Blade's Edge || Deception Book II ||

Chapter 12: The First Fracture

Click.

Once my cabin door was locked, I sighed and slumped to the floor. My wolf, who had been dozing in the corner, lifted an ear, one golden eye peering at me in concern.

"I'm fine," I said, waving a hand around in the air. "Just . . . " I trailed off as Avalanche fixed her other eye on me.

"Fine. Ally just swore her allegiance to Kronos. And I can't help but wonder how things may have gone differently if I'd done more."

If I had done anything different last summer, would Ally have still been here? Heck, why had I even decided that befriending her would have been a good idea? I thought she'd just been a mortal, but still. I should have known that forming relationships would only drag more people into this mess.

"Godsdammit," I muttered, closing my eyes and leaning against the wooden walls of my cabin.

"It's not your fault," Ava rumbled softly as she padded towards me. "She was the one who made her choices, not you. Stop blaming yourself for everything, Clari."

"I know. But still, I was the one who showed her this whole other world. One full of monsters, danger, and death."

"She's a demigod Clari," Avalanche pointed out. "This was bound to happen sooner or later."

Right. Us demigods had no chance of ever living a peaceful life. Zero. Nada. Zilch.

"Fuck. Fuck. Fuck," I said, standing up. I picked up one of my daggers and threw it at the wall. It landed with a thunk, the blade sunk up to the hilt in the wood, quivering.

Kronos and his army.

Thunk.

The Olympians and their lack of . . . . everything.

Thunk.

Ally joining Kronos army, my siblings, every single goddamn demigod led astray.

Thunk.

Luke.

Thunk.

My current helpless situation.

Thunk.

"Are you feeling better after abusing the poor wall?" Avalanche growled as she plopped down on her haunches in front of me. She jerked her muzzle at the wall. "Seriously, Clari? FOCUS. You have your mission. No one ever said infiltration was going to be easy, but you did it. Luke's heart is literally in the palm of your hand. And this army is as well. Waiting sucks, but it's just something you have to do since Percy isn't magically sixteen yet. Besides, don't you have something to do? Like calling Chiron and telling him about Miami?"

Oh. Right.

"Fu-Frog," I said as Avalanche eyed me. I walked over to my wall and yanked out each of the daggers embedded there. "Sorry," I sighed, running my hand through my blond hair. "I don't know what got into me."

"No one is immune to their emotions, not even you, Clarianna," Avalanche pointed out. "I'm honestly surprised you've been handling the situation as well as you have. Any other would have probably snapped from the pressure and paranoia a long time ago. It's not easy having to constantly wear a mask and hide your identity."

"Yeah. Thanks, girl," I said as I ruffled my wolf's ears affectionately. "I honestly don't know what I'd do without you. And Blackfire," I added, my thoughts leaping to my pegasus who was probably somewhere racing with Artemis' peregrines. Blackfire was a creature of the wild so, needless to say, he hated the ship and had flown off to gods knew where the moment he'd dropped me off last summer. Pegasi were born to the wind, and it was for that reason that I desperately wanted to free the black pegasus that was Luke's trapped down in the brig, but I couldn't.