But the fact that it's even possible is a problem." Ashton said wearily and I nodded.
"That and he's on the trail to find the key to control a legendary power that can give him access to the mortal world and each of the mythological dominions." He continued sounding exhausted. "And we're on a deadline to find it before he does."
He didn't mention the whole, or facing Olympus's wrath part of the deadline which I was grateful for, I could see it in his eyes however, as he looked at me, that though he'd left it unspoken, it was on his mind. Sometimes, I wondered if Ashton was more worried about that part than I was. Then again, maybe I should have been more afraid.
But maybe it was easier to worry about horrible things happening to other people than it was for yourself. Even if you cared about them. It just didn't seem real to me yet. I guess a part of me had trouble reconciling the fact that my mother would give me to the Olympians if I failed, even if she was angry. I didn't want to believe it.
"What I don't get." Ashton said shaking his head. "Is how were supposed to do any of this, or how James thought he could for that matter. From every thing you've told me, this key or whatever, even if it's powerful it's been lost to time. If the doors worked, fine. We could search the world and go from location to location it might have been pretty easily. But they don't." he said frowning. "Sure, with things like air travel and gps we could find our way around eventually, but that would take years. We don't have that kind of time. And judging by his behavior, I doubt James does either. From everything I can tell, he's got more control over where he ends up than most people do. He hasn't ended up at the bottom of the Pacific or anything. But it's clear it's not total."
"I think that's why Lily gave this to us." I said pulling the heavy card out of my bag that was resting on the blankets beside me. "I think it helps. Like the library recognizes you're a member or not just some random it needs to spew back into the world. And as for controlling where you end up." I reached down into his bag which was on the floor and pulled out the olive branch.
It was wrapped in one of his shirts and glinted softly in the light, no longer glowing like it had been near the door.
"I think this is the way around. It's what the Satyr was after, wasn't it?"
His eyes flitted to the card to the branch, and then nodded.
"Yeah, but I'm not sure that's entirely how it works." He said with a frown. "The doors activated when he wanted them too, but I've no idea where he ended up. And they dumped me into the sky."
"You didn't have this with you." I pointed out, holding up the card. "And well, the doors did dump you into the atmosphere, you didn't exactly tell them where you wanted to go. Maybe the fact they sent you to your father wasn't an accident. Maybe they recognized that part of you." I said with a shrug. "He just happened to be, ya know, airborne."
"That's how you found me, right?" he asked nodding towards the glimmering branch and I nodded.
"Yeah."
I might have ended up crashing through a car door, but you couldn't have everything. Especially when the interrealm was used to spitting people out wherever it pleased over the last several centuries.
"So then, we potentially have a way of traveling," he said his tone suddenly excited and he sat up straighter. "Well, what are we waiting for? Let's try it out."
He reached forward as if without thinking towards the olive branch but I pulled it out of his reach
"Woah, slow down a second Ash." I said putting a hand up. "We don't have an unlimited supply of these… magic warping things," I continued gesturing towards the places were the previous fruit had been missing. "We can't just going jumping around the world at random. We need a plan. And besides." I tilted my head a little curiously as I looked at him. "Don't you want to at least wait until your mother gets back?"
"No actually." He said frowning. "I don't. Besides, Harper we don't have a lot of time."
"We have enough time to figure out our next move." I said trying to keep my tone neutral, seeing by his expression that he wanted to argue. "I want to figure out where we should go, I need to think about it."
I could tell this didn't sit well with him, but when he did respond. His voice was calm.
"Alright." He said. "You do what you think is right, but what about me?" he asked raising an eyebrow. "I don't wanna just sit here. That feels useless."
"You." I said standing up and shifting the pile of papers off of his textbooks, searching the titles until I found the one I was looking for. "Are going to study."
"What?" he asked, but I dropped the chemistry book in his hands and he looked at me with disbelief. "Harper, you can't be-"
"I am completely serious." I said stubbornly, while he continued to stare at me as if I'd sprouted an extra head. "We have more content I want to go over and when all this is over, because it will be eventually," I said certainly. "You've got an exam to retake."
"I don't think-"
"I mean it Ash, I'm not graduating next year without you, and neither is Charlie." I said giving him a meaningful expression. "We're not going to let some stupid asshat from camp screw up what little summer we have left after all this, ok?"
I couldn't describe the look he gave me, if it was incredulity or if he thought I was insane, but I also something that looked maybe a little bit like hope. But even if I couldn't describe the feeling, I could tell what was on his mind.
"You really think it's all going to turn out that way Bambi?" he asked quietly. Not for the first time in the last few days, something felt different about the way he'd said the nickname, and it didn't feel as annoying as it once had. "That it's all going to turn out fine, and things will be back to the way they were?"
His question as obvious, but something in his tone had me wondering what he really meant. I couldn't help but think what he was really asking was not if going back to normal was what I thought was going to happen, or what I wanted to happen.
At this point, I wasn't sure if 'fine' and 'the way they were' were the same thing.
"Well," I said watching his expression, and feeling hesitant to pursue this line of conversation, but following it anyways. "If things did work out, and you could change things, would you?"
"I think I would change a lot of things." He said quietly.
He wasn't looking quite at me, but something over my shoulder and I turned to see that his eyes were on a photo. In it were three people, Charlie, Ashton, and I. Ashton and I were both wearing purple shirts, head bands, and war paint, while Charlie was in green looking irritated as I, on Ashton's shoulders, brandished our school's field day trophy.
It was one of the few times that neither Ashton nor I had been put on a team with Charlie… ever. Our team had just narrowly won the flag football tournament putting us in the lead of the total number of events. Charlie had been in a sour mood all weekend after the event and I thought it was because he'd lost, but now… looking at the photo, it wasn't the trophy he was scowling at.
Had he been upset at feeling left out? Or was there something else that had been bothering him?
"It doesn't really matter." Ashton said shaking his head, before I could voice the questions I was so uncertain about. "You're right. This will give me something to do."
He opened the book and turned back to his desk, and while he was pretending to read I could see the tension in his shoulders and I wondered if he was actually retaining any of it.
"Yeah." I said quietly, grabbing a notebook off of his desk and a pen.
Ashton was right. There wasn't really any point of dwelling on this, at least right now if ever. What difference did it make? I'd been down this road before. It wasn't as if anything had changed, right? Even if Charlie was furious, Ashton was still his best friend. He wouldn't let anyone get in the way of that. That wasn't going to change, not for me.
'No matter how much you wish it would.'
The thought was painful, and one I'd been ignoring for years. He might have cared about us both, when it came down to it, between Davis twins, I was always Ashton's second priority. I'd understood it. Charlie was after all, Ashton's best friend, he always had been and I'd respected it. I'd never really been hurt by it, never gotten angry in the few times I'd allow myself to think about it. Even if there had been a point where I might have hoped things had been different. I'd thought I'd moved on.
But hearing him saying he might have wanted things to be different too, made me wonder if I really had. And I couldn't help but remember what Lucy had told me in the library.
'Just because you don't think about something, doesn't mean it goes away.'
'You don't have time for this.' I thought turning back to the bed. 'It's pointless, you need to focus on your next move. Finding the key.'
But just as I was about to take a step, Ashton's hand caught mind.
"What's up?" I asked a confused, wondering if he needed help with reading a formula or something. "Did you-"
But before I could even finish the question Ashton had gotten to his feet, released my hand only to take my face between his, and then kiss me.
Apov
Kissing Harper wasn't like kissing Jasmine or any other girl I'd dated which might have started a little awkward at first, but ended up comfortable or pleasant. No, this was nothing like that. It felt …right. Like an instinct. As if kissing Harper was the most natural thing in the world, and now that I'd started, it was something automatic. Something I couldn't forget.
Maybe it didn't make a lot of sense, but I didn't care.
It didn't make sense that it felt like fire had ignighted inside me, but it wasn't painful as it burned, or the fact that though I knew I was breathing, but couldn't seem to get enough air.
My heart felt like it was trying to beat itself out of my chest but it didn't matter. Not as long as I could keep kissing her. I didn't care what it did to me, I'd accept the consequences.
She hadn't seemed surprised when I'd kissed her, and if my brain had been working properly, I probably would have wondered if she should have been but it had long since shut off, letting everything I'd left unsaid over the past few years take over, driving me to do the thing I'd known I'd wanted to from the very first time I'd seen Harper at the court. Before I'd known who's sister she was…
I let my brain disengage and the thought of Charlie drift far, far away as the world dissolved around me. It didn't matter. Nothing else mattered. Not right now. Not while I was here, and there girl I'd been in love with since I was fourteen let me pull her closer, and forget everything in the universe existed but her.
It was everything I'd ever wanted, and yet, somehow, it was so much more. It was more than just the half hearted hope I pretended to myself I didn't have. The dreams at night that, during the day, I lied and said I didn't remember. It was real. Harper was here. And for once in my life, I didn't have to pretend not to feel it.
I sat back in the chair, pulling Harper with me and onto my lap.
"Ash-" she started in surprise but I kissed her again and, seeming far from unhappy about the situation, she slid her arms around my neck and her hands into my hair.
It was perfect, bliss.
I didn't have to think about anything but pulling her closer, worry about anything other than keeping her here, and never letting this feeling go because if it did, I was convinced a part of me would be going with it. A part of me that only she could return.
I didn't want to let that go. Not yet.
But you couldn't always get what you wanted.
I wasn't sure how long we were there, oblivious to the world around us, but eventually, Harper broke away from me and I could feel her gaze before I saw it. And while I thought I would have been afraid to meet it, I wasn't.
You didn't feel something like that if you weren't sure about someone, and even if she'd been the one to pull away, it wasn't as if she'd been in a hurry.
Her eyes met mine, and as it almost always did, my brain felt as if it needed to reset.
She blushed a little and her expression was curious, but she smiled a little as she said.
"Do you know how long I've been waiting for you to do that?"
"Not for as long as I've wanted to." I said softly leaning my forehead against hers. That I could promise.
"Why now?" she asked curiously, her eyes searching mine as I brushed her hair out of her face, but I found I didn't really have an answer.
The truth was, I didn't really know. It seemed like over the last few years, there had always been a million reasons I wanted to do this, and a million and one reasons not to. But at this point, what was there to lose?
Charlie hated me, and despite Harper's confidence in me, I didn't know what was going on with school next year even if we did get through this quest alive.
All this time I had been so preoccupied about whether or not Charlie would hate me for how I felt about his sister, and if I would lose my best friend, I'd never considered the fact that it might be Harper I would lose.
She'd always been there in my mind, no matter what was going on with Charlie. Helping me study the night before a test, 'watching' at every single one of my games, and when I thought of the future, I hadn't had a doubt she'd be in it.
I didn't know if Charlie and I would ever be friends again, but the idea that something could have happened to her made all those million and one reasons seem so trivial compared to the idea that I could possibly never see her again…
That was too painful.
I could forgive myself if Charlie never forgave me. I wouldn't have been happy about it, but at least I knew I was doing what I thought was right. I could live with that. But if something were to happen to one of us, and Harper never knew the truth about how I felt about her. Well, I didn't want to live with that hanging over me the rest of my life, or die coward if that's what it came down to.
I hadn't answered yet, and it seemed to have confused her.
"Ash?" she said uncertainly.
"I dunno." I said shrugging. "I guess because I can't pretend anymore. There's no reason to."
"Pretend?" she asked softly.
Her eyes hadn't left mine, but something had changed in them, as if they were looking for something.
"Harper, I've been crazy about you since the day we met, maybe even longer than that if you ask Aaron." I said and she smiled a little, clearly remember the first conversation we'd ever had. "There hasn't been a day since we met that I haven't wanted to see you, that a part of me hadn't hoped that things could be different someday and if I could just-"
But I cut myself off, a flash of pain going through me at the words before I'd even gotten to the them.
I'd always thought that one day, if I ever got the nerve to be honest with the people I cared about most in my life, I could make Charlie see how much I cared about his sister. That I would never hurt her.
But I guess I'd been wrong about that too. I hadn't known about the prophecy that had made Charlie so paranoid about Harper. And now that I did, it was like trying to stop an avalanche when you were already tumbling down the mountain. How the hell were you supposed to stop loving someone that was sitting right in front you after loving them for years? Even if it was the worst thing for them that you could do.
And I couldn't even bring myself to tell her.
"Harper, I'm sorry." I said quietly.
"What?" she asked, at this point appearing completely thrown.
"I'm sorry." I repeated, guilt burning through as she stared at me, clearly confused. "For everything, this entire mess and screwing things up with Charlie and-"
"Ash." She said incredulously, as if she couldn't believe what she was hearing. "None of this was your fault."
But I shook my head. It was my fault, she just didn't know it. And I was too selfish to tell her.
"Ash, look at me." She said and I felt her finger tips brush my skin as she lifted my chin to meet her gaze. "We'll figure this out, alright? And then, we'll go home, and we'll figure out all the stuff with Charlie too. He's my brother, and no matter how pissed he might be now, he's still your best friend. He can't be mad forever."
"This is Charlie we're talking about here." I reminded her and she rolled her eyes.
"Yeah, and he'll get over it." she said. "I've known him longer than you have, don't forget that." Her eyes met mine again. "It'll be ok."
I couldn't help but grin a little at that.
"I feel like you're always saying that."
"And I'm always right." She said shrugging giving me a final smile that looked dangerously close to a smirk.
"Yeah I guess so." I agreed, absentmindedly tucking a strand of hair behind her ear and the smile softened.
"Exactly." She said getting to her feet and taking my hand to help me up.
The motion was automatic as was my acceptance of it, but when she made to step away, I laced my fingers with hers.
I didn't want to let her go, not yet.
Instead I slid an arm around her waist and she looked up at me, grinning.
"Shouldn't you be studying?" she asked raising an eyebrow and I couldn't help it, and returned the smile, any guilt I might have felt about the prophecy or Charlie banished by the way she was looking at me as I pulled her closer.
The was nothing that could really be too wrong in the world, right? Not when she was looking at me like that.
"Probably," I admitted, but kissed her anyways.