Heroes of Olympus Series. Annabeth Chase X Male Reader Story

A Third Party Enters the Fray

"The more dangerous it is." Nico frowned. "Should we cover it up? If the fauns find it..." Hazel imagined a mushroom cloud billowing up from the road, char-broiled fauns tossed in every direction. It was too horrible to consider.  "Can I have it?" (Y/N) asked. "NO!" Hazel shouted, that thought made her feel way worse.

"It should sink back underground after I leave, eventually, but just to be sure..." She'd been practicing this trick, but never with something so heavy and dense. She pointed at the gold bar and tried to concentrate.

The gold levitated. She channeled her anger, which wasn't hard—she hated that gold, she hated her curse, she hated thinking about her past and all the ways she'd failed. Her fingers tingled. The gold bar glowed with heat.

Nico gulped. "Um, Hazel, are you sure...?" She made a fist. The gold bent like putty. Hazel forced it to twist into a giant, lumpy ring. Then she flicked her hand toward the ground. Her million-dollar doughnut slammed into the earth. It sank so deep, nothing was left but a scar of fresh dirt.

Nico's eyes widened. "That was. ..terrifying." "That was AWESOME!" (Y/N) said, again, Nico frowned at him, like he was saying 'don't encourage her', but (Y/N) walked up to Hazel like she was a goddess or something. Taking her hands in his, "Can you teach me how to do that?" He asked like a child.

"I can barely do it myself..." She muttered, Hazel didn't think it was so impressive compared to the powers of a guy who could reanimate skeletons and bring people back from the dead, but it felt good to surprise him for a change.

Inside the camp, horns blew again. The cohorts would be starting roll call, and Hazel had no desire to be sewn into a sack of weasels. "Hurry!" she told Nico, and they ran for the gates. (Y/N) paused and began walking away.

Nico turned, "You aren't coming?" He asked, but Hazel already knew the answer, before (Y/N) even said, "It's fight night, gotta get myself ready." Nico seemed upset about that, and asked, "What about Percy?"

"What about Percy?" (Y/N) repeated, raising an eyebrow, Nico then said, "Well...what are you going to do instead?" (Y/N) pointed off into the distance and said, "I'm going to go take a nap. Reyna knows were to find me."

Just like that, slipping through a shadow, he was gone. Nico sighed, "I swear, he's such a show off...would it kill him to walk?" As the two of them resumed running, he asked Hazel what (Y/N) was doing as they jogged down the hill.

"Probably speaking to his ghosts again." She explained, between hefty breaths. "Before some evening musters, he walks up past Terminus's boundary to a temple in the pomoerium," Nico seemed surprised by this.

"But why's he going to a temple anyway, what's so special about it?" Hazel shrugged, "It's where we used to commune with the dead, long since run down. He goes there to pray we think, before every war game especially." "(Y/N) (L/N)? Praying, not on your life or mine" Nico said as they arrived.

The first time Hazel had seen the legion assemble, she'd been so intimidated, she'd almost slunk back to the barracks to hide. Even after being at camp for nine months, she still found it an impressive sight.

The first four cohorts, each forty kids strong, stood in rows in front of their barracks on either side of the Via Praetoria. The Fifth Cohort assembled at the very end, in front of the principia, since their barracks were tucked in the back corner of camp next to the stables and the latrines.

Hazel had to run right down the middle of the legion to reach her place. The campers were dressed for war. Their polished chain mail and greaves gleamed over purple T-shirts and jeans. Sword-and-skull designs decorated their helmets.

Even their leather combat boots looked ferocious with their iron cleats, great for marching through mud or stomping on faces. In front of the legionnaires, like a line of giant dominoes, stood their red and gold shields, each the size of a refrigerator door.