BLURRED | Annabeth Chase

XXVI • εμπιστοσύνη

εμπιστοσύνη

trust

• • •

Thalia was the first to follow Percy out of the tent, which she did more so out of the need to get away from everyone else. Percy didn't look back at her; he continued walking.

"Percy!" she called after him, unwilling to quicken her pace to anything more than a casual walk.

He whirled around, his sword coming near to making contact with her skin. Percy's eyes were alright with a dark glow, and Thalia almost felt scared.

"What?" he hissed.

But Thalia was not Artemis' lieutenant for nothing; she raised an eyebrow instead of showing her fear. "This angst bullshit is already growing old. You need to calm down for five seconds."

"Five seconds?" Oh gods, Thalia had forgotten just how intense Percy could be. "I've been doing nothing for two years, while Annabeth has been missing! I think I've calmed down for long enough. And if none of you are going to do anything about it, then I'll have to do it myself!"

The air grew thick with the smell of ozone, and Thalia was reminded of a time several years ago when the two of them had gotten into an argument, and it had ended with her electrocuting the son of Poseidon. That option was tempting, but it was hurt and fear motivating Percy, nothing else.

"There's a way they have of doing things," Thalia explained slowly. "Hazel has until tomorrow to fulfill her mission, and if she isn't back, that's when we go to help her. Besides, we don't know their exact location."

Percy closed Riptide, most likely to eliminate that conductor of electricity. His survival skills were still on point. "How hard can it be to find her?"

Holy Hera, he was completely clueless. "Percy. I spent the last two years with my Huntresses searching for both you and Annabeth, and we found absolutely nothing. Not even a trace. So excuse me for doubting your ability to track her down in minutes when I couldn't do it for years."

"You don't understand," he said, oblivious to the wind picking up around them, wind that was not acting under Thalia's control. "She's the only good thing I have left."

Thalia took a large step forward, pointing a finger into Percy's chest. "Listen here, dipshit. Before I knew Jason was alive, Annabeth was my only family. I swore to protect her, and I failed. Not only that, but I abandoned her when I became a Huntress. So I might be the only person in the world who understands what you're feeling, except I'm not. Because Will still hasn't returned from his mission so Nico is worried sick, and Hazel is gone so now both Nico and Frank are wrecks, and Leo was seriously depressed because of Calypso's absence, and until a few days ago, it had been over a year since I had last seen Reyna. We're all going through some shit here, Jackson, and it sucks that you were stuck on that island, but while you were there, we had to watch friends and family and innocent people die and go missing and maybe not ever return. That's not the kind of thing you can just come back from." Thalia didn't know when the first angry tear had fallen, but several more had joined, so she most likely wasn't going to stop soon. "The big green bitch herself tried to kill me, and she nearly succeeded. And now there's a bunch of new prophecies that predict deaths of us. We've all been dealt the same hand, the only difference is you're just now being introduced to a game you didn't know you were already playing."