RUN. RUN. RUN.
The voice was loud, echoing. It screamed in Eden's ears over and over again.
"Eden, run!" Annabeth screamed. "You can't die out there! You can't exhaust yourself!"
"Why?" Eden asked her, but she knew why; she was their best fighter. Was, because Percy had gotten the Achilles curse blessing thing that made him invincible in battle, so he couldn't get hurt. Meanwhile, Eden could, though she tried to avoid that the best she could. She'd only gotten cuts from this entire war so far, so she was safe for now.
Eden was trained to be Percy, but she was glad she wasn't him. She would've yielded to Kronos by now. Especially if he'd had Silena. Who she was hopelessly in love with, which was wonderful.
Also, Eden was a decent healer. The Apollo kids were tiring, and they needed her with them.
"They let me be out here!" Eden retorted, slicing a cyclops in half. That felt good. "And you need me out here. For right now, at least."
"Eden, if you die out here, we'll lose this," Annabeth snapped, and Eden felt like she'd been slapped in the face. She was only here because this is what she'd trained for her entire life, she had to be a part of this.
But the reality that they were still alive because of her fighting skills? And they could die without her skills? Ouch. That was a win in her villain arc, but her entire life was her stabbing her villain arc. That couldn't happen. Yet.
"Good thing I won't die, then," Eden grinned at her. "Besides, y'all almost didn't kill that giant ass pig. Those statues saved my shit brother's life."
"That just happened," Annabeth gaped at her. "How—"
"Words from the injured," Eden threw a throwing knife at a monster, effectively slicing off its head. "And also, I saw it. How can I not resist at watching my idiot brother flail from a rope in the air?"
She let herself charge into battle, guns ablazing and a javelin to strike monsters with, naturally.
Not your usual demigod weapon, guns. But Eden was one of the best ( second best, because of Luke. He's only better because he has a Titan in his body. ) because of her knowledge with mortal weapons. Demigods tended to favor the aesthetic™ for no particular reason, but Eden quite liked her guns.
Even if it made her a monster, both in the mortal and demigod world. Easily corrupted by weapons, she was, but monsters made monsters. That was something Eden valued as much as her weapons. Grueling words.
Because Eden had always been searching after the answers to her questions, ever since she was born, ever since she was thrown into this demigod world.
Why did she have to grow up so weirdly? Why was she chosen to be bred as the child of the prophecy, and then wasn't? Why was she fighting for this side?
Of course, she knew the answer to that one: because Silena. Duh. Otherwise? Not even Annabeth's words would've persuaded Eden to stay on that side of the battle.
And then the roar happened, and no, no, no, no, no—
Eden had to get out. She needed to leave, but her body couldn't, it wouldn't—
She gasped as she woke up, kicking to the open side of her bed.
A hiss was right next to her; Eden's vision cleared and Annabeth was doubling over in pain. Eden looked behind her and saw that Connor wasn't here. Huh. He must've left early.
"You should've known by now," Eden lifted up Annabeth's shirt, slapping her hand away. "Dude, I'm a healer. Chill. Just eat this." She brought up a piece of ambrosia before dousing the bruises in nectar. "What'd you want?"
Annabeth chewed her ambrosia. "Well, I think I found a lead on Percy. Hera told me in a dream."
"Why would you listen to anything she'd say?" Eden asked harshly.
"Because of Percy," Annabeth said, and that was basically her whole reasoning for everything these past couple months. "She told me to go to the Grand Canyon, and find the guy with one shoe."
"Do you hear how stupid you sound?" Eden scoffed, finishing up Annabeth with an ice pack. Why she'd done it? Because they all needed Percy here. He had a niceness to him that neither Eden or Annabeth didn't have when leading. He was the backbone, he pulled everyone together with morale. Annabeth didn't have that skill up quite yet, and Eden, well . . .
She wasn't in the shape to do such things.
And so Eden had fixed Annabeth up because they needed Percy, and she was going looking for him, because he'd been missing for the past three days.
"You're doing something for her?" Eden continued, leaning back on her hands and looking up at Annabeth. "She almost killed you. She sent cows after you. She almost killed herself over a grudge on you. And you're taking her advice?"
"I love Percy too much," Annabeth gritted her teeth. "I'd kill for him. I'd die for him. I need him. Even if it means listening to her."
Eden nodded. Too damn bent on love. Considering all the shit they'd done in the past four years, it was plausible, but still disgusting. Straight couples, man. "Good for you. Off you go."
Annabeth didn't move. "Oh, wait, you want me to go. Why?"
"You haven't gotten sleep," Annabeth said. "And you've been in this cabin for forever. You should go out."
"I've been sleeping on the days that you've been looking for your fucking boyfriend," Eden narrowed her eyes at the blonde. "And I've been out enough, you just haven't noticed." Going to McDonald's with Travis and Connor in the middle of the day and shoplifting counted, right? "Besides, I don't take orders from Hera and I don't like my brother. So there's that."
Annabeth sighed. "Eden, I need you. In case something goes wrong."
Eden snorted. "When does things not go wrong?" The pride bit her in the ass. She was going because she was too prideful. Damn, Annabeth did know her kind of well. "Fine. Just so I can say I told you so. And because you won't rat me out whenever I go out next."
Annabeth sighed again. "Deal."
* * *
"Can I go home now?" Eden asked Annabeth as she put on her makeup on the chariot. She always carried around her mini backpack that she'd stolen from some rich kid because the weight was nice, and she needed the shit in there. Makeup, emergency coffee, and a range of weapons that she didn't have on her person.
"Eden, we're almost there," Annabeth said tiredly. She was staying up almost as much as Eden did.
Course, Eden didn't stay up for the past three days. There was a girl in her dreams. Not nightmares — well, she was.
The girl was definitely Native American. Short, choppy hair. Braids running down the sides as if she was a reminder. A reminder of Eden's last love. And the eyes, it reminded Eden so much of Silena, who changed her eye color every year. This girl couldn't control it, so it changed to blue to purple to brown to green, and gods, Eden could fall into those eyes for eternity. Her voice, every time it spoke, it was laced with charmspeak. Soothing her with words, with reassurances, with oaths.
The girl had pulled her out of multiple nightmares. Her hands were soft, so soft, so different from Eden's calloused hands from gripping weapons. Her voice had calmed her right down, and Eden had slept peacefully. It looked as if she hadn't been dealing with PTSD for the past four and a half months.
And the next thing she knew, Annabeth almost kicked her face.
"Holy Jesus, woman!" Eden stood up and glared at the blond as she ran toward three hazy figures. "God, what a dumbass."
Bitch ( Eden considered that their name wasn't that, but she couldn't remember it now. ) frowned at her. "Isn't it 'gods'?"
Eden gave them a lopsided smile. Her smiles never looked good unless she was around Clarisse, Travis, or Connor. "Once you start following the gods' orders? You start getting a new perspective of them. They're conceited. They're not helpful. They need us to stay alive, and they don't help us at all because of the fate of the world. My ass."
Besides, they wouldn't have a world if they failed. They would blame demigods for that to their deathbed.
Bitch landed the chariot and they went over to where Annabeth was, Eden walking blindly because she was finishing up her makeup. She heard the familiar sound of Annabeth cursing the gods ( Hera. ) and stomping of feet.
"Annabeth, my god, can you stop before you destroy this shit and we all fall and die?" Eden growled, looking at her, sneaking a glance at a familiar looking girl and she nearly choked and fucking fell on the ground.
The girl was honestly hotter in person. Her style reminded Eden of Thalia. Her eyes shifted in real life too.
Fuck. Eden was fucked.
Annabeth glared at her. "The skywalk won't fall off because I'm stomping on it."
"It will, because Zeus and Hera fucking hate us both," Eden had a hand on her hip, where a knife was hidden. "And then I'll say I told you so again. And just because I didn't get to say it the first time, I told you so."
"Annabeth, Eden," Bitch said before Eden could fucking scream. "Check it out."
He pointed at some dude's feet, which was honestly disgusting. Eden gagged. "Gross. Did you lose a shoe to l'appel du vide? Probably should get that back, pretty boy."
"That's not the right use for it," Annabeth said, and Eden huffed. "And he can't be it, Butch. He can't be the answer."
"You burst into my cabin for a fucking guy with one shoe, what else do you fucking need from him?" Eden snapped. "You want him to just pull my brother from his back pocket? Face it. It was useless. Anything from Hera's mouth is."
"He can't be," Annabeth insisted, glowering at Eden so harshly that if Eden wasn't Eden, she'd probably vaporize on the spot. "I was tricked, you can say I told you so." She looked up at the sky. "What do you want from me?" she screamed. "What have you done with him?"
The skywalk shuddered, and the horses whinnied urgently. Eden could hear their voices in her head — ow, ow, ow, that would definitely be a headache later — and she felt sick. She wanted to be out of the air. This wasn't her territory. She wanted gone from here.
"Annabeth," said Bitch, "we gotta leave. Let's get these three to camp and figure it out there. Those storm spirits might come back."
"What storm spirits?" Eden asked. Annabeth slapped her arm. That didn't really faze Eden.
"Fine." Annabeth fixed disgusting one shoe guy with a resentful look. "We'll settle this later."
She turned on her heel and marched toward the chariot.
"Thank god," Eden breathed out. "We can finally go home."
Dream Girl shook her head. "What's her problem? What's going on?"
"Seriously," a Latino dude that Eden didn't even see agreed.
"We have to get you out of here," Bitch said. "We'll explain on the way."
"We'll?" Eden repeated. She took out new earrings and started taking her old ones out. "Fuck that. I'm not involved in this at all."
"I'm not going anywhere with her." Sock Guy gestured toward Annabeth. "She looks like she wants to kill me."
"And you, you're crazy," Dream Girl pointed at Eden. "Zeus? Hera? The call of the void? Are you drunk?"
"You know French, huh?" Eden turned her head to the side. Definite daughter of Aphrodite. Damn. "Interesting. I am always drunk and never drunk. Alcohol or adrenaline or power doesn't matter. When you've got power, you've got it all."
Eden looked over at Bitch. "I'm over this. Get 'em to the chariot. I'll talk to the horsies."
She took out her mirror again and left, not wanting to be anywhere near them — especially that girl. That was a real bad omen. As if life couldn't get any worse.