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TWENTY FOUR, rainbow the hippocampus
❀ ✿ ❀ ✿
PERCY AND ASTER WEREN'T able to say anything by the time Annabeth and Tyson found them. Aster was still trying to process what Hermes had told her—which was eerily similar to what her mother had warned her about the previous summer. Your destiny may be waiting for you when you get back. Why was everything about her "destiny" all of a sudden?
But the god of thieves had given her something else: just, look out for the hearth. The only problem was that it didn't make any sense. Aster barely had an idea of what a heath was. A fancy fireplace, possibly? Essentially, she was no further than where she'd started last semester in terms of her ominous fate.
Annabeth and Tyson's voices snapped her from her thoughts before she could go any further down that rabbit hole.
"What's going on?" Annabeth asked. "I heard you guys calling for help!"
"Me, too!" Tyson said. "Heard you yell, 'Bad things are attacking!'"
Aster and Percy exchanged a look. "We didn't call you guys."
"Yeah," Aster agreed. "We're fine."
"But then who..." Annabeth noticed the four yellow duffel bags, then the thermos and the bottle of vitamins both Percy and Aster were holding. "What–"
"Just listen," Percy said. "We don't have much time."
Percy told the other two about their conversation with Hermes, Aster jumping in a few times to add details he'd forgotten. Both of them left out the things Hermes had said to Aster, seeming to have an unspoken agreement: there wasn't time to discuss it. By the time they were finished, Aster could hear screeching in the distance—patrol harpies picking up their scent.
"Percy," Aster said, "we have to do the quest."
"We'll get expelled, you know. Trust me, I'm an expert at getting expelled."
"So? If we fail, there won't be any camp to come back to. Doesn't sound like it would make a difference if we were here for that or not."
"Yeah, but you promised Chiron–"
"What I promised was that I'd keep you out of danger. The only way I can do that is by coming with you! Annabeth can come with us. I can't stand by and watch my home be destroyed."
Annabeth nodded, her eyes on the horizon. "Aster's right, we have to do this quest. Otherwise the camp is doomed. Tyson can stay behind and tell them–"
"I want to go," Tyson said.
"No!" Annabeth's voice sounded close to panic. "I mean... Percy, come on. You know that's impossible."
Aster saw something flash in Percy's eyes, and she wondered what he was thinking. She didn't want Tyson to come with either, but she also felt bad that they hadn't told Percy a reason yet. But every time Aster thought of it... it was just too painful.
