When they found Rebecca's body, Leo wanted to scream until his throat ruptured.
If he'd been able to find the strength, he just might've. But he was just numb.
A Roman eagle had caught her on her way down from the sky, thinking she was still alive, so none of her bones were broken. Her limbs were frosted with gold, which Leo guessed was how she'd managed to protect herself from the initial blast. Her eyes were wide open, staring at the sky without seeing. It was the shrapnel from one of Festus' wings that had pierced her heart and ended her life.
Leo couldn't blame Festus, of course. After months of working on his reconstruction, the bronze dragon was reduced to the same fate as the Argo II: Burning bits of scrap metal and rubble scattered across the valley.
Hazel broke down crying when she saw her sister and turned away from Rebecca's body. Annabeth, Piper, and Frank all had streaks of silent tears on their faces. Percy and Jason both looked like they wished this was a terrible dream that they couldn't wake up from. Nico looked more like Leo felt: numb.
So Frank and Nico held Hazel and consoled her. Percy and Annabeth hugged each other and wept. Jason wrapped his arm around Piper's shoulder as she cried.
But the one person Leo wanted to go to for comfort, the one person he needed to tell, the one person he wanted to hold him and kiss his forehead and tell him it would be alright — was gone forever.
The five Queens arrived not long after. Nico refused to do anything but stare at Rebecca and Hazel couldn't stop crying, so Percy filled them in on what had happened.
"Oh, gods," Catherine Parr said. "She... she told us she was going to die earlier but we didn't think she really meant it."
"She told you she was going to die?" Jason asked. "How did she know?"
"The same way I knew," Leo said. Everyone looked at him. Frank and Hazel exchanged a knowing look. "I talked to Nike and Apollo about what was supposed to happen today: A person with the power of storm or fire would die defeating Gaea. Nike told me that it would be my death. It should've been me."
"Don't say that."
Everyone whirled around in surprise to Nico, who knelt next to Rebecca and closed her eyelids. She would've looked like she was sleeping peacefully had there not been a footlong wedge of Celestial Bronze embedded in her chest.
"Rebecca knew she was going to die," Nico said. "She's known in some way since you guys went to London."
"So when Hades told her there would be more deaths..." Aragon trailed off.
"He meant my sister."
Rebecca had known for weeks and she hadn't told anyone but Nico about it.
"I didn't know about her plan until a couple of days ago," Nico said. "She told me she wanted to prepare me, because I would need to do the right thing and let Octavian launch himself. She knew he would die, too."
Leo ran his hands through his hair. "Why — why didn't she —"
"She didn't tell you because she knew you would fight tooth and nail to stop you."
Jason hung his head, even his glasses lost in shadow. "We should have been there at the end. We could've helped Rebecca."
"It's not right," Piper agreed, wiping away her tears.
"Wait, Piper," Annabeth said. "You have the physician's cure."
"You have the physician's cure?" Nico repeated.
"You're right!" Piper exclaimed. "We can —"
Leo felt a rush of anger. "Piper, where's the cure? Bring it out."
