THE HEALER| Heroes of Olympus

f o u r t e e n

I had a strong urge to find Piper's mother and punch her. I hated how Aphrodite could mess up someone's life with just a short conversation.

"Reyna," I said, "I don't know what she meant, but I do know this: you are an incredible person. There is someone out there for you. Maybe it's not a demigod. Maybe it's a mortal or ... or I don't know. But, when it's meant to happen, it will. And until it does, hey, you have friends. Lots of friends, both Greek and Roman. The thing about you being everyone's source of strength: sometimes you might forget that you need to draw strength from others. I'm here for you."

Reyna stared across the lake. "Eliana Corbyn, you have a way with words."

"I promise I'm not using some poetic power of Apollo's to persuade you."

"No power required." Reyna offered her hand. "I have a feeling we'll see each other again soon."

We shook and, after Reyna left, I knew that Reyna was right. We would meet again,because Reyna was no longer a rival, no longer a stranger or a potential enemy. She was a friend. She was family.

Once Reyna had disappeared from my line of sight I decided to stop by the infirmary to make sure Will wasn't getting swamped with injured demigods. 

I opened the door to the infirmary and I gasped at what I saw. 

"Oh. My. Gods." 

Nico was asleep on the infirmary bed and Will leaned over him. He had brushed Nico's hair aside and was kissing his forehead. 

Will shot up and blushed a deep red. 

"Don't say a word." He grumbled. 

"Oh, I'm saying some words." 

"It was one forehead kiss!" Will whispered furiously trying to keep from waking Nico. 

"Yeah, you missed." 

I didn't know how it was possible but Will blushed harder. 

"Will?" Nico mumbled stirring. 

"Go back to sleep, doctors orders." Will said. 

"Okay." Nico closed his eyes again. 

Will glanced back up at me and shooed me away. I winked at him and smirked before leaving. 

After leaving the infirmary I decided I should go find Jasper. I had been trying to not think about him leaving but instead think about all the fun things we'd do during Christmas. 

I was already starting to miss him and he hadn't even left yet. As I headed toward the Roman camp I saw Nico and Will. I assumed Nico had escaped the infirmary through shadow traveling. 

Will looked like he was scolding Nico and he was dragging the son of Hades back towards the infirmary. I smiled. 

When I got to the Roman campsite. Many kids in armor were packing weapons and toting it across the hill to a fleet of black SUVs waiting to transport the legion cross-country back to California. I guessed that would be an interesting road trip. I imagined the entire Twelfth Legion in the drive-through lane at Burger King. He imagined some hapless monster terrorizing a random demigod in Kansas, only to find itself surrounded by several dozen carloads of heavily armored Romans.

"Ella the harpy is going with them, you know," Jasper said from behind me. I hadn't even heard him walk up to me. "She and Tyson. Even Rachel Elizabeth Dare. They're going to work together to try to reconstruct the Sibylline Books."

"That should be interesting."

"Could take years," Jasper said. "But with the voice of Delphi extinguished ..."