━━━━HURRICANE!
❝ it's all we know,
the hurricane. ❞
( the mark of athena & the house of hades )
( l. valdez x fem!oc )
( p. mclean x male!oc )
( heroes of o...
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━chapter eighteen, ❝valentina hates love!❞ 『V A L E N T I N A』
☆
━━━Valentina has flown the winds several times with Jason before. Being the wind is not the same. She feels out of control, thoughts scattered, no boundaries between her body and the rest of the world. She wonders if this is how monsters feel like when they are defeated.
Valentina can sense Jason and Nico's presences nearby. The West Wind carries them into the sky above Split. Together, they race over the hills, past Roman aqueducts, highways, and vineyards. As they approach the mountains, Valentina sees the ruins of a Roman town spread out in a valley below━crumbling walls, square fountains, and cracked roads, all overgrown with grass.
Favonius sits them down in the middle of the ruins, next to a broken column the size of a redwood. Valentina's body reforms. For a moment, it feels even worse than being the wind.
"Yes, mortal bodies are terribly bulky," says Favonius, as if reading her thoughts. He sits on a nearby wall with his basket of fruit and spreads his russet wings in the sun. "Honestly, I don't know how you stand it, day in and day out."
Valentina scans her surroundings. The town must have been huge once. She can make out the shells of temples and bathhouses, a half-buried amphitheater, and empty pedestals that must have once held statues. Rows of columns march off into nowhere. The old city walls weave in and out of the hillside. Some areas look evacuated, but most of the city just seems... abandoned.
"Welcome to Salona," Favonius announces, spreading his arms. "Capital of Dalmatia, birthplace of Diocletian! But before that, long before that, it was the home of Cupid."
The name echoes, as if voices are whispering it through the ruins. Valentina feels shaky━her legs feel weak, and her hands shake. She flicks her dagger back into sunglasses and hangs them off her top.
"Oh, he's not like that," says Favonius.
Jason flinches. "You can read my mind?"
"Don't need to." Favonius tosses his bronze hoop in the air. "Everyone has the wrong impression of Cupid... until they meet him."
Nico braces himself against a column, his legs trembling visibly. Jason tries to approach him, but the son of Hades waves him off. At Nico's feet, the grass turns brown and wilted. The dead patch spreads outward as if poison is seeping from the soles of his shoes.
"Ah." Favonius nods sympathetically. "I don't blame you for being nervous, Nico di Angelo. Do you know how I ended up serving Cupid?"
