The Labyrinth // pjo

Chapter Six // Visits, Partings, and Annabeth Throws a Tantrum

 I hugged the flannel I wore closer to myself as I peered up at the moon.

I wondered if Artemis was watching right now–and a cold permeated through me, and I knew she was.

But someone else was watching too.

I turned my eyes to find Ric watching me from a shadowed part of the yard. At the same time, Nico and Eurytion poured root beer and threw barbecue into the twenty-foot-long pit in front of the septic tank.

I frowned at him, taking a few steps toward him and snapping lowly, "Why are you being a creep?"

"Your hands."

I tilted my head, "Do you have a hand fetish?"

"You burned yourself, you idiot. When you threw the coal from Annabeth." He scoffed, rolling his eyes at the partly cloudy night sky.

I blinked a few times before looking down at my palms and saw the pretty swollen and nasty burns seared into my skin, "Oops."

"Yeah, oops, is right..." He snorted. He moved from his little shadow alcove, and I watched as the shadows seemed to cling to his clothes. "Here–let me look."

When his hands touched my wrists, I almost pulled away from the heat that coursed through me–but it settled into a comfortable warmth over me, and I stared as he inspected the skin–delicately running his fingers over it.

I hissed when he hit the tenderest part of the wound, and he nodded, "Eh. Not too bad."

"How can you see that?" I shot back at him–still annoyed with him. "It's so dark over here."

"I'm the son of Hades–figure it out from there," He quipped back–kneeling to grab something from his backpack.

I knew his words were probably supposed to be rude, but despite the urge to just deck him–I asked, "So you're a bat."

Ric stopped moving, looking up at me with onyx eyes, and raised a brow, "Huh?"

"Echolocation idiot."

"I didn't know you knew those big words."

"Yeah, well, I know some other words too."

"Like what?"

"Two words specifically."

"Which are?"

They are: Fu—"

"Sally!" Annabeth called from across the yard. "We're almost ready."

I almost flipped her off from stopping me from cussing out Ric, but instead, I nodded, "Be there in a sec." I looked back at Ric, who was smirking at me, and I snapped, "I hate you."

He froze briefly–his eyes flickering before he shrugged, "Used to that."

His responses were nothing like I expected from him.

He used to be so soft and kind–while also stubborn and annoying. But now he was cold, off-putting, and just plain rude. It was like Ric di Angelo had had a personality adjustment and turned into a grade-A jackass.

And after months of searching for him, part of my heart ached at the shift in his demeanor.

I had imagined our reunion over and over in my head–and when it happened–I didn't even get to say the things I had planned.

And I was angry about it.

"Why are you being such an ass?" I said under my breath as he grabbed my wrist again, pouring some ointment onto my palm.