Once Strong, Now Broken

Chapter 30: Reflection of Our Trails And Tribulations

Odessa POV

I woke up at dawn, alone.

There was no way to notice. I had my back facing where he lays normally, with Amara sound asleep in her crib ahead of me: no worry's in her expression. The dreamlike sensation overcomes in waves, causing my lips to curl in a small smile. Soft light raining in from outside.

He should have been on the other side.

I rolled over to leech off of Percy's warmth but my hand landed on an empty sheet. My brain shrugged it off before a rush of adrenaline floored my veins, bouncing me straight out of bed. Checking for any signs of a struggle or teleportation, panic rises in my chest as my heart pounds against my skin.

I'm supposed to keep him safe! From her- From anyone!

Amara stirs and whimpers in her sleep. My focus switched from 'find Percy' to 'make sure my daughter is undisturbed' like a switch, like I was being controlled to scoop her in my arms and forget I was looking for someone important.

"I'm sorry, dear. I didn't mean to wake you." I whisper as I rock her in my arms, "You wanna help me look for daddy? He's gotta be around here somewhere~" Amara takes my index finger in her tiny hand. I smile and tiptoe towards the flap of our tent. He's gotta be near? Right? I step outside just as the sun is barely starting to rise and I take a deep breath before scanning my immediate area for Percy.

Our camp isn't the most glorious or magical compared to Artemis', but it's home. Behind me is our cloth tent, easily the size of a cabin, but no Percy... Our little stone firepit a few feet in front of me was still smoking from the night before.. but no Percy. I hop through the portal that hides our camp to check down by the creek where we met the nymph for any sign.  Irene waved when I arrived and I asked her if she'd seen Percy anywhere. Of course her answer was 'no, sorry'. Sighh where could he have gone to? He's not in the tent, not at the pit, not at the creak! WHERE IS HE? Amara whimpered at my agitation.

I kissed her forehead, "It's okay, love. We'll find him soon, he wouldn't leave us like this.. I hope." I whisper the last part. Percy has been known to run from his problems, for himself or me, but I doubt he would leave his own daughter and his literal soulmate without any sort of notice. It wasn't like him.

I start to walk back to camp before Irene calls to me.

"Odessa! Wait!"

I stop and turn gently to not disturb Amara. Trying to hide my panic.

"Yes?" I answered.

She jogs up to me slightly, "My friends down the creak think they saw Percy! There's a lake a bit down the steam, he might be over there if you hurry!"

I hug her and thank her. I jog and flap my wings to fly right about the tree line. There's another body of water! Why didn't I think of that? Of course he would be attracted towards a water source.

Just as Irene mentioned, there was a medium sized lake just a few flaps away from our camp and a small speck with black wings on it's banks.

Please Lords, let this be him!

I hold Amara tight as we land gently, a few meters behind the figure. He was sitting down with midnight black wings wrapped around him. A slice of doubt tells me that there's a possibly this isn't Percy and could be a huge mistake bringing Amara with me, so I shield her with my wing as I approach the figure.

"Percy?" I whisper.

He flinches and his head flies backwards to look at me. I noticed a pure look of shock and terror before a shy blush crawled onto his cheaks. I let out the breath I didn't know I was holding and uncovered Amara.