𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐀𝐖𝐀𝐊𝐄𝐍𝐈𝐍𝐆 •| ⊱ Jason Grace¹

•| ⊱ TWENTY-EIGHT

Thank you to -KATIEGARDNER for always leaving comments on my chapters! I really appreciate it so this chapter goes out to you!♡

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[ chapter twenty-eight: jason ]

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Jason had found his sister and lost her in less than an hour. As they climbed the cliffs of the floating island, he kept looking back, but Thalia was gone.

Despite what she'd said about meeting him again, Jason wondered. She'd found a new family with the Hunters, and a new mother in Artemis. She seemed so confident and comfortable with her life, Jason wasn't sure if he'd ever be part of it. And she seemed so set on finding her friend Percy. Had she ever searched for Jason that way?

Not fair, he told himself. She thought you were dead.

Not to mention everything with Hermia was making his head spin. He didn't know what to do anymore. She wanted to leave because he didn't trust her, but he feared she felt like he hated her. That wasn't true though. He might not be able to trust her right now, but that didn't mean he hated her. He could never hate her.

Hermia had crawled her way into his mind, his heart and she didn't even realize she had. To Hermia all she could see was how betrayed he felt, but she never knew how much it hurt that she didn't trust him. All he ever wanted was for her to trust him. To tell him what was going through her head, but she never did and that hurt.

Jason would have told her everything, if he had his memories. He would have helped her get her boys back, but she never trusted him enough. So, he had to keep his distance. Until he could get a chance to talk to her on there own, Jason would have to try and keep himself from thinking about her betrayal.

His mind once again couldn't help, but think about his mother and what Thalia had said. He could barely tolerate what she'd said about their mom. It was almost like Thalia had handed him a baby-a really loud, ugly baby-and said, Here, this is yours. Carry it. He didn't want to carry it. He didn't want to look at it or claim it. He didn't want to know that he had an unstable mother who'd gotten rid of him to appease a goddess. No wonder Thalia had run away.

Then he remembered the Zeus cabin at Camp Half-Blood-that tiny little alcove Thalia had used as a bunk, out of sight from the glowering statue of the sky god. Their dad wasn't much of a bargain, either. Jason understood why Thalia had renounced that part of her life too, but he was still resentful. He couldn't be so lucky. He was left holding the bag -literally.

The golden backpack of winds was strapped over his shoulders. The closer they got to Aeolus's palace, the heavier the bag got. The winds struggled, rumbling and bumping around.