Flowergirl, Percy Jackson

017. The Battle of the Labyrinth

"No."

"You can't just say no - "

"I'm fighting,"

He storms away. Lila lets him go; for once, it doesn't feel like she's in the wrong. She is secure of her place with Nico, secure that they have each others backs, no matter how they bicker.

As if she were waiting for him to leave, Silena immediately runs over, her blonde hair tangled and messy for once. There are dark circles under her eyes, as if she hasn't slept in days, but she still somehow looks like a model. Lila, on the other hand, is pretty sure her shirt is brown instead of orange, while her jeans are ripped and worn. Silena doesn't seem to care about Lila's muddy coating; she pulls her into a hug, squeezing her so tight Lila's ribs almost crack.

"I can't breathe," Lila whispers into her ear, though she hugs her back equally tightly.

"I don't care," Silena mutters. "I missed you."

When Lila pulls back, Silena is dragging her toward the base of operations, where spare armour is standing.

"My mother is Persephone." Lila says, and it settles in her bones. She's not sure how to feel; should she jump for joy or be disappointed that her mother isn't an Olympian? She wants to be excited - all her life she's felt as though a part of her identity is missing due to not knowing her full parentage. She thought knowing the truth would fill that gaping hole. It hasn't, though, and Lila isn't sure what she should do to fix herself. "Pan told me."

Silena blinks, shoving armour into Lila's hands. "Pan? What - " she shakes her head. "Nevermind. Tell me later."

"Are you fighting?" Lila asks, then. The last time she was Silena fight properly was against the Hunters of Artemis, and that had been equally vicious as terrifying. Silena answers in a tight nod, adjusting Lila's armour rapidly - she's faster at it, considering her parentage. "And your siblings?"

"Some of the younger ones shouldn't," she mutters, frowning. "They won't listen to me, though."

"Well, this is their home," Lila answers reasonably. "Surely they should be allowed to defend it?"

Silena pulls one of the straps a little too tight, a little too violently. "Lacey is eleven. If anything happens to her - what will I tell her parents?"

Lila privately imagines that if Kronos's army manages to fight their way to the eleven year old daughter of Aphrodite, they've probably already killed Silena and every other slightly more responsible teenager in the camp. She keeps her mouth shut. "Maybe she can climb a tree and shoot arrows with the Apollo kids?"

"That's what I told her to do," Silena nods. "She won't listen, though. I don't know where she got her stubbornness from."

Lila doesn't say anything about that either. Instead, she asks, "Are you afraid?"

Silena tilts her head, deep sadness in her eyes. "I'm always afraid, now."

There is something tragic about that. They are only seventeen.

"I don't want to die," Silena admits. "I don't want you to die, or Clarisse. I don't want Char- " She cuts herself off, blushing slightly.

Lila thinks that she knows what Silena was about to say, anyway. "We aren't going to," she says, her words hollow. "We aren't the ones dying today."

Silena smiles weakly. Her eyes are bright with disbelief. "Lila, there's something - "

She's interrupted by the ground, trembling. Lila senses it first, before she hears it; a rattling in the very foundation of her bones. It travels upwards, and the camp falls silent.