Gone Girl.¹

𝟬𝟮𝟱. could never hate you

gone girl.
━━━ chapter twenty five

❀

Amaryllis had gotten pretty weak after so much fighting and using her powers, which only made her feel worse about everything that had happened in the last hour - Annabeth getting stabbed for her and Michael losing his life. She didn't feel so invincible anymore.

She teleported herself and Will through shadow-travel right outside the Plaza, in the matter of minutes. She wasn't sure why they had chosen that particular building for their headquarters, especially considering that it wasn't the tallest in town or the most centrally located, but she had much bigger things to worry about.

She didn't even care enough to notice her surroundings. A couple of Hunters gave them directions to the elevators and they rode up to the penthouse suites. Meanwhile, Amaryllis refused to let go of Will's hand, as if doing that would result in him getting lost or just away from her. Will normally didn't like being treated like a child, but at that particular moment, he didn't complain.

Demigods had completely taken over the top floors. Campers and Hunters were crashed out on sofas, washing up in the bathrooms, sipping silk draperies to bandage their wounds and helping themselves to snacks and soda from the minibars. There were also a couple of timber wolves that were drinking out of the toilets, but no one seemed to care. Amaryllis was relieved to see that so many of her friends had made it through the night alive, but everyone looked beat up.

Amaryllis noticed Jake and she ran up to him. "Where's Annabeth?" she asked, wasting no second.

"The terrace. She's alive, but... she's unconscious right now," he answered. There was a huge scar across his chest and had ripped the Camp t-shirt that he wore under his armour. It looked like a claw mark from something big. She decided not to ask.

She turned to her brother. "Will, can you-"

"I'll go... uh, check on her," the blonde boy exhaled. He was pale and sweaty and he looked like he was about to have a panic attack, but before she could do anything about it, he disappeared into the room that they kept Annabeth at.

Jake sighed at the sight of her. She guessed she also looked pretty beat up. "Come on, you need some ambrosia," he said and gently guided her at an empty sofa.

They sat, but Jake was careful to maintain a distance between them. He took a square of ambrosia out of his toolbelt and gave it to her. "What does it taste like?" he asked and she gave him a puzzled look. "I have this theory that ambrosia and nectar are usually connected to our mortal parents or happiest memories in general. You know... the thing that surges our immortality being the thing that reminds us of our mortality."

She thought about it for a moment, after taking a big bite. "It tastes like my mother's apple pie," she finally concluded.

"For me it tastes like caramel ice cream. I used to eat that all the time when I was younger," Jake said.

There were a few seconds of silence between them, until Amaryllis finally decided to address it. "I'm sorry I never told you about the whole... being a kid of Hades thing."

He shrugged. "It's fine. I'm not, like, mad about it or anything. I had sensed that something was wrong. You seemed... I don't know. Different."

"I get that a lot," she let out a hollow laugh. "So no hard feelings?"

"About the breakup or the Hades thing?" She shrugged. "Don't worry, no hard feelings about either."