The Daughter of Nerio (Mark of Athena) Jason x oc

Chapter 2

A sea of hastily assembled demigods parted for Annabeth as she walked through the forum. Some looked tense, some nervous. Some were bandaged from their recent battle with the giants, but no one was armed. No one attacked.

Entire families had gathered to see the newcomers. Annabeth saw couples with babies, toddlers clinging to their parents' legs, even some elderly folks in a combination of Roman robes and modern clothes. Were all of them demigods? Annabeth suspected so, though she'd never seen a place like this. At Camp Half-Blood, most demigods were teens. If they survived long enough to graduate from high school, they either stayed on as counselors or left to start lives as best they could in the mortal world. Here, it was an entire multigenerational community.

At the far end of the crowd, Annabeth spotted Tyson the Cyclops and Percy's hellhound, Mrs. O'Leary—who had been the first scouting party from Camp Half-Blood to reach Camp Jupiter. They looked to be in good spirits. Tyson waved and grinned. Some part of Annabeth's mind registered how beautiful the city was—the smells from the bakeries, the gurgling fountains, the flowers blooming in the gardens. And the architecture...gods, the architecture—gilded marble columns, dazzling mosaics, monumental arches, and terraced villas.

In front of her, the demigods made way for a girl in full Roman armor and a purple cape. Dark hair tumbled across her shoulders. Her eyes were as black as obsidian. 

Reyna.

Jason had described her well. Even without that, Annabeth would have singled her out as the leader. Medals decorated her armor. She carried herself with such confidence the other demigods backed away and averted their gaze. And behind her was another girl who Jason definitely did not talk about, she seemed to be Asian similar to a certain daughter of Aphrodite back home, yet she carried a much more schooled and disciplined face compared to the other. She was only half dressed in roman armor with a leather jacket underneath it, her dark black hair was tied back into a braid and her eyes were a color of dark ever-shifting blue and black the right eye however seemed to be slightly misty. But the most noticeable thing is her completely metal left arm.

Annabeth recognized something else in her face, too—in the hard set of her mouth and the deliberate way she raised her chin like she was ready to accept any challenge. Reyna was forcing a look of courage while holding back a mixture of hopefulness and worry and fear that she couldn't show in public. 

Annabeth knew that expression. She saw it every time she looked in a mirror. The metal-armed girl however did not show an expression only showing a blank cold face with perhaps a tinge of hope. The three girls considered each other. Annabeth's friends fanned out on either side. The Romans murmured Jason's name, staring at him in awe.

Then someone else appeared from the crowd, and Annabeth's vision tunneled.

Percy smiled at her—that sarcastic, troublemaker smile that had annoyed her for years but eventually had become endearing. His sea-green eyes were as gorgeous as she remembered. His dark hair was swept to one side, like he'd just come from a walk on the beach. He looked even better than he had six months ago—tanner and taller, leaner and more muscular.

Annabeth was too stunned to move. She felt that if she got any closer to him, all the molecules in her body might combust. Last summer, she'd fallen for him hard. They'd been a happy couple for four months—and then he'd disappeared.

During their separation, something had happened to Annabeth's feelings. They'd grown painfully intense—like she'd been forced to withdraw from a life-saving medication. The praetor Reyna straightened. With apparent reluctance, she turned toward Jason. "Jason Grace, my former colleague..." She spoke the word colleague like it was a dangerous thing. "I welcome you home. And these, your friends—" Annabeth didn't mean to, but she surged forward. Percy rushed toward her at the same time. The crowd tensed. Some reached for swords that weren't there.