Hey, everyone... been a while! Thanks for sticking with me:)
"No - no, Travis, it's two fingers for the strawberries and a handful for the sunflowers! Gods, have you even been listening? Just - here, let me do it." Katie snatched the pouch of seeds from Travis' hands. He rolled his eyes.
"Sorry if not all of us were born to spend eternity digging in dirt," he muttered.
"I apologize if my dirt digging - which, by the way, literally provides this place with magic - is interfering with your idiocy," Katie growled back, and began digging holes in the soft dirt rather more aggressively than she had before.
I watched from my spot in the strawberry fields, about three rows behind the two of them. I suddenly spotted a younger Demeter girl giving me a judgy look who'd presumably caught me spying, and hastily returned my attention to the strawberry seeds I was supposed to be planting in the ground.
Travis, as the elder co-senior counselor of the Hermes cabin, had been in charge of arranging cabin activities. And he'd not so subtly aligned most of them with the Demeter cabin's - which, unfortunately, included a lot of planting. And watering. And weeding. And suffering in the heat. As an added bonus, though, we all got to watch Travis and Katie piss each other off.
It was less fun than usual when I remembered that Connor wasn't here. And that he wasn't here because he was taking his shift on scout duty for the beach, which had only become a position this summer in the first place because we were preparing for the upcoming monster apocalypse.
Oh, sorry - the Titan War, excuse me. Beckendorf had left early yesterday morning with Blackjack to go get Percy, where they were supposedly going to blow up Luke's Princess Andromeda and kill the monster army before it had a chance to do any major demigod slaughtering.
And, hey - I'm all for blowing up ships with huge monster armies aboard. But excuse me for being a little concerned that Percy and Beckendorf will actually get the job done. I mean, we're all supposed to be here, working everyday to train and prepare and build weapons, but suddenly Percy gets to leave to spend time with his family? And we're all supposed to just trust him.
A sharp stab of pain notified me that while digging holes for strawberry seeds, I'd somehow punched through the dirt hard enough to hit a rock. Lifting my hand to my face, I saw a small scrape next to the fingernail on my forefinger. It stung.
Stupid finger, I thought viciously, dropping the seed into the tiny hole and beginning on the next one. Stupid rock. Stupid Demeter cabin, making us plant all these useless strawberry seeds when the food is, like, magical anyway. Stupid Percy, taking a freaking vacation and still getting called a hero while I'm - the rest of us - are stuck slaving away in this stupid, stupid strawberry f-
A horn blew, so sudden and loud it wiped away all thoughts of the strawberry fields immediately. Travis jumped up, expression serious for once. "That was the beach," he said tersely. "Connor's horn."
My heart thudded in my chest. The horn blew again, and we all began to sprint.
Line break
It was Percy. He'd walked straight up from the ocean, apparently. I could see him as he and Conner crested the dunes - black hair, leanish-now-more-muscular frame. From the distance, though, I couldn't yet make out anything other than that - a smudgy figure against the sand.
A smudgy figure, singular. My heart sank. Beckendorf.
Campers were now flooding down from their activities. Someone rammed into my side in their haste to get by, and I was about to snap at whoever it was until I recognized Silena's dark whip of hair. Oh, gods.
I slowed. I could see Percy's face, now. He'd stopped walking and was now standing at the edge of the dining pavilion. He looked miserable. And, yes, my feelings toward him weren't exactly warm, but I still felt a stab of sympathy. However it had happened, Beckendorf was probably gone. And Percy had likely watched him die.
Chiron and Annabeth reached him first, Silena a moment later. I couldn't hear them from where I stood, but I didn't particularly want to. Silena's shoulders started to shake, and I turned away, bile rising in my throat.
Beckendorf, gone. How had he died? I remembered seeing monsters and campers rip each other apart that horrible day last summer, but it was impossible to imagine Beckendorf being torn apart that way.
He was always so strong! He was the one that, no matter how high tensions got, kept everyone together. And even aside from that - when fighting, he was huge. Terrifying. The fact that something had been able to take him down… What chance at all did I have?
A sudden vision filled my head - a huge shadow with claws and teeth taking my frail body up in its jaws and crunching through me - meat, bones and all. It looked up with bloody teeth, dropping my body to the ground.
Or, what was left of it. It'd all but torn out my abdomen. Blood and intestines were strewn out on the grass, and shards of white poked up from within the fleshy mess.
I blinked my eyes, bile rising in my throat as my vision cleared. A sick feeling swooped low in my stomach, and I started away from the others. I couldn't watch any more of this. I ran as far as I could before stumbling to my knees and emptying my stomach out on the grass.
Line break
Conner found me about three hours later, sitting cross-legged, a few feet away from the border.
"Getting a little close to the mortal world there, buddy," he said quietly.
"Everywhere else - it was too - it felt, um -" The words clogged in my throat, but Conner knew what I was trying to say. He always did.
"Dinner's ending in ten minutes, if you want any food," he offered. "I figured I should let you know."
"I don't want any," I told him quickly. A breeze ruffled by us, cooling my forehead. It felt good.
"Yeah, I figured that, too," he said. He lifted his eyebrows. "You might want to shower."
Heat rose to my cheeks. "I-"
"No shame in a little puke," he interrupted, palms in the air. "We've all gone through it. Did I ever tell you the time, a few years ago, when-"
"I'm fifteen," I snapped, anger rising up all too easily with the humiliation. "Maybe you embarrassed yourself in front of a cute Aphrodite girl when you were ten, but I'm pretty sure the other fifteen year olds aren't crying and spewing their guts all over camp whenever the thought of war crosses their minds. So don't tell me about your little kid sob story, okay, because I don't want to hear it."
A beat of silence. Another. My breathing slowed, and the rush of red cleared from behind my eyes.
"If you want to be alone that's fine," Conner finally said. His voice was decidedly colder. "Just be back for the shroud burning."
Shame, this time, washed over me. Of course I wasn't the only one affected by Beckendorf's death. Conner had to be going through a lot too; he'd known Beckendorf for years. I couldn't even imagine that kind of pain, and here I was, shouting at him when he was trying to make sure I was okay.
"Wait," I said suddenly, rising from my pathetic spot in the grass. Conner's arms were folded over his chest. "I'm sorry. I - I'm sorry." My voice was hoarse. "How did he… do you know how… did Percy, um…" I couldn't bring myself to say it.
Conner closed his eyes. "Didn't make it off the ship in time."
"But Percy… he made it off," I realized suddenly. "So… they were caught? Before they could blow the ship. And Percy tried to escape or something, but he left Beck-"
"Enough with the Percy shit, alright?" Conner cut in, real anger flashing in his eyes. I flinched. "The ship blew. Mission complete. Percy didn't abandon anyone. The only reason he's alive is because he was in the middle of the ocean and his father's the god of the sea. Beckendorf wasn't so lucky."
"Oh." I swallowed.
"Yeah. They're going to burn the shroud at the campfire in half an hour. Just - be there. If anyone deserves the respect and grief of the whole camp, it's Beckendorf. He was…" He shook his head.
Conner didn't finish, leaving me to stare miserably after him as he headed back to the dining pavilion, wishing my life was so pathetically horrible.
The Princess Andromeda was blown up. No more monster army, right? We were saved. The titans were still around, but they were for the gods to deal with. So why did I still feel like nothing had been solved at all?
Line break
The shroud burning was nice, at least. It was beautiful - made of shining silver links, patterned bronze and gold around the border.
Some campers were crying. I was sitting with the rest of the Hermes cabin, but still - by myself. Conner was sitting with his brother. Silena was with Clarisse, but Percy was also by himself. Not with Annabeth, for once.
It didn't even make me feel much better that the golden duo wasn't looking so gold anymore. I just… watched the shroud. Even though it was made of metal and sparked a little, the flames still licked it up and ashes floated to the ground.
Dimly, I wondered what my shroud would look like. My godly parent - whoever it was - still hadn't claimed me. The beautiful one. Whatever that meant. I hadn't done anything amazing or heroic, so no conquests to be woven in as design. Nothing, really. In fact, if there was a huge battle and multiple campers died - including me - would anyone else even notice?
The other campers, probably not. I didn't think my own cabin even knew my name. Conner would probably wonder where I was… hopefully. Probably.
Annabeth would look for me, though. Right? She was my friend. We were friends. Even if she wasn't ready for anything more at the moment(understandably), she cared about me. I knew that.
I looked over at her. She and Chiron were saying something to each other, off to the side. I glanced over to my other side at Percy, and saw with a jolt he was also gazing sullenly in her direction. Something in his face changed, and he turned back to staring into the campfire.
But he'd been watching her! I knew they weren't getting along great, which was no surprise, considering… well, everything. The fact that Percy was an arrogant guy with a god complex, for starters. I'd heard that hardship brought out the best and the worst in people. Looked like Percy wasn't exactly getting the good side of that.
Chiron half heartedly dismissed everyone for bed around ten minutes later, but some of the campers stayed back to watch the flame flicker into embers. He didn't argue.
Line break
I dreamed again about the three princesses that night. It took me a minute to identify them, though, as the youngest now looked a little older than me instead of a fresh faced young girl. She was hunched over on her bed, crying, as her mother and father held her. Her hands covered her face.
Her sisters stood in the shadows of the corner, watching. My eyes jumped to the glowing stones of Kokkinos and Kitrinos, still strapped to their waists by those thin, braided cords.
The third, blue stoned dagger - Kovaltios - was discarded on a bedside table.
"I can't," the sister on the bed sobbed. "I don't want to, father! Please, will you help me? Or will you not? Because if you do not, I will find a way to end this curse myself. I swear to it." She looked up furiously at her father through red, watery eyes.
"A curse," the eldest sister hissed quietly from the corner. "She calls it a curse."
Her father looked at his weeping daughter sadly. "Of course I will, Darling. I'll leave for Delphi tomorrow. Worry not."
He bowed to place a kiss on her forehead, and the dream faded away.
Line break
Kokkinos and Kitrinos glinted in the sun. I'd been staring at them all morning, amazed that they had survived thousands of years of toil and horrified at whatever tragedy they'd left in their wake.
They were definitely the daggers from my dreams. And, I supposed, it was entirely possible the princesses' horrible deaths had nothing to do with the daggers. But still…
"Mathew!" Travis barked. I shoved my daggers away hastily, returning my focus to the morning activity: the armory. Which basically meant polishing armor and sharpening weapons. Literally the most boring thing in existence, because we weren't even in the weapons shed where all the cool stuff was. The armory was only filled with standard broad swords and shields.
Connor came up to me as I began wiping my third shield with the polishing rag. "I'm sorry," I said immediately. "I shouldn't have acted like that toward you last night. So. Um, sorry."
I blushed. Apologies to make up after a fight(that hadn't really been a fight) just felt so… middle school.
Connor sighed. "You're fine, dude, really. Death isn't a small thing. It's okay to feel whatever you want."
"Right," I coughed. Being on good terms with my friend again was great, but I didn't exactly want to get all touchy feely. Thankfully I didn't think he did, either.
"What, uh… what happened after I left yesterday?"
Conner lowered his voice so the others couldn't hear. "There was another war council. Clarisse was being impossible, as usual, but gods, poor Silena… anyway. We finally heard the great prophecy."
I nearly dropped the shield. "What?" I hissed.
Connor nodded. "Yeah. Percy got it from the oracle and read it out for us. And not gonna lie, it doesn't sound great. There's all this stuff about destruction and razing and heroes and cursed blades-"
"Cursed blades?" I interrupted weakly. "But I thought we were done with it. The war. Percy and Beckandorf blew up Luke's ship. There's no monster army for us to fight any more."
"Percy says Kronos hinted that there was some other threat we have to watch out for," Connor said. I scoffed.
"And obviously, we should all listen to Percy. Because Kronos just loves handing out helpful tips like that-"
I stopped at the look on Connor's face, fighting the wave of annoyance at his willingness to stick up for someone he practically didn't even know.
"Yeah, well, apparently we also have a spy."
I blinked. "Like… for us? That's good, right? A spy passing us information?"
"A spy for them," Connor muttered. "Someone from inside camp's been passing information to Luke. They probably still are."
"Oh," I said, swallowing. A spy. Just someone giving all of Camp Half-Blood's secrets away to the titan lord. Now, whether he had an army to defeat us with or not, he could probably just march in whenever he pleased and kill us all anyway. But no big deal.
"You can't tell anyone, though," Connor told me quickly. "You know that, right?"
I pressed my lips into a forced smile. "Yeah, of course. I just need to get… I need to be away from the armory for a bit, is all. Fresh air. The smell of polish is getting to me."
I dropped my polishing materials, grabbed my daggers, and jogged outside before he could respond. Gods, why was I so jumpy lately? The titan war wouldn't even affect us. The Princess Andromeda was destroyed. Even though Beckendorf died in the process, Percy had done something right. The threat had passed. The great prophecy had nothing to do with me.
Voices shouted to my right and, glancing over, I saw Percy and Annabeth by the cabins.
I bristled. I knew Annabeth - as a senior counselor - had cabin inspection duty, but Percy was assigned to something else! Why was he with her? It was so annoying! If that was me helping Annabeth with cabin inspections, or, like, anybody else besides Percy we'd totally get yelled at!
I momentarily forgot about the horrible stuff Connor had just dumped on me. I hurried down to where they were - maybe I'd say hi. Or just ask Percy what the hell he was doing. If he was slacking off whatever his senior counselor duty was, that was doubly bad.
As I got closer, though, I halted. Percy and Annabeth were… well, their conversation didn't exactly look civil, to say the least.
"-a coward, Percy Jackson!" She snapped furiously, and Percy flinched back. He hissed something back in her face, and Annabeth threw her hands up in frustration and stormed off to the next cabin.
Percy stared after for a moment, then turned and started for the Big House.
I made a split second decision and hurried after Annabeth.
Line break
"Hey," I said when I reached her. She was halfway to the Demeter cabin.
She looked up, saw me, and kept walking.
"Are you going to keep ignoring me forever?" I asked, annoyance flickering through me. Sure, yell at Percy one day and invite him to do cabin inspections the next. Ignore me for a month for doing pretty much nothing at all.
She pursed her lips. "Hey, Mathew. Sorry. I've had… a lot going on recently."
I stuff my hands in my pockets, keeping up with her brisk pace. "Yeah, I figured. You guys are always having those secret senior counselor meetings and battle planning and all that." I tried not to let too much bitterness leak into my voice.
She frowned at me. "You do realize we can't just invite the entire camp, right?"
"Yeah, I know, just…" I bit my lip and voiced my real concern. "Is it true that there could be another monster army? And that there's a spy in camp? And that the great prophecy was finally announced and we're all going to be razed and destroyed?"
Annabeth cursed angrily under her breath in ancient Greek, finally exhaling and facing me fully. "I don't know what mutilated version of what actually happened during the war council last night Connor told you, but no, we're not all doomed to death and destruction. We'll probably just be enslaved to the titan army after our inevitable defeat."
I choked. "What?!"
Annabeth flung open the door of the Demeter cabin, glanced around, and marked the chart with a flick of the pencil. "This is exactly what Chiron wants to avoid, Mathew. Hearing versions of what's actually happening and panicking because of it. We don't - camp needs unity. Whatever's coming… we need to be strong for it." She turned back to me, grey eyes fixing into mine. Trapping me.
I froze.
"Yes, there's a spy. Yes, there's possibility of another threat we may have to face. And yes, the great prophecy was finally read. It didn't, however, promise doom and destruction like Connor probably told you." Irritation flashed across her face. "It doesn't give us great odds, I'll admit, but…"
She sighed, stepping back out into the grass and closing the Demeter cabin's door behind her. "Just - don't worry about it, okay? If anyone's going to come out of this unscathed, it'll be you."
She muttered the last part under her breath in a tone I tried not to take too personally.
Line break
By the next morning, it seemed everyone in camp knew about the spy. Everyone was quieter, speaking in hushed whispers and clearly sneaking suspicious glances at one another. A Demeter girl and Hephaestus girl who I'd previously seen hanging out together all the time ran into each other on their way to the food table, glared at each other, and went their separate ways.
"Spy," I heard the Hephaestus girl mutter to her former friend as she passed me. "Dirty spy."
I didn't know what the Demeter girl had done, but it was clear the Hephaestus cabin girl was hurt and lashing. And I realized: I'd never truly thought about how much Beckendorf had really impacted everyone.
It was horrible enough for me, and I'd barely known him. Connor had known him for years, poor Silena was devastated, but his siblings? The ones he'd grown up with, cared for, lived and created with?
I didn't have any siblings, and the rest of the goons in the Hermes cabin definitely didn't count. But I supposed if Jeremy or Lily got hurt - my two best friends, people I'd known almost my whole life - I'd be quick to place blame, too.
As I sat down with my meal, my eyes drew to the two places they always seemed to go: to the Athena table, first. Annabeth wasn't there, but after another glance I found her talking to Chiron up at the head table.
Then the second place. The Poseidon table, which was curiously empty. That alone wasn't strange - it was the fact he hadn't been at dinner last night, either.
I rose from my spot at the Hermes table and headed over to where Annabeth and Chiron spoke in hushed tones, leaving my food behind. I wasn't that hungry anyway.
Annabeth and Chiron stopped speaking when they noticed me approaching. "Do either of you know where Percy is?" I asked bluntly.
Chiron sighed heavily, and I could almost see Annabeth's walls go up as her eyes darkened and she folded her arms over her chest. "He's not here," she said curtly.
"Right, but do you know where?"
"Why does it matter?" She asked, anger leaking into her tone.
Ah, gods, she was not happy. And an unhappy Annabeth was a dangerous Annabeth. Fortunately or unfortunately, she'd been annoyed at me for the past month.
"Because he's the 'prophecy kid,'" I said in a fake sing-song voice. "Even if the rest of us don't have anything to do with the war, don't you think he should be, you know… around?"
"He probably should," Annabeth growled, "But he isn't. Happy?"
I frowned. No, I was happy. Why was she still defending him? "Listen, if this has anything to do with the ki-"
Annabeth grabbed my arm and yanked me away from the dining pavilion before I could finish the sentence. Once we were out of earshot of the others, we both started talking at once.
"So where is he-"
"You can't just say-"
We stopped. Then Annabeth said through her teeth, "I don't know where he is. I would be concerned, but Mrs. O'Leary is missing too and the satyrs say Nico left with the two of them yesterday afternoon. So at the very least, it was probably Nico's idea."
Oh. "Oh," I said.
"Yeah. 'Oh.' And, Mathew…" Her cheeks turned slightly pink. "We did not kiss. Okay? You tried to kiss me. That's all that happened."
My face turned red. "Fine. Sorry. You're acting weird and not at all like your usual self, but fine. And it doesn't explain why you've been ignoring me for the past month! We're supposed to be friends!"
Her mouth fell open. "Friends? We were friends! But friends doesn't mean us spending every minute of our time together, which appears to be your definition of the word. Mathew, I've been busy! There is literally a war happening right now, and you're concerned we haven't talked in a while. You need to-"
"Stop telling me what to do," I snapped, interrupting her. She stopped talking, mouth part way open in surprise.
Anger gave way to horror. Had I just-
"I'm not trying to tell you what to do," Annabeth said calmly. She looked like she was trying not to throw something.
Styx. Had shouting somehow… worked?
"Uh… cool." My voice squeaked. Then I realized: this wasn't over. Nothing had been solved yet. Annabeth was doing what she always did, saying she needed space while literally also spending her days doing stuff with Percy.
"But you also spend a lot of time with Percy," I said in a rush before I could regret it. "I know he's your friend too, but it's not fair to do everything with him and not with me."
"Oh my gods, Mathew! Fair? We aren't in gods-damned kindergarten! Wh -" She took a deep breath. "Patience," I thought I heard her mutter to herself. Then, to me - "I just want to be clear: I don't… like you like that. I-"
"But you like Percy like that," I said flatly. "Who, apparently, you did kiss. Last summer."
"Who I kiss or don't kiss is none of your business!" She snapped. "And I'm not saying I like anybody like that!" Her cheeks were red - anger or embarrassment, I couldn't tell. I hoped she was just blushing. "Which also isn't your business! I - gods, you ask why I haven't been hanging out with you recently, but you keep coming up and meddling in my life! It's always something with you!"
"So now you're mad at me for being there for you," I choked.
"Gods," she muttered under her breath. She rubbed a hand against her forehead - like she had a headache. Like that's all I was to her. Just another headache to deal with.
"I don't get it," I said furiously. I could feel tears pricking at the corners of my eyes, but I didn't care. "I'm there for you, Annabeth, always! I've been there for you since - since forever! Percy's the one who keeps leaving you! He leaves you every summer, he left you when he went on vacation randomly two weeks ago, and heleft yesterday without even saying anything to anybody! He'll leave you again! I - he left Beckandorf on that ship, for gods sakes, but no one seems to want to talk about that now do they-"
"Don't say that," she said viciously, eyes bright with anger. Real anger.
My heart beat with something a little like fear. But I held my ground. I still believed in Annabeth. She just had to believe in me, too. "Don't say the truth?"
She pressed her lips together, and it took me a second to realize she was trembling. "Beckendorf was - Percy didn't leave him. He won't - he won't leave me. I know he won't." She set her jaw, eyes firing up once again. Grey. Lethal. "And I swear, you'd better not breathe a word of that sentence to Percy's face. You have no idea what it's like to have your life on the line. So don't pretend like you do."
And there was nothing I could do as she turned and stormed back off toward the dining pavilion, where the campers were now finishing up breakfast.
Oh gods. Why. Why had I done that? Why did everytime I managed to talk to Annabeth it blew up in my face?
Percy. Of course. How could I have ever thought any different? He was Annabeth's 'friend,' apparently, as well as the whole camp's given the way they all talked about him. So... maybe the issue wasn't me. Maybe it was him.
An icy calm settled over my nerves. Maybe sometime soon… Percy Jackson would finally get what was coming for him. And maybe I'd get to speed along the inevitable.
Line break
I was practicing with my daggers that afternoon when it happened. The horn blew - the war horn, summoning the armies of Camp Half-Blood. An enormous whine, sounding through the valley, reaching the ears of every creature in every nook and cranny. I had never heard it with my own ears before, but I recognized the sound.
My stomach clenched. What did that mean? Not only were the armies blown up, they couldn't be here, could they?
The other campers training in the arena looked around in confusion as well - some anticipation, some fear, but all as though they expected someone to suddenly explain what was going on.
I immediately began to run for the Hermes cabin. Conner and Travis would be there, and they would explain what was going on, wouldn't they? How this was a false alarm. Or maybe it was selective, only for a mission of ten or something.
But my heart sank into my stomach as I reached the circle of cabins, where already, I could see campers gathering outside the Big House. What's going on?
"Mathew!"
I spun, relieved to hear someone calling my name as I saw Conner running up to me, half strapped on armor and a wild look on his face. "What's going on?" I demanded as he neared me. "That's the war horn, isn't it? But there aren't any armies nearby. We would know."
"Not at camp, no," Conner told me. We started hurrying along toward the Big House, following the streams of campers answering the call of that horn.
"Then-"
"Percy called," Conner said. He sounded jittery, like he'd drank too much coffee. "He says something's going to happen - something big, that we need to be there for. Some kind of monster army, maybe? I don't know all the details. He called Annabeth."
I felt a pang at her name, remembering our fight, but it was overcome but the overwhelming worry now crowding my head. Because Conner couldn't be serious, could he? He couldn't really mean…
"Where is 'there,' Conner?"
"Manhattan. We're going to defend Manhattan. All of us."
