"HOLD STILL," OPHELIA CHIDED. "I know it hurts."
"It's just cold," Jason complained.
As the crew ate breakfast, Jason sat uncomfortably at the head of the table with his t-shirt rolled up to his ribcage as Ophelia changed his bandages.
He wasn't the the most patient patient, but Ophelia couldn't really blame him. The entrance wound on his back was an ugly shade of purple and it steamed. Not a good sign.
Ophelia tried to stay positive, but she told Leo and Piper in private how worried she was. Ambrosia, nectar, and mortal medicine could only help so much. A deep cut from Celestial bronze or Imperial gold could literally dissolve a demigod's essence from the inside out.
Jason might get better. He claimed he felt better. But Ophelia wasn't so sure, and that scared the hell out of her.
"What's up, guys?" Leo strolled into the mess hall. "Aw, yes to brownies!"
He grabbed the last one—from a special sea-salt recipe they'd picked up from the mentors of Camp Fish-Blood at the bottom of the Atlantic.
The intercom crackled. Buford's Mini-Hedge hologram yelled over the speakers, "PUT SOME CLOTHES ON!"
Everyone jumped. Hazel ended up five feet away from the table. Percy spilled syrup in his orange juice. Jason awkwardly wriggled back into his T-shirt, and Frank turned into a bulldog.
Piper glared at Leo. "I thought you were getting rid of that stupid hologram."
"Hey, Buford's just saying good morning," Leo said. "He loves his hologram! Besides, we all miss Coach. And Frank makes a cute bulldog."
Frank morphed back into a burly, grumpy Chinese-Canadian boy. "Just sit down, Leo. We've got stuff to talk about.
Leo squeezed in between Jason and Hazel, probably because they were the least likely to smack him for a stupid joke (though Ophelia was happy to reach around her boyfriend and do the smacking for him).
"So..." Jason winced as he leaned forward. "We're going to stay airborne and drop anchor as close as we can to Olympia. It's further inland than I'd like—about five miles—but we don't have much choice. According to Juno, we have to find the goddess of victory and, um... subdue her."
With the new drapes covering the holographic walls, the mess hall was darker and gloomier than it should've been, but that couldn't be helped. Ever since the Kerkopes dwarf twins had short-circuited the walls, the real-time video feed from Camp Half-Blood often fuzzed out, changing into playback of extreme dwarf close-ups—red whiskers, nostrils and bad dental work. It wasn't helpful when you were trying to eat or have a serious conversation about the fate of the world.
Percy sipped his syrup-flavored orange juice experimentally. He seemed to find it okay. "I'm cool with fighting the occasional goddess, but isn't Nike one of the good ones? I mean, personally, I like victory. I can't get enough of it."
Annabeth drummed her fingers on the table. "It does seem strange. I understand why Nike would be in Olympia—home of the Olympics and all that. The contestants sacrificed to her. Greeks and Romans worshiped her there for, like, twelve hundred years, right?"
"Almost to the end of the Roman Empire," Frank agreed. "Romans called her Victoria, but same difference. Everybody loved her. Who doesn't like to win? Not sure why we would have to subdue her."
Jason frowned. A wisp of steam curled from the wound under his shirt. "All I know... the ghoul Antinous said, Victory runs rampant in Olympia. Juno warned us that we could never heal the rift between the Greeks and Romans unless we defeated victory."
"How do we defeat victory?" Piper wondered. "Sounds like one of those impossible riddles."
"Like making stones fly," Leo said, "or eating only one Fonzie." He popped a handful into his mouth.
Hazel wrinkled her nose. "That stuff is going to kill you."
"You kidding? So many preservatives in these things, I'll live forever. But, hey, about this victory goddess being popular and great—don't you guys remember what her kids are like at Camp Half-Blood?"
Hazel and Frank had never been to Camp Half-Blood, but everyone else nodded gravely.
"He's got a point," Percy said. "Those kids in Cabin Seventeen—they're super competitive. When it comes to Capture the Flag, they're almost worse than the Ares kids. Uh, no offence, Frank."
Frank shrugged. "You're saying Nike has a dark side?"
"Her kids sure do," Annabeth said. "They never turn down a challenge. They have to be number one at everything. If their mom is that intense..."
"Whoa." Piper put her hands on the table like it was rocking. "Guys, all the gods are split between their Greek and Roman aspects, right? If Nike's that way and she's the goddess of victory—"
"She'd be really conflicted," Annabeth said with a grimace. "She'd want one side or the other to win so she could declare a victor. She'd literally be fighting herself."
Hazel nudged her cereal bowl across a map of Greece. "But we don't want one side or the other to win. We've got to get the Greeks and Romans on the same team."
"Maybe that's the problem," Jason said. "If the goddess of victory is running rampant, torn between Greek and Roman, she might make it impossible to bring the two camps together."
"How?" Leo asked. "Start a flame war on Twitter?"
Ophelia reached back and smacked him in the arm, earning an exaggerated, "OW!"
Percy stabbed at his pancakes. "Maybe she's like Ares. That guy can spark a fight just by walking into a crowded room. If Nike radiates competitive vibes or something, she could aggravate the whole Greek-Roman rivalry big-time."
Frank looked at Percy and Ophelia. "You remember that old sea god in Atlanta—Phorcys? He said that Gaea's plans always have lots of layers. This could be part of the giants' strategy—to keep the two camps divided; keep the gods divided. If that's the case, we can't let Nike play us against each other. We should send a landing party of four—two Greeks, two Romans. The balance might help keep her balanced."
"I think Frank is right," Annabeth said. "A party of four. We'll have to be careful who goes. We don't want to do anything that might make the goddess more, um, unstable."
"I'll go," Piper said. "I can try charmspeaking."
Worry lines deepened around Annabeth's eyes. "Not this time, Piper. Nike is all about competition. Aphrodite... well, she is too, in her own way. I think Nike might see you as a threat."
Ophelia could understand that. Piper had changed a lot since she first arrived at Camp Half-Blood. She'd stabbed Khione the snow goddess in the chest. She'd defeated the Boreads. She'd slashed up a flock of wild harpies singlehandedly. As for her charmspeak, she'd become so powerful it made Ophelia glad she was on their side.
Annabeth's words didn't seem to upset her. Piper just nodded and scanned the group. "Who should go, then?"
"Jason and Percy shouldn't go together," Annabeth said. "Jupiter and Poseidon—bad combination. Nike could start you two fighting easily."
Percy gave her a sideways smile. "Yeah, we can't have another incident like in Kansas. I might kill my bro Jason."
"Or I might kill my bro Percy," Jason said amiably.
Ophelia rolled her eyes. "Get a room," she muttered to Jason, earning an unimpressed look from him.
"Which proves my point," Annabeth said. "We also shouldn't send Frank and me together. Mars and Athena—that would be just as bad."
"My dad doesn't have an outstanding beef with any of the gods that I know of," Ophelia spoke up. "Should I go?"
Annabeth chewed on her bottom lip. "I don't think you and Percy would be a good idea, either," she said. "Nike might stir up some underlying resentment... you know, with the whole Maren situation."
Ophelia nodded. "That's fair. So... Leo and Percy for the Greeks, Frank and Hazel for the Romans?"
Annabeth and Frank exchanged war-godly looks.
"It could work," Frank decided. "I mean, no combination is going to be perfect, but Poseidon, Hephaestus, Pluto, Mars... I don't see any huge antagonism there."
Hazel traced her finger along the map of Greece. "I still wish we could've gone through the Gulf of Corinth. I was hoping we could visit Delphi, maybe get some advice. Plus it's such a long way around the Peloponnes."
"Yeah," Leo said, looking at the map. "It's July twenty-second. Counting today, only ten days until—"
"I know," Jason said. "But Juno was clear. The shorter way would have been suicide."
"And as for Delphi..." Ophelia leaned toward the map. "What's going on there? If Apollo doesn't have his Oracle anymore..."
Percy grunted. "Probably something to do with that creep Octavian. Maybe he was so bad at telling the future that he broke Apollo's powers."
Jason managed a smile, though his eyes were cloudy from pain. "Hopefully we can find Apollo and Artemis. Then you can ask him yourself. Juno said the twins might be willing to help us."
"A lot of unanswered questions," Frank muttered. "A lot of miles to cover before we get to Athens."
"First things first," Annabeth said. "You guys have to find Nike and figure out how to subdue her... whatever Juno meant by that. I still don't understand how you defeat a goddess who controls victory. Seems impossible."
Leo started to grin. "We'll see about that." He rose to his feet. "Let me get my collection of grenades and I'll meet you guys on deck!"
❖
While half the crew set off to somehow defeat the goddess of victory, Ophelia practically dragged her boyfriend back to his cabin to rest.
"I'm fine," Jason insisted.
Ophelia sighed. "Okay, from now on, no one is allowed to utter the words 'I'm fine' ever again," she mumbled, carefully sitting down next to him on his bed. "I didn't realize how infuriating they sounded."
"Now you know why Piper and I hate it when you say it," Jason mumbled.
Ophelia rolled her eyes. "At least when I said it my wounds weren't smoking."
Jason cracked a smile, though it wasn't as wide as it usually was. He must've seen the worry in her eyes because he reached for her hand. "I'm going to be okay," he promised softly. "We'll figure this out."
Ophelia brushed his hair away from his forehead with his free hand. Her throat was tight with doubt, but she pushed it away. "Your mom... are you okay?"
Jason was quiet for a moment. "When Thalia told me what happened to her... It almost felt like someone else's story. But seeing her like that... it made it... real." He shook his head just a little, like he could shake the memory away. When he spoke again, his voice was barely more than a whisper. "She told me she would come back. But she never did."
Ophelia's throat tightened again. She understood insane mothers—her own had been driven mad by Hecate's curse. But Ophelia had memories of her mother before the curse, when she was happy and healthy and not haunted every moment of her day.
Jason didn't have those memories.
He'd been a child when his mother abandoned him, when Juno made her abandon him. Juno was supposed to be the goddess of family, but she'd torn Jason's apart.
And sure, looking back, it was probably for the best. Thalia was Greek where Jason was Roman—there would have been some inevitable conflict if they'd grown up together. But that didn't change how shitty the situation was as a whole.
Ophelia laid down next to him, tilting her head up to kiss his temple. Jason held her hand against his chest, and she focused on the feeling of his heartbeat, steady against her palm. She prayed to all the gods it would stay that way.
"She was wrong," Jason said quietly, prompting Ophelia to look back at his face. He was already watching her, looking at her the way he always did, the way that set a swarm of immortal butterflies off in her stomach. She was sure as long as he looked at her like that, she could never be anything less than completely, unchangingly happy.
"About what?"
"My mother was never all that I had left," he whispered. "She's not my family—not anymore. You are."
Ophelia liked to consider herself immune to the giddiness that often overcame lovers at such pretty words, but she was still human—partly, at least.
"Sap," she mumbled, bringing his hand up to kiss it—because she was just as much a sap when it came to Jason.
"Marry me," he murmured.
Ophelia raised an eyebrow. "Society frowns upon teen marriages," she told him. "Plus I'm not sure we can find an officiant on such short notice, and there's no internet on the ship for Leo to get officiated."
"Okay, first of all—Leo is not officiating our wedding," Jason said. "If we're getting a friend to do it, it'll be Piper. She's the best public speaker, and she won't crack a joke about walking in on us like Leo would."
"She'd probably sneak one in," Ophelia pointed out.
Jason pressed his lips together the way he did when he was trying not to laugh. "Second—I didn't mean right now." He tangled their fingers together. "I meant in the future."
"How far into the future?" Ophelia asked. "I'm not gonna wait forever."
Jason cracked a smile. "Six years," he said. "In six years, marry me."
A smile tugged at Ophelia's lips. "You've really thought about this."
"Of course I have," he said softly. "In six years, we'll be out of college, ready to start our lives. I want to start it right—with you."
Ophelia propped her head up on her elbow, staring at him like he was the only star in the sky—because to her, he was. "You're being exceptionally romantic."
Jason laughed. "Just say yes."
"I will," she promised. "In six years, Jason Grace, you'll ask me to marry you—and I'll say yes."
❖
baby jason deserved better. thank you for coming to my ted talk.
also i lied. there's only eleven chapters until this act is over (i forgot that boo is just a bunch of different side-quests before the main two battles lmao).