There's no love without pain // Jeyna

17. The Quest

4 DAYS TILL CHRISTMAS

Reyna's POV

Reyna didn't know what to do when Jason disappeared. Again.

She was surprised when he pinned her down as it had been the other way around mere seconds ago. She didn't know how but it seemed as though he gained the strength of a lion within the second. It was completely out of the blue.

She knew very well that this was the second time this happened, ever, but Jason found the need to state this fact.

"Second time-", he didn't even finish his sentence when his eyes rolled to the back of his head. He would have collapsed on top of her had he not vaporised. Into thin air.

She stood up, shell shocked, not knowing what to do. Her mind refused to form coherent thoughts. Her breaths became shallower. She pushed her back against the railing. Her legs were shaking, she found it silly but one of the first proper thoughts that came to her was,

All your fault.

She closed her eyes and tried taking deep breaths. She tried to move, to go and get somebody who could help. She saw a door, a bit ahead of where she was standing. She pushed it open and saw Percy sitting in a chair, quite tense as though he expected an attack any moment. That was when she noticed the banners sitting on one side of the room.

Percy's POV

Percy jumped up and almost charged at her but stopped mid-strike when he saw Reyna's pallid face.

He immediately knew that something serious was going on, otherwise, she wouldn't have looked this. . . scared. Something that was enough to scare Reyna must, obviously, be really bad.

"What happened?" Said Percy in a low voice. His hands were shaking almost as fast as his heart was beating. Reyna was taking deep breaths.

"Jason. . . he- he's gone. Vanished. Into thin air." Said Reyna, who seemed quite out of breath.

Percy's eyes widened. 

"What?!" He said. It came out much louder than he expected. He pushed past her and went out of the room. He looked around the Fields of Mars trying to spot-

"Frank! Over here. Stop the game, Jason's missing!" He yelled, whilst flailing his arms to capture Frank's attention.

He had been flying around as a bald eagle and with his heightened senses he noticed Percy almost immediately. Frank swooped in and landed in human form right next to him.

"What?!" He said.

"I said, Jason's missing!"

"I know what you said! But, how?"

"Oh... umm... apparently, he just disappeared or something. I'm not really sure, ask Reyna." He said, running his hands through his hair.

Frank glanced at Reyna. He saw her, deathly pale, and seemed to realize the weight of the situation. He turned back into an eagle and sat perched on the railing . He gave an ear piercing shriek and everybody stood frozen, turning to look at him, leaving whatever they were doing half way.

Frank turned back into a human and Percy could see him sweating, wringing his hands and shifting his weight from one foot to the other. ADHD or not everyone has nervous habits.

Frank cleared his throat.

"We. . . have to call off the games. One of our campers is missing. Jason Grace has disappeared... again." His voice carried across the eerily silent fields. He spoke with much more confidence than Percy had expected, though he muttered the last word to himself. Percy was pretty sure that he and Reyna were the only ones who heard it.

Reyna seemed to be holding back the storm of feelings and emotions raging on in her heart and mind. Her face took on a pained expression which told Percy, for sure, that her mind was, indeed, in conflict.

She loved Jason (that had been obvious to Percy since day one) and now he was gone.

Again.

She had always taught herself to to keep her emotions to herself but this wasn't something that she, or anyone, could just keep to themselves. He was concerned for her and he had been so absorbed in his concerns that he didn't even notice all of the others crowding around him.

Almost all of the campers had surrounded the three of them and they were starting to make highly distracting sounds.

  Annabeth fought her way to Percy and looked him in the eye. Maybe she was looking for some kind of confirmation that what she heard was true. Percy fixed her with a grim look and took a lingering sidelong glance at Reyna.