BLURRED | Annabeth Chase

XXVII • στρατηγική

στρατηγική

strategy

• • •

All in all, Piper would call Percy's return a relative success. He did not attempt to hurt anyone, and he only yelled twice. As she reached the top of the hill, Piper inhaled deeply, already feeling impossibly lonely despite the small crowd of her friends that trailed behind her. There was something empty about standing at the front of a crowd.

And there was something more empty about Percy returning without Annabeth. A large part of Piper had hoped they were somewhere together, safe, even if that place was not with the rest of them. If the two of them had to be missing, she had prayed to the lost gods that they would be missing together. But the gods were lost for a reason, and apparently not very receptive of their children's prayers.

"I'll take care of Nico," said Reyna, somehow having stepped beside Piper without her noticing. "Try to knock some sense into him and all that."

"How long has this whole disappearing thing been going on?" asked Piper, only slightly afraid to hear her response.

"I caught him recently, completely transparent while healing someone in his tent," Rachel piped up, "and he promised it wouldn't continue. Obviously, that was a lie."

Piper sighed, not quite sure when she became the de facto leader. "Right. Well, there's nothing we can do until he wakes up, and I'm sure Frank and Jason will talk to him. But we'll need someone to stay with him at all times, so we'll each take shifts, okay?"

"When did I sign up to be a babysitter?" asked Leo, but there was no malice in his voice, not with his hand interlocked with Calypso's.

But Piper rolled her eyes anyway, thrilled to resume to some form of normalcy between her and Leo. "I'll give you the last shift, let you catch up." She turned to face Calypso, suddenly aware that no one else had introduced themselves to her. "I'm Piper, by the way. Daughter of Aphrodite."

The other girl smiled warmly. "I'm Calypso."

"You two can go off somewhere private," Piper continued with a smile that she didn't bother to hide from Leo, "I'm sure Leo's tent is empty; someone will come get you if we need you."

Leo looked almost grateful with the smile that he gave her, and for once, Piper felt almost happy. But then Leo walked away with Calypso, leaving Piper. Which was fine because there was still people around her, people that she had fought and killed for. And that was fine.

"What are we going to do about Annabeth and Hazel?" Reyna asked softly. "There's no way we can get there in time without Arion, and we don't even know exactly where they are. We don't even know what kind of danger they're in."

All very good points, but those were the only points that Reyna tended to bring up.

"I know," said Rachel, causing Piper to dramatically turn to face her. Rachel's face was completely expressionless, and not for the first time, Piper missed how the girl used to be. Vibrant and insanely artistic, and never afraid to speak her mind. But Rachel had not been like that for a very long time. A lot had strayed from normal over the past two years, but something about Rachel's personality had seemed concrete. Apparently not. "I had a vision. That's when I saw Nico disappear."

"Why haven't we heard about this?" asked Reyna with a slight frown.

Rachel turned her emotionless stare onto Reyna. "I could not tell if it was from the past or present or future. And we've had bigger things to worry about."

"What did you see?" Piper interrupted, too stressed to listen to arguing of any kind.

"War," Rachel responded, apparently having no qualms about being vague.