reflection ● jason grace

Icarus

 They approached the Labyrinth with a sense of respect the next morning.

Hylla told them stories – demigods had shown up over the last two weeks in the Seattle area. Half of them were insane, and the other half looked so terrified of their surroundings that they refused to speak. Except for the flash of a branding on their wrists, the letter 'A', they were nobody.

"Benny," Daria looked back and forth between her friends. They grew up together, Daria knew who watched out for others and who never learned. "You stay with me, or you stay with Nathan, understand?"

Benny looked at Nathan, piercings and tattoos accompanied with a lanky build, and grabbed Daria's hand. "I'll stay with you," he decided.

Michael snickered.

Daria...a male's voice whispered into the wind. Come find me.

Benny clutched her hand tighter. "There's that man again!"

Daria looked at him in shock as Jason and Reyna jumped down first. "You can hear him?"

"Uhyeah," Benny said like it was obvious, slurring his words together. "He's that way!" He pointed down one of the several pathways.

Daria jumped down, outstretching her arms to catch Benny who followed. There weren't many people who could see through the mist better than Jason at camp; Daria wondered if something about the nine-year old upset Jason, because he kept staring at them.

"Lead the way, Benny," Reyna encouraged him. She and Daria had been making eye contact a lot that morning. She was definitely wondering what Daria and Hylla had talked about. Daria really hoped Hylla kept her mouth shut.

But she was right about some parts. Reyna was easy to read. Easier than Clara, easier than Nathan on his bad days. Daria was using the guessing game as a distraction, pushing off the conversation they were building to as long as possible.

They followed the son of Apollo for a few minutes in silence. Daria didn't know why she thought this trip would be as easy as the last one, but her ear twitched. A rock hit the wall, but no one had moved. She and Reyna shared another glance.

"Stay here," Daria ordered the rest of them. "Watch out for Benny. Reyna and I will meet you back here."

Michael touched her hand. "These tunnels are weird," he reminded them as Reyna drew her dagger, back to accepting Daria's orders. "Don't go anywhere but the clearing."

"I won't," she promised him, now feeling nervous at the thought. "But if you can't hear us anymore, see if Benny can find us." Nathan was already entertaining the boy by describing his tattoos.

"Come on," Jason grumbled. "We're wasting time. It's probably just a gryphon or something."

No one invited you, Daria thought, but she was doing pretty well on not speaking to him so far, so why break her track record.

Spoiler: it wasn't a gryphon.

Daria had no idea how that many monsters could be so quiet. As they creeped along the wall, she counted three chimeras, a hydra, and two earthborn. Thankfully, they looked exhausted. Well, as much as monsters could look exhausted. Daria didn't know, okay?

"You just had to say something," Reyna muttered. "What's the plan?"

Daria grimaced. "Not sure. I guess we'll have to-"

"You, take the earthborn," Jason interrupted. "Reyna and I can get the others since I can fly. But you don't have space to use your swords. You're going to have to-"