Reyna stared at tips of the trident that were sticking out of Hedge's chest. The damage was bad. Really bad. There was a chance to save him though, but Reyna wasn't trained to handle those kinds of wounds. They needed a child of Apollo, but all of them were still crippled. Hedge was lucky enough that the tip of the trident hadn't gone right through his heart, but it probably just meant he would suffer longer.
Anger burned in Reyna's chest. She hated the Sirens. She hated Brizo. She hated this stupid vacation. She hated all of the useless Greeks. Reyna looked down and took a few deep breaths. If her anger got the best of her, she was going to make a terrible mistake.
"You have three seconds," Brizo warned. Reyna looked at Hedge. He weakly shook his head. Reyna looked away from her friend. She didn't see Bacchus anywhere. Where had the Olympian gone, or had Brizo defeated him that easily?
Reyna stared at the ground. If she gave the box to Brizo, the goddess would have the heart of her Siren back and the box she needed to power her Sirens. If Reyna didn't give the box back, Hedge would die. Reyna's gaze stayed focus on the ground. She knew what her answer was, but it made her sick to her stomach.
"No," Reyna said. She looked up at Brizo. "You can kill the Faun, but you are going to have to pry this box from my cold, dead hands."
So, Reyna wasn't going to win the friend of the year award anytime soon, or ever really. Hedge was probably going to die because of her. At the end of the day, it was Hedge's life weighed against the entire camp. One Faun was not worth the life of that many campers. It was a decision that was going to keep her up for the next few months, but it was the right one. Those were always the hardest ones to make.
Reyna looked at Hedge. He didn't look betrayed or upset. Instead, he gave her a small nod of approval, which only made Reyna feel worse. She turned and tried to run. Her instincts yelled for her to turn almost immediately.
Reyna whirled around, and the trident slammed into the black box. As she hit the ground, the box opened, dropping the hunting knife but not the heart. That was because the heart had been skewered by the trident. Reyna looked at Hedge and saw that he had been thrown aside and discarded. He also wasn't moving to put pressure on his wound.
Brizo smirked and held out her hand. Her trident shot back towards her palm, along with the black box attached to it. Reyna gripped her sword and scrambled to her feet. Where in Bellona's name was Bacchus? Why wasn't anything going Reyna's way?
Brizo studied Reyna for a long moment. Her hand dislodged the box from her trident. Then, she started to glow. Reyna was forced to look away. She heard a cry of pain, and the glow disappeared. Reyna risked looking back and saw that Clarisse was standing over Brizo. Clarisse's spear was digging into the back of Brizo's neck.
Reyna scrambled to her feet and moved to Hedge's side. She quickly cut his shirt off and pressed it to his chest. Reyna spoke, "You're going to be okay. I promise."
Someone pushed Reyna to the side. She started to raise her sword, but she saw Clarisse was holding the shirt to Hedge's wound. Clarisse looked at her and spoke, "Handle the Sirens. Now. If he dies, it's on you."
"I know," Reyna said, even though she knew that Clarisse could not hear her. She looked back at Brizo. The goddess seemed to be choking on her own blood, and Lamer the Third was sending visible shocks through her body every second. The goddess slowly pulled the spear from her neck and stood. Reyna swore up and down. "Brizo! That is enough!"
"Will kill you," Brizo choked out. She held her hand out, and her trident flew back to her hand. She threw the trident with inhuman speed. Reyna barely dodged past it and stumbled. Brizo's shoulder slammed into her gut and then slammed her into the cabin wall.
Reyna yelled in pain but did not lose the grip on her sword. She stabbed it into Brizo's back, only for the goddess to throw her over her shoulder. Reyna hit the ground and choked on her yell of pain. Her sword had been torn from her grasp, leaving her defenseless. As Brizo brought the trident down, vines wrapped around it.
The vines pulled Brizo backwards, and she stumbled. Bacchus attacked Brizo with his sword. Reyna watched the two for a moment and then laid her head back. All of the pain and exhaustion hit her like a wave. She couldn't find the strength to stand, let alone help fight a goddess.
Reyna slowly moved her hand to her collarbone. If her bones weren't a thousand piece puzzle before, they was now. Her head ached in pain, and all she wanted to do was pass out. In fact, that sounded pretty nice. She would wake and deal with the consequences of choosing the stupid box over Hedge later.
"I have one!" Grover yelled. Reyna barely lifted her head and saw Grover running towards them. He was holding one of the hearts in his hand. Grover ran towards Reyna and knelt by her. "I heard what you told Hedge, and Juniper found the Siren that you dissected. Oh gods, what happened to Hedge?"
"Give me the heart," Reyna hissed. She pulled herself into a half sitting position. Grover stared but slowly gave her the heart. Reyna took it and cradled it. "Help Hedge."
Grover nodded and ran to Hedge's side. Reyna scooted backwards towards the box and placed the heart inside. She collapsed next to it and stared up at the sky. They needed one more heart to stop the singing. One more heart and Brizo's blood to end the nightmare.
Reyna's eyes started to drift close, but she forced herself to stay awake. She managed to roll on her side and stare at the ground. Blood hit the grass, and she slowly placed a hand to her face. Somewhere along the way, her lip had been gashed pretty badly.
A hand suddenly touched her shoulder. Reyna looked up, and she saw Nico standing over her. Wait. How was Nico not curled up into a small ball like the rest of the Greeks? Reyna spoke, "Nico?"
"I'm here," Nico said, but he looked confused. His eyes shot around at all of the cabins. Reyna looked around and saw that some of the Greeks were stirring. She then realized her headache was gone. The singing had stopped, and since the last Siren was fleeing, she wouldn't be able to sing. "What is going on?"
"Long story," Reyna wheezed. She slowly looked up and saw that Will was kneeling over Hedge and had both hands to his chest. "There's a Siren. You need to find her and take her heart. Bring it back to this box and pour the goddess' blood inside."
Nico stared at her for a moment. Reyna slowly motioned to the body of the Siren that she had carved the heart out of. After a moment, Nico nodded. He spoke, "I'll find her. You need to rest."
"I can help," Reyna protested. Nico squeezed her hand gently and then took off running. Reyna sighed painfully. After a moment, she glanced to her right. Will was doing his best to take care of Hedge, but she couldn't see how it was going. A glance to her left showed that Bacchus was seemingly winning the fight against Brizo.
Reyna laid her head back, and her eyes closed. The pain that ran through her entire body slowly faded, and she was left feeling pretty relax. Something was wrong. Reyna's eyes snapped open, and she slowly sat up. Her gaze moved around.
At the moment, she was sitting in the middle of Camp Half-Blood. There was no altar, no half torn down cabins, no fighting, and no stupid Sirens. The Greeks were all going about their business like it was another normal day. Reyna heard the crackling of a fire, and she slowly turned her head.
"You really just sit around and do this all day?" a woman asked. She was sitting by a fire but tossing a coin in the air. The coin was shiny enough to catch the light with every spin, and Reyna was sure that she could see her reflection in it. There was a lopsided, carefree grin on the woman's face. Her bright blue eyes studied the fire. The woman ran her other hand through her black hair.
"Yes," the other woman answered. She wore something that Reyna thought was a hood, but she slowly realized it was a scarf. The other woman looked down at her brown dress for a moment, and her brown eyes focused on Reyna. "How do you feel, demigod?"
"Where am I?" Reyna slowly asked. She looked at the small fire that they were sitting around. Her eyes moved around the camp. She froze as she saw herself and Nico walking past. There was a small smile on her face, as Nico was telling her a joke. "Is this some kind of weird flashback of my life before I die?"
"Not at all," the first woman answered. She tossed her coin into the air but didn't catch it. The coin suddenly stopped in midair, near the woman's head. She seemed unconcerned about it. "This is where you mind wanted to go, after all."
"What do you mean?" Reyna asked in confusion. She felt like she knew the woman with the coin. The other woman that was tending to the flames was a mystery. "Who are you two?"
"Me. I'm Tyche. Well, you call me Fortuna," the woman with the coin answered. She pulled another coin out of thin air. This one was damaged badly on both sides. She tossed it into the air next to the shiny one and flicked both of them. Both coins spun in mid air. "The quiet one over there is Hestia, or Vesta for your Roman brain.
"What do you mean when you said that this is where I wanted to go?" Reyna asked. She looked down. "I should be awake and helping the Greeks hunt down the last Siren."
"You have done your part," Vesta said. "The Greeks will handle the rest of it."
The rest of it was a tall order. Nico still had to find the remaining Siren, subdue her without her singing again, bring the heart back to the box, and then somehow get Brizo's blood in the box. It was an impossible task by himself, and Reyna wasn't sure how quickly the Greeks would snap out of the spell.
"It doesn't feel like enough," Reyna admitted. She laid back on the ground and stared up at the sky. "Why am I here though? What pulled me into this dream?"
"You did. Well, I did," Fortuna said. She flicked her shiny coin into the fire and watched it burn for a few moments. Then, she snatched the shiny coin out of the fire and examined it The coin looked unharmed. Fortuna sighed and spun the two coins in the air again. "Vesta is always here, and she's at your camp as well. Always watching the hearth and protecting home. That fun stuff. I came here because you have my coin."
"Your coin?" Reyna asked in confusion. Fortuna nodded and pointed towards Reyna's pocket. After a moment, Reyna reached into her pocket and pulled out a coin. It was the same size as the two coins that Fortuna held. The only difference was that Reyna's coin was incredibly shiny on one side and damaged beyond repair on the other.
"Tyche is always losing her coins," Vesta explained. Fortuna just shrugged. "As she passes through places, she will leave a coin behind, as she did with the coin that you found in your pocket."
"How did it end up in my pocket?" Reyna slowly asked. She looked around once again. How was things going back in reality? Was Hedge safe? Did Nico find the last Siren? Was Rachel still bleeding out?
"That's the funny story," Fortuna answered. "See, I came here to ask Chiron for a quest. That little coin you're holding onto was stolen from me, and it was not lost, Vesta. It was stolen, by the same pirate that stole Brizo's black box."
"That coin is special. These two are different," Fortuna continued, and she held the two coins up, as if to show them off. "The one on my left is good luck, and the one on the right is bad luck. Nemesis always complains that I am giving my good luck coin to every demigod that I come across, but I really just put my coin down and will come back for it later. A demigod always find it first though."
"Tyche, you're getting off track," Vesta interrupted. Her gaze was on the fire that she tended to, but Reyna was sure that Vesta gave her a small grin.
"Right. Anyway, the coin in your hand holds both good and bad luck in it. If I give it to a demigod, they flip it and receive whatever they land on. This coin was given to me by my parents, and it has helped my favorite demigods," Fortuna continued. "It's also the coin that I would flip to decide the luck of your camp during my feast."
"What coin do you use now?" Reyna slowly asked.
"Whichever of these I find first," Fortuna answered, and she held her two coins up again. Reyna looked down. She wasn't quite sure how she felt about the fate of her camp being decided by a coin flip from a forgetful goddess, but it did explain a lot.
"You're rambling again," Vesta muttered. She poked at the fire once again but definitely had a grin on her face.
"Yeah. Yeah. I told you that the same pirate that stole my coin also stole Brizo's box. His little ship of treasures sank, and it wasn't found for a long time. I spent forever trying to track it down, and do you know how unhelpful mortals are?" Fortuna asked. She shook her head. "It's ridiculous. But, I heard about this queen of the Amazons who worked with a famous pirate, so I payed her a visit and learned about their exploits."
"I found the ship, but I could not retrieve the coin myself. I tried to hire mortals, but none of them could find the ship. That's when I went to this camp to find Chiron," Fortuna continued. "I tasked Chiron with finding my coin. I may have forgotten to use the word coin in my explanation though. But, we are lucky enough that my coin was stuck to the bottom of Brizo's box!"
"Lucky," Reyna repeated. Despite the fact that there was no singing, she could feel her head starting to ache. Hearing why the entire situation happened only served to piss her off more. Hedge was dying because a stupid goddess couldn't keep track of her coin. If Clarisse hadn't been sent on the quest, Reyna knew the black box would not have been found by Camp Half-Blood, and none of this would have happened. She swallowed back her anger. "How did the coin end up in my pocket?"
"That daughter of Ares thought that the black box was the objective of her quest," Fortuna answered. She sighed sadly. "I could see it all from my coin. They went to the armory to put away their spare weapons and armor. When they were in there, the other child of Ares played keep away with the box, and my coin was dislodged and fell into, what do mortals call it?"
Vesta frowned and started to think. After a moment, she looked at Reyna and made a gun motion with her fingers. If Reyna wasn't so upset, the sheer ridiculous of it would have made her smile. Reyna spoke, "A gun?"
"Yes. A gun, but the smaller thing that goes inside it," Fortuna said. She made an odd motion with a half clenched fist pushing inside of Vesta's finger gun.
"A magazine?" Reyna slowly asked.
"Yes! That's what they call it. You checked one of them for whatever reason and then threw the rest in your bag. One of the magazines that you threw in there but didn't check was only half full, and my coin had slipped inside it. The coin fell from the magazine and into your bag. Since the bag belonged to you, it jumped into your pocket as soon as you put the bag down. Thank you for returning it. I believe I owe you a boon," Fortuna said.
"What about saving my friend that your mistake almost killed," Reyna snapped. She immediately regretted the words and looked down. Well, it was a nice run. She was either going to become a nice pile of ash courtesy of a good old smiting, or she was going to be crushed under a pile of coins.
When no words were said, Reyna slowly looked up. Fortuna was staring down at her coins, and there was a hurt look on her face. That was not what Reyna expected, but considering she was still alive, she needed to act quickly. Reyna spoke, "I'm sorry. I shouldn't have let my anger get the best of me."
Fortuna remained silent. Reyna slowly looked at Vesta, but the goddess was just messing with the fire. Fortuna finally spoke, "You are dreaming of me because I needed to talk to you. But, why are you thinking of Hestia: goddess of the hearth. Of home?"
"This is a second home," Reyna muttered. When she had said it during the feast after defeating Gaea, she really only said it because that was what a good leader would say. Reyna had meant it, but the words were really for Nico to know that he had two places where he could go that he would be welcome for who he was. Reyna didn't realize she would actually come to think of Camp Half-Blood as another home.
Reyna had spent her whole life trying to find a home. Now, she had two of them, and she would fight to the death to protect both of them. Reyna spoke, "Is Hedge going to live?"
"That is for you to decide," Fortuna said. She motioned to the double sided coin in Reyna's hand. "Flip it."
Reyna slowly looked down at the coin in her head. She examined the shiny side that represented good luck and the damaged sign that represented bad luck. A sad sigh left her. This was punishment for her verbally lashing out. She was holding Hedge's fate in her hands again, and his life was going to be decided by an actual coin flip. This was some kind of cruel lesson from Fortuna.
Reyna closed her eyes and reluctantly flipped the coin in the air. She opened her eyes and watched the coin through the air. A frown came to her face as the sun shined on both side of the shiny coin. Reyna held her hand out to catch the double sided coin of good luck.
"It seems like luck is on your side today," Fortuna commented. Reyna slowly looked at the goddess. Fortuna was examining her two other coins: the badly damaged one and the one that had a shiny side and damaged side. "May I have my coin back?"
"Thank you," Reyna began. She studied the double sided coin of good luck again and tossed it towards Fortuna. The goddess caught it and stood.
"You were the one who made the toss, praetor," Fortuna said. She looked at Reyna, and that lopsided grin came back to her face. Then, she looked at Vesta. "Let's get out of this camp and go somewhere fun. You like fire, right? I know where a good forest fire or two is."
Vesta sighed and slowly stood. She looked at Reyna and spoke, "Get some sleep, praetor. You have earned it. When you wake, please make sure they put my cabin back to how it was and please have someone clean it."
"I will," Reyna promised. She watched Vesta disappear from sight. Reyna slowly laid back on the ground and sighed tiredly. She closed her eyes, and the rest of her sleep passed peacefully.