DON'T BLAME ME! (p. jackson) (#2) (ON HOLD)

- twenty three

IT TOOK SOME CONVINCING, but rose managed to get reyna to join them.

she had left her armor on the ship to be repaired by buford. she donned a purple camp jupiter shirt and denim jeans. she would've looked like a normal teenager, if not for the knife at her belt.

piper had gotten rose and percy's phones off the ship for them.

"mitchell called you," piper said to rose. "like, eight times. i told the groupchat what happened."

"thanks," rose said.

now the forty-foot-tall goddess gazed serenely over the river acheron, her gold dress like molten metal in the sun.

"incredible," reyna admitted.

she was still red-eyed from crying. soon after she'd landed on the ship, her pegasus scipio had collapsed, overwhelmed by poisoned claw marks from a gryphon attack the night before. reyna had put the horse out of his misery with her golden knife, turning the pegasus into dust that scattered in the sweet-smelling greek air. maybe not a bad end for a flying horse, but reyna had lost a loyal friend. rose figured that she'd given up too much in her life already.

the praetor circled the athena parthenos warily. "it looks newly made."

"yeah," leo said. "we brushed off the cobwebs, used a little windex. it wasn't hard."

rose almost laughed. windex on the athena parthenos. how ridiculous.

the argo ii hovered just overhead. with festus keeping watch for threats on the radar, the entire crew had decided to eat lunch on the hillside while they discussed what to do. after the last few weeks, percy figured they'd earned a good meal together—really anything that wasn't fire water or drakon meat soup.

"so," reyna said. "frank zhang... praetor."

frank shifted, wiping crumbs from his hands. "well, yeah. field promotion."

"to lead a different legion," reyna noted. "a legion of ghosts."

after an hour in sick bay, hazel and frank both looked a lot better; but rose could tell they weren't sure what to think about their old boss from camp jupiter dropping in for lunch.

"reyna," jason said, "you should've seen him."

"he was amazing," piper agreed.

"frank is a leader," hazel insisted. "he makes a great praetor."

reyna's eyes stayed on frank.

"i believe you," she said. "i approve."

frank blinked. "you do?"

reyna smiled dryly. "a son of mars, the hero who helped to bring back the eagle of the legion... i can work with a demigod like that. i'm just wondering how to convince the twelfth fulminata."

frank scowled. "yeah. i've been wondering the same thing."

rose still couldn't get over how much frank had changed. a "growth spurt" was putting it mildly. he was at least three inches taller, less pudgy, and more bulky, like a linebacker. his face looked sturdier, his jawline more rugged. it was as if frank had turned into a bull and then back to human, but he'd kept some of the bullishness.

"the legion will listen to you, reyna," frank said. "you made it here alone, across the ancient lands."

reyna chewed her sandwich as if it were cardboard. "in doing so, i broke the laws of the legion."

"caesar broke the law when he crossed the rubicon," rose said. "great leaders have to think outside the box sometimes."

she shook her head. "i'm not caesar. after finding jason's note in diocletian's palace, tracking you down was easy. i only did what i thought was necessary."