Magic In the Air| The Lightning Thief Male Reader Insert

13. Me Without Us

My eyes opened and was greeted with several things.

The first was the dark ceiling that reflected torch light. The crackling of the fires made me a bit annoyed as I was just waking up, but also provided a sense of comfort.

The second was that I was currently in a bed. Last thing I remembered, I was trying to travel to the Underworld on the beach after the fight with Ares. So why was I in a bed right now?

The third was the feeling of fingers raking through my hair.

Forcing myself fully awake, I quickly sat up and looked towards who was messing with my hair.

"It seems like your quest is finished," Hecate said, her hand dropping onto her lap from her place sitting on the side of the bed. Her green eyes studied me, almost like she was looking through me. "Your final task is to return the helm to Hades."

My shock slowly disappeared enough for me to see she held the helm on her lap. She noticed my staring and handed it over to me.

I slowly took it and sighed relief. My efforts hadn't been for nothing, it seems.

"So...I made it to the Underworld?" I quietly asked, looking back up to Hecate.

"With a little help," she said. "Shadow travel is awfully strenuous, even for children of Hades. There was no telling where you would have ended up had I not guided your path. Even if you had made it, you would've fainted from exhaustion, possibly in some obscure corner of the Underworld."

"Shadow travel? I can do that?"

Hecate gained an amused glint in her eye. "You said it yourself, a son of Hecate is limited by only his imagination."

I felt my face heat up. "You were watching me?"

"I have been watching you for a long time, (Name). Unlike the Olympians, I actually care for my children." She then glanced around before leaning a little closer. "Don't tell them I said that though."

I laughed softly. Guess I had to get my personality from somewhere.

"So uh—" I tried to awkwardly say.

"Tell me about your quest," she cut me off.

"Wha?" I asked. "But...weren't you watching it?"

"From an outside perspective, yes. However, I'd like to know how it was from someone who participated in it. How was it experiencing those things?"

I blinked, but gave in and told her about the quest from my perspective. She listened silently, nodding every now and then to let me know that she was still listening.

Once I was done, I noticed that she had placed her hand back on my head and was running her hands through my hair once more.

"And are you okay?" Hecate asked.

"Hmm?"

"Demigods in this era are...much less likely to come back from their quests than the ones of old." She started. "Even if they do, they may come back with no injuries—"

My hand gravitated towards the cut on my cheek from Ares's sword that seemed to have healed. It would leave a scar, but it didn't bother me too much.

"—but that does not mean that they were not damaged. Do you understand?"

I realized what she was talking about. "You think that I might be traumatized."

She said nothing.

"I uh.." I swallowed. "I don't think I can ever forget what I saw on the quest, honestly. I put on a brave front, but I knew that I came close to dying more than once. It was..."