The Silver Ring (PJO)

Chapter 5

"So . . . ," Thalia said, raising an eyebrow. Her silver gear glittered in the sunlight, rebelliously decorated with black. "What do you think?"

It had been an hour. The hunters had gotten accustomed to camp and had temporarily moved into their cabin. After that, most of the hunters had decided to eat breakfast, unofficially kicking out all of the campers without a word. Usually, some campers would either complain or argue with the hunters, but nobody had stepped an inch out of line, since the number of hunters were almost equal to their's.

I, meanwhile, just stood at the side and watched, shocked at the new development. For an hour, I didn't move at all—which, for a person with ADHD is as frivolous and impossible as beating a hunter in a fight with a blindfold and their legs being tied in a burlap sack.

After making sure every hunter was comfortable, Thalia had immediately accosted me. Normally, if a hunter was talking with a boy, it meant bad news, and more hunters would immediately come to gang up on him. But fortunately, since they knew I was Thalia's closest cousin, they let it slide. Usually.

But still, as we were talking, I could feel some hunters' stares burrow deep into my back like arrows. "How the heck did you get this many hunters in a couple of months?" I asked. "You could build your own camp by now!"

Thalia laughed and punched me in the shoulder playfully. Still, since she was a fully trained hunter, it hurt. A lot. "Lady Artemis was fully focused on finding new people, so if we have another war—God's forbid we don't—we'll hopefully win." Her tone changed to a dark one. "Killing those males was satisfying." She seemed to catch herself and smiled brightly at me. "Whatcha been doing?"

I briefly considered whether or whether not telling her about my situation. "Well . . ."

Thalia's mood immediately changed from a bright one to a concerned one, giving me no chance to turn back. "Tell me now. I'm not letting you die because of your stupidity."

I gasped with fake hurt. "Stupidity? Me? I think you got the wrong person." Even though she had caught on, I tried to change the subject—the same thing applied to her; I didn't want her to die because of my problems. "Still, there's no way you can get hundreds of more hunters in such a short time, 'just because' Artemis made you focus on recruiting. Something else changed. What was it?"

Thalia looked surprised, as though she didn't think I would ask that question. There was also an undercurrent of another, unknown emotion in her eyes, but I didn't know what it was yet. "What . . . ? How . . . that doesn't matter. I'll tell you later. Now,"—Thalia gave me a hard stare that indicated that she would electrocute me if I didn't tell her what she wanted to know—"Tell me."

But since I was, well . . . myself, I stubbornly didn't let it go. "How about we make a deal?" I asked.

Thalia looked at me curiously, and also a bit nervously. "What kind of deal?"

"Well . . . you want to know something I don't want to tell you, and same with me. You tell me what I want to know—because it's probably shorter—and then I'll tell you what I want to know."

Thalia sighed and rolled her eyes in exasperation, as though I was asking her for money to buy ice cream. "Fine. Even though I trust you, let's swear on the Styx."

I looked at her as though she'd told me Zeus had grown a bushy beard. Suddenly, the sky trembled ominously by thunder. 

My apologies Drama King, I thought, smirking. The sky thundered again, although louder, as though Zeus was sulking. If I had done this a year before, I would've died before I could say "Help!" But shockingly enough, Zeus had actually gotten a bit affectionate of me. He didn't like to show it, since it would ruin his reputation of hating his brothers, but he had gotten a bit nicer and didn't even grumble once when I asked for Hestia and Hades to be put back on the council—instead, he actually smiled.

I was broken out of my reverie by Thalia tapping me impatiently on my shoulder. A few hunters close by glowered at me, as though zoning out was an unforgiving offense while talking to the lieutenant of the hunters. 

I'd needed a couple of seconds to get back on track. "Er . . . oh." Suddenly, I realized that there was something to be upset about. "Are you crazy?! Swearing on the River Styx?  That's asking to get your soul taken to be tortured for eternity, all because of a dumb loophole nobody would catch except a crafty and astute goddess who wants to find a loophole. Let's just work on trust."

Thalia rolled her eyes again, as though I was exaggerating. (I wasn't, in fact. Dying was bad enough, but dying because of a loophole? I could think of better ways to die. Like, not dying in the first place.) "Fine. I made a hunter my second-in-command, third if you include Artemis. As you know she's very smart, and her strategies have helped significantly . . . ," Thalia trailed off, as though she didn't want to share that much information. Now, she tried to cover it up with a laugh, and said, "You're turn."

I looked at her, noting every movement down. She looked extra hyper today—nervous really. Usually, we would be laughing and having fun giving each other nicknames, and stuff like that. But this conversation was weird. I could tell that Thalia was hiding something—something big. 

If it was somebody else, I might've said something about it and try to push the information out of them. But since it was Thalia, I didn't much. I trusted her, and the only reason she would be acting like a messenger that didn't want to break the bad news was because it would affect me.

A sense of trepidation bloomed in my stomach.

I opened my mouth, but before I could say anything about my dilemma, Thalia's blue eyes flicked over my shoulders, now carrying plain-old worry. 

Naturally, I turned around, concerned, only to stop, in shock. 

A group of several hunters were passing by us, presumably going back to their cabin. But the important thing wasn't the group by the whole. In other words, it was one person inside of it. Specifically, one glowing person with blonde princess curls. One special person, wearing silver gear.

I looked into her beautiful stormy grey eyes that were swirling with every emotion except regret. I felt like I was stabbed by dozens of daggers, the betrayal so strong that it brought me to my knees. I could barely feel a tear slowly tracing a line down my cheek, representing all my pain and sorrow. 

It was Annabeth. My wife.

And she was now a hunter.