ANTI-HERO, j.grace

SEVEN

Klein should have hit Jason with 'sucks to suck' when she walked away from him in the training arena, let the conversation and his hopes for her to join the quest die there. Instead, his final 'I know we'll need you' echoed in the back of her mind and she couldn't sleep the rest of the night. She tossed and turned in her bed for what felt like hours, even pushing up the blanket that covered her bunk to see if the soft lighting of the room brought any comfort.

It didn't.

The entire ordeal shouldn't have bothered her as much as it did, shouldn't have taken up such a large residency in her head. There was no reason for her to help, really. She had nothing more to give the gods, and Hera done nothing to leave the girl inclined to help her. Despite how good he seemed, Klein didn't know Jason. She didn't owe him anything, she wasn't even sure who he really was.

But he seemed good - Klein wasn't.

And in the midst of it all, the finality of her decision to leave Hera in whatever prison she was rotting in was challenged when she thought of Kieran.

Kieran Maddox would have gone on the quest and he wouldn't even have hesitated. But he would have been shocked that Klein had.

After that, Klein was left with an unsettled pit in her stomach because how was she supposed to screw the world that Kieran had died protecting?

She couldn't.

Which made her next problem the fact that Klein wasn't exactly sure what she was supposed to pack to go on a quest. Ambrosia and nectar, sure, those had been the first things in her bag, some rations, a few extra shirts that she rolled up as small as she possibly could, extra socks, and a pocket knife. She packed an extra pair of sweatpants, given that she had to put on actual leggings rather than shorts as she preferred to wear, and she was worried that the edges of her prosthetic could wear holes into the clothing during the trip.

But surely there was something she was missing, and it wasn't as though anyone in Cabin Seven had any infinite demigod quest wisdom to pass along.

"What the fuck else am I supposed to bring? A bandaid? A pillow?" Her eyebrows furrowed together as she looked down at the bag on her bed, "Oh my gods how am I supposed to fit a pillow?"

"You'll need a weapon, you know." Austin's voice quips from behind her, and Klein can only purse her lips as she picks up the pocketknife, waving it around in her hand without turning to face him.

"That's literally not a weapon."

"It's literally a knife."

"No."

"Well what would you prefer I bring, smartass?"She huffs as she turned around the face the Lake boy, only to be met with the sight of him standing alongside Kayla and Will. And in Will's hands... the sight made Klein's breath caught in her throat, "Where did you find that?"

Klein Maddox had snapped her bow into pieces following the Titan War, holding the weapon standing up and slamming her foot straight down onto the center of it. It snapped with a pop of light and Klein's as surprised her eyebrows hadn't been signed off, but that was the end of it. She had hidden Kieran's.

She didn't want to use it, she didn't want to touch it, hades she didn't even want to look at it because the very sight of it reminded her of how the last thing the Maddox twins had done was split up to lead their own flanks of archers instead of one group because they were just so fucking good, and isn't two always better than one?

She stashed it outside the pegasus stables, on the back end facing the strawberry fields so that the bronzed bow - which was so shiny it looked gold - wouldn't catch the light and signify it's hiding spot. Klein hadn't seen it since. She didn't want to see it again.