"The moment I met you,
I held my breath.
And you've been taking
it away ever since,
Nico di Angelo."
[ NICO DI ANGELO x MALE OC ]
[ PERCY JACKSON SERIES ]
[ HEROES OF OLYMPUS SERIES ]
cover by @humaneity !
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0023. | THE GIANT SUFFERS LIKE THE WOLF
The cab driver wasn't able to take them far. Vela was almost glad of it. The vibe inside the car was weird. Vela hadn't noticed it during the war, perhaps he was too naive or simply ignorant to not notice the tension of the situation, that rapid fear around him, around his friends, the fear that they may never make it off that mountain.
When Vela had first fought in war, when he had been in that cab with Percy on their way to Olympus after their swim in the Styx, there was no such tension. Maybe it was his innocence, maybe it was simply Percy.
Maybe it was his best friend, Perseus Jackson, who had managed to keep him calm without even trying. The boy who had even made him laugh on that trip to declare war, who had pinned him to the window with his foot so he could talk to Annabeth uninterrupted, who had presented him like a gift to his family after dying. Percy, one of the only people who could make jokes in the face of titans and tell the king of the gods to care about his children and to respect Vela. Yes, sitting in that cab certainly felt weird.
It felt weird, not because he was heading into battle, but because he was doing it alone.
Vela had meant what he said. He would take care of Enceladus, but that meant doing what he did best—risking self-sacrifice. No matter how much it scared him. He didn't admit it aloud, nor did he speak the whole drive, but he was absolutely terrified. Vela hadn't been in battle since he handed Luke Castellan the knife that killed Kronos. He was fearful, oh so fearful.
He could feel his eye itching like crazy, pained with the haunting phantoms of a dagger digging into his skull but he blinked it away. Or at least, he tried his best to. The burning sensation wasn't insatiable but it wasn't pleasant either. It was somewhere in between where Vela could've sworn that his vision blacked out for a few seconds at a time, just as it had back in the cave with Thalia.
He was sure this wasn't a good omen, especially when he was about to face battle again for the first time in four months, but he didn't exactly have a choice. He was going at this blind, as were his companions, the only difference being that they believed he had a plan. They thought Vela knew what he was doing.
Honestly—Vela was shitting bricks.
Four months since the war didn't feel long enough, but, at the same time, it also felt far too long. What if it had been so long that he had forgotten how to fight—? What if it was too soon and he had another panic attack like he had when teaching Lacy how to fight—? What if he put his companions in danger—? What if he wasn't enough to protect them—? What if he was too arrogant from defeating titans, and the giant ripped him to shreds—? What if he lost another sister—? What if—
"Far as I can go." The cabdriver spoke, snapping Vela from his anxious thoughts. He glanced up to the driver's seat, ignoring his sweat ridden palms and itching eye. He was too close to lose focus. Hopefully his hands weren't too sweaty to grip his swords. "You sure about this?" The driver checked with the kids. "Gonna be a long walk back, and my car's acting funny. I can't wait for you."
