Hello!
So I know I've fallen off the face of the earth lately and I am so sorry. I have my reasons, I promise, but just know that I am finished with school for the next few months and will hopefully have some time on my hands again. I swear I will be better about updating!
It is long overdue but here is chapter 35. It isn't much, I know, but this chapter should open doors for some interesting stuff coming up and I'm excited about it. I hope you like it and please leave a review and let me know your thoughts!
The sun was high in they sky above Montauk beach and the sea breeze blowing off the ocean felt amazing on my face. As many things had been over the past month, it was weird being at Montauk for the weekend without the kids, but then I guess we needed to get used to having our summer traditions cut down to just the two of us again. And for the moment I was perfectly content with having come without them.
To no one's surprise, it took only a few days for the kids' absence in the house to become more than noticeable and no more than a week for missing them to set in bad. The house was too big and too quiet, and there were constantly leftovers at meals. But they were where they needed to be and I couldn't have been happier to know the three of them were at my favorite place in the world, even if I did miss them like crazy.
I currently lounged on the beach just within reach of the waves. Annabeth sat several feet back, out of the water's reach and content with her blanket and a book. She'd be back in once she grew hot again but the ocean had always been more my thing than hers.
There were other families spread across the sand but not so many that they bothered us. I preferred it that way anyway. A god couldn't pop into existence right there and ruin our vacation if there were mortals around to see it. Or at least that's what I told myself—if an Olympian really wanted to bother us, a few humans and broad daylight were not about to stop it from happening.
We'd planned the weekend trip a few weeks back after debating the worth of going alone and eventually deciding that we'd enjoy it and the kids couldn't fault us for going without them just because they were at camp. We arrived before dinner the night before, after getting off work and dropping Ollie at my parents' apartment. In keeping with tradition, we had absolutely no agenda for the weekend. We'd watched movies in the cabin's tiny living room long into the night and hit the beach late this morning. It had been just over two hours and as another wave broke and washed ashore, reaching just past my calves and filling me with familiar strength, I could find very little wrong with the world.
A few minutes passed and I was watching a couple play with their young son in the water a short ways down the beach when a familiar set of hands came to rest on my bare shoulders. "You're going to need more sunblock soon," Annabeth said lightly, crouching down beside me. I gave an easy nod.
Another wave washed over my feet and I turned to her with a smile to find her eyes still on me. "What?" I asked.
She smiled, looking very much like a goddess in the sunlight as the wind blew stray wisps of hair in her face. She brushed them absently away, shaking her head. "You know I like seeing you here," she said, smirking. "The beach still looks good on you."
I laughed. "Oh yeah?"
"Mhmm," she answered lightly, shifting to kneel in the sand next to me, her eyes landing on the little family I'd been watching before. She smiled at the surprised laugh that escaped the toddler as a wave washed over his feet. "Gods, he's adorable," she said.
"Yeah," I agreed, smiling as another wave came and the boy squealed.
Annabeth laughed. "Nicky used to do that."
I grinned. "Yeah, he did. It used to crack me up."
She remained beside me for another few seconds, still smiling, before she squeezed my arm and moved to stand. "Come on, I was serious about that sunblock."
I rolled my eyes up to look at her and was met with unwavering resolve. I sighed, "Fine," and moved to follow. She was probably right anyway.
"I've been trying to figure out what to do for lunch," she said casually, leading the way to the blanket and crouching to dig through the bag she'd brought. She pulled from it the blue bottle of sunscreen and held it out to me. "I was thinking maybe we could go to that deli you like down the road."
"Fine by me," I replied, taking it from her, "When do you want to go?"
"That's up to you," she said, straightening,
"You know me, I'm fine to go right now if you want to. Do you want to change first?"
"Well, yeah," she answered, "I can't exactly go like this," she gestured to the bathing suit she wore.
"Well, I mean, you could…" She made a face at me. I laughed. "Here," I said, putting the sunblock, untouched, back in the bag, "Let's go now, we can come back later. I'll put this on then."
She smirked. "Fine."
In keeping up appearances for any nearby mortals who happened to lack the ability to will themselves dry on command, I accepted a towel from her and shouldered the bag while she shook out and wadded up the blanket she'd been lounging on. We walked the short distance to the cabin together and I followed her inside to the tiny living space that, after as many years as I'd been visiting, was nearly as familiar as my own home. I left the beach bag on the table and joined Annabeth in the tiny bedroom. She rummaged through her bag and pulled free a blue sundress, which she laid across the bed before her. She watched as I found a T-shirt and pulled it over my head.
"What?" I asked.
She just shook her head, smirking, and turned for the door. "I'll be right back."
I heard the water in the shower turn on a moment later and I padded out to the living room to wait while she rinsed off. Annabeth hated the sand and saltwater residue the beach left behind—I supposed most people did. It didn't really bother me and I had every intention of going back later anyway. I sat down on the old couch and watched the beach out the window. I heard the water go off shortly after this, but the sound I heard a moment later was not of my wife walking to join me. It was the quiet, moist sound I recognized quickly as the beginnings of an Iris Message. I turned away from the window to see a familiar face forming before me and smiled. "Hey!"
The image sharpened and the face of my oldest son grew clearer. "Hi, Dad," he said.
"How's it going?" I asked, sitting forward, "How's camp?"
"It's good," he said slightly dismissively, "Is Mom around?"
"She should be out any minute," I answered, studying him through the mist. He seemed off, but like he was trying to hide that anything was up. But he'd gone through the trouble of IMing, which in itself was slightly odd—anything the kids wanted to tell us, they normally just included in weekly letters home and saved their drachmas. "Everything okay?"
"Yeah," he said quickly, "Well, sort of, yeah. That's why I called."
Annabeth appeared then, dressed and damp, and hurried over when she saw the IM. "Logan, are you okay?" she asked, sitting beside me, obviously having reached the same conclusion I did in far less time—as usual.
Logan suddenly looked nervous. "Hi, Mom."
"What's going on, honey?" Her tone was gentle but unwavering.
He hesitated for a few seconds before he began, "We…" He took a deep breath. "I have a quest…"
I blinked and felt Annabeth's hand slide into mine and squeeze—whether it was supposed to be for my comfort or her own I wasn't sure. "Doing what?" I managed.
"And who's 'we'?" she asked from beside me.
"To be honest, I don't totally know what we're doing," he admitted. I felt my eyes narrow a bit. "It's for Demeter. She's the one who, well, commissioned it, I guess."
"What do you have to do?" Annabeth pressed.
"Well, we don't actually know yet," he explained, "We know something was taken from her and we have to get it back. She said she would give us more details once we actually left. I guess she doesn't want word getting out about whatever it is."
"So she wants you to blindly leave for a quest you know nothing about." She shook her head. "Why am I not surprised?"
"I'm guessing you accepted it?" I asked.
He nodded. "I mean, I didn't really think there was much choice. I'd kind of prefer it if the gods didn't hate me."
"We know, honey," Annabeth said gently.
"Yeah… so we're leaving in the morning."
"Who's going with you?"
He looked down. "About that…" He glanced up and away again. "I want Nicky. Or… at least, I did."
"Why?" I asked.
He met my eyes, and then Annabeth's. "Because I trust him more than anyone else."
I blinked and then opened my mouth to answer. Annabeth beat me to it. "That's great, Logan," she said, glancing briefly at me and then back to him, "But I think your dad meant why don't you still want him with you?" I had.
He sighed. "Well, I do. It's just, um... the prophecy…"
Understanding flashed in Annabeth's gray eyes, a matching set to our son's. "What does it say?"
Logan eyed her for a second and then took a deep breath. He spoke as if reading his own obituary. "The season's fate shall lie in your hands. You shall uncover an old foe's well-laid plans. When siblings rival, your work shall fail. But with sacrifice, brotherly love shall prevail."
There was silence between the three of us for a three-count. Annabeth broke it, her face betraying none of the emotion evidenced by how tightly she was gripping my hand. "Is that why you don't want to take Nicky with you?"
He nodded, eyes downcast. "I still do," he said quietly, "But it sounds like if I do that, it means we'll fail."
She took a deep breath. "Prophecies are deceptive, honey. It's impossible to know what they mean at least until after whatever they predict is over."
"I know that," Logan mumbled.
"You can't try to change your plans based on what a prophecy says," she went on, "Whatever is meant to happen will happen regardless. You just have to do what you think is best and try not to worry about it." She spoke, of course, purely from her own experience with the same type of thing.
"You don't know that it means what you think it does," I added, "Chances are it doesn't."
He nodded. "Well I don't really have a choice anyway I guess. It's not like Nicky's going to let me bench him now."
"Where is your brother?" Annabeth asked.
"He was getting money and supplies from Chiron. I wanted to IM you. He should be back soon."
"Is anyone else going with you?" I asked, hoping the answer was yes.
Logan nodded. "Yeah. His name's Sean. He's an Ares camper but he's pretty cool and he's a good fighter. He volunteered to come and we can probably use the help."
"And you trust him?" I asked.
"Yeah, I do," he answered, "I mean as much as I can from owning with him at Capture the Flag. It's not like we've had to fight wars together or anything. But yeah I think so."
I nodded. "Good."
"Does Carly know what's going on?" Annabeth asked now.
Logan made a face. "Yeah. She's not super thrilled about us leaving her but she'll be okay. Molly's going to keep an eye on her while we're gone." That was a good thing at least. My half-sister Molly adored Carly and the feeling was mutual. She'd take good care of her while the boys were gone.
Before either of us could respond, a door closed somewhere out of view of the Iris Message and someone asked something I couldn't make out over the connection. Logan looked off to the side. "In here," he called. "Nick's back," he supplied, turning back at us again. He was joined a second later by his brother.
"Hi," Nicky said to us and glanced sideways at Logan.
"I was letting Mom and Dad know what's going on," the latter informed him.
Nicky looked back at us. "You're okay with it?" he asked.
I blinked. Annabeth spoke first. "With you going off on a dangerous quest you don't even have all the details for? Of course not, but you still have to do it. We know that."
Nicky glanced away and nodded. Logan was quiet for a moment. "We'll be safe," he promised.
"You'd better," she told him, "Or I'll ground you both for a month." Logan managed a small smile that did not quite mask the apprehension in his eyes. He was terrified, and with good reason. Leading a quest was not something that could ever be taken lightly, but he was a good fighter and a great leader and I had faith in his abilities, even if the thought of letting him and Nicholas leave camp in the morning scared me senseless. But they had no choice and neither did we, and more than anything else they needed our support.
"Be smart," I advised them, "Don't let your guard down. Make sure you have a plan." A flash of amusement crossed Annabeth's face for the briefest moment and I knew it was because I had never been great at following my own advice at their age. But I'd learned a thing or two from her over the years and I didn't want my boys making the same mistakes I did.
They nodded now. "We will," Logan assured me.
"Rest up tonight. Keep us posted if you can," Annabeth said.
"We'll try."
"Okay," she said, "We love you."
"Love you too," they said as one. I almost smiled.
A moment later, goodbyes were finished and the image of the boys dissolved, leaving the space of the tiny living room in its place. We sat in silence for a few seconds, staring at the spot where they had been. Beside me, Annabeth drew in a sudden, shaky breath. "Oh my gods," she murmured.
"You okay?" I asked, squeezing the hand I still held.
She took a breath. "I don't know."
"Hey," I said, letting go of her hand and pulling her to my chest. I hugged her to me. "It's alright. They'll be alright."
"You don't know that," she whispered, "You know better than anyone how much that isn't guaranteed."
"You can't think like that, babe. We made it work; they can too. We just have to trust them." Honestly, I wasn't sure if I was trying to assure her or myself, but the logic seemed to help her a bit.
She took a deep breath and then pulled away, straightening. She shook her head. "I don't like that Demeter is withholding information. It makes me think whatever it is they have to find, it's important enough to cause chaos among the gods if they found out it was gone."
"Zeus' bolt all over again," I muttered.
She met my eyes, "Things on Olympus only just got back to normal."
I sighed. "Hopefully it doesn't come to that. Hopefully whatever is going on can be caught early enough to prevent anything huge and awful from happening and that'll be it." Her gaze turned slightly incredulous. "What?" I demanded, "It's got to happen that way eventually. Not everyone can be as unlucky as we are."
Maybe in spite of herself, she gave a small laugh before growing serious again. "I just hate that it's our kids who have to do this. You'd think after everything we did, we'd be able to spare at least one generation."
I sighed. "Yeah, I know. I wish I could say I was more surprised though."
"I know," she replied, sighing herself. She glanced toward the window and the beach beyond, full of people enjoying their day; oblivious to the news we'd just received. She stared for a few seconds, gathering herself. Then she took a deep breath and met my eyes again. "Do you still want to get lunch?"
I blinked at her. "Are you actually hungry?" She tended not to be when she was worried.
"Not really," she admitted, "But there's nothing we can do about the quest regardless of whether we're here or home, and we've been looking forward to this trip for weeks. We should do our best to enjoy it."
I studied her for a second and then managed a small smile. "Okay," I decided, "Yeah, let's go get some lunch." She nodded and moved to stand up but I held out a hand to keep her down. She stopped and looked at me. "Hold on," I said. She raised her eyebrows. I ignored her reaction and leaned in, bringing my lips gently to hers. "You're incredible," I told her when we pulled apart a second later.
"I know," she said with a slightly forced smirk.
"Yeah?" I said, moving to stand now myself, "Well good. Let's go then."
With a roll of her eyes, she moved to follow, and while I knew the worry and fear that would accompany the coming days was only just beginning, for the moment, with the boys still at camp and safe, I was happy to try and be normal.
I am so glad to have this posted. It literally took me so long to write for no good reason. Anyway, thanks for reading and I will be back ASAP with an update, I promise!
