no matter how many times a snake shed its skin, it would always be a snake. no matter how hard kit dempsey tried to prove he was no longer a traitor, camp half-blood would always view him as the boy who betrayed them for kronos. but not leo valdez...
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CHAPTER FIVE: TRUST, IT'S A FICKLE THING
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NETTIE WAS SITTING ON the porch when Kit finally returned to their cabin. The others were already asleep judging by Nolan’s loud snores. But not Nettie. She sat on one of the wooden benches with a blank look in her eyes, fingers idly plaiting a piece of wavy auburn hair that fell down to their shoulder blades. All the Ares daughters had short hair for battle, but Nettie had always insisted on keeping their’s long. Something about her mother back in Germany. In all honesty, Kit hadn’t bothered to ask, and Nettie hadn’t gone out of her way to let anybody in but Dominique. She looked up as he appeared, nose wrinkling at his appearance, but they didn’t bother to ask what happened. In fact, Kit wasn’t expecting them to say anything at all, so he headed straight for the door -- that was, until a soft whisper caught his attention.
“Are you really going to go on that quest?”
Kit froze, fingers slipping away from the metal handle as he mulled over Nettie’s question. He didn’t know what to make of her tone, the sadness mixed with something harsh and cold. They were too young to fight when it came to the Battle of Manhattan. Chiron had insisted that she and Nolan sat out, much to their annoyance, but they’d heard enough to know the horrors that their siblings faced. Kit remembered the last conversation he had with Nettie like it was just yesterday, and the familiar aura of fear was striking as he wheeled around to look at them. Nettie’s fingers dropped away from her hair as she sighed.
“Well? Are you?”
He shrugged. “It’s not like I have much of a choice.” First Leo, now Nettie.
“But it sounds like,” they hesitated, like saying the words out loud would speak them into existence. “It sounds like you’re going to die.”
Again, Kit shrugged, though Nettie didn’t miss the flash of something like panic in his eyes. Hades would have to drag him down to the Underworld kicking and screaming if he wanted Kit Dempsey to stay dead. “Is that such a bad thing?”
“Yes,” she exclaimed and stood abruptly. “Kit… You’re my brother. No matter what you’ve done, I don’t want you to die.”
For a moment, Kit just stood there. If there was anyone in the cabin even remotely like him, it was Nettie. He looked in their eyes and saw fire, endlessly burning. Maybe it was just the red hair, but for a brief instant, Kit and Nettie were connected by that flame. She was a sister worried for her brother, no matter how traitorous. In a sick way, wasn’t that what Kit always wanted? For his siblings to be there, regardless of bad blood spilled? Just as quickly as the feeling came, it vanished into smoke. Nettie’s shoulders tensed, their eyes averting from his as they brushed past him to disappear inside.
And with the paranoia of other demigods peeking out of their cabins to judge him, Kit bowed his head and followed after her.
