Her brother was dead.
Mari's brother was dead. Lee was dead. The sun was shining and her brother was dead. It made Mari want to scream. How dare the sun shine so brightly when her brother was dead?
The funeral was the next day, in the afternoon. Mari stood next to Will, trying not to cry and doing a poor job. Almost every cabin had lost someone. Some had lost multiple campers. It could be argued that by comparison, cabin seven was lucky. Mari didn't feel lucky. They lit the burial shrouds in cabin order, so the Demeter cabin went first. They'd lost five. Then, the Ares cabin, led by a stony-eyed Clarisse, who'd lost nine. Annabeth's cabin had lost one. Cabin seven was next.
Lee was wrapped in a beautiful golden shroud that shimmered in the afternoon light. Mari was glad for the presence of the fabric, because underneath... it didn't look like he was sleeping. Children of Apollo sent their dead away a little differently. When it came time to set Lee's shroud on fire, the seve-six of them filed down the amphitheatre and stood in a line with their bows, arrows notched and at the ready. These arrows were commissioned by Apollo thousands of years ago, made specifically for his fallen children. Like it was a regular occurrence. Mari remembered with a jolt, that it was. The points were specialised to start burning as soon as the arrow was released.
Mari decided that she hated the arrows.
Michael had been given the option to provide a eulogy, but he'd refused. There were no words. Mari thought about what Lee had said to her, when he'd found out about Mason weeks ago. How he'd made a vow on the Styx not to tell anybody. It turned out there had never been a need. Mari sniffled. Lee would go to Elysium, there was zero doubt about that. She hoped they had sunshine there.
Chiron stomped his uninjured hoof twice, and the six of them let their arrows fly.
Lee's shroud lit up like the sun.
Then it was time to go.
Goodbye, Mari thought as she and her siblings filed out of the amphitheatre. When they got to cabin seven, Michael sat them all down in a row on Kayla's bottom bunk, pacing in front of them. He looked sick. Mari realised with a jolt exactly what Lee being... gone meant.
Michael was cabin counsellor now.
"Alright," Michael huffed. "Listen up, parasites. Things are going to be different from now on, okay? No more skipping training, no more slacking off, no more messing around. Whenever Kronos tries to attack next, we're going to be ready. We - this isn't going to happen again. None of you are going to die. I forbid it. Do you all understand? Nod if you understand."
They all nodded. Well, most of them.
"Sean," Michael said. "Why aren't you nodding?"
"I don't want to do more stuff." Sean pouted. "Lee wouldn't make us do more stuff. When is Lee coming back?"
Austin whimpered. Mari pulled him into a hug and felt a wet patch form on her shoulder. Michael sat down on Mari's bottom bunk in front of them, head in his hands. He wasn't crying when he looked up but he looked like he really wanted to.
"He isn't coming back, Sean."
"But where did he go?"
"Away," Will said, because Michael looked like he was about to break in two.
Mari wasn't sure how long they all sat there for. Hours, definitely. Nobody really spoke. Mari realised she'd taken the steady, comforting presence of her brother for granted. Lee had always been there, no questions asked, no matter what happened. A friendly smile and a warm hug. Now, his absence was palpable. Like someone had taken a sledgehammer to the cabin and knocked down all the walls. He was just... there and then he was gone.
"Can I go outside, please? I just need a minute," Mari asked. Michael nodded.
She stepped out of her cabin, gasping in the fresh air. Evening was falling. Usually, campfire would be about to start but Camp Half-Blood was deadly silent. There was an awful stench of despair over the whole place. Mari stared at her hands. Drew's words filtered into Mari's brain, from after the Aethiopian drakon attack all those weeks ago, when they'd been talking about the mist.
"If you don't practice, it's not just a colossal waste. It's dangerous."
Drew had been right. Maybe if Mari hadn't been too scared of what she would do, she would have thought about what she could. She should have used the mist to stop the club before it even got within an inch of her older brother. She could've saved Lee. She could've prevented this.
There was an orange tree growing a couple of meters away from her cabin. It had been there for years. Lee used to pick them all oranges before dinner. They were his favourite. Mari looked away from the tree, back to her hands. She decided then that she wasn't going to think about Circe anymore. This thing with the mist... it was hers. And she was going to use it to protect the family she still had left.
Mari held out a hand towards the tree, grasped onto the mist, and slashed. It didn't hurt.
An orange fell to the floor.
Mari wandered over and picked it up. She had no clue how the brazier pit at the centre of courtyard was still lit, but orange flames flickered over the metal. Mari walked over, holding the orange above the fire. She wasn't making an offering to her father. Not this time. She dropped the orange, staring up at the setting sun.
"For Lee Fletcher," She said.
Mari turned around, not bothering to see if it worked. Lee had been a demigod, not a god, so of course it wouldn't. Still, when she glanced back at the flames, she couldn't help but think they were the exact same colour as Lee's shroud.
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True to his word, Michael didn't let them have a moment of rest.
The next few days were spent treating the wounded in the infirmary (and that was a task within itself, because there was a shorter list of who wasn't wounded). When Michael didn't have them treating the wounded, he had them practising at the archery range. Or at the sword-fighting arena. Or the lava climbing wall. There was no time to mourn. The only person Michael was pushing harder than them was, well, himself. Twice already, Casper had come collect his boyfriend and force him to take a power-nap.
Today, Michael had them all at the archery range. That had lasted all of five minutes – he'd tried to lead the session but now he was dozing on Casper's shoulder while the rest of them practiced.
'Practiced' was a strong word. Nobody shot a single arrow. Kayla had been the only one to try, but she'd broken down into sobs and the arrow had fallen in the sand. That had made Sean cry, too, and Mari had barely been able to hold it together as she and Will (who also looked close to tears) coaxed their conscious siblings into a circle. They sat in silence, bar Michael's uneven snoring. Nobody knew what to say. Lee had been the one who always knew what to say.
That was how Juniper the Dryad found her. Mari was sandwiched between Kayla and Austin, an arm around each of them, when she felt a light tap on her shoulder.
Mari screeched. She jumped back and accidentally dragged Kayla with her. "Juniper," she said. "You have got to stop sneaking up on people like that!"
"Sorry." Juniper didn't sound particularly sorry. The leaves in her red hair were crinkled and discoloured, like they were about to fall out. That was what happened when Dryads got stressed.
"You need to come with me. An emergency meeting of the council of cloven elders has been called in their sacred grove. You've been asked to participate, along with everybody else who was there when the great god Pan..." Juniper trailed off, unable to finish.
Mari frowned. The council of cloven elders barely let anybody into their sacred grove, let alone a demigod. It was where the Maenads hung out when they visited (which was rarely, since they had a very nasty habit of tearing people who refused them limb from limb). The Stolls had tried to sneak in once, to see if they could nick some of the eggnog that the Maenads had left behind, and spent the next twelve days with donkey ears for their efforts. For the council to be requesting the presence of demigods... well, it meant that they were definitely taking Grover's story seriously. That was either very good or very bad.
Mari looked at her brother, torn. Since he'd become cabin counsellor, Michael had been ultra focused on knowing where they all were at all times. She wanted to be there for Grover but if her brother woke up and saw her gone... he wouldn't take it well.
"Don't sweat it," Casper told her, as he ran a hand through Michael's hair. Then he closed his eyes and rested his forehead against Michael's, yawning. "I'll tell Mikey where you are. I can do it now, in his... dreams..." Then Casper slumped into unconsciousness.
"Mari..." Austin grabbed her arm, his lip trembling. "Don't go," he begged. "Not again."
"I'll be back." Mari's voice shook. "It's not a quest, I'm not in any danger."
"Please..." Austin begged. Mari nearly broke down sobbing then and there. Logically, she was being silly - it was just a meeting of the cloven elders. She probably wouldn't die unless she left plastic packaging in their grove or something. But she didn't want to go. She'd lost Mason, and then she'd lost Lee. She didn't want to leave her siblings. Not now, and probably not ever again.
But she didn't have a choice.
"C'mon, Austin." Will gave the boy a shaky smile. "I'll teach you how to wind an ace bandage. Mari'll be back before ya know it."
Mari nodded and followed Juniper away, hiking through a part of the north woods she'd never seen before. Later, the Stolls were definitely going to pester her for two and a half hours about it, but Mari was pretty sure she wouldn't be able to remember the way. It was like a fog covered that part of her memory. She'd remember passing a rock with an adorable baby Satyr napping on it, and she'd remember looping around what looked like a giant ant hill, but she wouldn't remember where any of those things were. Finally, Juniper pushed a wall of vines out of the way, and they arrived.
Mari had never seen a small clearing so packed before. Chiron was there, in wheelchair form since he'd broken his leg in the fight. Next to him, on a raised rock platform sat three satyrs, each in a chair made of vines. There was a spare chair off to the side, covered in grapes. Probably for Dionysus, who was still a no-show.
The trees seemed to dance in agitation, dryad faces appearing in the bark. Satyrs scampered around the edge of the clearing. A small stream ran along the side of the space, overcrowded with naiads, peeking from the currents and darting below like minnows. Annabeth, Percy and Tyson stood off to the side, like they weren't quite sure what to do or say. Juniper pushed Mari towards them, before disappearing into the treeline.
"Hi." Mari's voice was a monotone. Annabeth nodded towards her, but she and Percy both seemed to be focused on something on the stone platform, where the three senior satyrs lounged. Grover Underwood was crouched at the front, bowing like he was waiting to be struck down. He didn't look afraid, though. Just determined.
Grover launched into an impassioned retelling of what had happened in the cave under the Carlsbad Caverns. Silenus, the satyr sat in the middle, seemed awfully biased. His bright idea was to ignore anything Grover had to say and exile him from Camp Half-Blood. None of the other two on the council disagreed, and Mari's opinion of them quickly dipped. Thankfully, Chiron provided the lone voice of reason, and managed to get the council to at least hear Grover out. Annabeth, Percy and Tyson filled the council in on exactly how Pan had told them each something different before he faded, but when it got to Mari's turn, her voice shook.
"He told me a great change was coming, and that I'd help set things right. Dunno how."
Annabeth squeezed Mari's hand, but it didn't bring her comfort. Lee was still dead.
Then, came the part about Grover's shriek, and how it had driven the Titan army back into the labyrinth. Several satyrs and a couple of dryads came forward, each with their own version of events. But Juniper, who appeared next to Grover in a burst of leaves, said it best.
"It was panic," she explained. "Grover summoned the power of the wild god."
"Panic?" Percy asked.
Mari actually knew what that was (other than an emotion she'd felt way too much of in the last month). Chiron had talked about it once in one of his lectures. She turned to Percy, whispering, "It's something Pan used against the enemy in the first Titanomachy. He literally screamed at them, but the sound was so awful that it sent Kronos's army running. That's why panic is called... well, panic. Grover using it... well, it's compelling evidence."
"Preposterous!" Silenus the satyr bleated. "Sacrilege! Perhaps the wild god has favoured us with a blessing! Or Grover's music was so awful it scared the enemy away."
Mari bristled. If Lee sending a flare arrow at a Laistrygonian's face wasn't enough to stop the thing from killing him, then terrible music definitely wasn't going to do the trick. If Michael heard this, he wouldn't stand for the implication. If Lee were still here, neither would he. Mari clenched her fists, perfectly willing to punch the Satyr in the face. Annabeth grabbed her wrist and shook her head. "That isn't going to do any good!"
"That wasn't it, sir," said Grover. "He let his spirit pass into all of us. We must act. Each of us must work to renew the wild, to protect what's left of it. We must spread the word. Pan is dead - there's no one left but us."
"After two thousand years of searching, this is what you would have us believe?" Silenus demanded. "Never! We must continue the search. Exile the traitor! I call a vote. Who would believe this ridiculous young satyr, anyway?!"
"I would," A voice said.
Mari turned around, confused.
Mr. D stalked into the clearing.
He looked bad. Even by Mr. D standards. His eyes were more bloodshot than usual, and he radiated a dark purple aura, which he only ever did when he was feeling particularly pissed at someone during a game of Pinochle, or when he was losing control of his emotions. He looked like he was wrestling with the hangover to end all hangovers. Mari's heart sank like a brick in water. Castor. Castor had been his son. He was grieving.
Dionysus slumped onto his grapevine throne and snapped his fingers. A satyr whimpered and produced a platter of cheese, crackers, ambrosia squares and a whole pitcher of diet coke. Dionysus took a long swig, clearing his throat and staring at the clearing with bloodshot eyes.
"Miss me?"
"Oh yes, very much, sire!" A satyr fell to his knees with a bleat.
"Well, I did not miss this place!" Dionysus snarled. "I miss my freedom and I miss my wife. I miss my son. But I bring bad news, my friends. Evil news. We knew of the traitor Hekate betraying us for my grandfather and his monstrous brethren. Now the other minor gods are changing sides. Morpheus has gone over to the enemy. Hypnos, Janus and Nemesis, as well. Zeus knows how many more."
Lightening struck in the distance. Mr. D snorted. "Strike that. Not even Zeus knows. Now, I want to hear Grover's story. Again, from the top!"
"But, my lord," Silenus whimpered. "It's just nonsense!"
"Silenus!" Dionysus's eyes flashed and glowed with purple fire. The grapes around his throne rotted, like his bad mood was spreading. "I have just learned that my son Castor is dead! I am not in a good mood. You would do well to humour me."
Mari hadn't ever seen a god actually, well, care about one of their children before. She wondered if her own father was even grieving Lee's death. She wished she knew for certain, but the truth was, she just didn't. Grover reiterated his story, and thankfully Mari didn't have to say anything this time. Once he'd heard everything, Dionysus sighed and took another swig of diet coke.
"It certainly sounds like the sort of thing Pan would do. Grover is right - this search is tiresome. You must start thinking for yourselves. Now..."
He turned to the same terrified-looking satyr who'd brought him the cheese plate. "Bring me some peeled grapes, right away!"
"We must exile the traitor!" Silenus argued.
"I say no," Dionysus said. "That is my vote."
"Mine as well," Chiron agreed.
"All in favour of the exile?" Silenus asked. He and his two satyr buddies raised their hands.
Mari scowled. "Are you sure punching them would be ineffective?" She whispered to Annabeth. The daughter of Athena shook her head. The satyrs didn't hear her, but Chiron gave a long-suffering sigh. Dionysus's lips twitched.
"Three to two." Silenus looked triumphant.
"Ah, yes," Dionysus said. "But, unfortunately for you, a god's vote counts twice. And as I voted against, we are tied."
Dionysus was making it up. He had to be making that up, it was way too convenient. But this was probably the only time Mari was okay with Dionysus blatantly abusing the rules to suit his own whims. Silenus stood up, his face the colour of one of Dionysus's freshly peeled grapes. "This is an outrage! The council cannot stand at an impasse!"
"Then let it be dissolved!" Mr D snapped. "I don't care."
For the first time in her life, Mari almsot... appreciated the presence of Dionysus. Silenus's face went all squished, as if he was trying to hold back a curse. He bowed, but he made it look like he was only doing so because he was being held against his will. Then, he stomped out of the clearing, his two satyr sycophants trotting after him like clones. Mr. D sighed, got up, and ran a hand through his curly hair. "You." He looked at Mari. "Mariah Carey. Come with me."
Mari glanced back at the others, but they looked just as confused as she was. Even Annabeth. She followed Mr. D out of the grove, tiptoeing so that he wouldn't be alerted to her presence. Last time she'd been alone with the volatile wine god, he'd passed the time by trying to turn her into a dolphin. Mari really didn't want to relive the experience. They were right by a stream. Did freshwater dolphins exist? The only reason he hadn't followed through was because Lee had interrupted him. Mari's eyes filled with tears at the memory.
They walked for a couple of minutes before Mr. D finally spoke. He sounded as if he had to force the words out of his mouth.
"I wanted to... th... th... ugh." Mr. D shuddered.
"Threaten me?" Mari guessed.
"Tempting." Mr. D nodded. "You are very threatenable." Mr. D tried again, but it sounded more like he was hacking up a hairball than trying to form words.
"I have a cough sweet, if you want," Mari offered. "It's lemon flavour, not grape, but..."
"Disgusting."
Mr. D glared. "I wanted to... thank you." He shuddered.
"Huh?" Mari asked. "For what?"
"For what you did for Castor. His... body." Mr. D's hands shook as he spoke.
"Pollux told me about what you did. I already lost my boy. At least there was something for his brother to burn."
"Oh." Mari said.
Apparently she'd really misjudged the situation with the whole dolphin thing. She wouldn't tell Mr. D this part, but she hadn't done it for him. She'd done it because she knew what it was like, to lose a brother and not have a body to bury. All she got for her efforts was more loss, anyway.
"I, um... appreciate it. Castor was always kind to me."
"Yes, well, he was a kind boy."
Mr. D sniffled.
"Enough of this. I only came to th... acknowledge your behaviour, not have some kind of mushy heart-to-heart. Honestly, Marion, you'd think I was the god of therapy, not madness, given how needy the lot of you can be."
That was a clear dismissal if Mari had ever heard one. If Lee were here, he would have taken the excuse to avoid Dionysus in a heartbeat. If Mason were here, he probably would've... Mari gulped. She didn't know what Mason would've done. Something violent, maybe. But they weren't here. Mari couldn't help but tilt her head to the side. "You said my name."
"Oh, well noticed." Mr. D rolled his bloodshot eyes. "A true legacy of Athena."
"My actual name," Mari said. "Not Marnie, or Melanie or Mariah Carey."
"I haven't the slightest clue what you're talking about, Marjorie," Mr. D said. "I never forget a name."
"...alright."
Mari blinked back tears. She'd take any of Mr D's painful variations over Frankie. "I'm gonna go. I told my siblings I wouldn't be long."
She began to walk away, but had barely got two strides before Dionysus spoke again.
"You've been practising with the mist."
Mari looked up. She wasn't sure why Mr D cared. He'd barely been at camp since last winter, and even when he was here, he made it very clear that half of them could fall off the lava wall and he'd just use the resultant blaze to toast some s'mores.
"Uh, yes?"
"Hm." Mr D sniffed. "See to it that you continue. There haven't been any new powers in generations. Normally I'd simply destroy you to satisfy my father's paranoia, but I suppose we need all the help we can get. Besides, the if the fates wanted you dead, they wouldn't have stopped me the first time."
"Huh?!" Mari's head snapped up. What did Mr. D mean, the first time?
"Oh, honestly." Mr D rolled his eyes. "Why do you think I tried to turn you into a dolphin when you first got back from Circe's island?"
"You do that for fun."
"Well, yes." Mr D nodded. "I'm starved for entertainment in this dump. I have to find something amusing to do. Unless you would rather I get bored and send you all into a permanent state of delirium until my banishment is reversed. Or the next Dionysia. Whichever comes first. I could still do that, you know. However, I did have a purpose when I attempted to turn you into a dolphin."
Mr D stood, brushing the grass of his knees.
"Circe may boast about the beauty of her island all she wishes. The truth is, she cannot leave. Aeaea is Circe's seat of power. She relies on it just as the gods rely on their thrones. Nobody has ever left the island before. Nobody humanoid, at least. But for a demigod to leave with knowledge from Circe herself? One like you?"
"What do you mean one like me?" Mari asked.
"Don't interrupt me. Circe didn't choose you simply because your power of prophecy was unique. If that was the only criterion, she would have simply kidnapped one of the many women who've attempted to take on the oracle of Delphi in the last seventy years. They certainly would've been a lot easier to control. You forget, Circe's father is Helios. Once Helios faded, his power went to Apollo. Your father."
"Circe needed someone born of that power, or as close as she could get, and someone with a unique variation of prophecy that she could mould into navigation. You met both of her requirements - the perfect candidate. I doubt anybody else would've been able to muster up so much as a wisp of what you can do. But it isn't someone else, and there is no certain limit on what you might be able to do. It was one thing when you were avoiding it, but now that you're actively practising? That makes you a threat."
"I'm not a threat," Mari said.
Would she have been less of a threat if her father hadn't messed with her prophecy powers? She would have still been Apollo's daughter, but maybe then Circe wouldn't have looked at her twice.
"So you say. I stand by the fact that you would be better off as a dolphin. Did you know that bottlenose dolphins live for thirty to fifty years in the wild? The average life expectancy for a demigod is sixteen. And you wouldn't be able to use the mist as a dolphin. It's a win-win. But like I said, your brother interrupted the transformation process, so obviously the fates had other ideas."
Mari's eyes filled with tears at the reminder. Lee had always been helping her out, hadn't he? Even when he didn't mean to. Had she ever thanked him for it? She couldn't remember. She really hoped so.
"If it means that much to you, I can try again," he continued. "I'm sure we're not that far from the Long Island Sound..."
"No, no!" Mari shook her head. "I don't want to be a dolphin. Please, do not turn me into a dolphin."
"Hm." Dionysus nodded. "Shame. I should be going. I told Pollux I would visit him. Here..."
Mr D picked up a twig and tapped it against his pinkie finger. It glowed purple, before fading. He handed it to her with a sigh.
"This should stop you getting lost on the way back. Snap it in half when you're out of the woods. Do not give it to Trevor or Carson Stroll. If it ends up with either of them, then you can forget about being a bottlenose. I'll turn you into a worm and squish you under my foot. Do you understand me?"
Mari nodded. She turned around and when she looked again, Dionysus was gone.
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It was the fourth of July.
Truthfully, that didn't mean a whole lot to Mari. She still wasn't sure what the holiday was celebrating - something to do with America, but whenever Mari asked what it actually was, people gave her funny looks. Still, it was camp tradition to spend the night on the beach for fireworks, courtesy of the Hephaestus cabin. Every year, they engineered a light show of famous heroes, battles and triumphs in the history of the gods. Atalanta racing Hippomenes across the night sky. Marsha P. Johnson, a daughter of Demeter, as she fought on the front lines at Stonewall. Odysseus crafting the famous Trojan horse. All of them kept Zoë Nightshade company as they lit up the dark horizon.
Mari sat on a log, plaiting Drew's hair and listening to the daughter of Aphrodite talk, cross-legged on the sand at Mari's feet. As Drew talked, Mari watched the rest of camp under the lights in the sky. Clarisse was sitting next to Chris Rodriguez, laughing at something he'd said. True to his word, Mr. D had healed the son of Hermes earlier that afternoon. Chris paused, and Clarisse leaned in and kissed him. Across the beach, Annabeth Chase was drawing something in the sand with a stick. She looked sad.
Mari finished with Drew's hair (Drew hadn't lost any siblings, thank the gods), tying it with a light pink ribbon, just as Michael walked over. Will was trailing behind him, looking very confused.
"We have to talk," Michael said. He'd only been the cabin counsellor for a few days, but already he looked dead on his feet. Mari wondered if Lee had ever felt that way.
"I'll go." Drew smiled, flitting across the sand to where her older sister was standing with Charles Beckendorf. Drew sprung up on Silena's back, and Silena laughed and ran around Beckendorf, like a one-woman bumper car. Lee had used to do that with Austin. Mari gulped and looked away.
Michael handed Mari and Will each a paper cup of strawberries, the same ones that the Demeter kids were handing out next to the sparkler stands. He sat next to her on the log, Will on his other side.
"Back when Lee was still here..."
Michael got a little choked up on his words, but hid it by pretending that a particularly big strawberry was stuck in his throat.
"He was, training me, I guess, on what to do if I ever had to become cabin counsellor. It was meant to be for when he went away to college. He was planning on studying psychology. He only told me this, but he got an early acceptance into Julliard at the start of the summer. Obviously things didn't work out that way. Now, I'm going to train you two."
"I don't understand," said Will. "Why would you need to train us, if you're still here? Are you leaving camp?"
"Gods, no." Michael scoffed. "You parasites are all incompetent, apart from Kayla. But things are different now. I don't know what's going to happen to us but I do know that we've only delayed Kronos. We haven't stopped him. When he attacks again, if I... if something happens, I need you two to be ready to keep the rest of our siblings alive."
"Why both of us?" Mari asked. "I'm the second oldest now. Will shouldn't have to..."
"I wouldn't just leave you on your own!" Will looked outraged at the very thought. "And by the way, I'm the older one."
"I don't care which of you is older," Michael told them. "I don't even care that you're both idiots. I care that nobody should have to do this alone. I'm going to ask you guys to help me with things more, okay? To help you get the feel of what it would be like, if... if I wasn't around anymore. It probably won't happen, but I can't sleep if I don't know that you're going to have something to fall back on if I'm not here. I know it's not a fair thing to ask, but I don't think we have much of a choice. Lee always told me to look at the bigger picture, so that's what I'm trying to do."
It was quiet for a few minutes. Michael's words were grim, and nobody really knew how to fill the silence they'd left. Will was the one to break it.
"Did Lee really get into Julliard?"
"Yeah." Michael smiled. "He was thrilled about it. Kept making this awful pun, Jul-Lee-ard. He woke me up in the middle of the night to tell me. Luckily I'm a quiet sleeper."
"You're not a quiet sleeper," Mari said. "Lee liked Psychology. He wanted to get into counselling. He told me that once."
Michael was about to say something else, when the sky lit up again. That was strange. Mari had only ever been to one other Camp Half-Blood fourth of July firework celebration, but she knew that once the old stories of heroes in the sky were done, the fireworks were over, and campers mainly just chased each other around with sparklers until they got bored and went to bed. There weren't usually any other fireworks.
But before she could ask if there was anything else planned, the sky lit up. The chatter on the beach went deadly quiet. The Hephaestus kids stood at the firework stands, grim expressions on their faces. Charles Beckendorf, who had disappeared from Silena's side, was loading another firework. Green, for the Demeter cabin. They'd lost five campers. It took Mari barely a second to connect the dots.
This was a tribute, to honour the fallen. Green fireworks, for the Demeter Cabin. Red, for the Ares Cabin, who'd lost nine. Silver, for the Athena Cabin, who'd lost one.
Gold for the Apollo Cabin.
Beckendorf nodded towards Michael, then loaded the golden firework into a canon and set it off.
The sky lit up gold, and Lee Fletcher's face grinned down at them all.
Mari gasped. She didn't know how the Hephaestus kids did it. He looked so real.
In that moment, Mari wished that she was Zoë Nightshade. If she were Zoë Nightshade, then she could be up there, with Lee. Just for a single precious second.
Next to her, Michael went rigid. He was mouthing Lee's name over and over, a vacant look in his eyes.
In the golden light of the firework, Mari noticed that Will was crying. She couldn't see Sean but across the beach, she spotted Austin and Kayla, sitting in the sand. Their arms were around each other.
Tears spilled over Mari's eyes. Lee's face disappeared. Mari buried her head in Michael's shoulder and sobbed.
No memes today - it's my birthday tomorrow and I'm super busy!
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Hannah Murray as Marion Carter
Robbie Kay as Michael Yew
Colin Ford as Will Solace
Jason Mantzoukas as Dionysus
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