𝐂𝐇𝐄𝐑𝐑𝐘 𝐇𝐄𝐋𝐃 𝐇𝐄𝐑 𝐁𝐑𝐄𝐀𝐓𝐇.
she resisted running at him and tackling him to the ground.
it'd look more like an attack than a greeting.
a sea of hastily assembled demigods parted for her as she walked through them. cherry didn't even look at them, she just made her way to percy as fast as she could.
a girl with dark hair, in full roman armor and a purple cape. reyna. jason had described her in grate detail.
with apparent reluctance, she turned toward jason. "jason grace, my former colleague.. i welcome you home. and these, your friends-"
cherry ignored the girls words, rushing towards percy's side.
she grabbed his face, pressing her lips to his what must've been a dozen times.
his body sunk into her arms, his mind moving in gentle waves that only pictured her face.
he would never forget her, not even if he tried.
his existence was molded for her, he lived to love her.
he loved to love her.
the only remaining memory in his head had been her. her name, her face, the way she laughed.
she was holy and he was the worlds greatest sinner.
eternal worship in the prettiest nights echoed permanently. the idea of living forever terrified percy. it rattled his bones and made his brain hurt.
how was that possible?
to live, as you are, until the end of time?
until he was nothing?
what was time? how was it created? who created it? who created the being that created time?
on and on, forever.
percy would never feel the peace of ceasing to exist.
his heart would forever beat against his ribs when he got a single glimpse of cherry.
nothing else was visible at any time but her.
any fear he had of immortality was gone when he thought of cherry.
there was no way eternity could be torture if she was with him.
even if she was gone, percy could live the rest of his life on the thought of the red-haired girl, alone.
that's what made the months he'd spent at camp jupiter bearable.
he'd will himself up with the vision of her face.
her voice whispered to him at every moment. he missed what he did not know.
he felt twelve again, even if he had no idea what had happened.
the red-haired girl held onto the boy until her arms hurt.
her eyes watered and her heart tensed up.
everything was fragile.
the sweet flavor of her lips was like drugs against percy's own.
finally, when they pulled away, percy wrapped his arms around her as close as he could. he couldn't catch his breath. he never could, not around her.
the warm breeze enveloped them.
cherry inhaled the scent of saltwater and coconut.
he was in her arms again. after months, they were back.
if she were to die right then and there, she'd be satisfied. the sunlight glimmered on them, electricity coursing through their veins.
everything was fine again.
the stars would rise into the night sky like they always did, and an extra one would shine just for him.
"i hate to interrupt.." leo lied.
percy pulled away sheepishly, eyeing cherry one last time.
he introduced reyna to everybody.
"this is cherry," jason said. "percy's her boyfriend, if you couldn't tell."
"hi." cherry greeted, embarrassed.
"pleased to meet you." reyna clasped her hand firmly. "it seems we have a lot to discuss. centurions!"
a few of the roman campers hustled forward.
two kids appeared at percy's side, the same ones cherry had seen around percy earlier.
reyna gave orders to her officers, ".. tell the legion to stand down. dakota, alert the spirits in the kitchen. tell them to prepare a welcome feast. and, octavian-"
"you're letting these intruders into the camp}" a tall guy with stringy blond hair elbowed his way forward. "reyna, the security risks-"
"we're not taking them to the camp, octavian. we'll eat here, in the forum."
"oh, much better, you want us to relax in the shadow of their warship."
"these are our guests. we will welcome them, and we will talk to them. as augur, you should burn an offering to thank the gods for bringing jason back to us safely."
the blonde, octavian, had 3 teddy bears hanging from his belt.
cherry wanted to laugh.
"good idea," percy cut in. "go burn your bears, octavian."
reyna looked like she was trying not to smile. "you have my orders. go."
the officers dispersed. octavian shot percy a look of absolute loathing.
he gave annabeth a suspicious once-over, eyed cherry with a look percy didn't like, and stalked away.
cherry made a face at the blonde as he left.
"don't worry about octavian," percy reassured. "most of the romans are good people, like frank and hazel here, and reyna. we'll be fine."
"i trust you." cherry nodded.
"sorry, i just still can't-" percy cut himself off as he squeezed the girl into another hug.
cherry smiled stupidly.
it'd been 4 years, and she never seemed to get over her crush on him.
thankfully, percy felt the same way.
reyna turned to jason, her eyes gleaming. "let's talk, and we can have a proper reunion."
dinner was awkward.
sets of couches and low tables were carted into the forum until it resembled a furniture showroom. romans lounged in groups of ten or twenty, talking and laughing while wind spirits, aurae, swirled overhead, bringing an endless assortment of pizzas, sandwiches, chips, cold drinks, and fresh-baked cookies.
drifting through the crowd were purple ghosts, lares, in togas and legionnaire armor. around the edges of the feast, fauns trotted from table to table, panhandling for food and spare change.
in the nearby fields, the war elephant frolicked with mrs. o'leary, and children played tag around the statues of terminus that lined the city limits.
"annie, are you good?" cherry asked the girl sitting beside her.
"huh? i'm good." annabeth smiled uneasily. "thanks for
asking, cher, i'm fine."
"are you sure? because-"
"i'm fine. i promise."
cherry didn't want to push, but she could tell that annabeth was anything but fine.
percy took a seat beside the redhead, frank and hazel sitting beside him.
he leaned over and whispered, "are you busy?"
"do i look busy?" cherry whispered back.
"you're never busy for me."
"my schedule is booked until the next century."
"that's not nice. i wanna show you around new rome."
"can i bring annabeth?"
"uh.. if you really want too."
"i was joking. what's that?"
percy looked down at the tattoo she was pointing at.
before he could answer, reyna called a toast to friendship. after introductions all around, the romans and annabeth's crew began exchanging stories.
jason explained how he'd arrived at camp half-blood without his memory, and how he'd gone on a quest with piper and leo to rescue the goddess hera from imprisonment at the wolf house in northern california.
"impossible!" octavian broke in. "that's our most sacred place. if the giants had imprisoned a goddess there-"
"they would've destroyed her," piper said. "and blamed it on the greeks, and started a war between the camps. now, be quiet and let jason finish."
octavian opened his mouth, but no sound came out.
cherry giggled, and percy laughed too.
reyna looked back and forth between jason and piper, her brow creased, as if just beginning to realize the two of them were a couple.
"so," jason continued, "that's how we found out about the earth goddess gaea. she's still half asleep, but she's the one freeing the monsters from tartarus and raising the giants. porphyrion, the big leader dude we fought at the wolf house: he said he was retreating to the ancient lands, greece itself. he plans on awakening gaea and destroying the gods by... what did he call it? pulling up their roots."
percy nodded thoughtfully. "gaea's been busy over here, too. we had our own encounter with queen dirt face."
percy recounted his side of the story. he talked about waking up at the wolf house with no memories except for one name, cherry.
percy told them how he'd traveled to alaska with frank and hazel, how they'd defeated the giant alcyoneus, freed the death god thanatos, and returned with the lost golden eagle standard of the roman camp to repel an attack by the giants' army.
when percy had finished, jason whistled appreciatively. "no wonder they made you praetor."
octavian snorted. "which means we now have three praetors! the rules clearly state we can only have two!"
"does it matter?" cherry asked, with a frown.
octavian was about to speak up, but just like it'd happened with piper, he shut his mouth.
his eyes were trained on the red-head, the only remaining sense left in him.
he didn't feel like he could move.
or breathe.
percy watched the way octavians eyes settled on his girlfriend.
"you should gouge your eyes out if you can't stop yourself from looking." percy suggested.
reyna turned her attention to percy. "we'll have to figure out the extra praetor problem later. right now we have more serious issues to deal with."
"li'll step aside for jason," percy said easily. "it's no biggie."
"no biggie!" octavian choked. "the praetorship of rome is no biggie!"
percy ignored him and turned to jason. "you're thalia grace's brother, huh? wow. you guys look nothing alike."
"yeah, i noticed," jason said. "anyway, thanks for helping my camp while i was gone. you did an awesome job."
"back at you," percy said.
"are you guys in love?" cherry asked.
that paused the conversation, at least for a moment.
jason stared at cherry.
cherry just stared back. the thought of thalia burned in her head.
jason was thalias brother.
"we should talk about the great prophecy. it sounds like the romans are aware of it too?" annabeth spoke into the air.
reyna nodded. "we call it the prophecy of seven. octavian, you have it committed to memory?" "
"of course," he said. "but, reyna-"
"recite it, please. in english, not latin." reyna demanded.
octavian sighed. "seven half-bloods shall answer the call. to storm or fire the world must fall-"
"-an oath to keep with a final breath, " annabeth continued. "and foes bear arms to the doors of death. "
everyone stared at her.
except for leo, who had constructed a pinwheel out of aluminum foil taco wrappers and was sticking it into passing wind spirits.
cherry gave him a look and mumbled something about harassment, which ceased his actions.
annabeth wasn't sure why she had blurted out the lines of the prophecy.
frank sat forward, staring at her in fascination, as if she'd grown a third eye. "is it true you're a child of min- i mean, athena?"
"yes," she said, suddenly feeling defensive.
"why is that such a surprise?" octavian scoffed. "if you're truly a child of the wisdom goddess-"
"enough, annabeth is what she says. she's here in peace." reyna snapped.
cherry made an awkward face.
reyna's eyes lingered on her, and then shifted to percy, who avoided her eyes.
suddenly, the redhead felt someone else's heart beat.
reyna's.
for percy.
percy glanced over at his girlfriend, watching the bitter expression settle onto her face.
"at any rate, some of the prophecy is becoming clear. foes bearing arms to the doors of death.. that means romans and greeks. we have to combine forces to find those doors." hazel picked up something next to her plate. "my brother, nico, went looking for the doors,"
the thing hazel had picked up looked like a ruby.
the red caught cherry's eye; hazel slipped it into the pocket of her denim shirt.
"nico di angelo?" cherry asked.
"he disappeared." hazel moistened her lips. "i'm afraid.. i'm not sure, but i think something's happened to him."
"we'll look for him," percy promised. "we have to find the doors of death anyway. thanatos told us we'd find both answers in rome. like, the original rome. that's on the way to greece, right?"
"thanatos told you?" cherry asked, bewildered. "isn't he the death god?"
"oh, you're a genius. yeah, and now that death is free, monsters will disintegrate and return to tartarus again like they used to. but as long as the doors of death are open, they'll just keep coming back." percy took a bite of his burger.
piper twisted the feather in her hair. "like water leaking through a dam."
"yeah." percy smiled. "we've got a dam hole."
cherry would've laughed, if she could think of anything beside thalia.
"what?" piper asked.
"nothing," percy said, frowning at his girlfriends silence. "inside joke. the point is we'll have to find the doors and close them before we can head to greece. it's the only way we'll stand a chance of defeating the giants and making sure they stay defeated."
reyna plucked an apple from a passing fruit tray. she turned it in her fingers, studying the dark red surface. "you propose an expedition to greece in your warship. you do realize that the ancient lands, and the mare nostrum, are dangerous?"
"mary who?" leo asked.
"mare nostrum," jason explained. "our sea. it's what the ancient romans called the mediterranean. "
reyna nodded. "the territory that was once the roman empire is not only the birthplace of the gods. it's also the ancestral home of the monsters, titans and giants.. and worse things. as dangerous as travel is for demigods here in america, there it would be ten times worse."
"you said alaska would be bad," percy reminded her. "we survived that."
reyna shook her head.
her fingernails cut little crescents into the apple as she turned it.
cherry huffed. she would've stormed off, but she didn't have anywhere to go.
what happened in alaska?
"percy, traveling in the mediterranean is a different level of danger altogether. it's been off limits to roman demigods for centuries. no hero in his right mind would go there." reyna spoke.
"you should go." cherry suggested.
"the argo ii is a top-of-the-line warship. she'll get us through." leo grinned.
"we'll have to hurry," jason added, not recognizing the bitter expression on cherry's face. "i don't know exactly what the giants are planning, but gaea is growing more conscious all the time. she's invading dreams, appearing in weird places, summoning more and more powerful monsters. we have to stop the giants before they can wake her up fully."
annabeth shuddered.
she'd had her own share of nightmares lately.
"seven half-bloods must answer the call," she said. "it needs to be a mix from both our camps. jason, piper, leo, and me. that's four."
"and me," percy said. "along with hazel and frank. that's seven. cherry's still coming with, she's not a half-blood."
"what?" octavian shot to his feet. "we're just supposed to accept that? without a vote in the senate? without a proper debate? without-"
"tyson!" cherry cried out.
said cyclops bounded toward them with mrs. o'leary at his heels.
on the hellhound's back sat a harpy with ed-feathered wings.
tyson stopped by their couch, his big brown eye full of concern.
"ella is scared," he said.
"n-n-no more boats," the harpy muttered to herself, picking furiously at her feathers. "titanic, lusitania, pax.. boats are not for harpies."
leo squinted.
he looked at hazel, who was seated next to him.
"did that chicken girl just compare my ship to the titanic?" leo questioned.
"don't be a cunt. she's a harpy." cherry glared at him, clearly on edge.
"sorry." leo's eyes widened a little.
"ella is pretty," tyson said. "and scared. we need to take her away, but she will not go on the ship."
"no ships," ella repeated.
she looked straight at annabeth.
"bad luck. there she is. wisdom's daughter walks alone-" the harpy began.
"please stop." cherry told her.
"maybe it's not the best time-" frank began.
"the mark of athena burns through rome," ella continued, cupping her hands over her ears and raising her voice. "twins snuff out the angel's breath, who holds the key to endless death. giants' bane stands gold and pale, won through pain from a woven jail."
the effect was like someone dropping a flash grenade on the table.
everyone stared at the harpy.
no one spoke.
annabeth's heart was pounding.
"tyson! its so nice to see you. how about we go on a walk and you introduce me to your friend?" cherry suggested, changing the subject.
"that was a prophecy," octavian insisted. "it sounded like a prophecy."
cherry stared at him.
the corners of her mouth upturned into a smile.
"i.. i don't know what i'm talking about. our harpies don't tell prophecies." octavian spoke softly, his eyes meeting the redheads. "that'd be crazy."
"well." reyna set down her uneaten apple. "octavian is right about one thing. we must gain the senate's approval before we let any of our legionnaires go on a quest, especially one as dangerous as you're suggesting."
octavian had no idea what had just happened.
when the girl looked away from him, and he regained his senses, he was being dragged away by leo. he had no idea what was going on.
his heart hurt.
what had she done to him?
percy took the redheads hand.
he proposed showing cherry around, which reyna immediately denied, for no reason at all. then, without explanation, she asked annabeth to take a walk with her.