What would've been a quiet summer turns into a globe-trotting adventure when an incident in Olympian High's campus garden gets the attention of resident Chosens Amelia Kingston and Zeus Olympian. To their surprise, the culprit is none other than the...
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A few days had passed, and Ben's death was still a pitless gap in Amelia's life. She'd dream of him at that time in the museum when she was seven, and Claudius haunted her just the same. She'd always wake up screaming and in cold sweat. Then she'd cry until she went back to sleep before the cycle repeated over again. Then she didn't go back to sleep at all.
After her conversation with Poseidon that day, Amelia often spent time with him and just talk to him about anything. He was a good listener and gave her a few but thoughtful words when she needed it. He was like an older brother she never had, but now she really had one.
She also didn't forget to apologize to Zeus for her outburst that morning, although he wasn't even mad about it. The only thing he was mad about was the fact that she didn't tell him that the breakfast he made for her was 'utterly delectable'.
Playing with Duke also helped a bit. The little boy's antics didn't fail to keep her smiling most of the time. It, like all the other stuff she'd done, made moving on a little easier. It would've been better if she could go past Ben's death, but she figured that wasn't how grief worked. That wasn't how life worked in general.
Things don't just get better in a snap. Things take time, whether to grow, disappear, or heal.
"Since when did I get so philosophical?" Amelia muttered.
"What?" Zeus asked as he munched on a piece of fried chicken. "I didn't catch what you were saying."
Shaking her head, Amelia said, "Nothing."
It was a quiet evening in the dining room of Kingston Manor. Ever since Amelia and the others arrived from Vegas from their failed mission, they had been coming in to dinners with Demetrius and the Rogues since almost everyone ate breakfast and lunch at different hours. The first dinner they shared together—and that was when the Faust twins were free—had a very awkward atmosphere that Amelia had to pretend that she wanted to be alone to cry as an excuse to get away from the table quickly.
The dinners after that were still very much the same. Only that instead of feeling the need to look at everyone when they just wanted to speak to one person, everyone else ignored what others were talking about since they were already talking to the person beside them in the first place.
And here she was, having small talk with Zeus on her left. Amelia, as always, sat on the right-hand side of Demetrius, who sat at the head of the table. Beside Zeus were Athena, Poseidon and Ivy. On the other side of the table were Eloise, Elijah, Alistair and Raymond. The twins were whispering to each other, and from the looks of their pinched faces, it was definitely something important. Ivy's attention was torn between Raymond's cheesy jokes and Poseidon's tips on her powers.
On the other hand, Athena and Alistair were discussing something the latter was working on, from what Amelia had overheard. She was surprised to see the two smartest people in the room even talking to anyone—Athena usually was reserved and spoke only when necessary, and Amelia felt that Alistair was the same. And that was beside the brief but not-so-good interaction they had during their face-off in Naples. Both of them always seemed similar as well as different, but right now, the former couldn't be any more true.
