Thank you for the reviews! I wasn't sure how well this continuation would be received as it doesn't get a lot of traffic, and it's not set in a typical setting in the PJO world, but it's really encouraging to see that people are liking it so far. Thanks for letting me know, I'm excited to keep writing. Thanks for all the positive support so far, I hope readers like the new chapter!
~secrethalfblood
Lpov
I'd just finished checking my school email and started entering events into my calendar app when the apartment door opened.
"Oh my god, oh my god Libby guess what I've got." Anna said throwing her keys on the couch and I looked up from the table to see a stack of envelopes and magazines in her arms, that told me she'd stopped by our mailbox on her way into the building.
"A catalogue for campus merch?" I asked raising an eyebrow.
"No." she said rifling through the letters and pulling out an envelope with our school's insignia printed in the corner.
It was addressed to me.
"This has to be about the internship." She said brightly. "I bet you got accepted. It looks like there's a lot of stuff in there."
"You think?" I asked uncertainly grabbing the letter. "Anna, I bombed that interview."
"Open it!" she insisted eagerly and I hesitated, feeling my heart rate pick up as I fumbled with the seal.
Eventually, fingers trembling slightly with nerves and feeling a little sick, I pulled out a series of pages that told me Anna had been right. There was a lot packed in there.
I glanced at the first page and started reading the first few lines.
'Congratulations Miss Anderson, after a careful review of your exemplary transcripts and outstanding recommendations from your professors as well, as Dr. Mendoza, we are pleased to inform you that you have been accepted into our University's summer internship with River Run Animal Clinic.'
"I got in." I said incredulously, hearing this disbelief in my own voice as Anna let out a shout of excitement.
"I knew it!" she said triumphantly. "See! I told you you'd get in!"
'We are aware of your current employment with the clinic, and will working with Dr. Mendoza to ensure that your work and internship hours do not conflict. Please return the enclosed forms both to the clinic and your advisory office by Saturday morning should you choose to accept your place in the program. You should be receiving an email to your school account outlining your duties and first week's itinerary shortly.
Congratulations again Miss Anderson, and welcome to the program.'
"And you were worried." Anna said, smirking at me as I continued to stare at the letter in shock. "We have to celebrate. Do you want to go to that new sushi place on campus? Wait, no you're a vegetarian. How about that taco truck by the park'? They've got meat free options. Or-"
She was interrupted by a knock on the door, and I glanced at my laptop only to jump up.
"That's probably James." I said feeling a jolt of adrenaline go through me that I blamed on the acceptance letter and the fact that I realized I was running behind.
"You look far too excited about that." She said her eyes narrowing and despite my best efforts, I felt myself blush.
"I just found out I got my internship."
"Uh huh." She said sounding unconvinced. "You remember what I said right? About guys like him?"
"Yes." I said grabbing my laptop and hastily putting into my bag. "And you're probably right." I admitted slinging it over my shoulder. "Look Anna, I'm really sorry but I've got to go. Are you free for lunch tomorrow? I'm sure I can find something at the sushi place if you want to go."
"No." she said shrugging her head. "It's your celebration we'll go where you want to go. But I've got a date tomorrow at one."
"Breakfast?" I asked. "At the diner with the double chocolate pancakes?"
"Good idea." She said grinning. "Yeah that sounds fun. I'm in."
"Cool," I said smiling at her before making my way towards the door, expecting to see James and his broad sword only to come up short when I saw that it wasn't James, but Harper on the other side.
Somehow, even though she was tiny compared to him, this seemed far more intimidating.
"Oh." I said trying to regain my composure at the shock of seeing Ashton's girlfriend outside my apartment. "Hey, I uh, didn't expect you."
"I'm fifteen minutes late," Harper said raising an eyebrow as if to ask what I had been expecting.
"I know, I just," I paused feeling a little awkward. "For some reason I expected James to be the one to pick me up."
I didn't know why, but suddenly I felt very stupid for thinking this and Harper's examining gaze wasn't helping the situation. Maybe because of the two of them, I thought a part of James might have been the one more likely to want to pick me up.
"I wanted to talk to you." she said.
At this point Anna had wandered over, clearly curious as to who was at the door if it wasn't James. Harper noticed.
"Guessing you have a roommate?"
"Yeah, that's Anna." I said glancing back at Anna. "Anna this is my brother's girlfriend, Harper."
"Hi." Anna said and while her tone was polite, there was a certain amount of remoteness to it. "Where's tall, dark, and bad tempered?"
Harper didn't answer this, but gave Anna a critical look her eyes narrowing, clearly unimpressed with the question. It was a look I would have faltered under, but Anna wasn't deterred.
"The British guy…"
"I'm guessing you mean James?"
"You're friends with him, right?" Anna asked suspiciously. "Is he always such an ass?"
"Only to people he doesn't like." Said Harper bluntly, and I could tell by Anna's expression she hadn't expected a response to her question, let alone one that cutting.
It seemed to throw her however, and she backed down on the subject of James which must have been the purpose behind Harper's statement, because she didn't really look upset as she looked back at me, after having glanced around the apartment.
"You seem busy." She said her gaze falling to the letter sitting on the table. "Did I come at a bad time?"
"No." I said shaking my head. "I just got some good news actually. I just found out I got into the internship I applied for."
"Oh." She said understanding dawning on her features. "Cool, good for you."
"What did you want to talk about?"
"Actually, something sort of similar. Come with me."
She then turned without waiting for a response and started walking down the hall.
I looked at Anna, who seemed just as surprised at the abruptness of this as I was, and we both looked back at the door.
"I guess I'll see you later." I said to Anna who squinted after Harper.
"I see what you mean about her." She replied and while her tone was shrewd, it wasn't entirely unsatisfied. "The word intimidating does come to mind." She seemed to think for a second, before she grinned. "She's a total babe though. Rocking the whole 'hot librarian thing'."
She put air quotes around the words and smirked.
"I get why your brother's into her."
"I'm going to forget you said that." I said the idea of anything remotely relating to Ashton's love life was not something I wanted to think about.
She laughed and shouted good bye after me as I closed the door and jogged to catch up with Harper who was already half way down the hall.
Unlike James however, she hadn't made her way towards the elevator. She was walking towards the stairs.
"You liked the Korean place, right?" she asked and it took me a second to realize she was talking about food.
"Yeah." I said as she reached for the door. "It was really good."
"Alright, we can have dinner there and bring something back for James and Lucy."
Like James, Harper seemed to tally unaffected when the door opened, and instead of the stairs I used every day, there was a solid wall of swirling golden light.
She stepped into it, clearly expecting me to follow. I did, feeling like I'd been snatched by a roller coaster mid fall, only to topple out onto an unfamiliar side walk.
I guess I'd assumed Harper had gotten used to jumping between places in the mortal world, maybe even to try and catch me like James did. But I was surprised to see her picking herself up off the concrete next to me, wincing at a scrape on her palm, looking for the first time in a while, a little uncool.
I found I appreciated the moment. It was very humanizing.
"You ok?" she asked reaching her non-injured hand down to help me up which I took.
"Yeah," I nodded, allowing her to pull my feet. "I'm fine."
"Good."
She gestured for me to follow her into a tiny restaurant on a strip of shops. The smell that hit me as soon as I walked in was amazing and I saw the place was full of what looked like nerdy college kids, which, I suddenly remembered, was what exactly Harper was.
We found a small both in the corner and sat down, Harper not bothering to look at the menu and I assumed she already knew what she was getting. She told the waiter that stopped by out table however, that we might need a minute as I looked over the options.
There was only one problem.
"I can't read this." I said hesitantly glancing over the characters on the menu in front of me and Harper glanced at me, looking confused.
"Why no-"
She then shook her head.
"Right, there's an English version on the back." She said flipping the menu over for me.
"You can read Korean?" I asked with interest.
"I can read anything if I'm wearing my glasses." She said gesturing at the lenses. "They're enchanted."
"That's useful." I said trying power through was rapidly starting to feel more and more like an awkward conversation on a bad date. "You know, considering what you do."
It was bad enough trying not to sound like an idiot when talking to my brother's girlfriend that I didn't know very well, but Harper was also an extremely important person. In our parents world at any rate.
"It is." She said and though she'd said she'd wanted to talk to me, she didn't seem to be in a hurry to bring whatever she wanted to say up.
I ended up going to the restroom asking Harper to order for me if they came back.
Eventually, however, she did get to the point.
"You want me to work for the library?" I asked in shock as the food reached the table. "Why?"
"Because we need the help." She said with a shrug taking a bite of her chicken, her tone suddenly sarcastic. "You might not have noticed, but things got a little out of hand the other day." She seemed sincere as she added. "We were lucky you were there."
I looked down at my plate only to feel a surge of anxiety go through me.
There was beef on it. Harper must have accidentally ordered the wrong dish option.
I tried to pick around the meat going for the vegetables and noodles.
"No, I mean why me?" I asked. "Don't get me wrong, I'm really flattered you asked and I'd like to help out. I could use the money too, now that my internship will be cutting into my hours with the clinic…"
The sentence sort of died before I could finish it.
I didn't know why Harper would ask me of all people to join her crew at the library. They were so insular, and I was sure that in a world full of demigods, especially when she had brainiac Athena siblings back at camp, there was a better fit.
"You shot a god for Lucy, Libby." She said as if I thought I was being obtuse. "You barely even know her. You didn't hesitate. And when Hephaestus's trap went off, you reacted well. Lots of people would have let that situation spiral and let the library catch on fire. Plus I've seen you in the infirmary." She continued, her tone even but I heard something close to approval behind it. "We all have. You keep your head in a crisis. Not very many people realize how important that is in what we do."
She considered me for a moment, and for once as she did, it didn't feel like it was because she was looking to find something to criticize or a weakness to exploit. But her expression hadn't changed, and I wondered if maybe it was just my idea of her that had.
"You're tough." She said eventually. "And not just physically because you're a demigod either. You work well under pressure."
It felt weird to hear Harper compliment me, but also strangely… significant. Harper wasn't exactly rude or anything, but she wasn't out to people please either. She never had been. If she said it, she probably meant it. Asking me to work with her, even if it was just over the summer, was probably one of the biggest, if not the biggest, signs of respect possible for her to show.
"I don't think anyone's ever thought of me as tough before." I said feeling a little embarrassed but also sort of pleased.
"You don't have to be six feet tall and carry around battle axe to be tough." Harper said sagely. "Believe me, I know what it's like to be underestimated. But look at Lucy."
She smiled a little, her expression fond that told me that Harper didn't just keep Lucy around because she was James's sister. The two were friends.
"She's a mortal. Constantly surrounded by a legendary world, targeted by gods and monsters who are too afraid to strike out at James and I directly. Her life hasn't been easy, but she's still excited for whatever's next each day. It takes a special sort of person to be able to do that. She's resilient in a way that not a lot of people are."
There was a hint of admiration in her tone that had me thinking maybe Harper wasn't as closed off as I thought she might be, even back at camp. Had me starting to understand how, despite everything that James had done to her, she could still be his friend. It was a weird glimpse into her deeper personality that I wasn't sure I was entirely comfortable with, even if a part of me was glad to know it was there.
"What happened to her?" I asked frowning. "Don't get me wrong she's really nice, but something about Lucy seems a little…"
I didn't finish the sentence because I didn't want to be rude, but Harper didn't seem to hear the question. She was frowning at the plate in front of me, apparently just having noticed something.
"Is something wrong with your food?"
"What?"
"What are you doing?" she asked gesturing towards the pile of beef pieces I'd separated out as I'd eaten.
"Oh." I said a little uncomfortably. I didn't think she would notice. "No, it's fine."
"Then what's going on here?" She asked raising an eyebrow, looking far more like her usual, efficient, self.
"Nothing," I assured her but when she didn't seem convinced, I relented. "Nothing, it's just… I'm a vegetarian."
Harper blinked.
"Why didn't you say something?" she asked incredulously.
"It's not a big deal..." I muttered but she wan't having it.
"Libby, we could have ordered you something else. Brought this back for Lucy or James."
"I didn't want to bother you."
"You're a vegetarian." She said in indignantly. "This has beef! Seriously, why didn't you tell me?"
"No offense Harper." I said uncertainly. "But you can be a little… scary, sometimes. You're sort of intense."
She looked at me as if she thought I was insane for a moment, then seemed to consider the statement.
"I guess I can see why you'd think that." She said quietly, shrugging a little. "But you don't need to be worried around me Libby. I wouldn't ask you for your help if I didn't think you could handle it. And I wouldn't be talking to you now if I didn't think I could trust you. But this is a good time to bring up something else I needed to talk to you about."
She gestured towards the plate.
"You need to be ready to be honest if you're going to work with us. James and I, we don't keep secrets from each other and we won't keep them from you unless we think it's a safety issue, and we'll tell you if it is." Something flashed behind her eyes. "I expect the same from you. But you should know going in that you might not always agree to how we operate, especially when it comes to the gods."
I felt strange sense of unease creep through me at this, and it wasn't helped by her intent expression.
"It's how I protect my friends," she continued. "And we can protect you. But you have to be willing to let us. It means turning a blind eye to a certain amount of activity as a demigod, which I know isn't always a fun position, trust me." She paused. "I won't ask you to be honest with me, but keep things from the gods however. Not if you're not ok with it. And I won't let you walk into a situation like that blind."
I hesitated, thinking about what she'd said.
To be honest, I'd been a little excited about the offer, even a little flattered that of all people Harper could have thought to ask, she'd asked me. I wouldn't hurt to have another source of income over the summer, especially if I was planning to already be at the library around my internship hours. But I hadn't expected this.
"What sort of things are we talking about?" I asked hesitantly, wondering just what exactly Harper and her friends got up to when she thought no one on Olympus was looking.
"Nothing as bad as you're probably thinking." She said her expression significant but her tone was amused. "I'm not a traitor Libby. But the gods seem to think my role as the Keeper of the Cordrian Library is to act as an extension of their power." She shrugged. "I disagree. I'm not a guard dog and they certainly haven't proven to me why I should value their interests over the safety of my library and my friends."
She smiled a little, but there was a bitterness to it
"They don't like that very much." She continued. "I keep it in mind. And just because they're careless with mortal lives, doesn't mean I have to be." She hesitated, and I saw something pass across her features.
It looked like pain.
"They would have killed James for what happened to him, and when they realized they couldn't get their hands on him, they were perfectly happy to turn right around and punish me. I don't know what they would have done to Lucy if they'd gotten a hold of her, but it wouldn't have been pretty. People like that, they don't deserve blind loyalty. And I'm not asking you to give that to me. The gods aren't always right, and neither am I. But unlike them, I will be honest with you and I trust you to do what you think is right. I just ask you to do the same for me."
I felt myself frown at this, considering everything I'd heard.
"You don't have to do anything you don't want to." She said. "And if you don't want to deal with all this, you're still welcome at the library. You just wouldn't have quite as much access, but James or Lucy can still get you pretty much anything you need."
"And if I do agree, you'll be honest with me?" I asked. "About everything?"
"As long as it doesn't put anyone in danger." She said carefully, and I had a feeling she knew what was coming. "But even if I don't tell you something, I'll let you know why I'm not telling you, and I won't lie."
"I'm guessing that includes what happened to James and Lucy." I said suspiciously.
I expected her to get defensive about this but she didn't. She just shrugged.
"I told you Libby. James can tell you his own story." She then hesitated. "But I wouldn't bring it up to Lucy."
"Why not?"
At this Harper looked sad.
"Lucy's been through a lot." She said quietly. "She's tough, but if you bring it up to her, she might not thank you for it. I'd ask you not to make her re-live it again."
"Was it… bad?" I asked hesitantly and while I was almost certain I didn't want to hear the answer to this, she did.
"Yeah." She said simply. "It was. She still has trouble with it sometimes, but overall she's mostly ok. Like I said," she smiled again, but it was a still little sad. "She's tough."
I nodded still not entirely certain what to make of all this, but it seemed as if Harper was being honest with me so far, and that was what she'd promised to do.
"This might be a stupid question to ask." I said glancing at her. "But what happened to Lucy and James, whatever it was. It's not going to happen to me right?"
"No." Harper said shaking her head, and her voice was certain. "Why do you think I'm always arguing with the gods so much?"
Her gaze met mine, and I saw that there was a burning resolve in her eyes that was stronger than steel, that made it possible to understand how tiny Harper Davis, the bookworm from camp that had been notoriously badgered by her brother, became a demigod who wasn't afraid to constantly challenge the gods.
"As long as I'm running the library, what happened to James and Lucy will never happen to anyone again."
I considered for a moment, thinking about everything she'd said. About her loyalty to her friends and her desire to protect them from Olympus. About all the warnings everyone, even Ashton had given me, about how dangerous the library could be. Just my few visits already, was showing me that they hadn't been lying, and that the rumors about James, at least about his abilities, were far from exaggerated.
Images flashed in my mind, James moving faster than I could follow, killing the hell hound that had lunged for Harper, Hypnos thrown back in to a shelf, James pinning him by the throat like it was nothing.
How in my short time there, they'd managed to piss of multiple gods, and how casually they talked about it. Even Lucy. Like it was just a matter of course for them.
Was this something that I really wanted to get involved with?
But those weren't the only images filtering through my mind.
There was also Lucy, smiling as she irritated her brother, who pretended to be annoyed before shooting her a look of exasperated but genuine affection. The expressions of concern across Harper's features, worried for Lucy after everything that had happened with Hypnos.
I tried to reconcile it with the way she was looking at me now. Despite the flash of emotion, she'd reverted back to her usual demeanor, dispassionately analytical. Like I was a somewhat interesting outlier in a data set that otherwise had turned out the way she'd expected.
Moments like this, it was weird to think of her as my brother's girlfriend, or anyone's best friend, let alone someone like James.
'Then again,' a voice challenged. 'Was this really all that different from the way James shut down around others?'
I wasn't sure why James seemed to make some sort of effort to tolerate my presence in a way he didn't with others. If Lucy, and Harper herself, were to believed, he actually liked me.
It was clear by the way he interacted with them that if James considered you one of his 'people', you found yourself dealing with an entirely different person than others would. One that was fun and pleasant to be around rather than terrifying…
'Maybe she really was more like James than I thought,' I thought a little ruefully.
The only difference was, it was clear that Harper didn't really consider me one of her people. Not yet at least. But that didn't mean that would always be the case, and I had to admit, a part of me was curious to see that side of her. To understand how demigods like her and James had gotten so disconnected from Olympus. The side of her that James and Lucy, and I was sure Ashton, got to see, and how it all balanced. Harper the demigod, the keeper, the girlfriend, the student, even the twin.
'It might even help you understand James a little better.' The voice continued, but I ignored it.
"I'll help." I said eventually. "As long as you're being honest about the...being honest part." I finished a little awkwardly.
"You don't believe me?" she asked raising an eyebrow.
"I don't know you." I pointed out. "Not very well anyways. I mean, you can't be too bad. My brother wouldn't date an asshole, and if you were too much of a problem I'm sure Olympus would have done something about you by now."
I hadn't really thought the sentence through, and expected her to be offended by it, but was a little surprised when she grinned a little, clearly amused.
"I do have a question though."
"Just the one?" she asked sounding surprised and I nodded. "What is it?"
She seemed unusually receptive to the demand, and I paused for a moment, trying to find the words.
"I'm not going to ask you if you trust James." I said carefully. "It's obvious you do. But how?" I asked, a little surprised at how much I truly wanted to know. "How can you trust him? After everything he did, how can you-"
But she cut me off.
"If James wanted me dead, I would be." Harper said flatly, and I was surprised at the lack of emotion in her tone. "Even before I took over the library. Ashton too."
"Really?" I asked in surprise in she nodded.
"Years ago, back when all of us were looking for the key, he had the chance to leave us to Kronos's army. He didn't. When we actually found the key, he could have left us for dead in a collapsing cave. He didn't. He helped me when I was struggling to pull Ashton out of the water he'd been unconscious in. And when I got knocked out, he helped Ashton get me out too."
She shot me a shrewd glance.
"James has saved my life countless of times over the years. He's my best friend. I don't choose to trust James. I just do, and he's earned every bit of it. But whether or not I trust James is irrelevant here." She continued, speaking over me when I wanted to protest the statement. "The question you need to answer is, if you're working in the library, how will you learn to trust James? Because you're going to have to, and he's not the sort of person to go out of his way to try and convince you." She shrugged. "I know it might seem counterintuitive from your perspective, and everything you might have heard about us, but the truth is Libby, in the library, you're in James's territory. You're welcome to ask him whatever you like, but he doesn't owe you any assurances. In our world, the person who needs to prove their trustworthiness, is you."
"So what are you saying?" I asked her with a frown, feeling for some reason a little offended and I wasn't exactly sure why. "That you don't really trust me after all?"
"Libby, I wouldn't be here if I didn't think I could trust you with this. I wouldn't waste either of our time." She said emotionlessly. "Neither of us have a lot of it over the summer from what I understand. That being said, if Ares turned up this very second and started charging at me with a spear, I think we know both know who'd be jumping in front of me if it was between James or you. I know that about him. I can't say the same for you."
"James is invulnerable." I said irritated. "That's not a fair comparison. He doesn't have consequences like-"
"He's done it before his trip to the Styx, and deep down, I think you know he would have done it for you too. Even when you both know he probably couldn't expect the same from you."
I opened my mouth intending to find a way to respond, but came up with nothing and eventually I closed it.
The expression she gave me after was surprisingly sympathetic.
"Look, it get it. Our parents, they ask a lot of us. They want unquestioning loyalty and my friends and I create conflict with that. And if you don't want to be a part of that, really, I understand. Like I said, you can still use the library. But if you do, then I would worry less about whether or not you trust James, and what you're going to have to worry about if you do. It's not easy to deprogram the way camp and the legends train you to think about our parents and their world. And people might not thank you for it if you do."
"You make it sound as if you think supporting Olympus is wrong." I said quietly and she sighed.
"It's not that." She said a little wearily, and when she continued, her expression was a bit conflicted. "We can't ignore the reality of the situation. The fact is, our parents are gods, divine beings that expect a certain amount of obedience, reverence even, and I'll take them over the Titans. But they're not always right."
"And you think you are?"
"No." she said honestly and she hesitated as one of the servers passed us before she continued. "But I think I care more about what happens to demigods than they do. Mortals too."
This answer surprised me, mostly because I didn't think Harper cared about other demigods. At least not the ones she wasn't friends with. And apart from having to live around them, I wasn't sure I thought about the mortals hardly at all. At least not about how the activities of the gods affected them. As intimidating as I found her sometimes, I was starting to think that maybe, I hadn't given Ashton's girlfriend enough credit.
"Look, I know you said you're ok with this, but if you need more time to think about it, I understand."
She stood.
Having paid the bill already, and received the food she'd ordered to go, it was clear she was ready to leave not just the restaurant, but the entire conversation.
"You can take a few days to decide, just let me know as soon as you can if-"
"No." I said shaking my head and she hesitated when reaching for the takeaway boxes.
"What?"
"Sorry," I muttered. "I mean no, I don't need any more time. I still want to help."
"Oh." She said looking a little surprised as she grabbed the boxes and started putting them in bags. "Great. I'll have Lucy start working up a schedule around your camp and clinic hours."
"Ok, yeah I guess just let me know when I'm needed."
There was a pause that hung between us, that had their air of two people who'd just settled some sort of business arrangement, and were quickly realizing they now had nothing else to talk about.
"We should probably start heading back to the library." She said eventually. "James might be invulnerable, but he doesn't sleep enough. And he gets cranky when he's hungry."
"James get's hangry?" I asked grinning, also getting to my feet and I was surprised to see that Harper grinned.
"In a major way."
"I can't picture that." I said honestly. "In all the time I've known him, he's never really been one to complain."
"That's because you don't work with him." She said rolling her eyes. "Just wait until it's his turn to approve visitor requests."
"Does he turn into a bit of a grouch?"
"You'd expect him to start shouting at kids to get off his lawn." She said with a laugh, and for the first time. I thought I saw a glimpse of Harper as something other than a daughter of Athena.
For a moment, no matter how brief, it felt like we'd gone from two demigods talking about the mythological world, to me maybe even bonding a little with my brother's girlfriend. It was a nice feeling, and a part of me wondered if she'd noticed it as well, because the smile she gave me was encouraging.
"C'mon." she said, gesturing for me to follow her.
It didn't last long however.
the moment we stepped through the door of the restaurant, we were thrown back into the Interrealm. I shot out of the door to the mortal world only to be caught by what was, I was embarrassed to realize, becoming to be a familiar hold.
I looked up in surprise to see James, but before I could begin to thank him for keeping me upright, he'd darted forward and grabbed Harper by her jacket before she, and the food she was holding, hit the stone floor.
"How is Libby already better at this than you are?" James asked her reprovingly and Harper threw him a look.
"I don't want to hear it." she grumbled. "Otherwise I'm throwing your entrée into the Underworld."
"You are so sensitive." He said smirking at his friend, but taking one of the bags she held out to him.
It faded however when he glanced at me.
"You alright?"
"Fine." I said and he nodded before saying something to Harper and making his way towards the stairs that led to the library.
I watched him for a moment, thinking about everything Harper had said, and how, even with all the power I suspected, and in some cases knew, he had, James depended on Harper's protection just as much as she relied on his.
It was an odd situation, and an even stranger relationship, but a part of me couldn't help but wonder if I was a little jealous. I'd never had that. Someone I trusted that entirely. Sure I had friends, good friends. And some of them, like Anna, were even great. But never had I had a relationship, even with a friend, that I thought I could entrust my life in someone else's hands without so much as a backwards glance.
Clearly, James and Harper didn't have this concern.
"Would you change it?" I asked, looking at Harper who seemed confused.
"What?"
She hadn't followed James to the stairs yet, she'd been straightening out her clothes after falling out of the doors, and the expression she gave me was quizzical.
"You said it was hard, unlearning everything we were told about the gods." I said uncertainly. "If you could go back in time and change it, everything that happened to you and to James and to Lucy. Would you?"
"Change anything?" she asked and I nodded.
I expected her to hesitate at this, to really think about it but she didn't.
"No." she said shaking her head, with a resoluteness that surprised me.
"Nothing?" I asked and again, she shook her head.
"Nothing." She affirmed.
"Not even if it made things easier?" I asked.
I wasn't sure why I was asking this. Maybe because deep down, I knew it might have been easier to trust James if things had never changed from how they used to be at camp. If he and his sister hadn't stumbled across the library. If Harper hadn't left camp. If their very existence these days made for an uncomfortable thorn in the side of the gods.
"Just because something is easy Libby, doesn't mean it's right. Or that it will make you happy." She said. "It was easier for Ashton not to upset my brother when it came to me, and look how well that turned out."
She gave me a significant look and, unwillingly, I remembered the weeks, years ago, when Ashton had walked like a zombie around camp after Harper had left. Angry at her bother and at him for hiding a prophecy about her from her. About all of them really.
'No.' I thought. 'No he hadn't been happy at all.'
In fact, I'd never seen Ashton so miserable. And despite how complicated Harper and her role here might make things, I'd never seem him happier than he was now.
"As for my part." She continued. "I'd rather see the gods for what they are, and make my own decisions in life, rather than what they'd dictate for me. Even if it upsets them."
She smiled a little at my uncertain expression.
"At least that way they can't catch me off guard, and whatever choices are made about my life, are mine."