Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
chapter eighty-three. ☄︎. *. ⋆
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
BECKENDORF'S SHROUD WAS made out of metal links, like chain mail. I didn't see how it would burn, but the Fates must've been helping out. The metal melted in the fire and turned to golden smoke, which rose into the sky. The campfire flames always reflected the campers' moods, and today they burned black.
I hoped Beckendorf's spirit would end up in Elysium. Maybe he'd even choose to be reborn and try for Elysium in three different lifetimes so he could reach the Isles of the Blest, which was like the Underworld's ultimate party headquarters. If anyone deserved it, Beckendorf did.
I left without a word to Percy. I promised myself to write a card to Silena to express my apologies. That is, if Clarisse ever let me near Silena enough to give her a card. I guess, since she was head counselor of Ares and I was almost head counselor of my cabin, Clarisse thought this stupid rivalry was more personal between us, but I didn't even care enough to glare at her as I left the campfire, feeling a bit more solemn than I had before.
Most of my day after that was spent avoiding the Ares campers and keeping out of my own siblings' ways, so as to not be dragged into their arguments with the Ares campers. I wasn't too involved in this fight, and I didn't want to be. My only association with this rivalry was if anyone came after my siblings personally. I may be one of the most powerful Apollo kids around, but I'm usually pretty docile, unless some punk Ares kid tried dissing my siblings.
Luckily, I managed to duck and weave every time I came close to an Ares camper. And word of my sour mood must have spread around, because most of my siblings stayed out of my way.
I still had some sort of guilt in me, though. Maybe it was because I'd compared Percy to his father. Maybe it was because that was probably the most personal argument we'd ever had. Maybe it was because I could tell how much stress he was under and I knew picking fights with him was not the way I should've handled it. But to some extent, I just plain felt bad for the things I'd said. And maybe... maybe I wanted to apologize.
But Percy went missing sometime after Beckendorf's service. I checked the sword arena, Poseidon's cabin, the Big House, even the strawberry fields—but Percy was nowhere to be found. It had been well past three or four hours since I'd last seen him by then, and I was growing more and more worried the longer it took to find him.
I was panting by the time I found Annabeth reading in a hammock. She sat up and dropped her book when I ran over, seeing how distressed I was. "Theo! What's up? Is something wrong?"
I swallowed, breathless. "It's Percy. He—"
Annabeth rolled her eyes, crossing her arms. "Nope. I am not getting involved in your fights again. Figure it out."
