Solstice

III

[quo fata ferunt]

Sera didn't miss a beat walking out the door and dragging Daphne with her, not even as Jared looked at her like she was a breath of fresh air and he was drowning in the depths of the sea. She swept out of the café with Daphne in tow, taking a sharp inhale of the winter air, and darted down the street.

 "Sera!" Daphne exclaimed. "What the hell was that?"

 A jingle of bells from behind them only made the heavy feeling in Sera's heart an anchor. "Don't ask."

 "Sera! Wait up!" Jared's voice sounded from behind them.

 Daphne tried to slow Sera down, but by the time she succeeded, Jared had caught up to him. He looked breathless even if he'd only run a few yards, but that look in his eyes hadn't faded.

 "How are you here?" Jared breathed. "Why are you leaving so fast?"

 Sera met his gaze with a page out of Eira's playbook. The daughter of Khione was a master of steely glares, and right now, Sera needed one. "The Sera you knew is dead. Forget you saw me. Forget you knew me. It's safer for us all that way."

 "That isn't true," Jared protested, taking a step forward. He reached for Sera, but the Huntress was faster. Sera grabbed his wrist and shoved him against the nearest wall.

 "Listen to me," Sera hissed so Daphne wouldn't hear. "You do not want to get tangled up in the life I live now. It's scary and it's dangerous. You're just a mortal. You'll be killed. So here is what you're going to do: you're going to let me and my friend go do what we need to do, you're going to go about your life, and you're going to grow up and forget you ever knew me. Understand?"

 "You know I can't do that," Jared managed, resolute even as he was being pinned against a wall.

 "And why not?"

 "You think I'm just going to let you go again? Sera, I've thought you were dead for the past year. I can't just leave you now." His voice cracked, and Sera made the mistake of looking into his glassy eyes. Shit.

 Sera took a deep breath...then stepped away from the wall. "What are you even doing in New York?"

 "I'm here as a part of my gap year. I graduated early so I'm building up my photography resume." Jared massaged his wrist from Sera's iron grip.

 Sera huffed a breath, watching as it crystallized in the winter air. She looked to Daphne, who was watching the scene play out before her like a tennis match. "Jared was my friend before I joined the Hunters."

 "I figured," Daphne said drily. "Is he going to tag along?"

 "Tag along where?" Jared asked.

 "Daphne, don't—" Sera started, but the former daughter of Aphrodite was on a roll. "Montana. We're on a mission, and that's where it'll end." Daphne's quiver materialized on her back, and she drew one of the arrows, twirling the silver shaft between her fingers.

 "Woah!" Jared exclaimed. "Why do you have arrows?" 

 Sera met Daphne's gaze, but the blonde girl fixed her friend with a look of fortitude. I got this, she seemed to say. "Because I'm a Huntress, and so is Sera. We're hunting a very dangerous monster, on terms of Olympus, and if we don't stop it by the winter solstice, life as we know it will cease to exist." Daphne said cheerfully. "Sounds terrifying, right? Now, you better step out of our way or your silly little mortal self will see something you won't be able to explain."